I called Insta Maids to book a cleaning service, and during that call I asked a simple question…read moreabout five shirts on the floor. I explained that I am disabled and asked whether the cleaner could pick them up. I was told that would require roughly an additional $100 charge. Rather than pay that, I said I would pick the shirts up myself.
What should have been a simple booking then turned into repeated attempts to move me to a more expensive service. I eventually booked the standard service online and picked up the five shirts myself.
To my surprise, Insta Maids then CANCELLED my appointment because they believed I needed the higher-priced service.
They called me while I was working and again tried to discuss the service. I specifically explained that my break was over, I had to go, and I needed to lead a scheduled sales meeting with more than 20 people. When the conversation continued anyway, I ended the call.
Then they immediately called me back.
Because I had two consecutive calls from an unfamiliar number--and because I have both a seriously ill family member and employees who may repeatedly call in an emergency--I stopped my live Zoom meeting and answered. It was Insta Maids again.
I made it very clear that I was working and could not talk. I ended that call as well.
Since Insta Maids had cancelled my appointment, I hired another cleaning company. I actually chose a MORE expensive company and booked approximately $300 per week in recurring service. Price wasn't the issue. I simply wanted a company that would take my booking, provide the service, and respect my time.
Then this morning an Insta Maids cleaner unexpectedly showed up at my door.
I discovered that Insta Maids had reinstated the appointment and charge even though I had never agreed to reinstate the service they had cancelled.
When I called, I was told that they had informed me during the previous phone call that they were reinstating the appointment. I had an AI transcript of the call in front of me, and it did not show that statement being made at all.
To be completely fair, after listening to the actual recording, it sounds possible that the representative MAY have been beginning to tell me something about the appointment when I cut him off. I had already repeatedly explained that I was leading a meeting and could not continue the conversation. Whatever he was beginning to say, I did not hear a completed statement that my cancelled appointment was being reinstated, and--more importantly--I never agreed to reinstate it.
There is an enormous difference between attempting to tell a customer something and obtaining the customer's authorization.
I did not authorize Insta Maids to reinstate the service they had cancelled. I did not agree to the reinstated appointment. I did not expect anyone to arrive at my home. By the time they arrived, I already had another cleaning company scheduled for that afternoon.
This entire situation could have been avoided by simply respecting two things:
1. When a customer says, "I cannot talk right now," let them go and call back at an appropriate time.
2. When your company cancels a customer's appointment, don't reinstate it and charge the customer's card without clearly obtaining their agreement.
They had already made the sale. Somehow they turned a completed sale into a cancellation, multiple unwanted phone calls, an unexpected cleaner at my door, a disputed charge, and a customer who has now taken approximately $10,000 a year in recurring cleaning business elsewhere. In fact, I am paying the competing company a higher rate so I will not pay $15,000 a year.
That's an extraordinary amount of unnecessary effort to lose a customer they had already won.
