Three months ago I would've said this was overthinking it, who cares about paperwork when you're living in a cool decade. But then my aunt tried to get her social security straightened out after a mess with her old address and it took her NINE months and two trips to a federal building. That completely flipped my view, because if that's what happens when you're still in the same century, imagine trying to explain a missing birth certificate to a 1950s clerk. Somebody needs to write a prompt where the time traveler's first problem is a library fine from 1962 that somehow catches up to them. That would be way more real than any adventure plot.

Skipping past the obvious, this sounds like the same story I hear over and over from folks who hire off Nextdoor or Facebook. Cheap quick jobs usually mean they bring one bottle of whatever and hope it works on everything. Your carpet is not the same as your neighbor's carpet, and no one seems to test a hidden spot first anymore. It's like people forgot that basic step, same way mechanics skip telling you they used the wrong oil. I'd ask any new company for their testing routine before they even bring a machine in, and don't hand over money until they show you they're actually checking.