A word of warning:
1. Carl, the owner, offers customers a discount for Yelp reviews & provides his employees a bonus if their name is mentioned.
2. Note that of the 5-star, 10 reviews before mine, only 3 are for recurring services: 2 for house cleaning & 1 for laundry. My goal was to hire for recurring/monthly house cleaning.
How my trust was betrayed:
After I hired my mom's house cleaner on 4/19, who had 3-women for 3-hours, totaling 9-hours to clean my ~2,400 sq ft house, with their arriving over 1-hour late - without notice/apology, and their accidentally stealing two towels & breaking my gas stove cleaning it, I hired TidyTask to finish their deep clean, including for all the dusting they missed.
I hired Donald on 5/16 & on 5/21, to finish dusting the ceilings, up-high vents, and light fixtures. I also had external window washers that day, so had Donald clean the screens before I re-inserted them - a special project. The scope of work for 5/16 was 3-hours for a deep clean + a 1-hour add-on to clean all interior windows/dust blinds & baseboards. I was skeptical 4-hours would be enough, and I was right. Hence I hired Donald again on 5/21 to finish that job. Note that Carl's phone staff will constantly reassure you that their cleaners can finish the miraculous - over-promising & under-delivering - indicating they don't understand how to scope their cleaning checklist according to the size of the home, and when I brought this to Carl's attention, even after I volunteered that my dad's, now my - after he died , house hadn't been cleaned for years, hence this baseline deep clean, I was given false reassurance. Regardless, it was cleaned-up to a baseline level after 4/19, 5/16, and 5/21, and finally in a steady-state for the 6/13 regular/recurring/monthly house cleaning, which is when problems arose.
Given Donald told me on 5/21 that he failed to clean the soap scum off the bathtub, because Carl does not allow anything beyond a surface cleaner - like CLR, and that scotch pads are for special use vs. regular use, I cleaned the bathtub in between the 5/21 & 6/13 myself, and told Donald not to spend much time on it. Instead he still focused too much time on this, after trying to show-up 45-mins earlier than our scheduled 12:30pm appointment, arriving at 12:10pm, even after I told him I wouldn't be ready before 12:15pm, when he asked to arrive early. Worse? He showed up without the proper tools: a duster. How basic. He made-up an excuse about using up his duster at the last house, and when I asked where/how he is supposed to get refill tools, he said he could stop at the store, which he failed to do, proving he didn't respect me, or take his job seriously, given I watched him drive past a Safeway en route to my house, when he had ~1-hour in between our two houses.
I provided him with a duster, which he used on one blind, yet failed to dust my bed headboard, dresser, two nightstands, table, two bathroom counters (yet haphazardly dusted the top of one toilet, breaking off the fin of a surfboard on an old woodie car model my dad head on top - nor did he bring this to my attention, as we discussed re: accidents), kitchen countertops, dining room table and/or china cabinet surfaces, nor above the refrigerator. Nothing was dusted, so I dusted my whole house myself after he left. He did - to his credit - clean-off 75% of the moth droppings on the kitchen walls, but I found more missed after he left. He abandoned my & Carl's cleaning checklist in the basement, and failed to do it, showing his lack of care/sincerity/quality/thoroughness - even if going off memory, of Carl's standard checklist. He never folded TP to a point (listed on Carl's checklist), like the previous house cleaner did do, on any of his 3 cleanings. Don't fall for the checklist being a reality. Carl admitted it's just a "guideline" (read: sales tactic), that is never met.
Additionally, Donald's phone rang constantly during our walk-thru, for which he never apologized/silenced, proving he cared more about finishing in a hurry, getting paid (+ my 20% tip), and returning to his personal life - vs. balancing work/home, like most women juggle.
I called Carl the next day, Fri 6/14. He offered to call me on Sun (Father's Day) or Mon. I said I wasn't available until Tue or Wed. He never called. I followed-up Thu, and provided my availability Fri 6/21, in btw back-to-back conf calls. He didn't respect my time, called during my work, which I let go to vmail (as one does, when juggling work/home). He called back later, rushed me thru the call, made excuses for himself/Donald, never apologized, never addressed issues directly, and never offered a solution. Instead, he proposed I find someone else. Zero accountability, which is why my neighbors told me they stopped wasting money & clean themselves.
If you want to be up-sold on special projects, which are done great, but where the bread & butter is neglected, this is the service for you. read more
