Mrs. Maid

Despite canceling the service, I was going to give Mrs. Maid a pass and not write a review. But today I discovered they lost my house key-- last straw. The first day, a supervisor with two cleaners came. One of the ladies declared that she thought she smelled something, got on her hands and knees, and started crawling across the living room floor sniffing the floor, laughing the whole time. It was the most bizarre and awkward thing I have ever seen a grown person do. The supervisor had to tell her to quit it. I should have stopped at that appointment, but the price seemed good. I got the basic package--no cleaning of inside of appliances, or baseboards, or the deep clean type of stuff. Still, we had an understanding that they would wash and replace the master sheets. I told them multiple times that the garbage liners were under the sink--which I think is fairly common--but they only once in the many months of service managed to replace the garbage liners. They never ran the dishwasher. I have a newer dishwasher with recessed buttons, and girl couldn't figure out how to start it the first time, and just never ran it after that. Not once. In the last month before I canceled, they started leaving the garbage on my front porch instead of the trash bin at the back door. Neighbors were thrilled, I'm sure. They repeatedly slammed my closet door shut with a hanger over the door, so that it gouged the door frame. Mind you, I left notes at the house and even called the owner once or twice to try to resolve the issues-- I didn't just give them one strike. The last day, they left the garbage on the front porch, didn't wash the sheets, didn't run the dishwasher, gouged the closet door frame...again, and didn't even set the alarm when they left. I called to cancel. The owner said he would either have the crew drop off my house key sometime the next week, or mail it to me. He mailed it to me-- in a common envelope, with nothing else inside. Guess what? All that arrived was the envelope. So my house key is floating around somewhere. I'll be contacting the owner soon about the cost of rekeying my house.

It looked like everything was going great. The cleaners arrived on time and began cleaning. The house was filthy from the previous owners. The did clean most of everything. However, the two ladies must have gotten tired or excited about being finished. They forgot some parts of the house. My fiance was not pleased. *I called the manager, he apologized and said they would come back to clean again for free after we had finished the move in. Things happen, it is life. This business owner made it right in the end. We are pleased.

It went pretty well. Both girls were very nice and worked well. I did have a slight mishap that one of my bathroom fixtures fell off the wall, but I do not blame them. Apparently, the painter after painting my bathroom did not affix the fixture properly. They did a very nice job of cleaning and there was alot to do in certain areas.

I ordered this service as a Valentine's Day gift for my wife from myself and the kids. We have a 1 year old who takes most of our time so cleaning house gets to be a challenge. To keep it a surprise, I had the crew come out when the kids got home from school to let them into the house. Based on their time estimate, they would be finished just before my wife got home. The crew was nice, what got cleaned was cleaned very well. However, not everything got done according to their Platinum Package checklist. For example, my home has 5 windows, a window on the front door and a sliding glass door to the patio. The sliding glass door got cleaned and the two living room windows got cleaned, but the bedroom windows did not either inside or outside. Most of the baseboards were cleaned, but some I let pass because it would have involved moving furniture. The one thing I noticed was that the crews "captain" seemed to have things in tow. But the other two cleaners almost seemed like they were temps or this was their first job with the company. So some things were hit/miss. I honestly think if the crew didn't have a time constraint, which helped the element of surprise for me, they would have been able to stick around and finish everything. After 3.5 hours, the crew had left right as my wife was pulling into the driveway. Needless to say, it was a nice gift for my wife, but I think if the crew was a tad more organized as far as having a cleaning battle plan, there would have been less confusion and more would have got done.

Two young women showed up and started working. I was informed that one of them was brand new and was in training. The more experienced girl kept checking on the new girl and had to re-do some of her stuff. She was very nice, but appeared to be very overwhelmed and stressed out. During the day, she called her supervisor several times to let them know that they were behind schedule and overwhelmed. Honestly, for what their Platinum package entailed, I would have expected a team of 4 experienced cleaners for my 2500 SF.. The second girl really seemed lost as to what she was supposed to be doing. It was my understanding that their "normal" routine got messed up due to training a new person, so they got lost as to where they were in the room cleaning schedule. They ended up being here almost 12 hours. The owner showed up to "Help" them complete the job. All of them were tired and in a hurry. When they left, I found that they had completely forgotten to mop two bathroom floors, there were blinds that were filthy, counters that hadn't been dusted, etc. The area that the owner vacuumed showed she vacuumed AROUND things - she didn't move a small cat scratching post. I spoke to the husband (husband and wife owners) and he said that about halfway through the day he knew it wasn't going to go well, since he realized they were behind, off task, etc.. However, he didn't call me the next morning to follow up or see how it went. When I called, he said he would send them back to finish what was forgotten. They came back and I showed them the (obvious) areas that were missed, and they went to work. The next day, I went upstairs and realized they had left one of the mini-blinds hiked up. When I lowered it, I realized it was still filthy. They cleaned the one next to it, but forgot this one. On a side note - I was impressed with what they were offering and told them that if they did a good job for me, I would recommend them to my friends, neighbors, and clients (I am a Realtor). In trying to be understanding and supportive of a new local business, I was very nice about all the screw ups - just wanted to get the cleaning I paid for. However, since I was out of time (this was over a 5-day period), I hired someone else to re-clean the upstairs. When I called after the third time they came back to "fix" things, I was almost in tears. I had family moving in and wanted everything to be cleaned before they arrived. I did tell the husband that I really wanted to be supportive, but that I was getting really frustrated. While we were on the phone, I had a small emergency and had to hang up. I asked him to call me back or email me. This was over a week ago. I NEVER heard back from them. They were supposed to do their weekly cleaning this morning at 9:00. It is now 3:15 and no one has called or showed up. I find this HIGHLY unreliable, and I am very disappointed in this service. They made no real effort to make me happy or to retain me as a customer. I tried to be fair about the issues they were having as a new company, but when they don't even follow up or really seem to care, then there is no way to make this right.

Three ladies arrived right on time. They brough all their equipment and supplies with them. They were very professional and had great attitudes! They cleaned the master bedroom and bath and the kitchen first because it took the most time. They then cleaned the rest of my house-4 bedroom,2.5 baths 2 stories. They did a wonderful job, cleaning the blinds and ceiling fans, in and outside applienaces, vacuumed my furniture- both sides of the cushions and underneath them, besides the regular mopping and vacuuming etc. They even handwashed my dishes! The three ladies worked non stop from 8:30 to 12:30-that is 12 hours work for $169! The owner came with the two other ladies the first time and then from now on I will have the other two ladies every time. Our home just sparkled and we were very pleased.

The 2 girls cleaned all the floors, bathrooms, kitchen appliances, baseboards, blinds, etc. More through than some services from what I read on other packages. They let me know in advance about their time overage policy since it was a first time clean and I appreciated the heads up. Reasonable rates for everything included! Doing all that cleaning on my own would have taken the entire day. My house is sparkling and I would definitely use them again. My boyfriend also thought the house looked great when he got home and likes that this company uses simple green and a steam mop to clean. Thanks Mrs. Maid :)