I will never hire this company to clean my home again…read more
To summarize:
- Poor management/ownership
- Lacking basic ability to accurately schedule and commit to work
- Remarkably untrained staff
- Very poor cleaning results
- Staffing and hiring issues
- No supplies
- Bad communication; Can't set basic expectations
The trouble started when I was working with the owner, Octavia, to schedule a deep clean for my home. She was always unavailable or "without service" (but able to text?). A couple of times she said she would call me, but didn't. It took a long time just to have an initial conversation with her.
Admittedly, the scheduling got a little complicated because I went on vacation for a week, but she knew our exact day of return and we agreed to get something scheduled for the week I returned. She knew about it 2 weeks in advance.
Once I returned home, I let her know immediately. Suddenly that week wasn't available, so she promised something the following week. No problem. The week goes by, I hear nothing, so I follow up. First she says we can schedule something "this week" (it's Friday?) then immediately says "next week" is all booked and we'd have to do something the following week; so that's now 2 weeks past the initial week we planned for.
I tell her okay. I'm flexible, I just want a date on the calendar that I can make plans around. Seems reasonable, right?
Next week rolls around, still no word from Octavia or when I can expect her team to come out. I check in and she promises I'm on for next week, but won't say when. I have to push her repeatedly to commit to an actual day in which her staff will show up to her house, so she just stops responding to me.
Finally I just tell her that I'm going to have to move on and work with someone else who actually has capacity to do the job. Suddenly she's very available again and responding rapidly promising me that they can have someone come and clean the following Monday (the third week after my return). I agree and we get it scheduled.
Boy I wish I hadn't...
Monday rolls around and two young women show up at my door with nothing by a bottle of water each in their hand. My house is 5500 square feet. I was initially told she'd send a crew of three, but whatever - maybe they are super efficient. I'm trying to be optimistic.
The young women walk in and the first thing they say is "where are your supplies?" They literally came with nothing. Not a rag, a mop, a broom, or any cleaner. It was expected that I would supply EVERYTHING. Now, I've used cleaning services quite a bit in my life. I've had to supply the odd garbage bag, or maybe some specific cleaner I wanted used on a particular surface. Heck, I've even had to supply a vacuum because it was too much for the cleaner to carry. ...but literally EVERYTHING? This is a first for me. What kind of cleaning company doesn't have any cleaning supplies?
Again, I'm trying to be flexible and optimistic. I gather all of the supplies in my house - gloves, cleaners, rags, paper towels, buckets, etc and let the cleaners get to work.
About an hour in, I hear a crash. They broke a glass bottle full of cleaner. Not a huge deal. I get them a dust pan to clean it up with.
I then see they are using paper towels on every single surface. They needed 4 rolls and did not use the rags I offered to them, which is horribly wasteful.
One of the most shocking things I saw was one of the cleaners vacuuming the floor on her hands and knees. I said "hey, you know that vacuum has a long attachment so you can stand while you do that, right?" She never even thought to ask for it. I ran and got it for her. Now I know something is really wrong. These cleaners are completely untrained.
After another hour, they tell me they are done with my basement and upstairs and started working on my main floor. Now, that was a HUGE area. Probably close to 3000 sq/ft and they are done with a deep clean within two hours? Obviously, I'm skeptical.
I head upstairs to see the job that they did. Horrible. just absolutely horrible.
I have a double vanity in my main bathroom. They cleaned one sink and left the other one completely untouched.
They didn't lay a finger on the toilet.
They didn't dust any of the surfaces.
The shower door had streak marks everywhere, as did all of the chrome finishes.
The floors still had visible grime on them that was easily removed, but wasn't.
The rest of the rooms were similar. All they had done was vacuum the floors and, oddly, cleaned only very specific things.
At that point, it was obvious it wasn't going to work out, so I sent the cleaners home before they finished. Now, I don't blame them. They were young and inexperienced. This falls completely on the management who sent two young people with no experience and no supplies to clean a huge house they'd never been in before.
Obviously this company is not well equipped to handle the services they claim to provide. I will never be using them again.
