The Maids of Portland, Lake Oswego and Hillsboro

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4 lovely ladies came and did an amazing job. They even did the oven! The only thing they missed was the top of the fridge. Being taller I was able to do it later. LOL

* Please see my note at the end of this review.
I do my own housework but as I have aged, stripping the kitchen floor and cleaning the oven were not things I could do.  I called The Maids - a random choice, really, and I was delighted!  Michelle was the woman who answered and she was the maid who came to do the job.  
I had not known her company (and her home) were in Beaverton, but she didn't blink or hesitate when I gave her my location - NE Portland.  There was also no charge for travel time.  She was about 15 minutes late BUT she called ahead to reconfirm and told me she would be a little late.  That is all I need - the courtesy of a call, which so many seem to forget is important. 
Then came the really nice part:  Michelle worked like a beaver and proved to be an absolutely delightful person!  I urged her to take a break several times, offered to fix her a snack, and told her she didn't have to work at breakneck speed unless she preferred to do so or had a timeline to work with.  She smiled and was so gracious.  "I'm fine!" and  "No, I don't really need anything to eat but thank you!" and "Oh you are so nice!  Thank you for asking!" 
We had agreed on a flat fee of $100, with renegotiation a possibility if the job proved harder than expected, but despite working with a flat fee, Michelle offered to do more than I expected.  For example, there is a substance called a Shine Keeper which has to be mopped onto the floor after it's stripped to restore the shine.  Michelle was so gracious, "Are you sure?  I have time.  I'd be happy to put it on for you!"  And she was genuine in her tone and behavior.  What a thoughtful, lovely person she is.
I paid her in cash and then gave her a check for $25 for a tip, made out to her, hoping she wouldn't have to turn it over to the business.  Turns out, the business is hers and her husband's!
I will certainly have her back if I ever need anything and I will highly and resoundingly recommend her and her company to anyone who asks.  I also took photos of my sparkling kitchen floor and oven and I'll see  if I can post them with my review. If you don't see any photos, you'll have to just take my word for it, I guess...  But that's okay - my word is good!
Thank you, Michelle!  Thank you The Maids!
*Note: The Maids is a franchise business.  The website to type in for this one specifically is www.themaids.com/93/
You can also email them in the manner of many companies:  go to the website, click on "contact us," and then fill out their contact us form.  Angie's List format wouldn't allow me to make these things clear in filling out the questionnaire at the start of this review.

Punctual.  I was out while they were here and my partner spent most of the time in his office, so I don't have a lot of details.  Just observation of the final product which is very good.

They are trustworthy and thorough. We have been happy customers for over 5 years. Always a great job!

The girls were on time - always cheerful - hard working.

It was important to me that they clean certian areas  of my home with care and I appreciated that the staff in the office took the time to record this for the team to know ~  my house looked amazing when they were done!!

Beware of companies with flashy websites picturing crews with uniforms!!  This was an unmitigated failure.  Worst experience of a hired home service - EVER! - in over 20 years of home ownership. 
The crew arrived late. Fine. That is not the issue.  We had a list of things we wanted done.  And we had one person at home while the crew was there.  Communication was a problem -  language barrier.   The crew is obviously trained to do certain things per The Maids 22 point list they brag about on the website.  For example, a lady spent time cleaning the inside of the microwave. We didn't want the microwave cleaned.   A lady spent time cleaning only one half of the sliding patio doors, and left it streaky to boot. We didn't want the sliders cleaned - at least it was not priority to chew up billable time with.  Keep in mind, you pay by the hour.  Our list was intended to focus them on what was important to us to accomplish in a reasonable, limited, time.   We even tried pointing to things to have cleaned. For example, The Maids said to make sure to point out areas where your pet stays and they would focus on those areas.  We pointed to the dog crate area, intending it to be vacuumed and cleaned around. Not cleaned or vacuumed.  
Long story short, after about three and a half hours, the crew is done and leaves the ticket with credit card payment indicated.  LIke there was no option?  But that's not the issue.  After they left, comes the time to relax and admire the clean house, right? Wrong.   Upon inspection, area after area of uncleaned and poorly cleaned keep popping up.  Swirls in surfaces that used to have no swirls - an upstairs bathroom sink rubbed to dullness.  A bathroom plated fixture rubbed to bare.  A ding in the soaking tub. A scrape in the tube. Grit left in the shower and in the sinks.  Stainless steel refrigerator with smeared streaks.  Stainless steel kitchen sink just simply not cleaned.  Take the stainless steel kitchen sink for example.  Normally, we use Bar Keepers Friend on it and clean it to a nice lustre.  For this occasion, knowing a professional cleaning crew was coming to our house, we left it unclean, assuming they would do a dazzling job.  Result: just simply not cleaned with coffee stains left in it. 
Here's where it gets good. This cleaning visit ended late Friday afternoon.  Of course, we called and left phone messages with the office regarding our displeasure, knowing we wouldn't hear back until Monday given it was a weekend.  We initially had dealt with Jon, the franchise owner, when we were still in the quote phase with The Maids. Jon was going to come to our house and assess it. We had to cancel that visit.  Finally, we had The Maids just come to do the job without an initial assessment. Anyway, Monday morning, we did get a call back - not from Jon - he's suddenly unavailable, but Sue and Perla in the local office.  No sooner than we left a message we only wanted to speak with Jon, Perla, the office manager, shows up at our door.  Unannounced.  She was loaded for bear.  Keep in mind, we the customer are upset over spending $350 for poor service and damage.  One would expect some tact on the part of the company, in the customer's home, right?  Perla was defensive from the outset and got very testy very quickly when anything was challenged. All she wanted to see was proof of damage. No concern for the poor work.  We assume she was on a damage control mission for the boss.  Prove the customer wrong.  It was clear what her tact was - anything we claimed as damage, say they the customer did it and The Maids didn't do it.  The Mrs of the house had to challenge Perla's attitude several times, asking her to stop arguing.  It ended up with the kitchen stainless steel sink with Perla calling the Mrs a liar that we baby the sink since it had stains in it (remember, we left it dirty to let the pros clean it).  That was enough. We told Perla to leave our home. She stormed out saying they would never clean our house again and she slammed the front door in the Mrs' face.  At least Perla was headed in the correct direction - OUT.  Bad, bad customer service - to send an argumentative thug to a customer's home.   Customer service 101 - the cusomter is always right.  That is a customer service ideal, a mantra, that guides world class companies with true customer service. 
At least we did not have to pay for the cleaning. The Maids said they were not charging us for it.  But nothing regarding the things  in our home left in worse condition than before The Maids came.   And given the bad attitude of the company representative that came to our door, do we need to be peaking out from closed shades?   you never know nowadays.  We have lost faith in the local company and will not talk with them given the treatment from the local manager. She represents the company.  We will deal only with The Maids Corporate now - they can manage their franchisees.  Just an amazingly bad, unnerving, unsettling, experience.

They are punctual, do what I asked, and our house is cleaned from top to bottom in about 1.5 hours.  Without the maids my house would not be getting cleaned as frequently.

See above....

The people who come are excellent but the scheduling is very poor. I have problems with the management and the scheduling; I have to spend the entire day waiting for them. But the workers are excellent, very fast and very thorough.

They do a good job. They use all Latina's and they don't have very good English skills, but they know what they are doing and they do it quick. They come in teams of three, so it takes them about an hour sometimes less to clean. The price listed is an average per visit when it is regularly scheduled.

Three ladies came on time, checked to see if what I was expecting was what they had on their work order, then they went to work. It only took 2 hours and they did a wonderful job.

The cleaning was very thorough. They did everything that needed cleaning in the described rooms. Three women came and worked constantly for two hours. They had me do a complete check of all the rooms before they left. They were one and one half hours later than I had expected, but they did let me know the day before that they would be arriving within that range of time. I would use them again occassionally, but it is too expensive to do often.

The Maids are super and I could not be more satisfied. I have arthritis and just could not keep up. Now the condo is really clean. The girls are hardworking and friendly. I look forward to my bi-weekly visits.

Mary was very prompt when I called in for a quote. She was able to schedule me at a great time. The crew was due here between 12-12:30 -arrived promptly and were very concerned that they were doing a great job for me. This crew was hardworking and very polite. I've requested the same crew for the schedule we've set up. Excellent overall experience.

They do a thorough job with the cleaning. My main complaint is that they have overcharged us on several occasions. For example, not applying coupons that we downloaded from the web and discussed when we set up the service, or charging us for the bi-weekly rate instead of the agreed upon weekly rate (which is less expensive).

The team worked quickly and finished in two hours. They were very considerate. A couple of cobwebs along the ceiling were missed. Due to language differences, there was a bit of confusion about cleaning the very high windows.

I was surprised at some of the details; for example, I didn't expect them to straighten piles of books. They were prompt. The housework had been neglected for quite a while. I am pleased with how clean everything is. I feel much more peaceful in my own home. The only problem was that the cats' water dish was left on the counter instead of being put back on the floor, and the water had some gritty dirt in it from somewhere. In general, though, the cats were less traumatized than I had feared.

Very thorough, efficient, and hard working. A bit pricey, but they did a good job and got to my house the day I called. Were also a bit late, but there was a miscommunication with my street name.

They were good. They were a few minutes early. They were polite, and I believe the cost was reasonable.

They do a really good job. One of things I've noticed is they do things no one else has done before i.e. wiping the outside of my cabinets.

The maids were fast, thorough, efficient, and on-time. There were no surprises except for how wonderful the house looked after they were finished! I wish I'd done it while I was living in it!

The were very fast and efficient, and the house just sparkled when I got home. All of the baseboards were done. Nothing was left undone. I'll hire them again for sure.

I have been very pleased with this cleaning service. They came for the first bi-weekly cleaning this week - on time, three very pleasant young women - and did a fine job. With three people in the crew, the job gets done in a shorter period of time.