AMERICAN MAIDS of CHICAGO, INC

I found them on Angie's List. The price was reasonable. I did not care for their company, I thought they were difficult to work with. I thought it was challenging to communicate the specific needs and I didn't feel like they were responsive to them. I didn't feel like they did a very thorough job. I terminated my relationship with them.

Scheduling was very easy and a time that worked well for me was available. Communication was very good. The 2 young women showed up nearly 15 minutes after the end of the arrival window. Since it was their first time to the area I figured they had a hard time finding it. No problem. I did mind though that they had marked on their paper that they only arrived 5 minutes after the window. I signed at the bottom indicating actual arrival time and she later changed the one they had marked. I walked them through showing them what I wanted done and what were the priorities.I think one did not speak hardly any English, and the other seemed to only know a little. The things they cleaned they did a good job, but they skipped some very unexpected things. Here are a couple examples. They didn't clean under the bathmat I had hung on the edge of the tub. They didn't clean the tile behind the shower brush and scrubber hanging in the shower. They didn't even sweep under the throw rugs in the kitchen or entry hall (both easily movable). My range top was very clean (which I'm sure was a lot of work), but I'm not sure that the towels hanging on the front of the oven were moved to clean the glass behind them. It was just very odd the way things were done. I let them go early and only found these dirty areas later throughout the day. They did a good job, but if I have them back I'll make sure to remove anything that "blocks" where I want them to clean.

They were responsive, communicative and did a very nice job. I felt the pricing was very reasonable. I would definitely use them again and recommend them to other building owners / managers.

I called American Maids--an ironic name as I'll describe shortly--mainly because of the high marks they received on this list. I was given a time that was convenient to me which I appreciated. I was given a two-hour window of when the cleaners would arrive but was told I would receive a call that day with a more precise time. My doorbell rang pretty square in the middle of that two-hour window. It was the cleaners arriving without that promised phone call. Not appreciated. I became aware at the outset that neither of the women spoke much English. I tried to give them some instructions but they just smiled and nodded. Clearly they spoke no English at all. Again, not at all appreciated. My wife was working from home that day and was on a call in the office/TV room. I tried to tell the cleaners to leave that room for last. They nodded and smiled. I left to run errands. When I returned the cleaners were gone. My wife said they just left without communicating with her and without getting paid. As I looked around to see how good a job they'd done I noticed the shelves in the office/TV room were still quite dusty. I looked at my desk and there was clear indication it hadn't been cleaned. After much examination it became obvious that the cleaners had misunderstood my instructions and didn't clean in that room at all. I immediately called the office. I was rather incensed that they would send people out with absolutely no English communication skills. I have no problem whatsoever with immigrants to this country trying to earn their way before they can speak English, but I have a problem with a company that ignores the fact that there should be at least one person on the job who can speak with the customer. I spoke with who I took to be the owner and was treated rather poorly, I felt, given the situation. She did her best to avoid any responsibility for my issues even to the point of insisting that they could in fact speak some English. It was if it was my fault that I didn't follow them around the house making sure they did everything they were supposed to do. I was told it was the company's policy that I was supposed to call their office if the cleaners needed to be told something. Yes that's right. Their policy is that the customer is to call the office to talk to the workers. Amazing. The owner said she was sorry but it was one of those obligatory things that do little to assuage one's frustrations. Anyway, no knock on the cleaners themselves. What they cleaned was fine. I just urge anyone planning on using American Maids to insist ahead of time that at least one of the cleaners be able to communicate with you.

I arrived to the unit to let the cleaners in. I left to go to my office downtown, and a few hours later I received a call letting me know that they had finished. When I returned I was very pleased. I was surprised at how effective the cleaning was. I would recommend them and use them for my own home too.

They did a wonderful job for me. I give them 4 stars. They were prompt and on time and the people that came did a super job. For what I got it was definitely worth the money. I think it's great because you just can't beat the price.

They consistently do a great, quick job and are very professional and punctual. I always get a call if they need to move the appointment time for any reason. The cleaning teams are thorough. I appreciate that my credit card is billed automatically and there has been no paperwork for me since the initial visit.

My experience on the phone with Isabella is what prompted me to use this service. She was very helpful and thorough in her explanations, as well as answering all of my questions. We agreed that a 2-man team would arrive between 11 and 1, and that it would take approximately 4-5 man hours of work. I was notified that the team was near my home, so I went outside to let them in the gate. I began doing some stairwell cleaning while I waited, but when I saw a car right in front with 2 people sitting in it, I made eye contact with them, trying to indicate that I was ready for them. However, they chose to sit in the car and finish their cigarettes for 5-10 minutes, rather than get out of the car to begin the job. Upon entering the unit, I walked the man who spoke English through the unit, and the woman began cleaning. Given the high marks on Angie's List, I simply walked him through the unit and briefly reviewed the to-do list of items that he brought with. Then I went upstairs to my unit. After about an hour or so I checked back, and I saw Ilona (the supervisor) downstairs with them, explaining in detail how certain things needed to be cleaned. That was reassuring, and so was seeing both the refrigerator and the stove pulled out (to be cleaned behind). Again, given Angie's List high marks, I didn't think twice about how the job would end up. As it neared the end of the quoted time, I went downstairs to look closely at the work, since I was trying to decide whether to leave the house (and allow them to just lock up on the way out), or whether I would need to stay to ensure that the job was done to my satisfaction. As I began to walk from room to room and examine different parts of the apartment, I was very disappointed at the dirt that still remained in a variety of places: front of kitchen cabinets, under the microwave, wall behind the kitchen sink, inside bathroom mirror shelving, corner of kitchen floor. As I started to point these out to Ilona, she appropriately began to ask her cleaning crew to address the items that I pointed out. The process began to go south, however, as Ilona continued to tell me, "Look around and see what else..." I guess my expectation is that the supervisor, once she discovered such gross oversights, would herself begin to look around critically at her own staff's work, rather than (what felt like) hurrying me into saying everything was ok. As my disappointment began to show, Ilona seemed to explain it away by saying two things. First, she repeated several times that the staff was trying to meet the 5 hour time range quoted. While I appreciate that, I MUCH would have rather had been told during the process, "Hey, this is going to take longer than expected." I was never given the option to extend the cleaning process; she just kept saying, "Well, we wanted to keep it to YOUR 5 hours," when I never even hinted that this was my limit. The other thing that she told me several times was, "This is a new crew. Someone called in sick today, so we had to scramble to get someone." From a business perspective, my heart goes out to her. It's hard to promise someone some work when the workers don't show. But if it were me, I would have been upfront from the beginning, I would have budgeted extra time, and I would have been VERY sincerely apologetic rather than excuse-ish, especially for an Angie's List customer, given that we have so many highly rated cleaning services to choose from. At some point it seemed to me that Ilona and her crew were eager to leave, and I was tired of pointing out things that I could easily just whisk through and do later myself, which is what I did. Later that day I went through with a rag and found some dirty switchplates that were never cleaned, as well as few other odds and ends. I suspect that American Maids top crews are excellent, given the reviews, but I was not pleased with their new hires or with the supervisor's defense of her crew rather than sincere desire to please. While I understand that quality, growing companies need to hire and train new employees, I don't believe that it needs to be done at the customer's time or expense.

American Maid has been doing housekeeping for my condo for the past several months. The initial cleaning was a bit of a hassle - two dour and obviously unhappy young women AND their supervisor AND the owner of the company scolding me harshly about how messy my home was. They accidentally shut off my computer once and missed a few things on the first few visits, but after talking with the owner they seem to be getting things right now. They're generally punctual. The women don't speak much English at all as far as I can tell - they'll smile and nod if you catch them doing something wrong, but won't always stop doing it. Fortunately their work is consistent and any concerns relayed to the owner are usually resolved quickly. EDIT: Updated to lower the score because they've started sending out spammy newsletters to all of their clients without first asking permission or mandating an opt-in.

They are prompt , they can follow a list of service I want performed above and beyond the calll of cleaning. moves furnitre , polishes silver and copper. Makes the bed and changes the linens. Absolute the best job ever performed and very trust worthy.

They are the best option for eco friendly cleaining and using environmentally safe products. We have them clean our three level house twice a month. We alternate between Premium cleaning and Basic cleaning. They are very thorough and even clean greasy pots and pans before scrubbing our stainless steel kitchen sink. The main level of our house is hardwood floor, and the maids are great at getting it clean. We have a two year old, so she is always spilling things and leaving crumbs everywhere.

This service did a cleaning in an apartment we own after the people moved out. They were supposed to clean all of the windows and sills and claimed they couldn't get one open, which I opened after putting a little muscle into it. They claimed they cleaned the pantry but when I pointed out some dirt they said that it wouldn't come off. I had to clean up after them. They sent 3 people to do a job that only required one person and this ended up costing more. I was quoted $165 and the job ended up costing $195. I will not hire this service in the future.

The owner Ilona and I got off to a rocky start when she was to meet me at our new house to give me an estimate. I arrived at the appointed hour, only to receive a call from her assistant telling me she'd be an hour late. I wasn't happy. In this age of cell phones, they should have been able to call me sooner to let me know she'd be that late. And then, instead of apologizing, Ilona argued with me about how late she actually was. That all said, her crew did a really good job. They all arrived together on time, and worked really hard. They cleaned everything they said they would. I was impressed with the checklist they gave me so that I could go through and make sure everything they said would be clean, actually was clean.

I was a loyal customer for over three years. Never once complained. They switched maids and my house has not been cleaned since. I recently had things taken from my house that I was letting them use while they were here. I have had mold growing in my bathroom and have complained for the past few months. I have been calling for weeks and they have sent no one back out to guarantee their cleaning which they state all over their website. Not to mention they sent a letter saying that everyones rates were going up 30% and took payment out of credit card without authorization! Terrible customer service. I highly recommend you stay away from this company. They have been going downhill for the past 8mo. Take it from a once loyal customer who has been taken advantage of.

The cleaning service was excellent. The cleaners showed up on time, asked a few questions about problem areas/things to focus on, and got to work. They did an excellent job cleaning everything, including things I didn't tell them about. The place looked great and it seemed very reasonable for the amount of work they put in.

Overall experience was great. The service has very nice staff who came out and visited, gave an estimate and was able to accommodate my schedule and come out the next day for the first cleaning. Best service I've engaged to date; they cleaned everything and it looked fantastic. Staff took approx 2 hours to complete work on 1400 square feet. I noticed the cleanliness of my marble and stainless steel the most as well as my lime-covered shower head which is now clean. Service has many other services you can take advantage of to per request (fridge interior cleaning, ironing, windows, etc); I'll be trying a couple of those in the future. Looking forward to my bi-weekly service coming up. Very competitive pricing for my area.

American Maids quoted a 12 man hour job based on a walkthrough on 7/15/2010 @ $27.50/man hour. The quote was based on, in part, the amount of clutter that we had spread throughout the house. On 7/19 my wife and I made a concerted effort to clean up most of the clutter so the job should either take < 12 manhours or they should be able to clean more effectively. They came with 3 people on 7/20, started at 8:50am, and finished at 12:40pm (a little less then 12 man hours). I could tell that the last 1/2 hour or so they were rushing to get done and the deep clean wasn't nearly as deep as it should have been. Areas in master bath that were missed and shouldn't have been, dusting was not done particularly well, even in areas that there wasn't any clutter, and it frankly seemed as though they were more interested in getting done in the alloted 12 manhours than in doing the job correctly. I corresponded with Ilona and explained this to her (along with a few other things) and, while the exchange was professional, was ultimately dissatisfied with the result of the conversation. They did a decent job but we will be looking for another service to do weekly cleanings.

From the first phone call, this company was extremely responsive, professional, and honest. The estimate was accurate, based in large part on the detailed questions asked when making the appointment. They were also able to accommodate us on short notice (called Thursday, they came Monday morning). The two workers were extremely efficient. My partner noted that he had never seen the house this clean. As as result of our experience, our condo building hired them to also do post-construction cleaning, and we are considering them for ongoing service. We will certainly use them again.

It did take two phone calls to get a response, but when I did get one the owner apologized for the delay and was very attentive. The two-woman team did a great job. Incredibly professional. Called to say they were running late, but then only arrived 5 minutes late. Our house was not exceptionally dirty, so it was not an earth shattering result, but they were completely competent, professional, very easy to communicate with, seemed to know exactly what they were doing and diligent about details. They also knew how to clean natural stone and stainless steel. I am VERY picky and I inspect carefully, but I did not see any areas that I thought they had missed. They filled in for our regular cleaning person who is on an extended vacation, but I would certainly use them again to fill in or to do a yearly top to bottom clean. They are not cheap, but they deliver as promised.

I called on a Friday hoping to schedule a cleaning for Saturday and they were able to accommodate me. My condo was cleaned very well and I hope to work with them again in the future.

We had a very good experience from start to finish. They were responsive and accommodating to a short-notice request; I didn't have to call multiple times or wait for a call to get the cleaning scheduled. The crew was late --that was the only problem. They under-estimated the job right before us. They came with a thorough checklist and left the house very clean and within the time frame they had estimated. They did their work very independently and brought all the supplies and tools they needed. I would use them again.

Very well. I had them do the second job because of the work on the first.

The first time I had them, I did a deep cleaning where they really do top to bottom including lamp shades and doors. They did a great job and I had them come back. Now they come every three to four weeks. I find the owner responsive and she seems genuinely interested in knowing whether they are doing what you need them to do or not. There are a lot of extra things that you can pay for like ironing or stove cleaning. There are some things that I think they could do more thoroughly but I?m waiting until my house is more pulled together before I say anything about it.

We did not use them. We chose another company as they were more responsive and over $30 cheaper. That was a good thing.

I used them several different times over the holidays and I was honestly impressed with them so I use them for routine cleaning. They come over every two weeks and I have a contract with them. I used a couple of other companies before them and I wasn?t necessarily impressed. I tried out different ones and they are the ones that I landed with. The price was higher when I just used them one day or one time and now that I have a contract, it is actually cheaper.