I will start by saying that this is the first time I've ever hired a professional cleaning service…read more Our family has always done our own cleaning so we weren't too sure what to expect from a professional cleaning service.
Anyways, I contacted MCA for a quote and Gina got back to me promptly. She was very specific with the areas that her crew was to clean and I specified that I needed a deep cleaning since we were moving into a "new" home. Gina agreed to the services requested and gave me a quote. Her price was not the cheapest nor the most expensive, but decent. Since she was prompt, specific with what was to be cleaned and had amazing the before and after pictures advertised on her yelp page, we hired her for the services. MCA's cleaning crew arrived on time and expressed understanding of what we needed cleaned. Now, I will say that the crew worked hard on the clean. There is no complaint there. The issue is that after they were done, it was NOWHERE near my standards. As I've said before, this is the first time someone else has cleaned our home. When we clean ourselves, our home has never looked as "uncleaned" as it did after MCA's cleaning service. I get it, if I want it done a certain way (right way) I should do it myself. However, we were extremely busy with the move and figured that for the price we're paying, the cleaning would be decent. My wife had to point out areas that were barely cleaned and asked them to reclean those areas (inside cabinets-stains still present after cleaning but we were able to wipe it off with a wet paper towel, build up in back of the sink-we were able to scrape it off with just our finger nails, hard water spots on the shower doors-easily removed by us with a little bit of elbow grease, dirt in the corners of the cabinets-toothpick solved the problem....). There were so many things--my wife hated having to ask them over and over again to clean the same spots and TELL THEM how to clean things (cleaner stated that she couldn't get some dirt out and we noticed that all she used was a wet towel. My wife asked if she had a cleaner to recommended she spray the cleaner and leave it for a few minutes to break down the grime, which cleaner did and it worked). The problem is that there are a million and one excuses and explanations on why they could clean certain things (most of the things we paid to have clean). They said that their products are natural and not that strong, that the buildup is there due to lack of cleaning/maintenance from previous tenants, that if they cleaned any harder it would scratch our surfaces, that it would take too much time to clean it adequately, etc. etc. My wife felt so bad having to ask them to clean places they've already cleaned multiple times, that she ended up just agreeing that they were done. It was late, they were tired and my wife was hungry/exhausted from a day of moving.
When we went to pay, there is an invoice that they require you sign to pay and complete the job. On it, it states that customer: agrees work performed to satisfaction, confirmed that everything is in perfect condition, and that once signed we can no longer complain. My wife disagreed verbally with signing the invoice, telling the cleaners her issue. Again, a million and one excuses.
Well, she had to sign because she wanted pay them and excuse them.
We appreciate that the cleaners worked hard and were willing to try to clean the spots again and again. Thank you for that. However, labor is wasted if you're not doing it RIGHT and frankly, after this experience we will never hire another cleaner. We've learned that perhaps our standards are just too high or that professional cleaning services just cannot meet our standards.
If you have decently high standards in terms of the cleanliness of your home, do the work yourself. I feel like I've just wasted so much money to have to go back and clean everything myself up to my standards. Hopefully, your standards are lower than ours.
Edit: Owner has responded and I'm adding pictures to dispute owner's belief that we are asking for "restoration" and not just cleaning. Again, excuses and explanations. It sounds like if your house is more than 10 years old, they cannot clean it. My place is NOWHERE near bad, so it baffles me that a "cleaning professional" cannot take care of it. Thanks for the discount, but it's no good if the job isn't done. Besides, my wife pointed out and UNDERLINED on the invoice that she disagreed with the statement on the invoice of complete satisfaction. She signed to complete the job and pay your people so they could leave and go home. So please don't act like we signed off on being satisfied with the job. That's ludicrous. You added a bunch of crazy statements on the bottom and make us sign it to complete the job, then you go around saying that we were satisfied since we signed. Super shady manipulation. You go your way and we'll go ours. Consumers, save your hard-earned money and go elsewhere.