Let It Shine Homekeeping

We've been using them for 4 years now and they're extremely thorough. The owner comes out and does free estimates. People are responsive and all the housekeepers were just great. They provide great wok and the prices are reasonable.

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I wanted to make sure everything was "deep" cleaned before I moved into my new house. I met with Dana at my place to review what would be cleaned and she gave me her estimate. I was happy with everything she said they would clean and agreed to pay the higher price for the level of detail she said would be cleaned. Michelle, the scheduling person, said she would have two different people cleaning my place on two different days. On Monday, Anna was to be there starting at 8:30 (all day) and Rossy there the next day for the same time frame. My new house is only 950 sq feet so I was a little surprised two people would need two days to clean my place, but since it was a "deep" clean I didn't question it. I went over to my place after the 2nd day, and first off it just did not sparkle or smell cleaned like I expected. Then I went to inspect everything and noticed the blinds were still dirty, the cabinet under the kitchen sink was still dirty (I quickly wiped it down), and the washer and dryer didn't look "deep" cleaned. I only called Michelle back about the blinds since that was my biggest gripe, but I wish I would have mentioned the other things because after I moved in, I noticed even more things that were not deep cleaned. Those being the vent under the front of the fridge (full of dust) and the inside fridge doors still had sticky residue. For the amount of money I spent and the inconvenience of having to give my keys to them for a third visit, I wish I would have forgone the "deep" clean idea and gone with a less expensive general cleaner....or just have cleaned it myself.
The one positive I give to Let it Shine Housekeeping are that they were professional and were apologetic about the blinds. Dana came by my work to pick up the keys for the follow-up cleaning. But at the end of the day, I just paid a lot of money for a job that would not take two days and a follow-up visit.

She was so great and very reasonably priced. She had a couple of women come and clean for me but she also personally comes and makes sure everything was just like I wanted it.

Dana, the proprietor of the company, was prompt in responding to my voice message, and arranged to meet me at the condo to inspect it and give me an estimate. She arrived on time and was friendly, courteous, and professional. She also volunteered to provide me with references for painters, realtors, and a stager. Dana's estimate came in under what we had been quoted at a larger chain company, so I was pleased so far. We arranged a date for the cleaning and a way for the cleaner(s) to gain access to the unit, and I agreed to leave payment at the unit. I was, and still am, very impressed with Dana's professionalism.

The day before the scheduled cleaning date, Dana called to say she had a cancellation and since she knew I was eager to get the unit on the market, she asked if I would like for it to be cleaned that morning. I told her this would be wonderful. A couple hours later, I realized that due to the change in cleaning date, I had not yet left payment for services in the condo. Chagrined, I called Dana immediately and apologized, and asked if there was some way for me to get the payment to the cleaner, since this was a Friday and I didn't want anyone to be without pay over the weekend. Dana told me not to worry, that she would make sure none of her workers went without pay, and gave me an address to mail the check to, which I did.

A few days later I returned to the condo for the first time. I noticed that there were several dirty spots still on the wood floor that would not come up easily, and that there was a sticky spot on the bedroom window. The grain in the hardwood flooring concealed the spots on the floor so that I only noticed a couple of spots on my first trip back to the condo, and I cleaned these myself. Cleaning them required scraping at them with my fingernail, so I figured they could easily have been missed by someone in a hurry with a less-than critical eye. When Dana called to follow up (again, a very professional gesture), she offered to come out to go over the unit again. I had already cleaned the spots I had found, so I thanked her and declined.

I've since made a few trips back to the condo, and on each trip I've noticed another spot on the floor that was missed in cleaning. I wasn't disgruntled by this at first. After all, I myself hadn't noticed the spots on my first trip back. When I noticed that the sill between the exterior door and screen door had not been cleaned, I reminded myself that I had asked that the apartment be cleaned, not its exterior.

I did wonder why my experience differed so radically from those of the reviewers on Yelp. Then I remembered how eager Dana seemed to recommend painters, realtors, and stagers to me. It occurred to me that many of those who gave stellar ratings to this company claimed to be professionals who see newly-cleaned homes frequently and therefore know who does the best job around. This is very similar to what Dana told me when recommending other services. My guess is that many of those who gave Dana stellar ratings are colleagues who have received referrals and stellar online ratings from her as well. I considered leaving a lukewarm review to correct the stellar reviews, but didn't. I guess Dana's professionalism impressed me so much that I was willing to offer a little slack, especially since the cleaner arrived before I had a chance to leave payment, so they had not received a tip at that point. Besides which, I don't relish saying negative things about such a nice person's business.

It wasn't until a few days ago, when I returned again to the condo to sell the two (only two) pieces of furniture that were there when it was cleaned, that I was truly disappointed. When I moved the dresser away from the wall, I noticed that nobody had bothered to sweep up the coating of dust, receipts, and rubber bands that had collected behind it. The cleaning I ordered was a "pre-sale" cleaning which cost $190 for 630 square feet, so it certainly should have included sweeping behind the dresser. At that point, though the services were rendered a month ago, I decided to perform the unsavory task of writing a negative review.

I struggled about whether to give this service a B or C rating. As I said earlier, Dana was prompt, friendly, and phenomenally professional. She followed up the service with a phone call and offered to go back and fix the issues that I knew of at the time. Still, this hardly makes up for the lack of quality in the initial service itself. In the end, even though the service was outstanding in every domain except quality of service, I have to give it a C rating. I wish Dana the best and hope that her great customer service and quality control efforts will soon help her assemble a team of cleaners worthy of her professionalism.

I contacted Dana, the owner of the company, to arrange an in depth house cleaning because I was having company come to stay. She was very responsive to the timing of my request, and visited the house to give an estimate. She communicated promptly by email and telephone, and was able to schedule the cleaning on short notice. The house cleaning was great! The cleaners were professional, careful, and complete. The price was fair. Based on my experience, I will be using this service on a regular basis.

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