ComplaintsforOcean Softwash Roof & Exterior Cleaning

• Initial Complaint

  20/06/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  June 7, 2022 we had Ocean Softwash do a complete clean of the exterior of our home including roof, gutters, sidewalk etc. we chose this company because of their claims of using environmentally friendly, biodegradable, low VOC, non-hazardous, water-based cleaning agents. In fact they send a brochure with 2 pages detailing this. While the workers were here the smell of chlorine / bleach was awful. I was told by the workers that they were using bleach 2 separate times. When they came the first day to clean and when they came back another day to do touch ups. When I contacted the company to ask why bleach was being used, I spoke with 2 different people. First the “estimator” who was the person we had been speaking to and dealing with, he told me that he could not speak to that as he was just the estimator. Then I called the office and asked them why bleach was being used. The secretary or receptionist told me that it wasn’t bleach and told me that it was Sodium Chlorite. At the time I did not know what Sodium Chlorite was but I still questioned her again saying that the workers that were at my home called it bleach and it smelled like it. She told me that she could not speak to that. I ******* what Sodium Chlorite was *** ***** **** ** ******* *** ** * ***** ********* ********* Sodium Chlorite is not any of the thIngs that they claim. I called the office back and let her know that I had looked it up and that it in fact was bleach. Again she responded by telling me that she could not speak to that and that I would need to speak to the Operations Manager. This company seems to have a standard response to these questions. I wish when I had looked up this companies ratings that I had seen something about this issue. I did not end up speaking to the Operations Manager as I missed their call and I have not called back as I have no desire to spend any more time speaking with this company directly about their false claims and listening to their pre scripted answers.

  

  Business response

  29/06/2022

  Ocean SoftWash is proud of being a member of the Good Stewards program and has pledged to passing on a clean, healthy environment. As Good Stewards, we believe that practices, protocols, and standards are for more than just compliance. All cleaning solutions we use are environmentally friendly as described when used accordingly and all of our technicians are fully trained and certified by a third party. We feel very sorry that the customer did not continue to communicate since our operations manager tried to reach out several times to clarify with her the issues. He would have been the right person to talk to. We do not have standard responses and our estimator as well as office manager do not reply with “can not speak to that”, they always take the information and refer it to the person with more knowledge about the subject and who can help the most. Unfortunately the customer went to ****** instead to find more information but ****** does not tell what our process is about and how we use Sodium Hypochlorite/Bleach. Sodium hypochlorite can also be called bleach and has many other common names but we only use it mixed/diluted with water and commercial grade soaps. Mixed in a solution, the compound is unstable and easily decomposes and breaks down into water and salt. For some specific applications like roof cleaning or where mildew/lichen/moss is present we add industrial grade sodium hypochlorite (and not sodium chloride). In spite of its strong biocidal action, sodium hypochlorite per se has a very limited environmental impact, since the hypochlorite ion rapidly degrades before it can be absorbed by living beings and we also use neutralizes like finalwash and/or plantwash. There are no false claims online or printed but we are always open to suggestions on how we can improve our informational material. Our softwash cleaning process has been in place for decades and has been approved to even clean heritage homes and other buildings with sensitive surroundings. Customer service has always been the number one priority at Ocean SoftWash and we will continue making it better and recommend to our different departments to enhance the communication process. 

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