The Cleaning Person Inc

It depends on who shows up as to the quality of the job. There is no oversight of the employees to make sure things go well. Her original quote was half of what she charged for an initial cleaning- my home was picked up, organized, and ready for cleaning every time. Ultimately if you dispute her bill she will politely inform you that her father in law is the former chief of police in Colonie and her husband is a police officer in the town. Why this matters , I don’t know.

For several years it was great. Same two girls would come, but slowly the work started to sluff off after a year or so. Then it got more and more erratic. Different people more frequently. Have to stop and show them where everything is -- the trash bags, the light switches, etc. In the past year it has gotten extremely chaotic. Different people all the time. And instead of coming at 9 am as agreed, everyone comes in whenever it suits them, not me, the paying customer. 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and hour late -- no problem for them! And they leave whenever they feel like it. No check out routine, just "I gotta be somewhere, bye!" It takes me an hour after they leave to go around and put everything back in place that has been left all over. And last week, no one showed up for an hour. When one girl showed up, she informed me that she probably had the flu and that the other girl wouldn't be coming because she had started LABOR. I told her to go home and rest. (We are senior citizens and cannot afford to get the flu, even after having had the shots.) Scheduling woman is "unhelpful" at best. She doesn't know where her people are or what they are doing. I'm so done with this outfit. Don't recommend this outfit to anyone at this point. They were good once, but those days are long long gone.

While the cleaning service was very good, I was disappointed that the price kept going up even though the cleaning areas and duties remained the same. The last time I used them, they claimed it took over 2 hours to clean a small 500 sf studio and charged $175. It takes me 30 minutes to thoroughly clean the same space. In addition, I asked about a dozen times for invoices and receipts for their services. They said they would send but never did.

Most of the house was cleaned well. Several glaring things were missed. I especially needed this done due to a surgery that prevented me from cleaning or moving things. They called to schedule a bi-weekly cleaning at which time I listed all the issues. [Not cleaning a bathroom vanity, not cleaning the fireplace hearth and glass front doors, leaving blinds rolled up with water dripping from them, not returning some furniture to its original location.] The owner sent an email asking to come and clean the missed areas. I declined. I'm uncomfortable having people back in my house who I have criticized their work.

We signed up for a top to bottom cleaning and biweekly cleaning. The young lady who did the top to bottom cleaning did not do everything she should have and when I called about it they were very responsive. At our first regular cleaning Sheila, she is our regular, finished what was not done plus the regular cleaning. Sheila does excellent work! She is on time, professional and we get along very well with her.

They come once a month. The are great. On 30th, I had them do some extra things. It is usually one person for two hours. I have had four different people and they have all been great. They are nice people.

Started with a thorough cleaning two weeks ago. Started with one person, and then she was joined by a second. She wasn't kidding when she said "thorough"! They even dealt with the kitty litter boxes! They were here almost ALL DAY! I've used various services and individuals over the years, and I've never seen such a great job done. This service even uses green cleaning products, and she advised me against a commercial product I was using because it could actually damage my floors. My mother would have loved them! If all continues as it has begun, I will be a permanent customer and am telling all my friends. When the owner came to take a look for an estimate, she started by making a bee-line to my cat and petting her. This cat is not overly friendly to strangers, but she enjoyed meeting Kara. From my past experience, pets and small children liking someone right off is always the best recommendation of all.

One house cleaner came out and she did a fine job. I had her do hardwood floor cleaning too, that she washed and polished.

For my cleaning, they charge $118 which includes tax. Right now, she is late. The price is some kind of deal.

started late but got the thorough house cleaning job I had hoped for.

.I used The Cleaning Person, Inc. The person we get is pretty good and do and a fine job.

Worked hard and steadily, especially the gal who was here all day, think her name was Ashley.

If loving my cleaning service is wrong I don't want to be right!! They are fantastic. From the very first contact with the owner, Kara, I have encountered very friendly and professional people. I had wanted someone who could start quickly and they fit me in within 2 days. Other services were going to make me wait a month. The first cleaning I had done was a thorough cleaning, with a concentration on my kitchen and bathroom. The person they sent did such an amazing job it looked like I had just moved in. The next two cleanings done (on a 3 week basis) were done by two different people and both were GREAT!! I am always happy to come back to a spotless apartment. I HIGHLY recommend them to everyone I know!!!

Kara and her team were very professional accomodating schedules as needed. Totally satisfied with the performance and I would definitely recommend to my neighbors.

So I bought my wife a gift certificate for this company as a Mother's Day present after seeing all of the positive reviews here on Angie's List. How could I go wrong with this many positive reviews? Well, I'm seriously doubting the integrity of Angie's List after the experience I had with The Cleaning Person. We've never experienced such incompetence and unprofessionalism from any cleaning company we've ever hired as much as we did with this one. We scheduled them for July 9th and when we came home that day it looked as if the people just came and did a quick vacuum and wipe down instead of a thorough cleaning. What was done that day wasn't any better than what my wife does in about 1.5 hours and this was supposed to be two professional cleaners for 2.5 hours. When we raised concerns to the owner she said she was going to personally inspect the job (she never did) and send another cleaner out the next day (they never showed up). Then we rescheduled for a Saturday for them to come and fix the issues and were told that they would be there at 9AM sharp. At 10:15AM my wife received a call from a cleaner saying she was in Saratoga and be there soon. Needless to say that was it for these people. When my wife asked for a refund she was told that they don't do that for gift certificates. I suppose my money is not good for refunds? But don't take my word for it, read the string of e-mails between my wife and the owner. (Start at the bottom below. They're in bold font.) From: Kara Heider and lt;[email protected] gt; Date: July 19, 2014 at 10:20:31 AM EDT To: Shelbie and lt;[email protected] gt; Subject: Re: 50 xxx street cont.. Can someone please call me at 461-2932. Kara Heider The Cleaning Person, Inc. 518-281-7044 www.thecleaningperson.com Sent from my iPhone On Jul 19, 2014, at 9:47 AM, Shelbie and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: Kara, Jackie, It is now 9:45 and no one is at the house.. This is bordering on comical at this point..clearly you have to be the most incompetent and unprofessional group of people we have come across.. I have pulled the key from the shed.. I do not want anyone from your company to be in my house.. You clearly cannot be trusted. Shelbie Sent from my iPad On Jul 16, 2014, at 4:07 PM, Kara Heider and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: Hi Shelbie, I will let her know. I assume in the shed like last time. Thank you, Jackie On Wed, Jul 16, 2014 at 3:52 PM, Shelbie Nxxxxxx and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: H Jackie, We will have to leave a key, as both Paul and I will be gone..I will be back about 9:45 though. Thank you Sent from my iPhone On Jul 16, 2014, at 3:49 PM, Kara Heider and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: Hi Shelbie, I have confirmed that Kourtney will be at your home on Saturday 7/19 @ 9am. Thanks, Jackie On Wed, Jul 16, 2014 at 3:17 PM, Shelbie Nxxxxxx and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: Thank you, Sent from my iPhone On Jul 16, 2014, at 11:50 AM, Kara Heider and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: Hello Shelbie, Kara had mentioned that we will need to add you to the schedule. I am working on getting someone out this Saturday. I will let you know by days end. Thank you, Jackie On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 1:49 PM, Shelbie Nxxxxxx and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: My husband said fine, since we don't seem to have another option.. We would prefer Saturday so this way we are home.. Sent from my iPhone On Jul 15, 2014, at 12:39 PM, Kara Heider and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: I'm sorry I have asked for you to call me. When can't do refunds on gift cards. Again, we are more than willing to fix this. Please give me a call at 461-2932. Thank you. Kara Heider The Cleaning Person, Inc. 518-281-7044 www.thecleaningperson.com Sent from my iPhone On Jul 15, 2014, at 12:17 PM, Shelbie Nxxxxxx and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: Kara, I am assuming since I have not heard back from you a refund is being processed.. Thank you, Shelbie Nxxxxxx Sent from my iPhone On Jul 10, 2014, at 5:42 PM, Kara Heider and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: Hi Shelbie, My name is Kara Heider. You can call me at 461-2932 at your convenience or I can call you later this evening. We are willing to fix it. Kara Heider The Cleaning Person, Inc. 518-281-7044 www.thecleaningperson.com Sent from my iPhone On Jul 10, 2014, at 5:21 PM, Shelbie Nxxxxxx and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: I did.. Is it not possible to refund the price that was paid for it? $150.00 Sent from my iPhone On Jul 10, 2014, at 5:01 PM, Kara Heider and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: I thought you had mentioned that you had a gift certificate? Jackie On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 4:58 PM, Shelbie Nxxxxxx and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: It has really just been a bad experience all around and the service recovery never happened.. I paid for a cleaning that was never delivered, I think I have been fair in allowing the opportunity to fix the issue, once that didn't happen I am not inclined to give a 3rd chance., I think at this point, there is not much left to offer but a refund.. Shelbie, Sent from my iPhone On Jul 10, 2014, at 4:19 PM, Kara Heider and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: Hello Shelbie, I am truly sorry things turned out this way today. Dakota's job run longer than expected and I thought he would have been there around 3 or 4. But this was not the case today. I understand your frustration over this and we are willing to come out to rectify this problem at your convenience, including the weekend as well if it fits into your schedule easier. If you change your mind, please feel free to call our office at 281-7044 and I will work with you to have someone come out first thing in the morning so there is no confusion as to what time we will be there. Thank you, Jackie On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 4:00 PM, Shelbie Nxxxxxx and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: Paul is already gone.. I'm reconsidering having you come back at all at this point.. Sent from my iPhone On Jul 10, 2014, at 3:59 PM, Kara Heider and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: HI Shelbie, Dakota is having difficulties with his GPS. But he is on his way. Would you rather reschedule for tomorrow then? On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 3:29 PM, Shelbie Nxxxxxx and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: I don't believe anyone is at the house yet.. Paul has to pick up our son in about 20 min.. Sent from my iPhone On Jul 10, 2014, at 2:57 PM, Kara Heider and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: Hello again Shelbie, I just left a voicemail for you regarding Kara, and thought it best to email you as well. I called Kara after reading your email. Kara had all intentions of coming to your home today and then received a call from her babysitter while she was out. Her babysitter's father is very ill and needed to seek medical attention at the hospital; so Kara had to pick up her children. Sorry to say she cannot make it there today. I will have her call you to follow up and see if she can arrange something with you. Thank you, Jackie On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 11:38 AM, Shelbie Nxxxxxx and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: Hi Jackie, Paul is home all day.. Is Kara not coming to look at the house? Sent from my iPhone On Jul 10, 2014, at 11:05 AM, Kara Heider and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: Hello Shelbie, I spoke to Kara about getting someone out today and will be sending someone out as soon as they finish their home in Troy. Will you be leaving the key in the same place, or will your husband still be home around 3pm? Once again, we are sorry about the services you received yesterday. I will touch base with you tomorrow regarding today's cleaning as well. Thanks, Jackie On Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 6:25 PM, Shelbie Nxxxxxx and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: Do you have a time? My husband is home in the morning because we are getting a new dishwasher installed Sent from my iPhone and gt; On Jul 9, 2014, at 6:10 PM, Kara Heider and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: and gt; and gt; We will come back tomorrow and I will check it myself. and gt; and gt; Kara Heider and gt; The Cleaning Person, Inc. and gt; 518-281-7044 and gt; www.thecleaningperson.com and gt; and gt; and gt; Sent from my iPhone and gt; and gt;and gt; On Jul 9, 2014, at 5:55 PM, Shelbie Nxxxxxx and lt;[email protected] gt; wrote: and gt;and gt; and gt;and gt; I was very excited to come home to my sparkling clean house.. Instead I came home to this.. Continued.. and gt;and gt; and gt;and gt; This is completely unacceptable.. and gt;and gt; and gt;and gt; and lt;photo 1.JPGand gt; and gt;and gt; and lt;photo 2.JPGand gt; and gt;and gt; and lt;photo 3.JPGand gt; and gt;and gt; and lt;photo 4.JPGand gt; and gt;and gt; and lt;photo 5.JPGand gt; and gt;and gt; and gt;and gt; Shelbie Nxxxxxx 7/29/14 UPDATE in response to the owner's comments: No one ever showed up that Saturday morning, we have an outside security camera that will prove that. Also, as far as calling on the phone is concerned the owner has our number and most assuredly didn't call us repeatedly. The reason for the e-mail contact was specifically for documentation since phone conversations can be unproven but e-mails are black-and-white proof of the dialogue which is necessary during service disputes, acting impersonal aside. The owner contradicts herself in her rebuttal when she states that she had to call Kourtney to find the key because she was the one who was scheduled to come on 7/19/14 at 9 AM as is evident by the above e-mail exchange. If she desperately wanted to meet with us to solve the issues then why didn't she make her appointment at the home or at least send someone in her place? Parting thought, why would you send the original person who did a horrible job back again?

The first thing that impressed me the most about working with Kara is that you can tell she is REALLY compassionate about her customers, and is truly in this business to help people. That really put me at ease. For the initial deep clean, admittedly, there was one person who rubbed me the wrong way, but that happens in anything, and her work was still very good, as was everyone else's. We then hired The Cleaning Person for ongoing services for almost a year. The only reason I stopped was due to a drastic hit in my own income requiring belt-tightening. They are a little more expensive than some (but not all) others, but she will work with you to find a way to get it in your budget. (Hence the B) The only other B is for professionalism, and that's only because they don't break the category down more. Generally, her professionalism is *exceptional*. The only thing that was continually a challenge was billing/invoicing. In an attempt to be helpful to clients, she said that she can just bill (also because it wasn't always known at the end of each week what the total was), but for me, I found that to be a hassle and not consistent. We had to retroactively modify several invoices. Candidly, I got behind as a result but she worked with me (again, she really does want to help people and keep an ethical business). So, it pains a little to not be able to write an A for professionalism, but that is literally my only complaint, and one that she addressed and rectified when I did bring it up. What I would advise is to work out a flat weekly rate with her (which is what we did) that is for X hours, so you always know the amount each week. Makes your life (and I suspect hers!) easier. If you do that, you'll probably be really, really happy with their services and enjoy working with her.

We used this service for 1.5 years and struggled with the company for the entire period. The owner was always great to work with and gave an impressive explantion of what each cleaning would include. However, once the cleanings started they never covered everything we were told. Every week something was left out (ex, microwave, light fixtures, wood trim, etc) and we frequently were sent different cleaners for each visit. Eventually we were given a set cleaner but then it was a constant battle to have the house cleaned in the allotted time assigned by the company. We gave this service an honest shot, but in the end decided to cancel and look elsewhere.

Things went well in regards to cleaning. Occasionally the cleaning person would change and we would need to remind them to dust under our furniture. What became a bigger problem was billing. We would prepay our bill but sometime they had to cancel the service and they would forget to adjust the billing. In fact one of the reasons I am doing such a late review is that they rebilled me for a Jan 2013 cleaning which had been prepaid from Dec 2012. I find their bookkeeping definitely lacking and it is irritating.

Kara was great to work with. I was an unknown client who called a week before a family party. She was able to fit me into the schedule that week. She was very accommodating and worked with me on budget and cleaning details. I was very pleased with the results - just what I was looking for. I would not hesitate to recommend her company and I plan on using them again.

My apartment was a MESS! A crew came in to tear down the plaster ceilings in two bedrooms. They didn't cover ANYTHING so there was a THICK layer of plaster dust EVERYWHERE. I was out of the apartment for 10 days due to the damage. The Cleaning Person Inc required three people and an entire day (10 hours) to put my apartment back in order. The owner met me on a Monday to assess the damage and the crew was here the next morning. They worked all day and by the time I came home with my son the apartment was IMMACULATE! It even smelled great! So incredibly grateful for this crew. I can't thank you enough for the hard work and dedication.

My husband's Mom is soooooooo cool that she did not complain that the verbal agreement was not met. She was quite pleased with the work of this young women and gave her a generous tip. I, however, do not appreciate spending $200.00 to make my Mom's life easier and only getting less than half of the agreed service. Shame on you,Kara and you also Angie for I thought this was a trustworthy arena! How dare you take advantage of us. You sounded so nice and caring on the phone. How do you sleep well?

We have been very pleased with our most recent cleaning person, Joanne. Although she is fairly new to us, she quickly understood exactly what we expected. She is very thorough and efficient. (I would say, however, that the quality of the service is really dependent on who comes to clean your home. We had Lynn for a couple of years and she was very good. When she left, we had another girl who did not do a good job. We are happy to have Joanne - I called the first day we met her to request that she become our and quot;regularand quot;.)

Left a message for them to call me back. They called back about a week later. They said they had left a message earlier which they had not done. We made an appointment for an estimate anyway. They were going to call me back at a particular time on the date of the appointment. They called me an hour late and attempted to reschedule. I declined.

They are responsible and do a terrific job!

They scheduled easy, were punctual. However, I had to repeat half of what they did because it was still dirty. When you move into a home you want it spotless and that was what I asked for. I was very disappointment, paid for their service and spent hours doing it myself. I would not hire them in the future.