Merry Maids of Princeton, NJ

Hi! I called Merry Maids to set up a schedule for twice a month cleaning. The guy who answered was Victor. He was the rudest person I ever talked to. He was not willing to listen to what I had to say, cut me off saying he was not interested and hung up. Very unprofessional, unethical, bad attitude and horrendous phone manners. First time I ever encountered a place where I'm writing a bad review before even I started service. Absolutely horrible. They don't even deserve the one star I gave them. Absolutely horrified.

After meeting with Terry Smith to go over my house and what services I wanted (what was to be cleaned). Terry informed me that they are a top notch cleaning service. I was told I would smell a lot of bleach and other cleaning products when I arrived home after the cleaning. I was told they would clean the kitchen cabinets, vacuum all furniture, dust the entire house, clean the baseboards, and dust the mini blinds along with the rest of the cleaning. After deciding to go ahead and sign the contract I was told I would get a phone call the day before the cleaners come with a time they would be here. I received the call on April 24, 2015 and when asked what time the cleaners would be here I was told some time before noon (thanks for narrowing it down). Well the gentleman showed up on Monday April 27, 2015 to clean my house at 9:30 am. He was done by 12:45 pm. When I arrived home to check out the job there was no smell of cleaning products. I found that the gentleman didn't clean half the rooms no dusting and no vacuuming the furniture. I called to complain, but no one answered my call so I left a message. I was later called by Barbara the office manager who apologized and said they would send another cleaning crew out the next day. Well that was Tuesday April 28, 2015. When I got home on Tuesday most of the house was cleaned, but there were crumbs on the kitchen floor, no dusting of the mini blinds, the outside of the appliances were not done as promised, a whole room was not cleaned. I called again to complain and my call was answered by Barbara the office manager who asked what I would like to do. I said no more cleaners you have proven that you are not good at that. I stated that I believe I should only have to pay 1/2 of my $263 bill. after a brief hold she came back and stated that the best she could do is $50 off. I told her unacceptable. She then tried to use an analogy that it's like when I go get an oil change on my car that if they don't do it right the first time...I interrupted her and stated that I am certain if I bring my car in for an oil change 3 times they will waive the fee for the oil change. after agreeing to a bill with $100 taken off I told her to lose my number and e-mail and NEVER CALL ME AGAIN!!! DO NOT USE MERRY MAIDS!!! THEY DONT' STAND BEHIND THEIR WORK!!! Terry smith is a snake oil salesman...lots of promises, but doesn't come thru!!

They do anything and everything I ask them to do. They also come when they say when they will and I have been happy with them so far.

The owner/manager met with me in my home to give me an estimate and review their cleaning program. She explained that, for the first visit, the cleaners would spend more time getting my home in condition to have light regular cleanings. She told me that the cleaners she sent would all have been trained and would have been with her for some time (not newly hired), that they would complete the tasks on a checklist which she left with me. When the cleaners arrived on the appointed day, one was brand new. Of the items on their checklist, around 1/4 of them were left undone. Worse yet, the cleaners bickered with each other over various things; how and what to clean, who was supposed to communicate with me (the client), what products to use, etc. I called and left a message with the owner/manager the following day to tell her what had happened, but she didn't get back to me for a couple of weeks. When she did, she offered to have both cleaners come back, and I was to tell them what they had missed (even though I told her all of the items they had missed). Very unprofessional. I would not recommend this Merry Maids.

The quality of service started strong and got worse over time. The cleaning crew was usually two people and it started changing from week to week. So different people would be in the house. I noticed dust built up behind objects like lights on dressers, on baseboards, on ceiling fan in bedroom. I found I had to lift the lamp for example to clean around and under it where dust was clogged. Most of the time we had to dust the fan and baseboards ourselves. Most of the time I had to clean the rim of the toilets with a cleaning brush even though we supplied disposable toilet cleaning brushes. It seemed like the floors were cleaned well and the kitchen counters - particularly in the beginning were done well. However there was a steady decrease in quality over time. We have four small bedrooms and two bedrooms were always off limits and one bedroom had limited surfaces to clean. Most times the basement was not vacuumed. It seemed that they could not handle more than a couple of rooms per cleaning. They took 90 minutes or less no matter what they were asked to clean. As I said, the service was good in the beginning and in all fairness to the company, I left my husband to deal with them so they probably do not know of our dissatisfaction. I never contacted them because it seemed better than not having cleaners. Nothing was ever missing or broken after a cleaning which was a plus. I am in no way an OCD cleaner, but little frustrations with the quality have been accumulating over time. The reason I am writing the review is that the last time the crew came, they seemed annoyed to be here. My husband said it was different people. They did not dust. They ran the vacuum, at least it sounded like this to him, but most of the floors and carpet were dirty. And I mean noticeably dirty. My husband oversees the cleaning crew and when I got home from a long work day and commute, it seemed so disrespectful to see how the house was left. So we are doing what we should have done before --- looking on Angie's list for cleaners.

For $337, one would expect clean drawers and cabinets. But we had to vacuum and clean everything out before we could put our things away -- in every room. The built-in drawers in the Master Bedroom needed to be vacuumed. The bathroom cabinets and drawers were lightly wiped, leaving much behind. Light switches had grimy fingerprints. The ceiling fan in the Master Bedroom was completely untouched and was still coated with dust from the hardwood floors being sanded the previous week. But the worst was the kitchen. It was the last room they did. And they missed more than they cleaned. They actually left a streak of grease dripping down the backsplash behind the stove! And the fan filters above the cooktop were amber with grease that had not been touched. Cabinet doors were grimy inside and out. The shelves were coated with cooking residue and spills. They had to be vacuumed and scrubbed before they could be used. I saw one of the cleaners wiping out the refrigerator -- but it was just a surface wipe. She never touched the door handles (you know how filthy refrigerator door handles get!) It was gross. The refrigerator was not moved, leaving dust and dirt still clinging to the elements and underneath. I will never ever consider using Merry Maids. I believe they not only took advantage of a customer who paid up front and did a disservice to the homebuyers, they exploited the people who work for them.

Not the best. Never the same people. The things they would miss would be missed again by the next crew. The company was accommodating , but never able to satisfy me. I couldn't seem to get them to get under the dressers for the fuzzy's(wood floors) or clean my make up mirrors. It was driving me crazy. Not to mention I cleaned for the cleaning people and they could do the fine tuning. One time I left before they came for 20 minutes. When I got back the kitchen floor was wet. They were already there and gone in UNDER 20 minutes??? Not happy.