I am posting to get some info for a neighbor. She just rented her house for the first time to a couple. My neighbor, who is extremely clean, hired a cleaning service to come in after she moved out to get the house ready. She paid them $150 for the cleaning.

However, the couple declared the house FILTHY!! They hired their own cleaning service to come in and clean the filthy house (I can tell you that I am not a great housekeeper and my friend makes me nervous when she comes to my house because I can see her looking around at my mess!). This couple made a point of telling the RE agent who handled the rental for my friend that the cleaning service had to spend an hour cleaning the stove because it was so dirty. This stove is 4 years old and is a Sears stainless steel, gas range. My friend went to the house last night to check on another complaint the new couple had, and was stunned when she saw the condition of the stove. It has been scrubbed with what she assumes must be brillo and the finish on the front where the dials are has been completely removed.

There are also deep scratches on the top of the range. My friend has only ever used a a general cleaner (like 409) to remove the grease from the range, followed up with a stainless steel spray cleaner designed especially for appliances.

If you can believe, this couple is expecting my friend to reimburse them the cost for the cleaning ($360)!!

They have complained about a number of piddly things ( like something was wrong with the shower upstairs...they couldn't figure out that the left control turns the shower on; the right control controls the hot/cold feature. They assumed the controls were broken)

My friend is beside herself. Is there any way to renew or fix the finish on the stove? Any suggestions other than strangling the new tenants??

Thanks.