I used Hire A Maid for over a year. The first cleaning wasn't done well but they were responded to feedback and returned to complete the job. They are best at one-time cleaning or cleaning as needed --- for regularly scheduled cleanings, the team is always different and some things get forgotten from week to week, the work was not consistent and towards the end, they would forget to turn off lights, bathroom fan, etc. Once they forgot to lock the door. When I realized I could not longer depend on them to get even the basics right (e.g., please turn off the lights when you leave), it was time to cancel. I am back to an individual cleaner - the price is about the same and she remembers what to do from week to week and she is even willing to do things like organize, tidy up a bit even though I didn't request it. Hire A Maid would never do anything over and above what was requested.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $150.00
- Company Response
Dear Linda,
Our success and growth to 3 locations and almost 50 employees in 7 years has been thanks to our predominantly regular clientele. Indeed, since 2008, we have performed close to 50,000 regular cleanings (not a typo, we really have done nearly fifty thousand cleanings!) and, in the last year alone, we did more than 9,000 cleanings. While we haven’t been proactive in asking our clients to give their feedback on Homestars (we need to work on this!), we do leave behind a quality feedback card each visit, and we have hundreds of these returned cards with amazing feedback from our regular clientele. Frankly, we believe that we have THE BEST customers, and we love receiving their feedback – whether it is that they are over the moon happy with our work, or want to request we make a change to best suit their needs, we take it to heart and act upon it to keep them as satisfied regular clients.
We regret that you did not contact us before posting this review to give us the opportunity to address your concerns. Everyone has tried very hard to make you happy, but it seems that was not possible at this time.
I would like to address the other points you mention. It is in everyone’s best interest to send the same team: the staff become familiar with the nuances of the home and become more efficient, and – most importantly -- that is what our clients want. Josie’s team has been your regular crew for close to a year now and Josie herself has not missed a single day of work in this time (we all wish we had her immune system!), so we are not sure what is meant by team changes. Perhaps you are referring to the change in her team mate when we moved to the new Keele office (Eugenia lived too far from it and chose to not continue) or when her new team mate was ill?
With respect to locking the door, security is extremely important to us. In your June 2014 email about this occurring, you admitted that your lock can be tricky. To prevent this from happening in the future, we successfully implemented a two-person locked door check procedure.
You also mentioned that lights were left on. It is absolutely important that a home be left in the manner in which we found it – minus the dust and dirt of course! We have received only one communication from you about this, which was immediately addressed with the team. We were unaware of any further instance. Your review mentions that problems occurred from “week to week”, but you were actually a monthly client.
We are glad that you have found someone who takes care of the extras for you. As a cleaning lady, it is likely that she is charging you an hourly rate that is lower because she is not paying into WSIB, CPP, EI and possibly income taxes (the norm with most independent cleaners), which, if your total cost is the same, means that she is allocating more time to your home to allow for doing extra work. We could certainly have done this for you as well -- we customize our services to what our clients tell us they want, but we are unfortunately just learning of this want through your review. To give credit where it is due, the staff went above and beyond their job duties this summer when they watered your garden while you were away.
We wish you all the best in the maintenance of your home. Thank you, Carol Smith.