Merry Maids of Salem

I was very unhappy with them. These three young girls came in, looked around and said everything was too far gone to clean. The ceiling had soot on it because my girlfriend had used hurricane lamps and candles. They didn't want to touch it. They didn't even scrub it or anything. They just dusted around and charged me $120. They were basically lazy. They didn't want to scrub the wall or the ceiling. They did about 50% of the work. 

They did show up right on time. I probably would not use them again.

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The staff were professional and courteous. Angie, the supervisor, was pleasant and scheduled the cleaning. Cleaning staff, Jamie and Sara were on time, courteous, pleasant, attentive to direction and detail, did a very good cleaning. The house looked clean and fresh when they finished. It was a 3 hour job and I was happy to be able to use their $35 off new customer coupon from the local paper to defray the expense.

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I spent $140. The overall quality was probably a 'C-'. I wouldn't recommend them. One of my biggest complaints was that back when the girl was dusting she never used a step ladder although in their quote that they gave me they were supposed to bring a step ladder or a step stool. She was very short so anything that was above her reach she didn't dust. So cobwebs on the ceiling and that kind of stuff was never gotten.

They were easy to work with and efficient. They were not perfect. I used them because I was referred by another company. I also had a coupon.

Met with Athena to do a walkthrough get a quote. She was on time and explained all of the service options and prices thoroughly. Their cleaning crew arrived when scheduled and did a good job, covering everything that was agreed upon in the initial walk-through.,

Clipped the Merry Maids ad from the Salem Statesman Journal newspaper and gave them a call. Athena came out to give us an estimate and scheduled the actual cleaning for several days later. Kristi and Heidi arrived on time and spent four hours giving the house an excellent top to bottom cleaning.

First and foremost, Angie and Athena are incredibly wonderful professionals. They were kind, helpful, understanding and clear about expectations. They were very responsive and Athena was timely and effective in her quote process. The actual service was pretty good (I'd say they were a B+). I haven't yet called them back to discuss our findings but plan to as we hope to work with this team in the future. For some reason, although we asked to have the master bedroom and quot;de-webbed,and quot; this was missed, as was the wiping down of pictures in that same room. They also did not pull out a laundry basket (on wheels) to wash the floor that was contiguous with the laundry room - this seemed odd since it is so light weight and moves easily. That said, the kitchen was AMAZING! Please consider: our house was neat and organized but the years of dirt build up that I simply couldn't catch had left a mark. We were so impressed with the condition, especially of the kitchen cabinets. Overall all, all things considered, they did a great job. I'll be calling them back, soon!

It was nice being able to stay in my home while they were there and they would work around us. They always did a good and thorough job and everything was left spotless. They were efficient since there were several people. I would call them again.

We will use them in the future.

I had a bad experience with them. They apparently had a worker working with them who was caught taking checks from different houses that they work. None of mine were missing but they called me to confirm that I didn't have anything missing and to inform me about that issue. They were very upfront with it and I really appreciated that and ofcourse that person was later fired. There was one thing that they did not do: they did not go through the toilets with the plumber which I had asked them to do. When I went to them with that complaint, they deducted $25 off it and made good on it. Since then I have used people or cleaning ladies coming through word of mouth from friends. What they did do was very good but I probably will not use them again in the future.

We had a good experience with them.

We contacted Merry Maids to do a through cleaning of our house before we listed it for sale. We received a bid and then scheduled the work to be done. The two women that showed up to do the job went right to work and work straight through lunch time until they were done (about 4 to 4 1/2 hours). They did a great job.

A supervisor came and saw the work and told me that the bathroom could be cleaned in less than an hour and they would have time to clean our kitchen garden window too. This was my first contact with them and was using a $25 discount so my total was guaranteed to be $40. The supervisor was prompt and seemed confident in her time estimate, and I was pleasantly surprised. I agreed to remove all removable items from the bathroom and the garden window before their arrival and I did so. When the cleaners arrived (promptly) they were surprised to find out they were supposed to clean the garden window (they showed me it was not on their work order), but one of them made relatively quick work of that while the other one started on the bathroom. They were quite unpleasant to each other and to me, especially the lead worker who took every opportunity to let me know I knew nothing about cleaning (granted) and my bathroom was disgusting (granted) and very dramatically came running out of the bathroom with a cloth which she threw on my front walkway (just where i wanted it) implying she had found something so disgusting and "creepy-crawly" that I guess it needed to be displayed to any one of my neighbors who should happen to come by. At that point I mentally reduced the planned tip by half. When they were done I went in and the tub was sparkling clean, the window much cleaner, the fan vent fine, the sink adequate, but the grout and tile were virtually untouched. When I questioned the lead worker she told me the grout would have to be bleached and something else I cannot remember. I asked about mildew on the wall (very slight amount by toilet) and she said it wasn't on the work order so they would not touch it. I was sorely disappointed in the work...but suspect it was primarily the supervisor's error in estimating the amount of time it would take to clean that bathroom. I did not tip the cleaners at all, because of the unpleasantness of having them in my house. Merry they were not. I thought my bathroom was going to be clean at last. I will have to pay someone else to come and clean my tiles and grout. The supervisor should have told me this in the first place. I felt misled and very let down.

In a conversation with my first contact I explained that I needed the cupboards, drawers and stove cleaned in a rental unit. I asked specifically about the stove as to whether or not they would lift the stove top and clean under the drip pan area. I was assured that they would do so and that they would do a complete job. I explained that I had recently had shoulder surgery and could not reach into the oven to clean or into the backs of the shelves. When I checked the unit after the cleaning, there were cup rings on the shelves that wiped off with spit and my finger. There were a couple of pieces of some plastic thing on the shelves, indicating to me that not only were they not scrubbed, but they were not wiped off. The inside lip of the drawers were dirty and the floor of the drawers were sticky. The area under the drip pans had crumbs and a plastic cracker wrapper still there indicating that it wasnt't even looked at and there was visible oven grease g*** along the back splash of the stove top. The inside of the oven was a very mediocre job. I called Merry Maids 3 times to arrange for a call back, but was never able to schedule an appointment. I was told on my call back that they were very "task specific" and that in the second conversation I hadwith a different representative, I didn't mention the under the stove top area. I think it goes without saying that this area should be cleaned. Who leaves it dirty when they do a job? They never tried to contact me after my 3 failed attempts with them so I gave up and called another service that did an excellant job.

The quality was once high, but it has deteriorated over time. I have talked to them about it, but have seen no improvement. At this point, the cleanliness of my house is gradually deteriorating.

I originally hired them when I was recovering from surgery, but 4 years later I can't imagine doing the routine housework again myself. I do go through the night before they come and pick up any clutter and make sure the dishes are in the dishwasher so they can thoroughly clean the kitchen counters. The better you do at picking up things that are out of place, the better they do with the cleaning. They do a good job of basic, weekly cleaning. I still like to do some really deep cleaning (washing walls, cleaning carpet, etc) every so often, but they focus on certain areas each time, such as master bedroom and bath, and give them extra attention. I do occasionally point out if they seem to be missing something consistently (like vacuuming along the baseboards), but they are very good about taking care of those items.