Emilia's Cleaning Inc

I called Emilia and asked if I could purchase the Angie's list coupon ($89 for 4 hours of cleaning) for some cleaning of a 3 bdrm, 1.5 bath house my family had recently purchased. The house was vacant and we had some electrical work done that had resulted in some construction dust (the house was exceptionally clean prior to the construction). Emilia said that it would not be a problem and said she'd send 2 people for 2 hours. I requested that they do as much as they could in that time -- my priorities were cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms (including inside the cabinets), vaccuuming and dusting, and washing the floors. Emilia emailed me after the cleaning was complete to say that there was not enough time to finish the cleaning in the two hours (which we anticipated). She said that in two hours they were able to do bathrooms, the kitchen, and sweep the floors. Upon seeing the house, we were really disappointed. Knowing that it would only be 4 hours of work, we didn't anticipate that everything would be done, but we were perplexed by how little seemed to have been accomplished in 4 hours of time. The second floor wasn't swept at all, and the first floor was just barely swept. Some of the kitchen cabinets weren't wiped clean (and they weren't very dirty to begin with - just a little dust). The toilets, tub and sinks were cleaned, but that was really it. I emailed Emilia to politely let her know we were disappointed and I received the following email in return: "First of all, you had your home after construction-there were two girls out for 2 hrs-they did what they could-even though you think the house is small, the after construction clean up is not an easy task to accomplish. I regret that I allowed you to use this coupon on this type of job-they spent 1.5 hrs in your kitchen even though you said that they didn?t accomplish much-not only you had paid a discounted rate for this type of cleaning but they only had 2 hrs to do this-for this type of cleaning you should have paid $30 per hour per person. It bothers me that you would say you?d accomplish more than what they accomplished-you don?t know that because you don?t do this on daily basic. These girls are cleaning on daily basics and they were able to do this much. You are telling me that you will post a negative review where I don?t think it fair at all-you took advantage of the coupon I allowed you to use and we did what we cound-you knew that we were not able to do much there-I have instructions from you what to concentrate on-bathrooms, kitchen and floors and that?s what we did. Sincerely, Emilia" I don't think I have to explain why I was disappointed by this reply. As I said above -- before I purchased the coupon, I called Emilia and spoke with her. I don't think our expectations were unreasonable. And Emilia was never at the house and never saw the finished work. I was dissatisfied by the work that was performed and felt I should let Emilia know. That Emilia didn't respond well says a great deal about this company. Needless to say, I will not use this company again, and I do not recommend them.

I have been using Emilia's Cleaning Service for almost a year and I am extremely satisfied with the quality of services provided. Emilia is very professional, friendly and accommodating. The cleaning person(s) who have been assigned to me perform an excellent cleaning job and they have not broken anything. Emilia's is the only service that I could find that hand washes floors as part of their standard job; all the other services charge extra. I also really like the fact that Emilia uses email and credit cards. I would highly recommend Emilia's Cleaning Service.

The lady who was assigned to me did great work, was super-efficient and was a very courteous person in addition. I highly recommend this agency and will use them any time I need help with cleaning in the future.

My cleaner, Claudia, always does a great job cleaning the apartment and she always shows up on time. My husband and I live here part-time and cleanings are scheduled a day or two in advance of our arrival. Its wonderful to walk into a spotless apartment with the bed made! I went through several other cleaners before I found Emilia's Cleaning. Items that were supposed to be cleaned weren't. Items were broken. Appointments were missed with no notice. Its really nice to have a good, reliable cleaner! Thank you, Claudia! And Emilia!

We hired Emilia's Cleaning because of their price, and because we had no other experience with a cleaning service. After our first initial cleaning (which was superb) Emilia told us she had to change the person who would come and clean our house. We wanted to have one consistent person clean our house, but since we were happy with the first cleaning and didn't want to start over, we changed our alarm code and started over with a new person.We really like the new lady, and generally felt we got what we paid for. Our house was clean, and we got home from work with extra time for family like we wanted. Then shortly after, that cleaning lady apparently had health problems, and we had another change in provider. This wasn't in Emilia's control, so we didn't fuss too much, although we really would prefer to have one consistent person clean our home. Over the past two months, however, Emilia has been slow to respond to emails, and the current cleaning provider hasn't cleaned much of anything. I don't expect a deep cleaning every time, but I do expect that the standards of service I paid for at the beginning are maintained throughout. Today I received an email telling me which supplied to use, instead of the supplies I actually want used in my home. That was the end of Emilia's Cleaning in my home. Many people have rated Emilia well. Those that don't usually report that the level of detail in cleaning is not up to what they'd expect for the money they paid. I would concur. ***Update*** We've lived in our house for just over a year. A current home inspection from when we purchased our house indicates that there is no issue with mold in our house. I'm revising my current review of Emilia's professionalism to indicate that Emilia will now insinuate that non-existent mold is harming her workers as a means of retaliating against an honest review.

We had just moved into our Winnetka home, which I explained to Emelia had already been cleaned after painters, etc. Emelia insisted that we pay $66 per hour for three people to clean, and stated that based on the size of the home (5 bedroom) it would take 5 hours approximately. I told her that we had had a cleaning crew in to get the post construction dirt out and that we had been living in the home only 2 weeks, but she said that because of all of the detail work (insides of drawers, under furniture, etc.) that was necessary, the price as $66 per hour, and she stated that was the going rate. I was desperate not knowing any cleaning crew in this new area, trying to unpack and host Thanksgiving, so I agreed, on the understanding that the house would be totally spotless, which Emelia specifically stated it would be. At no time did I (or would I) treat Emelia or her cleaning crew poorly as she indicates below. Quite the opposite. More than 300 dollars later, they did a horrible job at best, leaving things worse than they were. A few specific examples: My toddler son's bathroom is completely new, and was pretty clean before they came, except for some spots on the tile floor, shelves that needed to be quickly wiped, tub lightly cleaned in a basic way, etc. They did none of it. They didn't touch the shelves. The bath toys were in the exact same spot, and full of water, so I don't think they bothered with the tub, and they definitely did not clean the floor. They missed the spots entirely, and I got on my hands and knees and easily removed them. They didn't wipe down my son's crib at all (I did), they didn't clean underneath his changing table at all (I did), and they didn't go underneath the radiator at all (I did). When I asked respectfully asked them about this while they were still here, they told me they don't get on their hands and knees because they have knee problems, and they just use the swiffer, which obviously doesn't go under furniture except a few inches. Wow -- I get on my hands and knees even though I'm pregnant and feeling really sick for free to get the layer of dirt out -- for $66 dollars per hour, I don't think that's much to ask or "beneath" anyone doing a job with any sense of integrity, and one of the ladies was only in her 20's so I don't understand why she wasn't healthy enough to do it. I had asked them to clean the basic crumbs out of my pantry, and all the crumbs are still there, exactly where I left them. They did, however, help themselves to the soda in my pantry, and even took some unopened cans with them (uninvited) as they left. I did offer (not insist, but offer) them to drink my coffee as a courtesy so Emelia would not have to spend time and money getting them coffee (that's how mean and thoughtless I am), but was disappointed as I watched them spend a lot of time getting coffees, taking coffee breaks, going in and out of my house frequently to take smoke breaks, chatting loudly (keeping my son up from his nap even after I nicely asked them to please whisper), and working very slowly and casually. There was an aunt (not nanny -- I don't have a nanny) in the house who saw so many breaks she even said something to them because she was surprised given the price as she used to clean houses for years. I just really felt taken advantage of. There was very obvious mud (from the movers) on the living room wood that they missed, and I had to ask them to please get up after they had done the floor. They entirely missed the grease (left by the prior owners) on the stove, and when I asked them to please go back and get it, the young lady said she wasn't sure if she had any products for that, even though they were using all of my products, and I had shown them several stove cleaners. She still didn't get it all even after I asked her. There was a very strong body odor throughout the whole house while they were there and long after they left. I specifically showed them some cobwebs and dust in the moldings on the ceiling, and asked if they could get it (they agreed to do it), but it was still there after they left, and I got on a ladder and got it done in a couple of minutes. I could do a whole lot more examples, but enough time and money has been wasted. At NO TIME did I ever tell any of the crew they did "a great job" as Emelia claims. To the contrary, I respectfully asked the young woman in her 20's who spoke great English to please actually clean the stove and actually clean under things, and they still did not. Emelia told me she would be back in an hour to check on the crew, and I originally believed she never came back because I figured if she as the owner had actually been there, she would have insisted on better quality work and this situation would not have occurred. I now have learned that Emelia actually did come back when I was upstairs trying to put my son to sleep for his nap, and was talking so loudly on her cell phone the whole time that the Aunt who was in the house asked her to please whisper on her multiple phone conversations. Either Emelia checked the work after her calls in my house and didn't care that it was terrible, or she didn't actually check, but either way, I would not recommend any one hire this company. Emelia never called me after the crew left to ask how the work was and simply picked up the check I had left when I went to put my son down for his nap. She did, however, call after reading this report the next morning as I was trying to feed my son breakfast and yelled and yelled at me for posting my factual report. When I provided her more examples of terrible work (e.g. they broke an appliance holder and did not tell me and left it in the cupboard, they turned the thermostat to zero and the whole family including the baby woke up freezing in the middle of the night, etc etc), she did not apologize, did not offer to make things right, did not offer to refund any of the money, did not offer to come over to inspect, etc etc but just kept yelling. I told her I had to get off the phone and take care of my son, and she kept yelling, so I hung up. At no time (obviously) did I say anything about a "shot" which is crazy, but I did say I thought she should be "shut down", which is maybe what she means below. After I hung up, she immediately continued to call me back and interrupt me and my son, and actually left a harassing voice mail message. Emelia's response -- that this report is inaccurate, that I am "bad news" etc. -- is just another reflection of her work ethic. Why would anyone take the time and effort to make something like this (details and all) up? Why would Emelia agree to work with someone she considered "bad news"? Why would Emelia have so many other negative reports on this site and from others I have now learned, if its always just a matter of a "bad news" or "nightmare" customer? Emelia has a lot of excuses, but the reality is, her service is really poor, and she does nothing to fix it. With all the dozens of dozens of fabulous, hard working, professional and reasonable cleaning crews, I would not chance going with Emelia.

I have tried to keep this report brief, but have failed. I bought the $89 coupon for 4 hours of cleaning through Angies List. Emilia was very prompt in contacting me. I wanted a deep cleaning of 2-1/2 bathrooms & my kitchen. Emilia asked what else I might want done as that might not take four hours. I am in the midst of getting a lot of work done on my home (electrical, painting, plumbing, etc) over the next month or so and don’t want to have those areas cleaned just before having a mess made of them. As it is, half the house is in various states of disaster as I am getting new flooring, etc.. I told her that all I wanted done were the bathrooms and kitchen. We agreed on 8:00 a.m. on the 17th of November. Later, Emilia contacted me to ask if 9:00 was possible. It was inconvenient as I would have to leave work, but I needed this done. Two workers arrived after 9:00 and I showed them what was to be done. They assessed the job and asked what else I would want done to use up my four hours of work. I told them nothing else. I asked when they thought it would be done. One looked over the job again and said 10:30. I asked if I needed to stay, she said no. I said I would be back around 11:00 and left to go back to work. I returned at 11:00 and they were gone. I headed to the basement bathroom and it looked and smelled good. I headed upstairs to the bath and a half and glanced in. Looked good. Headed for the kitchen. It had not been touched. At all. On my way back to work, I emailed Emilia “Kitchen not done” and attached a few pictures of crumbs on the countertops, messy stovetop and dry dog food bits on the floor as proof in case she did not believe me. What I received in return in the past two days was a barrage of insulting emails, telling me how “horrible” my bathrooms were, that there is only so much they can do with “a place like yours”. Emilia claims to have pictures of how they looked and I “know what condition” my home is in. She stated it would take two workers two more hours to make my kitchen “presentable”. I asked her to forward me those pictures and she has refused over and over to do so. I do not think any pictures exist, and if they do, I know they do not back her and her employees up. Once home, I looked over the cleaning job they did and it was haphazard. Dust on windowsill, dust on top of medicine cabinets and wall cabinets, blinds, smudges on door frames. I did not go back and look at the bathroom downstairs. My daughter assures me it is done and I will leave it at that. There are two possible scenarios here – (1) Emilia’s employees lied to her about the condition of my house to excuse their not getting the job done, or (2) Emilia lied to me to cover for her employees, the same ones who told me they would be done with it all in less than two hours. They walked away with half the job undone while they still had time they owed me. I am shocked at how poorly I was treated, both by Emilia and her cleaners. Many moons ago I cleaned apartments that had been vacated to prepare them for new tenants. Some of these 3 bed, 2 bath apartments had never seen a toilet brush, mop or oven cleaner in years, so I know what a “horrible” bathroom looks like and how long it would take to clean one. Her lack of customer service and writing skills (unless she truly meant to be that insulting) has made the situation worse. I have gone from a potential customer who perhaps may have used her service again, had I been responded to in a professional manner, to someone who will never be a customer of hers and am reviewing her company unfavorably in Angies List. Perhaps Emilia has overextended herself with this promotion. Maybe purchasing a coupon based on hours vs actual job needing to get done was my mistake. This was the first time I have ever had a serious issue with a company I found through Angies List and I hope the complaint resolution process works. I have asked for a partial refund, and Emilia says she will, but never responded to subsequent email.

I have used Emilia's services for over a year now and I couldn't be happier. Emilia, the owner, and Cathy, the lady who does the actual cleaning are both wonderful to work with. They are always ready to accommodate me whenever necessary and Cathy does a wonderful job. I had used several different services from individuals to big name companies and I finally settled on Emilia's. Her prices is very reasonable and she is extremely accessible. I would recommend Emilia to anyone looking for a good home cleaning service.

When I first contacted Emilia's about 3 months ago, Emilia came promptly for the estimate. She assigned one of her employees, Monica, who does an excellent job. Monica is prompt, friendly and efficient. When she went out of town for a family event, a substitute was sent without fuss. For cleaning, she uses a vinegar solution on the hardwood floors and is careful not to use too much water; all surfaces and tchotchkes were dusted carefully with swiffer dusters--what a great (but not eco-friendly, unfortunately) discovery! Nothing has been broken. Emilia's cleaners do not move furniture so if you want areas under furniture vacuumed you need to do that yourself or move the furniture I guess. This is not a problem for me. When a supply runs low, a note is left reminding me to purchase more.I'm very happy with the whole experience.

We have been using Emilia's Cleaning since March 2011, almost nine months. We are absolutely thrilled with Emilia and the employee she sends to us. Emilia responds immediately to texts and phone calls, is extremely flexible, and is very willing to work with her clients to meet their long and short-term needs. She assessed our home personally and I was extremely comfortable with her and the way that she does business. She is a mom and understood my needs as a mother, helping strategize how and when the most convenient way to get my house clean would be for all of us. Emilia does not personally clean for me, but checks in often to confirm cancellations, reschedulings, or any other possible issues. I always feel that I could contact her easily and get good results. The woman who cleans for us is excellent and we love her! She is friendly, polite, and punctual. She is often early, but texts to let me know when she is coming (at my request), and only does so because she knows it is ok with me. I never find areas that she has missed or neglected, and she is wonderful about working especially h****** my priority areas. When I asked her to try a different approach for my floors, she did so immediately and checked back for several weeks to make sure I was happy. I trust her and look forward to seeing her each week! I greatly appreciate them using my personal cleaning supplies so that I can control what products my kids are exposed to. They were happy to work with my green products, plus a whole lot of vinegar!

Emilia's has been doing bi-weekly housecleaning of our townhouse since March of this year. Our cleaner Kathy has been very dependable and prompt. She has been responsive to specific issues or feedback we give her and we are very satisfied with her work. Emilia has been flexible with working around our schedule and so far so good. We look forward to continuing our relationship and can recommend Emilia's without reservation.

Emilia's staff (generally Kathy) invariably is on time. They're highly professional. I have a baby, a toddler, and a dog, and they work around our craziness. Sometimes, I've been home with a sick baby, and Kathy will structure her cleaning to avoid waking the baby. The dog creates a lot of dust and tracks mud everywhere, but Emilia's staff does a great job of deep-cleaning so that the place looks sparkling despite the mess that they have to deal with. They never throw away my toddler's "creations," which may appear to be piles of leaves or sliced-up cardboard boxes -- somehow, Emilia's staff can tell what's likely to be precious to her. On occasion, they've brought more than one person when they have to do the job in a short time period, presumably because they have to be elsewhere. They've never let me down. Emilia's very good at communicating by email when they need to change the schedule, and always gives me plenty of notice. I've called them for extra cleaning before relatives visit. Highly recommended.

I was extremely happy with Emilas Cleaning. After using at least 5 different cleaning services in the city, I had yet to find one that I was pleased with. They did such a great job on the entire house from top to bottom. They use one cleaning lady as opposed to a team and she spoke excellent English. She was very pleasant and did great work. Many cleaning companies do not do baseboards and blinds. She meticulously cleaned both of them which was included in the very low price. The bathroom was sparkling along with all the floors. There wasn't a speck of dust or dirt anywhere when she was done. She took her time and did not rush through the job as many companies do. She used all the products that I suggested and I felt very comfortable leaving the home while she did her work. Overall, I highly recommend Emilas cleaning. Their prices are very reasonable and the owner, Emila, is very easy to work with as well. They take pride in their work and I"m happy to have finally found a company I can trust.

We hired Emilia's Cleaning to help with our housecleaning starting last year. My ailing father had moved in with my husband and I, and in addition to caring for my sick father, we have 3 pets (2 cats and a dog). We were overwhelmed and stressed out. My husband and I were working full time jobs and my father had nurses and home-health aides coming and going all the time. Hiring Emilia's Cleaning was a wonderful decision. They helped lower my stress level considerably since I didn't have to worry about keeping ahead of the cleaning anymore. No longer was I plagued with enormous pet hair dust-balls wafting down my hallway. They came every 2 weeks, and cleaned our 2-level condo for $90 (plus we tried to leave tips for the staff when we could). It was always the same two women who came, and as far as I know (I wasn't always home) they came on time and as expected. Only once was the time mixed up and they came earlier than expected. They were pet friendly (very important with 3 pets!) and were willing to work around spaces/surfaces that I didn't want touched (our office desk for example). They were also very kind to my father who had a brain tumor and could sometimes be confused or disoriented. They were willing to use whatever products we requested, and never damaged anything in our home. It was an adjustment getting used to having housework done by a company, since I had never had that experience before, but Emilia was professional and friendly and I felt comfortable having the women work in my home. I would definitely hire them again. I'm ending our on-going cleaning simply because I work from home now, my father has passed away, and there's no need for outside services anymore. Otherwise, I would keep hiring Emilia's. One last note, it is a female-run business, and I am always happy to support those.

Emilia was incredibly responsive to my initial request. She had really good and thorough questions, and created a very thoughtful and impressive estimate for our condo board. Hers was the most professional of the bids we received and definitely the most comprehensive. The pricing of the estimate was very reasonable for the services offered. While our condo board ultimately did not choose Emilia's, I would not hesitate to recommend her service to anyone looking for a professional relationship with a cleaning company.

It took them that long because I have two dogs. When they left I noticed that the kitchen counters were not cleaned and other surfaces were just grazed over. I figured it took them longer than expected and they had to get somewhere else. The house otherwise was clean and smelled fresh. The second time they were here it took them 1.5 hrs and the bathroom shower was hardly cleaned, the kitchen counter was dirty, the fridge was still dirty. I will look for someone else. The house did not look or smell much cleaner than when I do it myself.

We used a different cleaning service at our old place, but after moving into our townhouse, we contacted Emilia's Cleaning Service based on their excellent reviews on Angie's List. We have not been disappointed. Emilia met with us at our home before we scheduled the first cleaning. She is a great person with which to work. We've been using her service every two weeks since then. Sylwia is the one who does the cleaning for us, and she is always upbeat and efficient. She always does good work. Overall, we have been quite pleased.

Emilia's Cleaning has been cleaning our home for almost the last year and we've been thrilled. Their responsiveness and flexibility is terrific - we've had to switch up days a few times to accommodate guests, contractors, etc. I love coming into my clean home on an Emilia's day. I highly recommend!

We called Emilia's. They came over to give us an estimate the next day. We liked them and asked to begin regular service. They dispatched a cleaning crew just two days later. Our house looks amazing!

They're great. They do a good job, they're flexible if I need to reschedule, and they let me know when they need to (rarely). I think their price is fair, and I'm planning on keeping them on.

The service went well and i hired them again for a simlar service

I decided to go with Emilia because the price was so low and the reviews were good. But you get what you pay for. First of all, the lady that came in seemed like she was in a rush to leave. She did a sub-par job on cleaning my townhome and when she was finished she asked if she could use my bathroom to change her clothes. It seemed she had plans that afternoon. I won't use them again. If you are looking for some superficial cleaning and dusting then Emilia is good for that because of the price. But if you want deep quality cleaning then this is not the place to go.

We wanted a housecleaning company as opposed to an individual and after much research and a few interviews, we hired Emilia. Her price was right, she understood cleaning supplies and was able to accommodate our schedule. We've had three cleaners from Emilia and all were excellent workers and did a good job with no issues and communication has never been a problem. Right now, Claudia comes twice a month and comes in with a smile on her face, does her work, doesn't get frustrated with our hyper puppy, and then moves on. The "B" is because sometimes it takes a while to get a return email or text from Emilia and a phone call would be easier. But this has rarely been an issue. We're very pleased and plan on continuing to hire Emilia's Cleaning.

Both Emilia and Renata were very professional; everything was maintained and nothing was damaged.

Everything I asked to be done was handled without any issues. The cleaning was very professional and the service locked and set my alarn system without incident when I was out of town.