A-1 Crystal Clean Services

He was punctual and did a very good job.

BAD NEWS - Paid for coupon deal & called for an appointment. Waited 3 days without a response. Called again and then got a call from Michael. He told me that he was very busy and tried to talk me out of the job deal because he was to booked up and deal expired. He asked to e-mail the company which I did right away. Waited another 4 days without a response. E-mailed again and was told 75-80 jobs are ahead of me. Just can't do business that way. BAD NEWS !!!!

Mike and his assistant booked my appointment and showed up on time. They were flexible with me in booking quickly since I was putting my house on the market, and needed to get it pressure-washed before the first open house. Overall, the cleaning went well, and they got alot of dirt and algae off, making the house look great. My house is white vinyl, and I noticed the next morning that there were some rust stains that had formed after the pressure-washing. Now I understand they formed overnight from water draining from the small holes on the underside of each course of vinyl siding. I tried to get rid of the stains myself by spraying them with a regular hose, but couldn't get them off, so I called Mike back. He was professional over the phone, and explained why the stains appeared the day after the cleaning, and said he would take care of me. But, long story short, he did not end up coming back to get the stains off. (By the way, if you ever discover stains after you've pressurewashed your house, it's not such a big deal. I ended up trying a bunch of cleaners, but found CLR did the trick in the end. I just applied it undiluted.) Anyways, after Mike didn't show up to clean off the stains, and I had cleaned the stains off myself, I started wondering how much Mike's company actually received from the $199 that I gave over for the "angieslist big deal". So, I called angieslist, and discovered that each "big deal" has a different percentage, but that Angieslist was taking 60$ out of this particular $199 "big deal". The original price for this service is $450, and A1 Crystal clean was taking home only $140. That means from this deal, the owner/operator is taking home only 31% of the advertised normal price. I was surprised Angieslist was taking such a large percentage. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how unfair this practice is, and in the end I don't blame Mike at A1 for not coming back to my place to get rid of the stains, but instead Angieslist for exploiting their associates, the small-business owner/operator. Especially in the midst of a down economy when these guys are among the first to get hit. If I had known upfront how much the owner/operator got paid for this work, and how much Angieslist got, I wouldn't have taken the deal. Angieslist is getting way too greedy, way too exploitive in these "big deals," where the owner/operator isn't incentivized enough to do their absolute best work, likely because they are being drastically underpaid. When I spoke with the angieslist representative, whom I do not name in this review in recognition of their honesty, I learned furthermore, that this was an issue they were aware of, and which they were working to correct - not by taking less of a cut, but by raising the price of the "big deals" Without getting into the related debates about 1) legitimate business marketing costs, AND 2) the fact these businesses are not actively compelled by angieslist to enter into the "big deals", I conclude my review by saying that angieslist's practice of taking such a high percentage off such a radically-discounted price seems to me exploitive and unfair to the small businesses it is associated with - a group of people who need work, and who generally represent the best tradespeople in their fields (as indicated by the high ratings they need to even have the chance of offering customers a "big deal"). I would like to see angieslist change this policy, by lowering the amount they take away from the tradesmen.

I ended up not using the Big Deal because when he came out to look at my house, he thought the shingles and the siding on my home were too delicate for pressure washing and he didn't want to take the risk. It took a while for me to finally reach to them and find this out. I tried calling them several times without any response. When I finally did hear from them I was told that the secretary quit and they were short-handed and very busy. I was also told that they had been to my home about 10 days before and left a business card in my mailbox, which I never found.

Very professional job. Mike, the owner who did the job, explained that loose paint may flake of and pointed out an are that needed to be repainted. Since the shigles are 20 years old, the only minor flaking was on the older trim. I will be calling him back every 2 years regardless if I paint or not. To keep your house looking great, I recommend using this service ever 1 or 2 years.

The previous business day, A-1 always calls to remind and confirm the cleaning day/time period. in my case, they left a message confirming they'd be here Monday mid-afternoon. First they dusted all of the ceiling vents and light fixtures. Then they cleaned the bathrooms and swept and mopped the tile floors. Then they swept and mopped the kitchen and hallway. Just like they do every two weeks.

Excellent. Very happy with the job they did.

I called 4 times and left messages and never received a phone call. I finally got ahold of a person today and because my house is a triple decker they said I couldn't use my coupon. I have an issue with the fact that I called for a week and half and never got ahold of anyone.

We had a great experience with A-1 Crystal Cleaning. We purchased a pressure washing service Big Deal through Angie's List. Michael called us as soon as we purchased the Big Deal to explain how he scheduled his appointments. He said that he would call in a week or so to schedule a definitive time for the pressure washing. He was very accommodating with respect to the scheduling, and when he made an appointment - he arrived on time and he & his assistant got right to work. Michael even offered to pressure wash our back porch and to clean our daughter's play house, which was extremely nice of him. Michael did a fantastic job and several of our neighbors have commented about how great the house looks & what a difference the pressure washing made. Michael was extremely polite and professional from start to finish, and I absolutely recommend his services and I would hire him again.

The initial negotiations were uneasy as the provider, naturally, wanted to make sure the house was less than 1800 sq feet. I knew that the exterior, mostly brick, would mean it would not be large job. I suspect this was his first experience with Angie's list and that he was taking a risk of getting a customer with a large house to be cleaned. After placing the order through Angies website he called and said he was orchestrating several house nearby. Subsequently he called to set up a time; Wednesday morning, for example. Since I was the first customer I assumed that it would be earlier in the morning. Communications problem - he came later in the morning. Calls to the number listed got a message saying that the voice mailbox was full. Got a little nervous. The truck showed later in the morning, i relaxed, he saw that the house was as I described it and he relaxed. Opened the outside faucets and left them to do their cleaning. Later he rang the doorbell to let me have my dry mail - he was concerned what might happen to it. I visually inspected the work and have before and after pictures. When done, I handed him the password, he assured me if the one trouble spot came back soon that he would redo it for free. I would definitely use his service again. I did encourage him to be more specific when setting up the time. And my wife cannot tell the gable end is dirty anymore. Thanks

We were putting our home on the market and needed a complete cleaning, inside and out, prior to photos and video being taken of the property. We were in a time crunch and called A-1 because of their Angie's List rating. They came out the next day, gave me a price for both services on the spot, and, understanding my timing issues, had two teams to take care of the inside and outside in 2 days. They did a great job and we got an offer (that we just closed on last week) in 3 days, so they did their part. I was planning to use them on a regular basis to keep the house looking good while it was showing, but it ended up selling too quickly! Easy to communicate with, very accommodating; great experience.

The day I met the people from A-1 (a youngish couple and mother-in law) was the day I struck gold! The very first thing I noticed about them was that they are American! In other words, they speak ENGLISH!! I hadn’t quite realized how hard I’d been banging my head against the broken (or non-existent) English of the last several cleaning people I had tried. You ask them to clean something—they give you the nod and the smile and then—NADA! This may be highly politically incorrect, but I’m going to say it anyway. I just adore communication--especially when it comes to the many complexities involved in getting your house clean. Beyond this huge benefit, the more I get to know this family and see their work, the more impressed I get. They are well trained, bright and very nice, which was not the case with the others, some of whom were highly rated on Angie’s List. Recently I sheepishly asked the young woman to move a rug back into alignment with the sink, a matter of a fraction of an inch. Instead of raised eyebrows, her response was “Don’t worry-I’ve got OCD.” Can you imagine having a house-cleaning professional who’s actually fussier than you are?! Later I complimented her on spotting some obscure scratches on a lucite phone stand. She responded, “I never miss anything.” And I can truly attest to that! I’ve always asked cleaning people to try to put things back where they were. They always say, “Of course,” but this is the first time I’ve ever seen it happen. When they first came to look at the house, they wrote down every one of my requests in a notebook. When others came to mind, they asked me to email them the additional ones—all three of them read this and remembered it! Have I died and landed in House-Cleaning Heaven?!

On the day we had scheduled, they showed up at 2:30 (blaming the traffic for being ½ an hour late) with 4 people and stayed until just before 4:30 ? we?re very confident about the time they left since my wife had to leave to pick up our son from preschool. When they left, they asked my wife if she wanted to inspect their work. However, she assumed that they had done all of the work they agreed to, had already noticed some issues but wasn?t really worried if a few things weren?t perfect, and due to her difficulty in getting around the house, she told them that she didn?t need to do an inspection. The result was that they didn?t actually do ANY of the things that made it a deep cleaning - the refrigerator, the cupboards, the base-board heaters, the sun porch and under the rugs/furniture in the family room were all left undone. Additionally, there were a number of other things which by themselves were not huge issues, but when combined made even the regular cleaning job less than we expected: for example, in our bedroom they polished around all of items on top of a chest-of-drawers without moving anything and while we do not wear shoes in our house, there were dirty shoe prints all over our downstairs bathroom and hallway. When I called to complain, they offered to come back and fix whatever they had not done. However, there were so many things left undone that I didn?t believe that they would actually fix the job and didn?t want to end up having to follow them around to make sure everything got done. We felt like we had been completely deceived during our initial meeting and to be honest did not want them to come back to our house. Even though we didn?t think even the regular cleaning was done to our satisfaction, we thought a more than fair solution was to pay them for the regular cleaning instead of the ?deep cleaning? which they didn?t do. So I asked them to refund me the $225 difference. While the owner had originally asked us if we wanted the deep cleaning or the regular and we had chosen the deep cleaning, their response was that this was a ?first cleaning? which has a standard price and they had worked really hard. Additionally, they kept stressing that none of their customers had ever been disappointed and that they had driven a long way and had 4 people working for over 3 hours. Which was not true - they were not here for 3 hours. But more importantly, the agreement was not an hourly payment, but for the job and they did not do the job they agreed to. Finally, as our disagreement continued, they claimed that the reason they didn?t clean everything was that we had told them NOT to clean the refrigerator, or the cupboards or the sunporch. Again, not true. We never told them not to do these things, as this work was the main reason we hired A-1 vs. some of the other cleaners we interviewed. A-1 did not provide the service they originally offered and then when I confronted them on the issue, completely misrepresented the agreement from our original meeting. While they did offer to come back and do the work, I didn?t trust them, didn?t really want to deal with them anymore and thought that I had offered a fair solution. Based on all of this, I do not recommend A-1 Crystal Cleaning.

On 5/6/2011 they didn't show up. After more than half an hour I called them and left a message asking if they had forgotten. The husband didn't return that call until the next day when he got around to it.-- 5/7/2011. He asked if I wanted to schedule another appointment, and I said NO. That was the end of my contact with the company.

Like I stated above their services were great overall. From our initial estimate until they walked out of our front door after they finished cleaning they were polite, friendly and very hard working. If you are looking for someone to clean your house like it is their own this is the company you want to call. On top of that you will not get more for your money anywhere else. I never thought I would hire someone to clean my house on a regular basis but A-1 changed my mind.

They were late and I had to call to see if they were still coming. The owner explained a job had gone long and they were on their way. I almost cancelled, but this was right before the holidays and I needed my house cleaned. After the husband and wife owners, a mother, and a helper arrived, I gave them a quick tour, and they all got to work. They cleaned 1 bedroom, the full bath, the half bath, the kitchen, the dining room, and the living room. They did a fantastic job. The condo sparkled. I felt the $250 initial fee was a bit expensive, but they did such a good job I hired them to come monthly, for a more reasonable fee of $90.

They cleaned the interior of my house and did a good job. They were very thorough and well-organized. I liked their services and will use the same in future.

I spoke with both Michael and his wife and arranged to meet at a specific time on 2/11. After waiting over an hour, I called Michael who said that they got tied up at another job and asked if we could arrange another time for Monday, 2/14. We set a time for 5:30pm. He never showed and never called. This is so unprofessional and wonder how he received all of these good ratings. 2/18 I read your response and as I said on the phone I was very sorry to hear about your son. When Michael called the first thing he said was that he forgot that it was Valentines day.. that's why you didn't show. He then mentioned Angies list ( so obviously he read the report) which is why I think he called me. You had the entire weekend to call and let me know that you were not able to come. It is the courteous, professional thing to do when you are unable to keep an appointment. Just NOT SHOWING UP is inexcusable.

I had fired my previous company because they sent different people each time I had my house cleaned. The best part about A-1 Crystal Cleaning is that they always send the same people. They always know exactly what I'd like done but are more than willing to do other jobs if I ask. Every few months they also do a complete cleaning of an "area" of my house. Their prices are fair and they do a great job and it is a family operation so you know everyone there!

They have very bubbly personalities, and are always in a good mood. They go above and beyond what is asked. I am a widow and they lift heavy things for me, and other things that I can't do on my own. Their work really speaks for itself and the price is very reasonable.

She is very thorough and cleans exceptionally well. I have been using her services for about 2 1/2 years and she has been extremely reliable. She is accomodating with changes in my schedules, she even changes the beds for me and is open to doing what I ask for. I would highly recommend her.

I find that they would do absolutely anything for me. Whatever I ask them to do, they do it. Their cleaning is just perfect. My husband recently passed away and they have been a tremendous help.

We use this company's services on a regular basis and always found them to be excellent. They provide superb service at a very reasonable price. We have used a number of other companies in the past and A-Crystal Clean is the best yet. They are very thorough, cleaning nooks and crannies in our home that other companies never touched.

I'm very happy with their services and strongly recommend them to others. They are punctual, efficient, get the job done over and above the call of duty, and are very pleasant people.

A-1 Crystal Clean replaced our (national franchise) maid service in May 2009. They are reliable and considerate and careful. Every other week, they clean our bathrooms and tile floors; quarterly they deep-clean a room or an area of the house. They're careful to use cleaning subtances that will not harm my two-year-old. When performing a deep-cleaning, they are careful moving the furniture and appliances, and returning them to place when finished. A-1 power-washed the exterior of our house (6.5 years after it was originally painted); we can hold off re-painting for a couple more years.