I went with J's Maid Service because they indicated on their website that they were licensed, bonded, and insured, and that was very important to me.
Several years ago, I strongly believe that one of the maids who was cleaning my bathroom, broke the shower pipe that comes out of the wall. I had taken a shower in the morning before the maids came and everything was working well, the pipe was not broken. The next morning when I went to take my shower, the first thing I noticed was that the mildew that had been building up on the ceiling and upper walls of the shower was gone. When I turned on the shower, water came gushing down the wall and I saw that the pipe was broken. Later that day, I also noticed that a step stool that I keep in the laundry room cupboard was in a different position than I always keep it. No one else was in this house but me and the maids during that time period. I feel certain that the maid used the step stool in the shower to clean the mildew, lost her balance and grabbed onto the shower pipe to steady herself, breaking the pipe in the process. By the way, I never requested that the mildew be removed. I immediately called and talked to a field supervisor from the company and told her about it. Of course, the maid denied breaking the pipe. The company believed the maid and said there was nothing they could do. If the pipe had already been broken at the time the maid went to clean the shower, don't you think she would have told me, so she didn't get blamed for breaking it? She never mentioned it. At my expense, I had the pipe fixed, was never compensated by the company, although I asked to be, and because of what was involved in the repair, it cost me more than $1,500.
Over the course of their cleaning my home, in addition to the shower pipe getting broken, night lights have been broken, a ceramic toilet brush holder has been chipped, wallpapered walls have been scraped, my Levolor blinds that I told them many times NOT to clean have been broken, and a toilet seat lid was broken. The maid that I believe broke the lid denied doing it and even had one of her fellow workers from that day back her up. Again, no one else was in this house but me and the maids during that time period. How would the fellow worker know she didn't break the lid? Was she with her the whole time she was cleaning the bathroom? If so, she wasn't cleaning somewhere else in the house, for which she was being paid. The lady in the office believed me in this instance and got me a new lid. There is no way to prove that the maids broke something unless you walk around with them video taping everything they do. Who has the time or wants to do that? I might as well do the cleaning myself. Plus, there are three of them and one of me.
In my particular case, once a month J's Maids sends out one of about seven "teams" with three ladies working on each team. I am never sure which team I will get on any given day. When they come, they spend an hour there. In my experience, their cleaning is hit or miss. Some of the teams are better than others. If I get a good team, they do a pretty good job. If I get a not-so-good team, I get a not-so-good job.
Fool that I am, I stayed with J's Maids through all of this because, at the time, it was hard to find cleaning companies near me that were licensed, bonded, and insured.
I have had it! The last straw was getting a letter from J's Maids this week informing me that there was a new rate increase in effect (in my case, about 20%), due in part to an increase in their insurance premiums. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? My broken pipe claim was never submitted to their insurance company, and now they are raising my rate to help defray their cost of higher insurance premiums. What gall!
If you value your property and are looking for a maid service that will compensate you when one of their maids breaks something that is costly to repair, and if you want a decent cleaning every time, you may want to look elsewhere. read more