The Cleaning Authority

I’m writing this review after reading the horrible one posted. I think sometimes people only write reviews when their expectations are not met regardless of how ridiculous and demanding they are. Seldom to pleased customers actually write a review, so here goes… This is a conscientious group that truly cares about the quality of their work. They have cleaned for me for a year now, and I am very pleased. What I like the most is their rotating schedule focusing on various rooms of the house each time they come. I have them come every two weeks to power clean. I take care of the small intricate things. Just having the bathrooms, floors and kitchen done well is a huge help!

HORRIBLE! I was about to put my house on the market and wanted a thorough, deep clean of everything. I got a flier in the mail with a discount on the initial cleaning, and contacted them to inquire. I learned that the discount only applied if I wanted to set up routine, bi-​weekly cleanings — which I did not. But still, the price seemed okay for what they claimed to provide — a very intensive, top-​to-​bottom cleaning of my entire home. The owner, Kevin, came out to my home to do an estimate with his assistant (can’t remember her name!) — and my initial impression was that he was… not rude exactly, but very brusque. «All business,» but not in a good way. Just sort of disinterested in me as a person. Afterward I waffled, but decided to hire them. I left Kevin a voice mail asking to set up my cleaning. But then I had second thoughts and called back to cancel, speaking to the assistant. A month went by… and then out of the blue I got a voice mail from Kevin apologizing profusely for never returning my call to set up the cleaning. Apparently he had trouble getting his voice mails because of his service or something. It was an over-​the-​top message, but at least he was apologetic. And evidently he never got the memo from his assistant that I’d canceled anyway. But since then I’d been busy and had epically failed to clean my home (!) so decided to hire them after all.
The cleaners, Nicole and Mike, showed up and were awesome, personality-​wise. They were friendly and fun and thoughtful. They joked around with my kids, and were considerate of my space while I was working from home during the cleaning session. The session ran longer than expected by about 45 minutes, but in fairness I had requested that they also vacuum my basement which they hadn’t planned for. Nicole said I should feel free to walk around and check things out to make sure everything was the way I’d want it — and I REALLY wish I had — but I was in the middle of my work day and was way too busy to do that. And they’d seemed so great and conscientious that I wasn’t worried. She wasn’t sure what to charge me, which seemed odd, and she couldn’t get through on the phone to Kevin, so she wrote out an estimate and signed it but wrote, «Kevin will contact with final price before carding card.» — and she reiterated to me that I should expect a call from him later that day with a final quote.
This is where it all went south. Later I started investigating, and only about half of the checklist of items were even touched. And some things that they’d «sort of» cleaned were weirdly half-​done. MANY things were still filthy. I never got a call from Kevin about the quote, but checked my credit card online and saw that it had been charged anyway.
I left a polite voice mail expressing my dissatisfaction — I was mostly frustrated with the cleaners, Nicole and Mike, and felt taken advantage of. They’d charmed me — but what the heck had they been DOING for that entire time if not intensively cleaning my house? I took pictures of all the uncleaned areas to document it. The assistant called back shortly saying that she and Kevin wanted to come over right away to see for themselves, and to make it right. I offered to send the pictures as proof and honestly just wanted a refund. I didn’t have time to manage another cleaning session during my work day, and didn’t feel like a confrontation. But they insisted, and I agreed. I did appreciate their commitment!
They showed up a couple of hours later — and this is where it got really weird. NOT ONCE did they apologize. Kevin was downright rude and irritated. I felt badly for his assistant, who was very uncomfortable and nervous. They asked me to show them what needed cleaned, and the first thing I pointed out was the stove — Kevin actually made an excuse about how stoves are really hard to clean and the stains wouldn’t ever come out of the grill! I showed them everything, and they got to work. He kept sending his assistant to give me updates on progress, and when she said they were finishing up, she wanted me to make sure it was all clean enough. I went upstairs with her and was appalled to find that at least half, again, of what I’d pointed out was STILL not clean! I had to actually point out each thing again and at times even demonstrate how to clean very simple things. She was sweet and meek, but made excuses like «Well, I’m not tall enough to reach that picture frame.» I actually had to point to a chair and say kindly, «Could you stand on this?» Kevin came up at that point, and said things like, «Oh, I did clean that, twice.» To which I swiped my finger across it and dust wiped off, a half-​inch thick, with zero effort. I couldn’t believe it. It was SO awkward and bizarre. After a second round of this I was so tired of the awkwardness that I just said, fine, thank you, and they left (still never apologizing). It was better (the stove did come clean) but not great — and I am NOT obsessive with my cleaning. NEVER AGAIN.