Terms & Conditions.

1. Quotes & pricing

• Our online estimate gives you a real, itemised price up front — no hidden call-out surprises.
• A quote is based on the information you give us. We confirm the final price with you before we start.
• Card payments carry a 2.4% surcharge; EFTPOS/debit and cash don't. Some items (leather, drapes and curtains) are quoted on inspection, not at a fixed price.

2. If the job's different on the day, or we can't reach you

Real jobs don't always match the booking, so here's how we handle that fairly:

• Bigger or different scope. If the job on the day is more involved than described — heavier soiling, more area, extra treatment, or access we weren't told about — we'll reassess and talk it through, and agree any change to the price or time before we carry on. No surprise charge after the fact.
• If we can't reach you to confirm a change, we'll do the sensible, safe thing: complete the part already agreed and rebook the rest, or pause until we can talk. We won't run up charges you haven't okayed.
• We book a set time for your job. If the full scope can't be finished safely in that time, or we can't agree on how to proceed, we'll complete what we reasonably can, charge only for the work done and materials used, and arrange a time to finish the rest. We can't overrun into another customer's booking.
• We may decline part of a job if an area or item is unsafe to clean, unsuitable for our method, or likely to be damaged by cleaning. We'll always explain why — that's us protecting your things, not cutting corners.

3. Booking, rescheduling & cancellations

We hold a time slot and plan our travel around your booking, so late changes cost us a slot we usually can't re-sell. The fair deal:

• Reschedule or cancel free up to 3pm the day before your booking. Easy, no charge.
• Larger jobs (flood/water-damage response, whole-house carpet) need 48 hours' notice for the free window.
• After that — or if we arrive and can't get in (no access) — an $89 slot-hold fee applies, and we credit it toward your rebooking if you go ahead within 7 days. Same fee for a late cancel or a no-access visit. You'll always have seen it before you book, and we apply it fairly and consistently.

4. Payment

• Payment is due on completion — cash, EFTPOS/debit, or card (2.4% card surcharge). Commercial clients can arrange invoiced terms in advance.
• If an invoice isn't paid on time, we send a friendly reminder first. Amounts unpaid after 14 days may carry interest at 10% per year from the due date. Accounts unpaid after 30 days may be passed to collection, with actual recovery costs added. A dishonoured or failed payment is charged at our bank's actual cost — nothing more.

5. Our guarantee

We stand behind our work. Before our tech packs up, have a quick walk-through together — it's the best moment to flag anything you're not happy with, and we'll put it right on the spot rather than making a second trip. And if something you couldn't reasonably spot at the time shows up later — a spot we missed, or residue we've left behind — just tell us within 7 days and we'll come back and sort it, no debates.

This covers the quality of our clean. It isn't a free re-clean for an area that's simply been lived on and re-soiled since, and it isn't a promise about a mark that was never going to lift. For household customers it sits alongside your full Consumer Guarantees Act rights (§9) — it never replaces them.

If a mark comes back from deeper in the carpet. Ink, dye and heavy spills can soak through into the backing and the underlay. We clean what a clean can reach — lifting the carpet to treat what's beneath it is a separate job, and it isn't part of what you were quoted. If a mark surfaces again, tell us. We'll come and look, that visit is charged, and you'll get a straight answer on whether further treatment will hold — including when the honest answer is that it won't.

If we promised a stain would go and it didn't. We rarely promise a stain in advance — most of the time the honest answer is that treatment is what shows how it responds. But where we did say a mark would go and it hasn't, we'll re-treat it free. If it's still there after that re-treatment and another cleaner then removes it, we'll refund what you paid us for treating that stain — that portion of your invoice, the part that didn't do what we said. Not the clean, and not the visit. To sort it out we'll need to see it: their invoice for the stain treatment, and a photo or short clip of the mark gone.

Honest note on stains: stains are treated, and they respond — well, partly, or sometimes not at all. Where experience lets us call it, we'll tell you before we start. Some can't be called until they've been treated: how long a mark has been there, what the fibre is, what was spilled and what was used on it first all change how it responds. We give you a straight read and do our best work; we don't promise to remove every stain, because no honest cleaner can.

6. What we need from you

So we can do a great job safely, you agree to:

• Give us clear, safe access, somewhere to park near the property, and power and water available as we need them for the work.
• Have floors clear of small items, clutter, and anything breakable or precious; pets secured; and give us a heads-up on any hazards.
• Tell us before we start about anything only you can know — a "dry clean only" or no-hot-water care instruction on any item, the fibre or material if it's a specialty rug or delicate fabric, any previous cleaning, spot-treatment, bleach or chemical that's been used on it, and any past damage or repair. We use our professional judgment and test a hidden area where we reasonably can, but we can't detect what isn't visible and weren't told.
• Help us complete the job. Beyond urgent or critical situations, you'll do what you reasonably can so we can finish safely and well.
• Have a quick walk-through with our tech at the end. Before they leave, take a couple of minutes to check the finished job together — it's the easiest way to catch anything that needs another pass and get it sorted on the spot.

We'll happily move light furniture (dining chairs, small items) as a courtesy so we can clean under them. For safety we don't move beds, pianos, appliances, glass, electronics, artwork, or anything precious — please move those beforehand if you'd like underneath done.

7. Safety on the day

Carpet cleaning means damp floors and our hoses running through your home for a while — keeping everyone safe is a shared job.

• Damp floors can be slippery. Cleaned carpet stays damp until walk-on dry (usually 2–4 hours), and stepping from damp carpet onto tile, timber or vinyl is where slips happen. Take extra care until it's dry, and keep young children, anyone unsteady on their feet, and pets off the cleaned areas until then.
• Our hoses and cables are a temporary trip hazard. While we work we run hoses and cables from the van through the house, often with a door propped open. We keep them tidy and point out the run — please keep the work area clear, keep children and pets away from the equipment while it's running, and make sure pets can't slip out through a propped-open door. Please don't move or unplug our gear mid-job.
• We do our part: tidy hose runs, flag wet spots, and take reasonable care throughout.

8. Damage, wear, and issues that aren't always visible

We treat your home and belongings with genuine care. This section is about being straight on what is, and isn't, down to the clean:

• If we accidentally damage something, tell us as soon as you reasonably can — ideally before we finish up on the day. We'll assess it fairly and, where it's genuinely down to our work, put it right — a repair or fair compensation as appropriate. Please give us the first chance to make it right before arranging any repair yourself.
• Cleaning can bring existing problems to the surface — that isn't a fault in our work. Pre-existing wear, traffic lanes, sun-fade, old marks or burns; and conditions that simply aren't visible when we start — a weak, perished or rotten backing, failing adhesive or loose glue holding the carpet or fibre down, delamination, prior water damage, loose seams, or dyes that aren't colour-fast. We can't be responsible for damage that comes from the underlying condition of an item rather than from our cleaning, or for problems that couldn't reasonably have been seen beforehand.
• Right method for the material. Some items must only be cleaned a particular way — for example, "dry clean only" fabrics that shouldn't be hot-water cleaned. That information sits with the item's maker and its owner, not with us. If it isn't marked on the item or passed to us, and we couldn't reasonably tell at inspection, we'll carry out our standard hot-water extraction as booked — and we can't be responsible for a reaction that method causes on a material that needed a different one.
• Stains and prior treatments are unpredictable. Each stain is individual and may or may not respond to our standard treatment, which isn't always clear at inspection. If a stain — or the fibre around it — has had bleach, chemicals, or another cleaner's products used on it that weren't fully explained to us beforehand, our products can interact with those residues in ways no one can reliably predict, including bleaching or damaging a fibre that would otherwise have been fine. Where that happens because of an earlier, undisclosed treatment, it isn't our fault.
• For your protection and ours, we'll point out any existing damage or obvious risk we notice before we start, and we may take a quick photo. Where a material could react, we test a small hidden area first where we can.
• Drying: walk-on dry is usually 2–4 hours with decent airflow and low humidity; cold, still, humid conditions take longer. Assisted drying is available.

9. Our responsibility to you — household customers

Nothing in these terms takes away your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and Fair Trading Act 1986. We carry out our services with reasonable care and skill, and if something genuinely goes wrong on our end, we'll put it right — starting with a free re-clean, with your full legal remedies still available. Sections 2, 6 and 8 describe how scope, your disclosures, and pre-existing or hidden conditions are handled — they explain what our work does and doesn't cover; they don't reduce these rights.

10. Our responsibility to you — commercial customers

Where we supply services to a business for business purposes, you and ApexClean agree in writing that the Consumer Guarantees Act does not apply, and that our total liability for any claim is limited to, at our option, re-performing the service or refunding the price paid for it. We're not liable for indirect or consequential loss. This section applies to business clients only. ApexClean carries public liability insurance.

11. Privacy

We only use your details to quote, book, carry out, and follow up your job — with one exception, set out in section 12, which applies to business clients only. See our Privacy Policy for how we handle your information, including how we take and use before-and-after photos of the work.

12. Using your business name — commercial clients only

Here's how we see it, so there's no guessing. When we name a business we clean for, we're pointing at real work — ours and yours. It shows we're trusted with premises that have to be right, and it puts your name in front of people already looking for a business like yours. We're not speaking for you, we're not claiming you back us, and we're not copying anything. We use your name and your logo as they already appear in public, to say something true: we clean here. Done properly, that should be worth something to both of us.

So where you're a business customer, you agree we may use your business name, your logo as it publicly appears, and a general description of the work we do for you — on our website, in printed material, and on social media.

Four promises come with that, and they're the real substance of this section:

• Nothing that isn't already public. No pricing — yours or ours. No contract terms, quotes, invoices, documents or site plans. No access codes, alarm details or security arrangements. No staff names. Nothing about your premises beyond what anyone walking past could see.
• We photograph the work, not your business. Before-and-after photos stay framed on the carpet, upholstery or area we've cleaned, and we keep out anything identifying — the same standard we apply in every home. Section 3 of our Privacy Policy sets this out in full.
• We'll say we clean for you. We won't say you recommend us — unless you've actually told us you do, in your own words, and are happy for us to quote it. Your name on our list is a fact. Putting words in your mouth would be something else entirely, and we won't do it.
• One word and it's gone — at once. If you'd rather we didn't use your name or logo, at any time, for any reason or none at all, just tell us. We take it down straight away, we won't ask you to justify it, it costs you nothing, and it makes no difference whatsoever to the service you get from us. That promise is the reason the rest of this section is fair.

This section applies to business customers only. We never use a household customer's name, address or any personal detail in our marketing.

13. General

These terms are governed by New Zealand law. We may update them from time to time; the version you agreed to at booking applies to your job. If any part can't be enforced, the rest still stands.