Upon relocating to Toronto, I decided to hire a cleaning service for a move-in clean. I hired Toronto Maid Service because they told me they offered a move-in package that included a detailed cleaning of appliances, cupboards, bathrooms, etc. The apartment was empty when they came to clean, had been completely painted and the carpets steam-cleaned. Only 900 square feet so not a huge area and although in need of a good clean, not the worst I have ever seen and I believed they would have no problem completing in this timeframe. My husband was there to greet the 3-person crew and tell them the areas to concentrate on - they explained that because there were three of them, they would be there for 4 hours. They arrived at 9:30 (1/2 hour late) and when my husband returned at 1:15, they had already left. He was surprised because he said he didn't see much of a difference. Upon my arrival the next day, I realized that barely any cleaning had been done - in fact, the only thing they had appeared to do was turn on the self-clean feature of the oven and then make a half-hearted attempt to clean out the resulting debris by sweeping it into the oven drawer (where it remained). After what was supposed to be 12 hours of work, there was no evidence that any cleaning had occurred and in fact, couldn't even smell any cleaning products. I called them immediately to report that I was not satisfied and was told that a manager would call me back -when I asked for the name of the person that would contact me, I was told they didn't give out this information. Four days later, I had not heard from anyone and in the meantime, commenced the cleaning myself (taking a day off work to do so). I then called them again and was transferred to an extension that was nothing more than a voice message service (no identification of the person to whom you are leaving a message). I asked for an immediate call back and received one, with the individual (who sounded exactly like the person who answered the phone originally) telling me that they had cleaned for 10 hours straight and that my husband had signed off on the work. When I said that I had paid for 12 hours and that my husband could not possibly have signed off since he was not there when the work crew left (leaving the apartment door open), he told me I must be mistaken. When I explained that the cleaning did not meet my expectations and that in fact, I doubted that anything at all had been done, he said again that their crew had worked very hard and it wasn't their fault that the place was a mess! When I asked him to list the things that had been done and the reason it couldn't be completed, he refused. I told him he had no problem telling me what would be done when he was doing his sales pitch and getting my Visa number and he said that every situation was different. I asked him what he meant by this and he said that perhaps the place was too dirty to clean - I told him that I had managed to clean it without any more effort than I would have expected them to expend (particularly since they were getting paid for that effort). He then said that the best he could do was give me a credit for 6 hours worth of cleaning. I pointed out to him that he also owed me an additional 2 hours to account for the shortfall in the original hours booked and he said that this had been included. I told him that I would prefer a credit to my Visa and he said this was not something they did, but the hours credit amounted to the same thing. I asked him why I would have them come in for additional hours since they didn't do a good job the first time and pointed out that I had by now done everything they were supposed to do. He had no response for this and said this was the best he could do - I asked him why he could give me 6 hours of cleaning time and not merely credit my account with the 6-hour charge. He said again that this was the best he could offer and hung up on me. I called back and this time a woman answered the phone and transferred me once again to the voice messaging service. I gave up - I will try to get some of my loss by hiring them to come in to do a regular cleaning and will watch them the whole time! I believe this company is a scam!
