UPDATED 9.7.13
For purposes of this agreement, text messaging and email are considered written notice except where the law does not allow.
Little Piggies Green Cleaning will be considered, for all purposes, a contractor, and it will not, directly or indirectly, act as an agent, servant or employee of the customer, or make any commitments or incur any liabilities on behalf of the customer without its express written consent.
1. Scope of agreement, acceptance, and changes
1.1. What services are covered by this agreement? This agreement applies to all of our services including: Standard Cleanings, Deep Cleanings, Move-in/out Cleanings, Per-hour Services, Post Construction Clean-up, Event Cleanings, Upholstery Cleaning, Carpet Cleaning, Window Service and other unnamed services (the foregoing are collectively referred to as the “The Services”), and any other product, website, or service that links to this agreement (collectively the “services”).
1.2. What terms must I abide by when using the services? Our goal is to create a safer and healthier environment and therefore we require that, when using the services, you inform us about anything that could affect the outcome of our work to be performed and disclose any and all pertinent information as to avoid errors and/or damage to your property to which we cannot be held accountable if it is due to negligence of the customer to properly inform us.
You must supply kitchen-size plastic garbage bags, a safe stepping stool to reach tops of cabinets or areas that are out of reach and a broom where applicable. We do not provide these items.
If you have special cleaning compounds, or vacuum, you prefer us to use, please leave them out with a note or tell us in advance. However, we are not responsible for damage to customer’s equipment that we use or damage to personal property when customer’s equipment is used and we cannot guarantee the quality of our work when customer equipment is used.
1.3. How do I accept this agreement? By using or accessing the services, or by agreeing to these terms where the option is made available to you in any booking interface, you agree to abide by this agreement without modification by you. If you do not agree, you may not use the services.
1.4. Can Little Piggies Green Cleaning change these terms after I have accepted them?Yes. From time to time, Little Piggies Green Cleaning may change or amend these terms. If we do, this agreement will be updated on our website and we may notify you, either through our online booking system, verbally over the phone, in an email notification or through other reasonable means. Your use or continued use of the services after the date the change becomes effective will be your consent to the changed terms. If you do not agree to the changes, you must stop using the services and cancel any paid services, subject to our cancellation policy outlined in section 4. Otherwise, the new terms will apply to you.
1.5. What types of changes can I expect to the services or this agreement? We continuously work to improve the services and may change the services at any time. Little Piggies Green Cleaning may need to update language, details, descriptions, prices or other important information including restrictions, limitations and conditions to the services. Additionally, there are reasons why Little Piggies Green Cleaning may stop providing portions of the services, including (without limitation) that it’s no longer feasible for us to provide it, the technology advances, customer feedback indicates a change is needed, or external issues arise that make it imprudent or impractical to continue.
2. Estimates. We have served thousands of appointments since our brand started in 2009 and our ability to provide accurate phone and internet estimates allows us to set each customer’s expectation in advance of their scheduled appointment so there are no surprises. Our estimates are based off of the information submitted to us as compared to our current customers with similar homes in your neighborhood.
Please note: these are blind estimates; we have not seen your residence and are using the information you have provided us in order to generate an estimate which does include information about various factors that could affect your price.
When we arrive for a scheduled appointment we will evaluate your home and provide you with feedback and an opportunity to voice any concerns you may have regarding the duties to be performed and their corresponding prices. An estimate is simply that: an estimate. We may adjust our price up or down but that happens
less than 10% of the time. We disclose this info both in our phone and internet bookings identically.
2.1 Dispute resolution, Warranties and our 24 hour guarantee. We promise to always provide our best work and in doing so we offer our 24 hour guarantee of satisfaction which is our warranty against defects in workmanship as represented to you. Your only obligation is to bring any issues to our attention within 24 hours after service is rendered. We may not be able return within 24 hours, but by notifying us within this timeframe your cleaning will be protected under this warranty. Since we offer this guarantee, we won’t be able to offer refunds or discounts on future services since we will return to take care of the issues free of charge. In taking advantage of our 24 hour guarantee, when we return we will only take care of areas that were discussed when you contacted us to take advantage of the 24 hour guarantee, unless additional services are ordered. We must be able to return within a reasonable amount of time considered here as a maximum of 3 days. Carpet & upholstery cleaning carry no guarantees of workmanship whatsoever unless a guarantee is offered by a subcontractor, where then the subcontractor will need to be contacted on the offer of that warranty.
Situations may arise where we provide an appointment that is within our standards of service but those standards are not aligned with your expectations. In this situation, we will educate you on our standard procedures for cleaning and offer you the option of adding additional time to your appointments in the future which may also require us to reevaluate our prices.
3. Services, Booking and Payments
3.1 How can I book services? You can book services either by phone, text, email and most easily by using our online booking system or by filing out an estimate from our website. By booking services with us you indicate that we have or will offer to provide you with services and you accept that those services will have an associated cost. The fee or deposit charged at time of booking is paid in advance of an appointment and is applied toward your final total. If you book services with us within 2 days (48 hours) of your scheduled appointment time we may ask to take a payment in full of the total estimated charges by phone. If you cancel or reschedule within this time period the initial fee/deposit paid to book your service will be reduced to a $40 cancellation fee. See the area of this agreement discussing cancellations and reschedules within a 48 hour period.
3.2 What services will be performed? Each service we offer can be uniquely tailored to meet any customer’s needs within the scope of our capabilities and available services (We provide a list of duties to be performed for a standard visit on our website at www.LPGREENCLEAN.com). When we come for an appointment, we perform the same tasks every time unless a special request is made. This allows us to budget our time on a daily basis for each customer. When a customer introduces a new task, it may require us to spend more time and in turn we may add a small incremental charge to your visit. (I.E. deep cleaning of refrigerator, ash removal from fireplace, cleaning of a barbecue, patio area, window service, etc.) If a customer has a special request, it is important that we are notified in advance of our appointment so we are able to inform the customer of possible costs as well as have the available time and equipment to perform those tasks. If we do not have the proper equipment or time available, we may not be able to perform a special request until our next visit.
3.3 Payment for services
3.3.1 How/when can I pay for services? Actual costs for services to be provided are negotiated with customers before they are rendered. Services can be paid either in advance or immediately following completion of services. We do not invoice our residential customers. For first time customers; any situation that arises where we are unable to obtain payment at the end of our appointment will add an additional fee of 15% of the final total to cover costs. Under no circumstances is it acceptable for a customer to withhold payment (I.E. a broken item in the home, late start of appointment or quality of work). We have policies that address any issues customers may have about their appointment and you may contact us if you have questions or comments regarding services you received. Your satisfaction is always a priority.
3.3.1 Checks. We gladly accept cash, check and credit cards with a prior arrangement. Prior arrangements can be made by contacting us and asking about how to pay with a credit card. Checks should be made out to LITTLE PIGGIES GREEN CLEANING. If any check is returned to us, we reserve the right to add a $25 return check fee or the maximum penalty allowable by law. We may also require payment in cash for future appointments if any check is returned.
3.3.2 Cash payments. Cash payments are gladly accepted and we recommend placing cash in a sealed envelope with “payment for cleaning” or our business name written across the front to indicate the envelope is payment for our services.
3.3.3 Credit Cards. Credit card payments are accepted with prior arrangement. Prior arrangements can be made by contacting us and asking about how to pay with a credit card where we will then instruct you on how to pay and the terms of credit card payments. Typically, payments by credit card must be more than $150 or a $5 card processing fee may be applicable. By ordering services and offering your credit card for payment you also agree to allow us to charge your card either in person or by phone, for the amount indicated on your estimate plus any other additional charges we may have added to your estimate after our initial assessment of your home. If we arrange to bill your card on a set schedule you authorize us to bill those charges until you revoke that authorization by making other arrangements for payment or notifying us to discontinue charging your credit card.
3.3.4 Payment Disputes.
Again, if you have an issue with your services please allow us to rectify them before contacting your bank. If we receive a charge-back for an item you disputed with your bank before allowing us the opportunity to rectify the problem beforehand, we will not be able to provide you with services in the future.
3.3.5 Refunds.
Except for refunding booking fees/deposits before the non-refundable 48 hour period, no Refunds will be offered. This is because we give each customer the opportunity to inspect and approve our work upon completion and also because we offer a 24 hour guarantee of satisfaction. If there is ever an issue with your appointment, notify us so that we can take steps to remedy the problem.
4. Cancellation, schedule changes, Rescheduling and appointments. Due to the popularity of our service, we must have a cancellation policy that is both effective and reasonable. It goes without saying: customers who cancel their appointment on short notice cause us to lose money and in order for us to provide our customers with the best price for service we must respectfully enforce this policy.
Any schedule changes need to be made through either our booking system, by contacting us through our website or directly through Email or text messaging only. Do not request appointments through our staff or contractors during and appointment as they are not aware of our availability and are unable to accept appointments on our behalf.
4.1 How can I terminate the services or cancel an appointment? You may terminate the services at any time and for any reason. We do require a minimum of 2 days (48 hours) notice of a scheduled and confirmed appointment to avoid a cancellation fee of $40.
4.2 Rescheduling. We do our best to accommodate our customers’ needs and make every reasonable effort to place appointments in a manner that works with every customer’s individual schedule. We realize that situations arise where you may need to cancel or reschedule your appointment. If ever you need to cancel or reschedule an appointment, we ask that you give us as much advance notice as possibly, with a reasonable amount of time being more than 2 days (48 hours) to avoid being charged a penalty of $40 for the inconvenience.
4.3 Lockout and customer no-shows. Cancellations and reschedules that occur within 2 days (48 hours) of a confirmed appointment carry a penalty. If you cancel or reschedule within this time period the initial fee/deposit paid to book your service will be reduced to a $40 cancellation fee. The same policy applies if we arrive for a scheduled and confirmed appointment but are unable to gain access to the location.
4.4 Preparing for your appointment. In preparation of our arrival, the day before your appointment make sure that the kitchen sink and counter tops are free of dishes. Also, make sure any children’s toys are also put away as well as anything else that may be obstructing the floor or we may not be able to clean those areas to our standard. Our policy with work/desk areas is any papers on surfaces will remain where they are as to avoid confusion or potentially important documents being discarded. We train our staff: If it’s on the floor, it’s trash. Objects on floors that appear to be trash will normally be thrown away unless we receive instructions in advance. We are not responsible for objects left on floors that are damaged by any vacuums.
5. Rates, changes in rates and minimum charges.
5.1 Flat & Hourly Rates. We find it most convenient for our customers when we provide services at a flat rate. In certain circumstances, we may need to charge hourly or base our services on an ‘hourly average’ especially on projects where it is not possible to foresee how much time would be required to complete it. We do log the time spent in your home, starting from when we arrive at your doorstep until we have said our goodbye. When we price our services, it is based on the size and needs of your home. If after our first two appointments we find that the amount of time spent in your home is exceeding the average time requirements we initially anticipated, we may find the need to increase our price per visit.
5.2 Minimum charges. Minimum charge for any type of appointment is $70
5.3 Changes in price. If we ever find the need to adjust our prices we will notify you either in writing or by phone before any regularly scheduled appointment, usually 7 days or more in advance.
6. Employees, contractors and other staff. All personnel furnished by Little Piggies Green Cleaning are either employees or contractors of Little Piggies Green Cleaning and Little Piggies Green Cleaning will pay all salaries and expenses of, and all federal, social security, federal and state unemployment taxes, and any similar payroll taxes relating to such employees, and will carry workmen’s compensation insurance of such employees.
6.1 Nonsolicitation of staff.
It shall be understood and agreed that the customer will not, directly or indirectly, solicit to hire any person currently employed by, or under contract with, Little Piggies Green Cleaning. Staff who work with our business must sign an non-compete and non-solicitation agreement. Staff may be liable for damages if they offer/accept a solicitation to/from one of our customers. Our non-competition covenant has either a 6 months to 1 year period after the expiration (or termination) of any agreement between Little Piggies Green Cleaning and its staff.
7. Damage and liability policy
It is your responsibility as the customer, to inspect your residence after an appointment for quality assurance and also for damage. We promise to always do our best to inspect the premisis before and after our appointment and report back any previous damage we uncover. In the unlikely event that something is damaged or broken during an appointment, we will bring the issue to your attention as soon as we are made aware of it. If damage is discovered by the customer and not by our staff, it must be brought to our attention within 24 actual hours of our visit for us to be able to entertain a resolution. Claims of damage brought to our attention after 24 actual hours are difficult to determine fault, wheather our own or of a third party. When we receive your report of damage within 24 hours of our visit, we will first attempt to repair the damage and if WE find that the repair is insufficient or the damage irreparable, we will offer to replace the item. Insurance forms may be used when deemed applicable by us. If we are able to determine fault is our own and if the item cannot be repaired or replaced then we may consider offering the fair market value of what was damaged as compensation or elect to file insurance forms, which will be determined by us. In the event that we deem what at first was perceived as damage to be a manufacturer’s defect, we will then refer you to the manufacturer for resolution. If at any time we feel that by cleaning an item, we may damage it, we will inform you that we will need to omit that item or area from future appointments. We will not be held responsible if we break an item due to customer negligence. Negligence can be defined, in part or in whole, as improperly hung decor, lack of information from customer (or misinformation), lack of instruction by customer such as a situation where an item or area was known to have been previously damaged or fragile and we were not made aware of it in advance, resulting in further damage or actual damage, liabilities such as family pets escaping when we were not made aware of their presense prior to any appointment and other unnamed events. It is never acceptable for a customer to withhold payment due to a broken item or any other reason. If we are unable to collect at time of service due to a withheld payment, you expressly authorize us to bill your credit card for the total of services rendered. We will then resolve any issues post-appointment, so long as no unpaid balance has been left. You agree that if any unpaid balances are left, you will automatically forfeit any claims for damage.
8. Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning
Professional carpet cleaning is provided by a subcontractor who is required to carry their own liability and insurance coverage. We do not guarantee the quality of their work. We do offer in-house spot cleaning and upholstery by way of our portable hand unit and is also carries no guarantees of workmanship due to many factors that are unpredictable and unforeseeable.
9. Applicable Law
This Agreement shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California. Further, with respect to any legal action brought about in connection with this Agreement, the parties agree to a venue in Los Angeles County, CA and hereby submit themselves to the jurisdiction of such courts.
10. Severability.
If any term or provision of this Agreement is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable, then this Agreement, including all of the remaining terms, will remain in full force and effect as if such invalid or unenforceable term had never been included.