I had been bed ridden and my husband is a disabled veteran, so in an effort to surprise me, he…read morecalled a local small business maid company to help clean our home so when I came back from the hospital I would have a smile on my face. His good intentions turned into a nightmare.
Thursday my husband started calling around to different maid companies to find someone who could clean our home on Friday. He ended up choosing the first company that responded; My Maids of Orange Park. He was "squeezed in" for a time slot from 1-4 PM on Friday, March 4th. He explained the condition of the house and the size of the house.
The first sign of suspicion that something was not right was after the 3 maids took 1 and 1/2 hours to clean our guest area (which is only used for guests and we have not had anyone use that area since two weeks prior). The bed needed to be made, the floor needed to be vacuumed, the bathroom needed a regular cleaning (nothing was even in the trash can, and the toilet and sink were both used that day by my husband, in good working order), and then the living quarters needed to be swept, mopped, and counters in the kitchenette wiped down.
At 2:30 PM, my husband needed to leave to pick up our other children from school and me from the hospital. He left our 13 year old daughter to watch our 3 year old son while he went to do these two tasks. Our daughter is gifted, has been CPR certified and completed babysitter classes. She is completely capable of handling and watching her brother for this short amount of time.
The second red flag came at 2:40 when the maids did not know what products to use on a tile floor and demanded to use our own cleaning products. We were told if we did not provide any cleaning materials that they would use bleach and water on our tiles floor (again, a huge product infringement because we had stainless steel appliances and bleach used near them will cause the appliances to rust; another thing a maid or cleaning service with 28 years experience should be aware of). This was relaid to my husband by a call from our daughters cell phone with the maids trying to talk through her. My husband instructed our daughter to show them what to use on the floors.
At 3:30, our daughter called again from her personal cell for the maids stating the maids needed to speak to my husband (maids with whom had their own cells phones and had his number as point of contact). This was red flag number three. The maids stated at this time that they would not be able to complete the whole house. By this time (2.5 hours into the clean) they had only done the guest area, laundry room pickup and the dining room started. They were using a vacuum on our tile floors (again improper use of products that a 28 year old business should know better than to do). They asked which areas to focus on and my husband responded by telling them to start with the kitchen, living room, and master bedroom, then bathrooms.
At 4:00 PM, the maids tried to use our daughter as a middle man to speak to my husband about them leaving and needing my husband to call the office to pay them. My husband had our daughter give the maid her cell phone and informed them that we were almost there. The maids somehow got the kitchen, dishes, living room, dining room, master bedroom and master bathroom completed in 30 minutes time. This has led us to believe they were purposely working slowly due to being paid by the hour.
When we arrived at the house, the maids were on their own cell phones with the business owner. I went into the house and immediately came back out because of the potent chemicals present that burned my eyes. My husband was giving our credit card number as I came out to the owner. I request an invoice and was denied. I then asked for a breakdown of time spent and again was denied. I asked for any proof of purchase of services rendered and was denied.
Once the maids left, we opened the windows throughout the house in order to be able to enter our home without becoming dizzy from the harsh chemicals used. This website states they use Simple Green eco friendly products only, again a courtesy our home was not privileged to. After inspection of our home, I found that the areas "cleaned" were done not to any previous maid service standards, and far from my own. Areas were still dusty, tile floors were cloudy, dishes were left in the sink, and our house was not even half way cleaned.
At this time, I asked my husband to call the business and let me speak with the owner due to the poor services we received. I asked for a refund because not only did they know we had a 3000 square foot home that needed cleaning, but the areas they did do were not up to par. The owner refused any refunds and did not offer any apology. At this time I was apoplectic and stated I would be sure to leave a "great review" on all sites stating our experiences with their company.
