Maid For Chicago

I don't really write Yelp reviews. If I had written one previously, I think it was years ago and probably under an old email address. So you know I must be pretty inspired to write one. The cleaning team who came out was very nice but there were a few issues. For instance, losing the keys I gave them the first time I met them. The other issue, is the owner will give you a time they will show up at, and then the team will unexpectedly show up at another time. Which is kind of an inconvenience. But those two issue are no biggies, the big problem is they don't stay the time reported and will charge for more than the time they were in my home. The home 'unoccupied/occupied' feature on my Ecobee let me easily track this (I don't like to home when they are cleaning). And I am not talking about 10 or 15 minutes off, but 30, 60, and 30 minutes respectively for three of the four times I was serviced. So after the first two times (when they were doing longer jobs since I was a new customer) I was charged for more than the time than the team stayed (which again, I could see thanks to my Ecobee). I had to call in to the owner and get my bill adjusted. He basically called it a 'mixup' with the time estimate he told me and the time he told the team. (Funny though, how each time the 'mixup' was in his favor in terms of the amount charged). The third week they stayed the regular two hours they are said to work for. Did a good job and I got charged for the two hours. Fourth week, they arrived 90 minutes earlier than the scheduled time that I was told by the owner Dan. That's when I found out they didn't have the copy of the keys I had given them. They claimed I never game it to them, but then I was thinking to myself, how did they get in the previous two cleanings? Whatever, no biggie. But I told them to give me 30 minutes as I wasn't showered, etc and I don't like to loom over them when they work. So at 1:30 pm, I let them in to work and I left. I got back at 3:10 with a new set of keys but they were gone. (I don't know what time they actually left as I didn't check my Ecobee, but at best it was still 20 minutes short of 2 hours). I am thinking to myself no biggie, but I wanted to call the owner Dan just to make sure I was billed for the correct amount of time since I was thought they were suppose to clean for at least 2 hours and especially given the 'mixup' for the first 2 weeks. Then all **** broke loose and this guy Dan freaks out on my on the phone. He keeps telling me you have a 2 hour minimum. And that's it on the website. I said, I know that, but they didn't stay for two hours. But he kept trying to do this deflection and twisted logic to claim I don't want to pay for 2 hours. I keep telling him whatever the time they stayed for is what I will pay for. He says something to the effect that they must have been done cleaning and that's why they left early. I think any person with common sense knows cleaning is one of those things 'you are never really done with'. In other words, you can always do more. I don't expect my place to be spot less after each cleaning. I think of it as a long term ongoing project where I pay for whatever time serviced to me. And after each time there were easily spotted areas that were not cleaned, which again is fine if you are putting in the time I am paying for. He gets frustrated, as I think he realizes this is a customer he can't bamboozle and says he won't have the team out there anymore. He then threatens me about writing a bad review. Hilariously, I had never even mentioned the word 'review' on the phone. He just brings it up out of the blue. I am just like I never even said the word 'review' and I ask him why he brought it up...he goes off on how other people leave him bad reviews, etc. And I thinking to myself with this type of attitude and my experiences so far, 'I can see why.' He then tries to 'negotiate' with me, that he will charge me for less time if I don't write a review. Again, I never even mentioned the word 'review'. But after some of the goings on back and forth with him, his review idea sounded great to me. I didn't want to negotiate with him over a lousy few bucks...it was more the point of it and that this seemed like a trend that needed to be stopped. The next day he sends me an email saying that after talking to the team, he admitted the team didn't stay for 2 hours but 90 minutes and agrees to charge me for that time. Now mind you this is the 3rd time out of the first four weeks this crap has happened. AND THE MOST IMPORTANT THING is if I didn't say anything he would have just charged me. Obviously, he can make more money by having his teams move from home to home quicker. This is 'fast food' cleaning and dishonesty. There are other cleaning services out there would never let this happen.

It went fine

unknown

Outstanding. Great Value for the amount of work.

I am very happy with her work. She is professional. She comes and does what she says. She is careful with the things and I can trust her. I don’t have to worry about things missing.

The service went well. Two cleaners came out and completed the job in about 2 hours. They did a fine job and were efficient workers. I had no problem scheduling the service.

unknown

Monica was sent as part of a duo twice. She and her team were fast and detailed. They were a few minutes late the first time, but parking in my neighborhood can be tough. Scheduling was easy and the team was responsive, but plan at least a week or 2 ahead...they seem pretty booked.

The two maids, Antonia and Beatrice, arrived 1/2 hour early and set to work with a degree of energy and enthusiasm I had seldom seen (and I have hired a variety of cleaners over the years). They were clearly totally committed to their work, and they did an outstanding job: For the first time in months, my apartment ended up gleaming from one end to the other. The entire job took about 3 1/2 hours. The maids brought all their own cleaning supplies from the company, but Beatrice noticed I had some Bona on hand for hardwood floors and asked me about it. We agreed it was a great product, and I was happy to have her use it at her request. In the future I would urge cleaners from this company to skip all the lifting and toting of their own products if they would prefer to use mine, and especially if this would knock a bit off the price. I do think as prices go, this company's are on the high side, and I did feel I had to negotiate after the fact with the owner for a somewhat lower price than the quote I was given at the end of the cleaning session, which had come as a bit of a surprise, all things considered. But he was very reasonable, and we ultimately had a meeting of the minds.
I realize that my abode was a challenge to clean, and I think these maids did an amazing job under the cirumstances. Particularly in my art studio, the hardwood floor is well overdue for refinishing, and the other hardwood floors are certainly showing their age and readiness for a thorough sanding and recoating with polyurethane. The maids did the utmost that could be done on any of these floors, in addition to thorough dusting and scrubbing of all other surfaces. I was just delighted with their work, and my son commented that he was "profoundly impressed" by their energetic and thorough cleaning. I would welcome future cleanings by Antononia and Beatrice, and I can not commend them -- or Maid for Chicago -- highly enough.