Bridget in Toronto

We had some minor renovations done on our house, and these renovations produced a LOT of dust. I immediately logged on to HomeStars to find a suitable company that would be able to clean up all the dust. The first few "Renovation Cleaning" companies were unable to come in my time frame, but Lisa from 5 Star Cleaning was able to book us in quickly. I figured I was going to have a spotless, dustless house as this company advertises as providing "Post Renovation Cleaning services". However this unfortunately was not the case. The two cleaners arrived saying that their vacuum may not be working at full efficiency and that they needed to know where the closest Walmart was as they felt their would run out of cleaning supplies. Not good signs for a cleaning company. The invoice they provided stated that they worked for 6 hours ($530) however when questioned about whether any of that time was used to get more supplies, they did not provide an answer. Note, the house was completely empty, so there was no furniture to navigate around. The cleaning job at first glance was decent and it looked as if the dust was gone. However when we moved in (a few days later) I began to notice that there was a LOT of dust remaining; on the door frames, in the cupboards, on the fan blades, on the radiators, all over! I was upset and emailed the company. Lisa got back to me almost immediately and said they would give me one hour of cleaning free THE NEXT TIME I used their services. Keep in mind that you have to book a minimum of 4 hours at a time, so that is not much of a bargain. I told them I was not going to use their services again and wanted the refund. They refunded me exactly $60, meaning they kept the tax I had originally paid on that $60. I would not use this company if you were trying to rid of a lot of dust/dirt. If you just need a feather duster run over clearly visible surfaces, and want to pay a lot for that, then go ahead. I have attached photos of how my house looked AFTER they did 6 hours of cleaning. You be the judge. EDIT: 5 Stars has replied to my post, which is in their right, and suggested that the dust and dirt came out of the ducts and those in turn should be cleaned. As the first photo shows, the house has radiators. No ducts and no air vents which could have pushed all the dust around. As the photos also show, the renovation dust that I was describing were in areas (e.g. the top of the door frames, the ceiling fans, on top of the cupboards, etc.) that would not have been high traffic areas during our move. My only mistake was texting them to say I was happy about the job BEFORE I was able to come see their work for myself. My parents were at the house (they were the ones that informed me the cleaning ladies said they needed to go out) and said the job looked good. Make sure you inspect the work for yourself before give any compliments.

I was in a rush to get my washer fixed for our new tenant, and that was my BIG mistake. I called these guys and they came right away. The guy (Kevan) seemed friendly and said that there was an $80 fee (which I knew about) which would be waived if they needed to "open up the machine". Fine. Cool. But then he barely TOUCHED the machine, and told me it would be $360. Silly over-trusting me, I just wanted my washer fixed so I agreed. This is how the invoice reads: Watering system - $115 Mainboard/Timer - $110 Electrical circuits - $95 but he barely TOUCHED the machine, didn't open anything that I could see (he just pulled it out and looked at the valves). I didn't see him touch this tools and then poof "I am finished here" The problem with my machine was that when we select "Cold" we get hot water. This is an intermittent issue that comes and goes, so I guess he got lucky that the cold water worked that day. 4 loads of laundry later, the issue is back. They said they would come back (for free) if the machine stops working in 30 days. It's been just over a week and it stopped working. I sent 2 emails and called. The lady said she would call me back... I feel like I've been duped and I really think this company should have to paid penalties to all the poor mistrusting people like me out there.