I'd been down for the count sick for about a month. During that time, my house was a train wreck. My husband attempted to clean but his clean was no where near my clean. We knew we'd have family and friends over for the day after Thanksgiving so we figured we'd give a "maid service" a try. After lots of research, we came across Memphis Maids. We were super excited to have them come out. As you can imagine, we had a lot of clutter to build up during the five weeks I was sick. Upon speaking with Steve, the owner, and booking an appointment for the Tuesday prior to Thanksgiving, we began to declutter.
Our original appointment was scheduled for Tuesday (2 days before Thanksgiving) at 8:45am. The appointment time comes and goes and we still didn't have anyone at our home. (SN: I am a stickler for promptness. If dinner is at 8:00, I'm there at 7:59.) After eating about 30 minutes, I call the number listed for the business. Steve answered. I explained to him the situation and his response was quite perplexing. He says that the cleaner he'd scheduled for us, Lorena, had an ill child and would not be able to make it. Naturally, I'm puzzled because I didn't receive a phone call, text, or the likes explaining this to me. I had to wait and reach out to the company to be informed of this information. Steve goes on to apologize and tell me he didn't call because he was working to get another cleaner scheduled and put to my home later that afternoon or the next day (Wednesday). This is my issue #2: Steve didn't ask if we had other plans or would even be home that afternoon or the following day. Once again, I explained to him that I'd be having company at my home on Friday afternoon/evening and that we had to figure something out. Steve informs me he'll keep working to find another cleaner and will call be back.
Wednesday afternoon grills around and we still hadn't heard from Steve. At this point, I'm frustrated and concerned so I reach out to him. He tells me he can have someone at my home Friday morning. Cool. (Once again, I had to reach out to him; never heard from Steve until I called.)
Friday morning rolls around and Maria shows up to our house...ON TIME. (We live in a very modest 1693 square foot home.) Perfect?! Definitely not! I give Maria a quick tour (because we live in a mansion ) and she gets to work. My husband and I ran some errands while she was working; we didn't want to find ourselves in her way. We return home around noon. The house smelled super clean but it the chemical smell was really strong. I'd previously discussed with steve my desire to have green products because I have asthma and can't usually take the abrasive scent, but I guess that was one detail overlooked. Maria has moved furniture and vacuumed...on the surface the place shined. When she left, however, she failed to put anything back in its place. So, instead of prepping for the party we were about to have, my husband and I had to move furniture, dust (there was tons of dust left behind), clean the bathroom (sink hadn't been cleaned and toilets were half cleaned), vacuum the furniture (there's no way this was done), re-dust the blinds & tv stand, and clean & make the guest room bed (we assumed this would've been done--we made ours before we left [habit]). Besides half dusting, mopping, and sweeping, we couldn't see much that had been accomplished. Hindsight is 20/20.
Needless to say, we won't be using Memphis Maids for our cleaning needs. I had to clean before the clean and after the clean. This isn't something I was expecting from a cleaning company. We paid $99 for four hours of cleaning. If the job would've taken longer, we would've paid whatever overages there were. This option wasn't presented. This experience has made us want to exhaust ourselves and clean the place on our own. Together, we'd do a much better job and it'll be done to our standards. read more