We certainly agree that our client is a very nice woman. (Honoring her privacy, we will not name her here.) Many other comments submitted by her daughter, however, we disagree with. And we surely find the practice of disparaging a company publicly without giving the company an opportunity to address, let alone even know of, disappointments highly disagreeable. The cleaners naturally remember the daughter following them around on what turned out to be their last visit, pointing out what she wanted done, actions which do interrupt the efficient left to right, top to bottom normal flow of work. But their account of the actions and results differs from hers. The assertion, however, that the employees we sent to the home were illegal aliens is not a matter of subjective opinion. It is absolutely wrong as a matter of fact and law. Despite whatever her sister’s partner heard someone once say, the accusation here is a classic “telephone game” mishap. (Partner: I would think it’s hard to get papers without a driver’s license. Housecleaner: I would think so.) That employee had then and still has her driver’s license. She also has every legal right to where she lives and how she works. So does her teammate. We are held to a much higher standard than drawing false conclusions from a casual chat between others. Our company and our employees comply with ICE, Homeland Security, etc. After saying, “I don’t want to bring this up,” the falsehood nonetheless published here casts an entirely unwarranted negative light on our company and our employees. To put the other comments into perspective, our team cleaned this home 64 times. Our client gave us feedback on 5 of those cleanings, rating us as Excellent each of 5 times. There were two incidents of breakage (a soap dish and a butter dish). On both occasions, we called our client to notify her and to provide reimbursements for both mishaps. Some of our clients send in every per-paid comment card we leave, some send them in only a couple of times per year, and some not at all. When we receive occasional, but consistent affirmations (Excellent) and zero merely satisfied ratings, nor any “Needs Improvement” ratings, we plead guilty of assuming all is well. As it turns out, that assumption was not well placed, at least not with regard to the visiting daughter. If our client had interim disappointments, we simply did not know it. The virtue behind “if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all” need not apply when you pay for a service, especially when the provider seeks and provides the means for candid feedback like we do. Who you say it to, however, can be not only virtuous, but effective. We have other client situations wherein we also talk with our client’s concerned parent or adult children who help them with their affairs. We clean for the expectant mother at the behest of the caring soon- to-be grandmother. We clean for the recuperating elder at the behest of her eldest granddaughter. We certainly applaud and cooperate with supportive loved ones, whether they are the paying party or not. Here, however, we were not given an opportunity to cooperate. I don’t mean to intimate that this daughter made the original, or any interim, arrangement for her mother with us. She did not. Our office has no record of ever having heard from her until seeing her posting on Angie’s List. When our actual client (not the daughter) called to cancel service, we asked the routine exit questions that help us identify what, if anything, we can do better. No mention was made of the Angie’s list review or of any of the issues raised there by the daughter, though she did tell us that our late arrival on more than one occasion had inconvenienced her. (Travel through Columbia to the part of Howard County can be sticky.) We were told that an alternative service was going to be tried at a reduced cost. The costs quoted fall in the range of those of a company that just this week sought us to buy them out. When asked how they charge just $80 to $100 for most cleanings, they indicated that they (in violation of law!) don’t withhold Social Security or other FICA taxes, don’t pay Worker’s Compensation, SUTA, or other insurance for the protection of clients and employees. Nor did they provide reliable company cars or many other things that professional housecleaning companies do. We are not suggesting that the alternative company and the putative seller are one in the same. We don’t know. One wonders, however, if they share the same illegal cost avoidance scheme. One wonders what will happen if they break something more expensive than a butter dish or if a cleaner is injured in the home. We’ve been providing trustworthy housecleaning for 21+ years and have operated above board from day 1. Our Maryland workers pleased hundreds of clients last week. Rarely does anyone take the time to tell the world anymore than the news stations announce how many planes landed safely at National airport that day. We understand. After all, as we’ve long said, “you’ve got other things to do!” But it feels unfair to have someone get on a platform like Angie’s List and broadcast damaging views (and erroneous statements) that remain posted for so long as the internet shall live without first trying to work with the service provider about the disappointment to find an accommodation. We have customer service representatives available 8 to 5 for just this purpose. If you, dear reader, choose to give us a try, we hope that if you are ever disappointed, that you let us know directly so we can solve the problem. We have lots of very lovely clients. Being lovely, however, does not mean you can’t raise concerns. We’ll want to hear from you so we can please you better. In addition to the postage paid quality cards we leave after every cleaning, we also pay a 3rd party surveyor to send a quick 3- question survey by e-mail, twice a year, to garner additional input. There are literally 1000 or more things that can go wrong when you clean your own home. You can accidentally knock over a lamp when you tug on the vacuum cord. When you do, it’s on you. When we do, it’s on us, and thus we train our people not to tug. You, too, may clean the house and be very thorough in one room and find the next room not needing as much attention. When you do, that’s fine. If we, however, miss areas of a room you’ve paid us to clean, we’ll come back and do it over. Please give us a call at 1-800-515-MAID (6243). ps - There is a box on Angie that requires, in connection with this response, that we affirm it is "true and accurate and represents my actual first hand experience." It's true and accurate, but Maid Brigade is a team effort and not every member of the team had all the information provided above as a first hand experience. But in all cases, at least one person did.