Former clients and employees of a cleaning company with locations across Canada are looking for answers and compensation after the business seemingly disappeared.
Calgarian Sukhvinder Dhoot told Global News she was excited when Scrubbi contacted her, offering her a job to help supplement her other one.
“I’ve been looking for job for so many months,” she said. “I thought in between I could do the cleaning. And I’ll have more money coming because I’m having financial issues.”
The 62-year-old said she cleaned 19 homes, provided her own supplies and paid for her own gas to-and-from cleaning jobs, but didn’t see a penny from the company.
“I called them. I emailed them. All they do is say, ‘Don’t worry you’ll get paid. Don’t worry you get paid.’”
She said she was told it was a technical glitch with the payroll system, so she waited. But the pay never came, and she said the company owes her more than $1497.
Dhoot said Scrubbi continued to try and book her for cleaning jobs, but added that after she checked out the company’s reviews on several sites, she turned them down.
“They wanted me to keep working,” she said. “But I told them I’m not going to take any more jobs until I get paid.”
She continued to contact the company, but didn’t get a response. That’s when she said she logged into her account, only to find it gone.
“I can’t even open my account. They locked it,” Dhoot said.
Clients still waiting for service
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Kriti Karval recently hired Scrubbi for a year-long cleaning contract. She had recently moved into a new Calgary home and was scheduled to have surgery. The young mom said she wanted to take some of the burden off of her family so after doing some research, she hired Scrubbi.
“I paid for the full year. I had 26 appointments and two deep cleaning add-ons,” she said. “I paid about, with tax, $3500. That is a lot of money when you’re a young family.”
Karval said the company did send someone three times to her home, so she felt reassured it was legitimate. But after the third visit, they didn’t show up, despite getting texts the cleaners were on their way.
“The next day comes and I called them, emailed — nothing. Nobody is answering. And you just don’t want to believe the worst.”
“This company just took so much money from me and has disappeared,” she said. “They have just ghosted me.”
Like Dhoot, she also logged in to her Scrubbi account. But, again like Dhoot, all of her information had been apparently scrubbed — replaced with a privacy notice.
“They’re just erasing all of their evidence,” Karval told Global News.
Tracking down the company
Scrubbi’s official website is still up and running, showing services to a number of cities across Canada. But it also shows a privacy error if customers try to get any service information.
As for Scrubbi’s Google listing in Calgary, it shows it is permanently closed.
Global News tried to email, phone and use the contact form on the company’s website, but no one answered our requests for comment and our emails bounced back.
We also contacted Calgary police to see if they had received complaints.
CPS confirmed to Global News that it had received two “reports” about Scrubbi. In both instances, the complainants were advised it was a “civil matter.”
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Global News asked CPS why it wasn’t being investigated and was told, “Generally speaking, for civil matters, there wouldn’t be a police investigation simply because it is not a criminal matter. Allegations of unpaid employee wages may also go through Employment Standards, or the Ministry of Labour.”
Service Alberta told us there had been no complaints registered with the Customer Investigation Unit. It also said there were no records of the company filing for bankruptcy.
Both Karval and Dhoot said if there had been, at least they would know what to expect.
They’re both calling for an investigation of the company, pointing to reviews showing Scrubbi has done this before in other provinces. They’re also hoping for any legal help to get their money back.
They said they don’t want anyone else to be “victimized”.
“All I want is this company to stop,” Dhoot said. “I am having a lot of financial stress and now mental stress on top of it.”
“It’s the root cause we have to get to,” Karval added. “At this point, I don’t know how.”
“But I know they need to be stopped.”
The company is not accredited on the Better Business Bureau’s site, and it has pages of similar complaints.
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