The Cleaning Authority - Kalamazoo

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Having employed several individual cleaning people through the years I have a good deal of what to expect from a cleaning service. This crew was certainly not thorough and came far from living up to what was promised. They moved through the house as fast as they could and missed very obvious areas in need of cleaning. Some days they neglected to even clean the areas that were supposed to be there focus for the week. I couldn't really count on them being here even near the time they were supposed to arrive. I really don't have the energy to recall all of the frustration and disappointment I went through with the Cleaning Authority crew. I would highly recommend others to look elsewhere. As a final blow, when I called to cancel (after 3 yrs of service) the woman I spoke with simply said "ok, we will mail your key back to you". She had no questions as to why I was canceling or what I thought they could do to improve. It gave me the impression I was not the first person to cancel service.

I recently hired the Portage franchise of The Cleaning Authority to clean my home every other week. Curt Anderson, the owner, came out to my house to give me a price and explain the process. The company divides your home into two categories: kitchen and bathrooms or living and sleeping. Each visit they do a detailed clean of one area and a regular clean of the other. In addition, the first two visits are at an extra charge, in my case, a 20% increase over a regular visit. The first visit was the higher priced clean of the kitchen and bathrooms called "Initial Clean A". I was home during the work, and when the young ladies were through, I pointed out a few things that needed to be done better or differently. They said they would take care of them next visit. I was not home for the next visit, the higher priced clean of the living and sleeping areas, "Initial Clean B". I do not know what team came to my home as they did not supply the informational receipt that they were supposed to leave. This cleaning was terrible and did not address the issues we had discussed before. I found dirt and crumbs left in areas that they could have and should have accessed easily with only the slightest of effort, by moving a bowl aside on a counter top, shifting an electrical cord on a carpet, lifting a cushion, or using a vacuum attachment to go under a bed. They had done a very superficial job during this clean which was charged at a premium price and marketed as the deepest most detailed clean they perform. I wrote to the email address on the card Curt had given me immediately even including a few pictures. I got a response the next day from Laura who offered to send a supervisor out later that week to redo the areas I mentioned. This was inconvenient for me and I had already taken care of some of the issues. I wrote back suggesting that the next clean repeat the "Initial Cleans" at no more than the regular price and that a supervisor come out afterwards to review the work with me. I asked for a reply. Many days passed. I wrote again asking if my plan was acceptable so that I could make other arrangements if not. I did not hear from anyone. The day before my scheduled appointment, 13 days after I had contacted them about the job, I called the office. I reached the manager, Connie, who told me that she had just received my paperwork and that they had decided not to clean for me. She claimed that I would not be happy with their work. I pointed out that no one would be happy with the job I had received and told her how inconsiderate it had been not to contact me in a timely manner. When I tried to continue the conversation, she hung up on me. It is undoubtedly difficult to run a cleaning company and I empathize with the challenge of training and keeping staff to perform to a consistent and high quality standard. The Cleaning Authority in Portage not only appears to be unable to adhere to their own published quality standards, but also lacks appropriate customer service and courtesy. Based on my experience I see no reason to give this company your business.

They arrived on time, were pleasant and friendly and they seemed to listen and to understand my concerns about not being too rough or hurried in the process. But as soon as they started, there were problems. One woman began to spray liquid cleaner on the surface of the electric range, but oversprayed almost to the far wall, and under sprayed so that it dribbled onto to the front of the range and onto the floor. I reminded them that this was not okay and that they needed to be more careful. I watched them vacuum the large area rug in the living room. They were hurried and seemed to be quickly "going through the motions" without really paying attention to the process of cleaning. I understand that "time is money" and that they cannot spend too much time on any one job. With experience, some people can go quickly and still do a thorough and careful, gently cleaning. This crew, I don't think, fell into that category. After a while, one woman who was vacuuming the basement carpet came up to tell me that she wanted to show me some damage that her vacuum had done to my carpet. I went with her and saw that the vacuum had disturbed and damaged about two to three feet of a carpet seam. There were other flares in the carpet so I will have to call the carpet company to repair the damage. It's a fairly new carpet. At that point, I decided to NOT let them do any work in the kitchen except when they offered to do the front of the dishwasher and refrigerator. I went ahead and cleaned the rest of the kitchen myself while they were finishing up on the floors and such. I should have told them to leave well before that since they simply did not hear or follow up on my firmly worded requests for a more careful, gentle cleaning. When the owner, Curt Anderson, first came to my home to discuss possible cleaning, I emphasized to him that I wanted a thorough cleaning, but just as important, I wanted a careful, gentle cleaning of my home. He was friendly, courteous and professional, and seemed to hear my request. Unfortunately, that was not the nature of the work as it progressed and I am very disappointed. Curt said that he very likely would stop by in the days after the cleaning to go through it with me and see how it was done. It is now almost a month, and I have not heard a word, phone call or inquiry from Curt or his company. I called Curt originally because a close friend said she was happy with the initial job that Curt's company did on her home. However, it was a different crew. The three women who worked on my house on April 8 were named Ann, Elaine and Kandy. Maybe they were new and not adequately trained at that point, I don't know. But I do know that I am not happy with how things went.

I would call this an adequate service, but not an exceptional one. They do come when scheduled, although often at somewhat varied times, and they also seem reliably honest Their teams are courteous, and I believe they want to do well. But we do have to keep watch to make sure work is done thoroughly; we do on occasion find cobwebs and dirty corners after their teams have gone. Given the fact that this firm's employees are probably earning minimum wage or very close to it, I would say that they are doing about as well as should be expected of them.

I have been using Cleaning Authority for about a year and a half. I also used them a few years ago so I am a repeat customer. They do a great job for us and I am quite picky about how my house is cleaned. We have two women that come regularly (Chris and Nancy) and they do a phenomenal job. When someone else comes, it is not quite as good as Chris and Nancy clean, but the two of them know our house and are the best! I always look forward to coming home to an immaculate house that smells very clean. For the money spent, they do a fantastic job.

Arrived too early. Scheduling is a real problem for us as my wife works out of the house for part of the day. There were 5 people in our house when she got home, expecting 2. Apparently 2 managers decided to check up on the crew as this was the first job, a good idea, and an extra cleaner showed up. I was home for lunch at 12:30 when they opened up the door (we had given them a code) ..They were supposed to be there at 2:00 PM, not noon. I tried to be friendly but the crew was rather standoff-ish. When my wife showed up at 2:00 and the house had 5 people in it, she was not comfortable. She paid them off and we canceled the contract.

Average. I am by no means a meticulous keeper of my household, therefore just the most basic level of cleaning is fine for me. I found that the Cleaning Authority was inconsistent in providing even the most basic level of service. For example, we have a rarely used media room. After the initial DEEP CLEAN, there was a mark left on a table from soap not wiped up. 3 cleanings later, the mark was still on the table. Sure, I could have wiped it up, but it became a marker to me for their attention to detail. Obviously poor.

3 hours late for the first visit. House looked like it was rushed through and predominantly top cleaned, many of the basics missed or half done. Since it was the first cleaning, I gave them another chance because it needed a lot of work. On the day of the next scheduled visit I received a call saying they had a problem and were not going to make it . We juggled our schedules for them to come on another day. Same poor cleaning results as the last time. Dusted blinds were nothing more than a couple swipes with a dust rag in the middle with heavy dust left on the blinds. The floors were mopped but only in the middle, the edges were not touched. The track of the sliding door was not even touched, either week. Ledges and baseboards were not touched. Rooms that were supposed to be the focus of that day's visit did not even get extra attention. No cabinet fronts, doors, base boards or ledges were wiped down. Glass in storm doors never got cleaned. In fact, that "clean smell" I was expecting to get when returning home on the cleaning day was not there. To say the least, I was disappointed....and totally ripped off. I called to cancel, expecting them to ask why but all I got was Ok, we will mail your key. I told them no, I would pick it up the next day. I went there to pick up the key and had to wait while they were on the phone, (who I could hear) handling another disgruntled customer who was also canceling. When she completed her call, she gave me my key and said she heard my whole story and was sorry I had to cancel. Unbelievable, she really did not have a clue as to why I was canceling, because no one ever asked me. They must get so many complaints that they cannot keep them straight. I did not even bother to set her straight, they already took to much of my time and money. Stay clear of this operation, they are not worth the trouble nor do they do what they say they are going to do. No value here.

This service has a checklist of services they will perform for the money. Each month I would have to call the office to request the clean crew come back into my home and clean things they had ignored the day before. All of the things were covered under their list of tasks they are supposed to complete, but they were r epeatedly missed. After months of this, I requested a new team come in and reclean and also that the old team never have access to my house again. I was told that is what would happen but I stopped in my home while the new crew was supposed to be there and it was the old crew in there cleaning. I immediately called the office and cancelled my service - it was not worth it to me to deal with the added stress, as I was hiring a cleaning service to help with my stress level and it seemed to only be increasing it.

They do a great job & my wife is always happy when she comes home and can smell the clean.

Initially the company was very responsive. I was quoted a price by phone. This was a vacant condo that had been totally repainted and recarpeted so there was no wall prep/cleaning or vacumming. I provided a very detailed list of items that needed to be attended to even though many of these things would have been obvious. When the job was completed, I visited the condo and listed 20 items that had NOT been attended to, including many of which had been on the original list. On top of that, garbage was left in the on-site garbage receptacle although no one is there to dispose of this. The list of items ignored was overwhelming and after suggesting to them that this would not serve them well to ignore the problem relative to public relations, they did just that.

They do a really good job of cleaning at reasonable prices. The products they use are all Green. I am on a yearly contract with them and will use them again in the future.

I found the house cleaners to be very lazy and untruthful. I was charged $200 for an initial deep clean and half of the things that they claimed to do, like wiping down baseboards, vacuuming all of the rooms and mopping the floors in the mud room were not done. I have no issue spending the money, but I would like to get the service I was promised. They were 20 minutes late and wreaked of cigarette smoke. I had to go back and clean all of the areas that were not done. After they were done cleaning, I was informed that if I wanted them to return they would charge $95 a visit. I was extremely disappointed in the service that had come reccomended by a few people. Hopefully they can get it together for the future.

The cleaning service is good in some areas and bad in some areas so they have some rooms for improvement. So overall they did an okay job.

The home was filthy and now it sparkles and is ready to be sold!

From my initial inquiry of service to the cleaning of my house (3 floors: 4 bdrms, 3.5 bths), I was thoroughly impressed with the level of professionalism. I am a stickler for cleanliness but due to additional professional demands, I simply don't have the time to do the heavy cleaning anymore. The Cleaning Authority is exactly what I needed and wanted to maintain a clean and fresh home for my family. Having considered several other cleaning professionals and companies, I immediately felt comfortable hiring The Cleaning Authority. The fact that they were as friendly as they were fabulous cleaning professionals, was a definite plus. I've been recommending them to friends and family, and highly recommend them to anyone who is looking for cleaning services.

Very well. I am receiving the information from our son as they cleaned their house.

Got tired of hiring people to clean our large home that didn't do the job right, we approached the cleaning authorith, they came our at first, gave us an estimate that was very reasonable, we agreed, they came out and did amazing.

Their work is really good and I’m really impressed. They come in on time and as promised. I would rate them high overall. I have two rooms that I don’t get it cleaned and I feel that they are little expensive. Their quality of work is excellent. I would continue to use them again in the future.

We asked Angie to come in for an estimate and she came in the very next day. She was very professional and personable. We liked the estimate and set up our first cleaning for the next day. We were amazed that they could schedule us that quickly, but very thankful as my husband's father was coming in and we needed to get the cleaning done. I am disabled and cannot do the cleaning anymore, but TCA did a great job. I was very please with the first cleaning and will definately be continuing with them.

The quality is always very good. They have never missed a week. A few times, I have had to call and cancel because kids were sick, or something similar. They are always professional and accomodating.

The whole experience was top drawer!