Please don't use toilet water to wash my place, thanks.

[thinksnow]

So I fired the cleaning service today. One of the benefits of corporate housing is that once a week you get a clean service, similar to that in a hotel. Well, I stayed home sick and was here when they came to clean.

Picture this: you’re sitting on the couch, reading through some SD pages stored in you Temporary Internet Files that you didn’t have a chance to read last night and you look over your shoulder at the woman cleaning your bathroom as she takes one of the dirty towels out of her bag, dips it in the toilet and proceeds to wipe down your bathroom with it! I’m not making this up.

Every Thursday they come and swap out the towels and linen and clean the bathroom and kitchen and are supposed to vacuum (but that only happens every coupla’ weeks, unless I call to complain). This woman used one of the dirty towels to clean my apartment. I was aghast. I didn’t say anything to her, I mean, what was I going to say, really “Um, excuse me, but did you just use toilet water to wipe and rinse my sink?” I saw her do it, for Petes sake!

And another thing: when she walked in, my cats ran to hide from her. My cats never hide from anyone. Never. They love people. One will follow you around like a shadow and the other is your second lap. When this woman walked in the door, they bolted. I started looking for them and they were not to be found. As I sat on my bed to put on shoes thinking maybe they had snuck out (since this woman frequently left the door open), I heard their tags jingle. They had ripped open a hole in the box-spring and had climbed inside They don’t had claws, so I had no idea how they did this. My loving, friendly kittens were terrified of the cleaning people, and I’m left wondering why.

The moment she left, I got dressed (I had been in PJ’s and a sweatshirt) and headed to the relocation company’s office to complain. They were shocked as I told them what happened. They called the team leader to tell her what the girl had done and then assured me it would be taken care of. “I don’t think so,” thought I, so, quite bluntly, I said “I don’t want them in my apartment again. I have to go back and clean everything now, because everything is suspect and I don’t dare touch any of the counters or surfaces! I don’t want them cleaning my apartment.” Again, they apologized and offered me some cleaning supplies. They also offered this thin reasoning for the toilet dipping: it seems they have this super-duper cleaning liquid that kills just about everything it touches and they claim that is what she put in the water before using. Personally, I don’t care if they drained the bowl, scrubbed it with lye and filled it with Perrier, it’s a toilet and I don’t want the container for your “cleaning solution” to be the same thing I use to rid myself of bodily waste, you stupid cow.

Bob and Tom, a morning radio show, played this sound bite a year or so ago about the irradiation of food to kill animal feces that might be on it: “If you irradiate poop, it will be sterile, but it will still be poop.” That’s all I could think of, I’ve got disinfected shit all over my counters.

And I wonder why I’ve been sick since I moved here.

[sub]I almost changed some text and made this a Pit rant, but, though I’m pissed off, I just didn’t for some reason[/sub]

[eirroc]

gross! thats too much thinksnow. Take heed, if your cats are hiding from the cleaning lady,beware. We had a dog (when I was younger) and she always hid from the maid. I couldent understand why till the maid brought out the broom and I saw her hitting the dog with it. There is a reason if your cats are hiding belive me.

[psycat90]

Ewww.
That is some nasty ass shit. Literally.

Sorry you gotta go scrub your place on your sick day, thinks!

Pick up a can of Lysol, too. And give your kitties a treat, the poor things!

[Redboss]

Speaking as someone who once had a small domestic cleaning business, what is really spooky is that it is not in any way necessary to use the water out of the toilet to clean, or to use old towels.

The towels thing might be something done once because somebody ran out of cleaning cloths, and than adopted as a way to save money. But using toilet water! There are products for surfaces, and if you really were mean you’d fill the handbasin with soapy water, use this to clean everything else and drain the basin last in order to clean it.

My guess is that this woman was trained by somebody who felt real resentment against her clients (“richer than me!”) and used the toilet water as a kind of revenge - as a defilement of the rich folks’ environment. Like the central character in the Colour Purple, spitting in the drinking water of her abuser.

If the woman herself felt that kind of hatred, I think she would not have done all that in front of you - she would, have dissembled. Instead, she obviously thought it was reasonably acceptable.

Firing them was the right thing to do, as if you weren’t aware of that already. You might want to notify your neighbours, and get these people off the contract completely!

But how difficult to trust other cleaners after this!!
Redboss

[thinksnow]

Here’s the thing: the cleaning company was hired by the corporate relo company. I got the c/r/c to get them, the cleaners, not to come by my place anymore. I don’t get any money back on the deal, they just won’t come by anymore. There are a number of other apartments around here rented through this company, so it would follow that there are a number of apartments serviced by the cleaners. I might just print up some fliers regarding this incident.

[BunnyGirl]

think, that is just nasty. Eck. You poor thing, get some Pine-Sol and get it all nice and clean.

Re: the cats. Yeah, animals don’t lie. I figure I’ll always know if someone has broken into my house 'cause the cats will act differently - animals know!!

[BornDodgy]

oh.my.god

That s gross!!! You should really print those fliers.

dodgy

[Gozu_Tashoya]

I agree with the idea of the fliers. Ideally, this forces the corporate office to higher a better cleaning service that you’re comfortable using, and thus allowing you to get all the services you’re paying for. Anything less would be uncivilized.

[thinksnow]

I did pine-sol and lysol the entire place, FTR. It still gives me the heeby-jeebies, though. <blech>

I’m thinking I’ll print the fliers then call the relo company and ask them if they are going to inform the residents or not, as a public service sort of thing. You know, give them the benifit of the doubt. If they don’t, well, i could see a lawsuit from someone. Not me, but I’d be very surprised if someone found out who had kids or something and dind’t go way way off the deep end.

[Guinastasia]

Did you look the cats over? Poor babies!

[OrcaChow]

Water from the toilet? Yeeeeech. I hope that service doesn’t also provide cooks and in-home meal-preparation.

[Persephone]

Ew. thinksnow, if your relocation company doesn’t fire these people, put out those fliers yourself. Now, I’m not the world’s greatest housekeeper, but damn, even I know better than that! Icky, icky, icky. Bleah!

[PlanMan]

Do the any of the TV stations in your area have a “consumer reporter”? Give the relocation company a chance to do the right thing and (a) fire these cretins, and (b) notify all the clients and send in a new service. If they aren’t interested, call the consumer reporter on the highest rated news program in town.
Please keep the TM posted on this.

[ENugent]

*Originally posted by thinksnow *
I’m thinking I’ll print the fliers then call the relo company and ask them if they are going to inform the residents or not, as a public service sort of thing. You know, give them the benifit of the doubt. If they don’t, well, i could see a lawsuit from someone. Not me, but I’d be very surprised if someone found out who had kids or something and dind’t go way way off the deep end.

Just be careful you don’t exaggerate or suggest that everyone who works for the company cleans like that in your fliers, if you don’t want to defend a libel suit.

It’s really disgusting, though. My sympathies.

[thinksnow]

I’m going to find the other tenents and post this today:

Dear fellow corporate renter,

If your contract with (name deleted), Inc. is like mine, then weekly cleaning is included as part of your stay in your [Overpriced] apartment. If this is not the case, please disregard the remainder of this letter.

On Thursday, February 22nd, 2001 I fell ill and remained home from work. Thursday is the regular cleaning day for my apartment, and I suspect yours, too, so I was home when the service came by. While cleaning the bathroom, I witnessed the cleaning woman use one of my dirty towels to clean the bathroom surfaces. Further, she applied a disinfectant liquid to the toilet water and used this water in the wiping of bathroom surfaces with the dirty towel! Following this, she cleaned the kitchen area (though admittedly, I don’t know if she used the same towel or not) and left.

I immediately went to the (name deleted) office and reported the incident in person. As I had been, they were aghast and appalled at the actions of the cleaner and they placed a call to the supervisor of the cleaning crew to notify her of this woman’s actions.

I have been assured that the woman responsible has been reprimanded and that the incident will not be repeated, but I have chosen to suspend the cleaning service, preferring to manage this on my own. In this, (name deleted) has been helpful, providing cleaning supplies.

You are receiving this letter because I feel this matter is extremely important, and it is certainly something I would have wanted to know had it occurred to someone else using a similar service. I had asked (name deleted) if they were going to notify other tenants as to this occurrence and my interpretation of the answer I received was that they had no intention to do so. I do not intend this to bear an ill reflection upon (name deleted), as they have been and continue to be an adequate service provider, however I feel the likelihood that this practice was demonstrated in apartments other than mine warrants your awareness, especially since *I was present *at the time she did it.

If you have further questions regarding this matter, feel free to contact me directly at [555]-1709.

Sincerely,

-thinksnow

[Redboss]

You go girl!!
Redbooster

[BunnyGirl]

You go girl!!

Red, honey, thinksnow is most definately a man.

[thinksnow]

Thanks for the assist, Bunny.

And before you ask, Red, it’s “think-snow.”

[sub]Don’t let the fact that I dress well and have cats fool you, I was a Marine and I can kill you.[/sub]

[Beadalin]

Excellent, thinksnow. And quite frankly, I would include the last line of your above post to close your letter. Or at least as a post-script. Please?

[thinksnow]

Consider that taken under advisement, Bead, thanks!

Just to be safe, I sent a copy of that letter to my boss with these prefaces (is that grammatically correct?):

Attached is my status report for the past week (“01-25-2001”), as well as a document whose origin is explained both within the update memo and itself. Acknowledging my tendency to be verbose in my written style, and not wishing to seem pedantic, I would ask you to contact me directly should you have any questions, or more likely, concerns regarding the non-project related matter.

and within the weekly update:

Non-Project Related Issue
I’m including this information in this communication because of it’s time sensitive nature and the fact that although it bears no direct reflection upon the completion of the project, it is an issue arising from my presence in Louisville for this project.
I have requested that the cleaning service provided as part of our housing agreement with (name deleted), Inc. be suspended, effective immediately. My understanding, in speaking with other corporate housing persons/companies, is that the billing for cleaning is almost always a separate matter, added to the final invoice. Should this be the case, please ensure that we are no longer being charged for this service. Be aware, too, that this will (has) require(d) my purchase of cleaning materials, a charge not normally reimbursable. For the full details leading to my actions, please review the other attached document (“Dear fellow corporate renter”). This document is one that I am deliberating disseminating among the other tenants, as a matter of courtesy. I want to assure you that prior to writing the communiqué, I contacted (name deleted) and asked if they would provide a similar announcement. They felt the matter resolved, and no further action necessary. I do not believe this to be the case. I will, however defer to your judgement, should you decide it is in the Practices best interests for me not to inform others of the potential contamination and health risk.

Let’s see what happens.