The Cleaning Authority - Columbia

They are an average cleaning service. They do what they say they are going to do. If you are looking for a decent priced cleaning service. They come in and clean, but understanding that no one is going to clean as good as you because it is your house. There were things that were just blatant laziness. Things that I just didn't see totally cleaned. I have a hardwood floor in my room and a dresser. They would mop the floor, but not under the dresser. The dresser stands almost a foot off the floor, they just went around things. It was a quick good clean, but just to many items where there was a lack of attention to detail.

When we first moved into our condo in Ellicott City my husband and I would spend every Sunday cleaning our unit from top to bottom. Finally after a year of this we decided there had to be a better way so I went online and contacted The Cleaning Authority of Columbia. Karen, the owner, called and made an appointment to come out to see what was needed and to give us an estimate. We were impressed by her professionalism and price and signed up. We've had  the same team of women for the past 5 years and couldn't be happier. They are thorough, pleasant, and do an excellent job every two weeks. We highly recommend this company.

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Their prices go up. I don't like that they are not consistent on who they send to my house and that creates problems and sometimes the cleaning is so-so. About once per year, or maybe a little more often, they break something. So, that is my overall experience. My regular team is pretty good, but I cannot really count on them to show up and that really bothers me. To be honest with you, I am moving and, when I move out of this house, I am using this as an excellent time to break off my relationship with them and find somebody else. My house went on the market, I had them come, and it wasn't my usual day, therefore, it wasn't my usual team, which I expected. They broke the handle on my shower, the day before my house goes on market. I had two people scheduled to come see it. I am still in the process of replacing that handle. That is the kind of thing that happens, about once every nine months or once a year. My regular team is not bad, I just can't count on it. They are very responsive, like, when I called them and had them come out on not my regular day, they do that stuff. They're very good about special requests. They're very professional.

Afterwards, the price normalized unless I added rooms (I'm fine with that too). Everything was going well for several cleanings, then I got a call from the owner/management. She advised me that my home was underpriced and she needed to raise the prices. Not just a little, it went from $125 to $180 per cleaning. About a 30% raise in price. Karen advised she was not making any money on my house. Even thought her assistant manager and she had been at my home weeks before.

I asked Karen who was her supervisor and she responded that she does not report to anyone. No where to go with further complaints.

They praise their position as "Satisfaction Guaranteed" . I think not. The staff themselves are fine, supervisors were great. Management, a total joke to this company. I am a firm believer of "If you don't take care of your customers... someone else will"

I will never recommend them, and I believe you should not use them either. I don't trust them as a business. Good luck.

unknown

I was advised  that a crew of two would clean my house and that the cleaning would be checked by a supervisor. The contract I signed indicated that the initial cleaning would be a "detailed" and more expensive cleaning, to bring the house up to The Cleaning Authority's standard which is a typical business practice of theirs.  After the detailed cleaning I observed that the glass shower enclosure in the hallway bathroom was not cleaned, at least on the inside as there were still water spots visible.   The master bathroom glass shower enclosure still had built up soap scum on the glass and the stainless steel storage rack in the shower was covered with soap residue.   A screw from the wall hanging in the master bathroom was left on the vanity with no note or explanation.   In the family room which has built in bookcases, the books were knocked over and strewn about.  The finished basement exercise area which was also included in the detailed cleaning was barely vacuumed or swept, if at all.  Certainly not what I would expect from a routine cleaning, let alone a first time "detail" to bring my house up to the Cleaning Authority's "standard".
When I called to provide management feedback they offered to send another crew over for a "redo" cleaning. I requested that  a supervisor come to the house as well, with me there,  to see for themselves the poor performance of its staff since it was hard to describe just how pitiful of a job they did.   I was told the crew would arrive around 8:15a.  I returned home to meet them there at 8:45a, allowing for a travel delay and no one had shown up at all.  I needed to return to work and do not know what time the crew arrived but do know from speaking to several of the managers that no supervisor came to the house, either time.  Moreover, during the "redo" the basement exercise area had all the same dirt.  Had the light weights not been moved all around I would not have known they were even in that area.  When I talked to management after the second or "redo" cleaning I again expressed my total dissatisfaction and indicated that I would like to cancel my service going forward, I received within minutes of that call I received an email from them indicating that "our records show you have an outstanding balance of $100..."

.I have been using them for about two years. They come out and clean my three bedroom and bathroom in my town home apartment.

unknown

The price varies so much from house to house and room to room. They are quite good and very dependable. They have a routine that they use. They have a checklist. Every week, they emphasize deep cleaning of certain rooms. So over a period of time, they go through and do more on some rooms; so, I like that. I would use them again in the future.

For the first year I was pleased with the service.  If I had an occasional complaint or a request, I had a much more pleasant, customer-service kind of response from others on the management team, rather than from the co-owner.  The Cleaning Authority also has a $25 cancellation fee no matter what the circumstances, nor how far in advance you cancel. My husband and I were uncomfortable with this policy; in addition, it was inconsistently enforced, so we did not always know what to expect. 
In the last 6 months, one of the two regular team members took vacation time several visits in a row, and the team members who were sent to substitute did not perform as thoroughly. I called the service and asked to be informed in advance when any regular team member would be absent (they said they would try to accommodate me), but I never got called.  When I pointed this out later on, I was told that they did not make up the following week's schedule in time to be able to call me, even on a Friday afternoon (hard to believe this).  In addition, I had informed the co-owner that I would be away for a few months on a research trip, and gave my husband's contact information. In emails that my husband received, he was continually addressed as "Mrs."  even though he signed his own name. 
I terminated service with The Cleaning Authority mainly because of the repeated lack of customer-service orientation from "top" management, and because of some apparent inconsistencies in carrying out policy.   When I called to terminate service, I got a phone message acknowledging my call, but there was no offer to try to talk with me to remedy the situation or try to keep me as a customer.

The Cleaning Authority does a nice job with rotating the areas of detailed cleaning. They are very friendly, and work very hard to make sure that the customer is satisfied.

Light clean was fine.
Tile in bathroom was not cleaned as well as it should have. top of shower door was not cleaned.
Kitchen: front of microwave was not cleaned properly - still have fingerprints on key pad and film on the front of the microwave door from whatever cleaner was used - should have used glass cleaner.
- Refrigerator door was not cleaned nor was the ice/water dispenser.
I think they were rushed for time and just didn't put into these rooms what they should.

I was home at the time, and when I walked past the kitchen, they had dismantled the stove top in preparation to cleaning everything. (They put everything back together exactly right, and it was spotless) And, after they left, I realized that they had also cleaned out the toaster oven (which was loaded with crumbs beforehand.)
Bravo, team 28! You went above and beyond in the kitchen, and still did a thorough job on the rest of the house. Thank you!

I've since found much better cleaners.

We love the people they send. It is just a wonderful crew and do a fantastic job every time. I would recommend them to just about anybody. The are just so thorough every time. Every time they come, they will give a special type of focus on housecleaning. For example, they will spend extra time on a particular area each time they come out.

They're doing an okay job, average quality of the clean. It's much more regulated from what they have to do, they don't clean the windows, the manager tells them to clean windows, it's much more complicated. They're just cleaning where you see a spot, they can't go on a step stool which I guess I can understand but I feel that I need to go back and check and make sure that everything's clean after they left every time. The price is good. It takes a long time to get the job done. I'm looking for somebody else.

I have them come out to clean house bi-weekly and it is such a comfort coming home to a clean home after a long day at work. Highly recommend.

Very punctual and professional. Wish we could have same team every week.

One of the biggest things I like when I come home after my house is cleaned, is walking in and feeling the clean feeling and smelling that some type of cleaner has been used. I can honestly say that for the several months that I used TCA, I never once came home to that feeling. I also felt like just the minimal amount of work had been done to clean my house. On one occasion I came home to a broken glass keepsake and a note that just said and quot;Sorryand quot;... TCA offered to replace it but because it was a keepsake, it couldn't be replaced. The final straw was when I came home and there was still dirt in the corners of the living room and the carpets had not been vacuumed. They responded quickly and sent another team to clean again but I shouldn't have to question whether the cleaning is being done every time I walk in the house, especially for the money I was paying.

PROS: They are prompt and reliable. The cleaners are mostly pleasant and one of the people in the 2-person crew spoke English OK. They work VERY quickly. CONS: They tell you up front they don't do a full cleaning every week - rather they do and quot;focus areasand quot; which change from week to week. I could not tell the difference which focus area they were doing on any given week... When they left,there was plenty of dust still left on everything and spots on the floor. They used a feather duster often, rather than wiping the dust off with a dusting cloth, so it seemed they were mostly 'moving the dust around.' Often I found they would dust the front of the shelves and leave a ton of dust on the back of the shelves that you could see if you looked close-up. They used DISHWASHING liquid to clean the bathtub so it was not very effective at removing soap scum or mold. They did a very quick mop of our hardwood floors, barely mopping. And I suspect they were sweeping the dirt from the floors into the heating vents, but I cannot say for sure.... Finally, they did a TERRIBLE job of wiping down our stainless steel appliances and nearly always left them looking smeared -- worse than before they arrived. I provided them with special stainles steel wipes and reminded them every time to please use them, but sometimes they didn't use them or they did a rush job, etc. We are now switching to another cleaning company in hopes of getting a better job done.

The service is worth the money. They come and clean around me and I am happy with their service.

Overall they do decent cleaning. But for the amount of money they
charge, they should be doing a more thorough cleaning. The cleaning
person keeps changing from week to week and some of them are very
unprofessional. We go to companies thinking they will train their
personnel better.

Overall I was very disappointed. This was the first time I used this service and was not home during the cleaning. When I got home the first thing I noticed was that a potted plant by the front door was knocked over. As I inspected the kitchen I could tell right away that the floor had not been mopped - the same dirt and spots were still there. There was also a cobweb still there in a corner under the cabinets. In one of the bathrooms there were alo big cobwebs left on the walls that were in easy reach to remove. This did not meet my expectations for a deep cleaning!

I contacted the owner who offered to personally inspect the home that day. She asked where the key was. I became VERY concerned because the cleaners were supposed to take the key back to the office for storage in a locked cabinet. However this was not communicated to the crew. It was more than 2 hours before the owner got back to me, letting me know that the cleaners had left the key under the mat. She also said she inspected and found the cobweb in the kitchen and removed it. She did not inspect the other bath and the cobwebs remained. She also did not mop the floor nor did she offer to have a crew return to do remedy my concerns.

The cleaning really lacked attention to details and I was extremely concerned about the security of my home.

The only reason I did not give them an F is that hey were responsive to my calls.

They do a really great job. I especially like how they leave a signed list when they leave that details everything they did while in my home. I sometimes check what they did and it's always great.