The Maid Broker

This experience did NOT go well at all. I absolutely do not recommend this business to anyone because of the owner. The owner of this business is not very professional in the way she handles herself with her clients and did a very poor job of communicating with us. I feel like we were misled as to the cost of this move out cleaning and then treated dismissively and disrespectfully when I inquired about the final cost. What started out as a $650 move out ended up being almost $1000. The final receipt had no documentation about what the extra charges were for and when we inquired the owner was evasive and vague. After several back-and-forth emails and texts with her we still are not exactly clear about the details of the extra charges. The cleaning was good but took way too long and they missed a couple of things that I would never have complained about if it had not gone south with the final bill. Following are the details. I contacted the owner on the phone and spoke with her briefly about what my needs were explaining that it was a move out and a large house with some pot shelves and soffits. She assured me that she has done a lot of homes in my area and was used to pot shelves and soffits and would be sure they would be cleaned. She quoted me a price of $650, which is at least twice as much than other businesses, but we went with them because I believe you get what you pay for. She then sent me a DocUsign which I read very carefully. This document explained exactly what was included in the cleaning which was everything I wanted done except for the pot shelves. The document said that if we needed that done we needed to make arrangements with the office and they would add it to the bill but did not give details on how they would figure out the charge. It also explained that they needed a credit card because half of the amount would be charged before the job was started. I got the DocuSign on November 19 and then did not hear back from the owner until I contacted her on November 30 asking if we were still on the calendar because the DocuSign had no date or time on it and I had not heard from her. They were supposed to do the cleaning on December 1. She assured me that we were on the calendar but never explained why we had not heard from them . This should have been a red flag that she was not very good with communication. The owner and one other person arrived to do the cleaning on time. A third person ended up coming sometime in late afternoon. At some point the owner’s husband who has a plumbing business, brought his own tall ladder so that the pot shelves could be accessed. My husband and I were on our back screened in porch the entire day waiting for the crew to finish their work as we were going to get the house ready for the walk-through before we left town that evening. The walk-through was the next morning at which time the new owners would take possession of the home. So, we were able to watch and the crew did a very good job of working hard, but we thought it took a much longer time than what we originally were prepared for. They were there from 9 o’clock in the morning until about 430 or 5 PM. I did the final walk-through inspecting the cleaning with the owner and thought they did a very thorough job. There were only two things I was not happy with. The first thing is in our foyer there is a huge breakfront with glass shelves and glass doors. She explained that they don’t do built ins like that because of all of the glass. I was upset because if I had known they were not going to do it I would have done it myself, and at that point I had no cleaning materials and no ladder to access it. So when you walked in the house at that point you saw dust and dirty glass after we just spent what I thought was $650 plus our generous tip (and whatever the fee was going to be for the pot shelves, which I thought would be maybe $50 extra?) to get the house cleaned. The second thing was they put all of their trash in our trash barrels in the garage. We didn’t discover this until after they had left and we had no way of transporting that trash to another area since our car was packed to the hilt with all of the things we were leaving with that evening. Since the new owners were going to be there the following morning, and after all the money we had spent to clean the house I was very upset. Before Shannon and her two employees left, I inquired about the rest of the bill and when was I going to be able to access it. She assured me that it would be emailed to me right away. This was on a Tuesday evening. By Friday I still had nothing, So I texted her asking about that. She told me that she had emailed it to me and I explained it was not in my email inbox. We went back-and-forth several times as she kept trying to email me the receipt and it wasn’t being received. I finally got the receipt after about three attempts on her part and all it said was “transaction type: sale; amount: $647. Remember, this was after I had to hound her to send it to me. And also this was on top of the initial half of the quoted $650. So, in total she charged us $647 plus $325, which adds up to $972. I texted her and asked If this total was a mistake. Her answer to me was “was there something wrong with the cleaning?” And my answer was, no there is something wrong with the total. Her answer to me was “the clean out amount was $650 and went up from there.” She also said it was a big house so the rest that was charged to us was for the delivery of the ladder and labor. This is not what the DocuSign said at all. The DocuSign was very clear about what the extras would be and what they would cost. In the end, the quoted price of $650 plus our tip that we voluntarily gave of $65 added up to $715. The only other charge that should have been on there, and the receipt should have been explicit how much it cost to have the pot shelves cleaned, would have been for the pot shelves. She charged us $972 total for this clean out, which is $257 over her quoted price plus the tip. Not at any time did she give exact details for the extra $257 charge. No one should be allowed to get away with arbitrarily charging a client extra money without a detailed explanation. And, if it is going to be that much over, they should let you know and get your approval before they do it. After seeing good reviews for this business I am VERY disappointed. I WILL NOT recommend this business to anyone I know in Prescott.

It was amazing. They arrived early and did a fantastic job.

Kastle Keeper did a great job and took a lot of time. The owner herself came out as it was such a hard and long and titius job. They (owner and employee) were there for hours and did a great job and charged a more than fair rate

Excellent. On time, professional, thorough. I have three dogs and live in the country. Kastle Keepers cleaned from top to bottom. They wiped the floor boards, cleaned blinds, vacuumed furniture, and cleaned and mopped all the floors. The bathrooms sparkle! They did a great job.

Shannon did a great job of squeezing me into her schedule on a time frame that worked with my crazy schedule. Rebecca and Cochise did a great job cleaning the house, and getting it ready for sale! Thanks guys!

I’ve been using Kastle Keepers for almost a year and love the work they do! The owner, Shannon, and her team go above and beyond to make sure the house really shines. They keep a consistent schedule, are priced very fairly and if I ever have questions or additional requests Shannon is quick to respond. I even love that they treat my two dogs and cat so well while at my house and I never worry about them getting out. I highly recommend Kastle Keeper for any type of cleaning you need.

They're good! I've had them for 8 years.

They've been coming out once a month for the last 3 years. Have never had any issues.

It was excellent, they are on time, very thorough, lovely people, and friendly. They are good with my animals, reminding me before my appointment and very accommodating. They will do anything from basic house cleaning to to to bottom cleaning.

A very mixed bag.  There were two cleaners, one very competent and one novice with questionable potential.  The cleaning itself seemed to have been done fairly well.  However, I noticed two days later that an item (a Navajo pot) was missing and had not brought to my attention.
 I called Shannon, the owner of Kastle Keeper Cleaning.  Her response was less understanding and upstanding than I had expected it to be.  When I had met Shannon at the time she came to my home to access what I was needing and to give me a price for the cleaning as well as to answer questions, she had been very impressive and reassuring.  However, when faced with the problem of a missing item, she certainly was not reassuring when she suggested that the item might have been moved or misplaced. 
Given that no dusting had been done, that seemed highly unlikely.  On a hunch, I dug through the garbage bags and found the pot with its broken pieces neatly piled on top.  When I sent a photo of this to Shannon, our exchange just got more unpleasant.
 It ultimately resulted in her assuming no responsibility for the broken pot or for her worker not acknowledging that she had broken it and then hidden it in the garbage rather than bring it to my attention.  Shannon even suggested that I might have ulterior motives in this matter. 
At that point, I concluded no good could come of further contact with Shannon.  I had already decided not to use the company again - even before discovering the missing pot because it  had become clear to me that I would not be comfortable with an arrangement that did not offer the consistency of the same workers each week.