Empire's Aide & Services

10027I engaged Empire Aide and Services to clean my elderly mother's 2 BR 1 BTHR apartment. I initially spoke with Violet, who was very responsive. We were looking for some one to do an initial cleaning and then come back every 2 weeks, so Violet set us up with one person who would be able to do both. Elizabeth arrived on time and worked for ~5 hrs (this was the initial cleaning). My mother report that Elizabeth worked very hard and finished up in the alloted time. I have spoken with Violet and Elizabeth is going to come back every 2 weeks. My mother and I were very satisfied.

The apt itself wasn't in bad shape. I just wanted a cleaning before I moved in. It was easy to schedule with Violet. Maxine came on-time and did a great job. Violet called the next day to follow up. Everything went great. I would use their services again.

Please see answer for "what did the provider do"?

Empire's Aide & Services sent Maxine, who arrived promptly with a great attitude and a lot of energy. My apartment was in serious need of cleaning, and she helped me organize and thoroughly cleaned my bathroom, kitchen, bedroom and foyer/dining area. She exceeded my expectations in terms of what she was able to get done in 5 hours, and helped me to get rid of a lot of clutter. She is a pleasure to work with, and really cares about doing a good job. I would definitely work with her again, and am making arrangements for her to come again, and continue helping me get my apartment back on track. I really appreciate that Empire has good people who will work on Saturdays, since I work from my dining room table during the week. Also, I appreciated the fact that you can easily get someone on the phone from Empire, and all my dealings with Violet (I believe the office manager and scheduler), went very efficiently.

Violet sent us two very professional hard working women. This is the fourth time we have used empire. They are always punctual and do a excellent job cleaning our toddler wrecked house. They do the whole job in about 3 hours. We have since set up for regular service.

I realize my experience may be the exception here, but I had issues with this service. If you have an old home or one that needs TLC, I'd look elsewhere. The cleaning was very thorough and the house looked great. I thought it was costly, as I provided the cleaning supplies and solutions -- some services charge a lower hourly rate if you do so. They missed a few things, to be expected, but were responsive and took care of anything that was missed. I was satisfied with the work. The owner was professional and extremely responsive. One of the cleaners was experienced; the other was not. She was 30 minutes late (in fairness, I wasn't billed for the time) and didn't seems to understand English. Here are the other issues driving my poor review. 1 - I have an old house with 100 year old original parquet floors and told this to the service before using it. During the cleaning, I heard banging upstairs. The two cleaners were banging the hose of my vacuum on the floor to get a quarter that had been sucked up. I heard more noise and the less experienced woman, alone this time, was using the hose to scrape dirt off the floor, scratching it (I told her to use a sponge). 2 - I went to the basement to see how things were going. The experienced woman was opening an end table drawer. Asked what she was doing and she said she was "dusting the inside." I said that wasn't necessary. The table was empty, nothing was missing, and it could be me, but I thought this was weird and it made me uncomfortable.

I was told the cleaning would take between three and four hours, and it took nearly four. This, at face value, is fine. I did a quick walkthrough when my cleaner was done, and at face value everything seemed all right, though I noticed that any surface with items on it had not been wiped down, even though I specifically told her where such items could be placed if they needed to be moved. After she left, I noticed that my bookshelves had not been dusted. I understand not wanting to move knicknacks, to say nothing of books, but the spaces between these were not dusted either. Not only were the sofas not vacuumed under, but they were not vacuumed themselves -- I suppose two throw pillows and a single throw blanket were too much to move. At least the kitchen and bathrooms had been done, I figured, only to find that my kitchen floor had not been mopped, nor had the table -- on which I left the cleaning supplies I provided -- been wiped down. I am 10 weeks pregnant and am sensitive to the scent of chemicals, which is why I hired a service in the first place. Otherwise I could have, and would have, done as good a job in less time -- and I have been chided for far more thorough dusting jobs than this one. Now, having paid for a 4-hour cleaning, I need to finish the job, and deal with the chemicals, after all. I will not be hiring this service again.

Violet was very professional when booking the appointment and responsive. I secured an appointment for a Sunday afternoon in preparation of the holidays. Maxine, the cleaning person zipped through the my home like a little engerizer bunny :-) She did a good job and she expressed it was not her best so I replied I can't wait to see her best! Thus, I have already booked another appointment for next month. Empire is afford and my bill is slightly higher because I had to pay for an additional hour (big house). I would recommend their service.

The provider arrived on time and did a very thorough job of cleaning the apartment after my move-out. When she finished, everything was completely clean and in excellent shape for the new tenant. I plan to use Empire's Aide & Services for periodic cleaning of my new apartment and to recommend them to friends.

Cleaner went above and beyond, did a very thorough job. Very satisfied.

I've been a customer of Empire's Aide since March 2015. Violet always makes sure I have an appointment that will accompany my schedule and Zenabu always leave my home in move in/out ready condition. I will gladly recommend this company to anyone who is looking for a professional and courteous cleaning company.

Pleasant, thorough, easy to work with and communicate with. I have arranged to have them back on a bi-weekly basis

W're extremely happy with cleaning. We have used Empire twice now and we've been more than satisfied both times. Evelyn did an excellent job! The place was covered in construction dust when she arrived and it looked like new when she left. We will most definitely be using Empire and requesting Evelyn's services in the future.

Maxine was great: thorough, prompt and friendly; she did a great job. The office was responsive via email and phone.

I was selling my loft in Williamsburg and though it isn't required, I decided to have the place cleaned thoroughly. Empire provided their "Move in/Move out" service for my 1700 sq ft loft (1 bathroom, kitchen and laundry). Violet sent over two very nice women who worked extremely hard for 4 hours and left the place as a shining example of good housekeeping (not the way I kept it!). The whole experience was easy, professional and just plain excellent. For all of the work that these two women did the price was very reasonable. I would not hesitate to use Empire again or to recommend them to a friend of family member. They are terrific!

We had two people come in (one came in 30 mins later than the first one). They were professional and detailed. Originally they were contracted for 4 hours but went over by an hour and a half, which in my opinion, you really don't need that much time to clean two empty apartments, especially if there are two of you. In any case, they were nice and got the job done. We'll be contracting them again.

I called Empire's Aide the same day as the service was provided. I wanted to clean the apartment I just move in because the previous tenant left a dirty bathroom. The guy over the phone was very nice - he asked me if I will provide the cleaning supplies otherwise there's a $20 surcharge. I said I'd purchase them myself but it turned out cost me $60 in the store - Ouch... The quality is superb... The cleaner was committed to 3 hours of cleaning but ended up cleaning for almost 4, which I really appreciate. Compared to its competitors, the price is great. It seems that the cleaner wasn't sure how much I'm supposed to pay. She had to ask me what was the agreed price. Overall I'd give it an A for sure. I would use their service again.

The cleaner was prompt even though it was a long trip for her to eastern Queens. She was pleasant, professional and did an excellent job. She worked very hard for the entire four hours and got a lot done. The price was higher than I am accustomed to paying but I will use this service again.

I have been using Empire's Aide & Services for the past 3 months for house cleaning. They have exceeded all my expectations. I am very pleased with their service. The cleaner always does a spectacular job. My house is spotless when she is finished. The Empire staff is very responsive to emails and calls and are very reliable.

The mother-and-son team arrived very promptly. They were actually at my door before I arrived home. They listened to my instructions and description of what had to be done, and then they set about doing it. The mother cleaned the kitchen counters, refrigerator, stove/oven, refrigerator, etc., the bookshelves in the living room, the floors, etc.. The son vacuumed the bedroom, cleaned the bathroom, vacuumed everything in the living room (the floor, the furniture, etc.), polished the living room furniture, cleaned out the trash cans, vacuumed and mopped the stairs, and helped me carry a heavy Rubbermaid tote out to my storage locker. They did whatever it took to get my place ready for Passover, I cannot remember every single thing but they did it. They were very nice people, cheerful and industrious. I would have them back anytime when I needed Passover cleaning.

Both Violet and the cleaner were very nice but I found the quality lacking. I don't think it was a thorough enough cleaning. Also, she left the mop face down in a metal bucket. Both the bucket and mop have now become rusty. She cleaned the oven with the wrong cleaner. When I turned on the oven, smoke came out. Overall, unsatisfied.

Some feedback necessary to get the space cleaned to our satisfaction, but provider was extremely responsive and we are now satisfied. Will continue to hire them.

I was doing grandparent babysitting duty for one of my kids, who was out of town with her spouse and youngest child. Their apartment in Park Slope had only been cleaned by a cleaning service perhaps once or twice in the last several years, and let's just say that with two kids there was still a lot of work to do, I live in another city and found Empire on Angie's list. Violet sent a wonderful woman, Zenabu, who worked for six hours without a break, and after each area that she tended to she'd ask me to look, see if it need more work, etc (it never did). She was solid, energetic, articulate, attended to details, and was excellent in her work. When my daughter and her husband return they will be surprised and impressed. I most certainly would ask for Zenabu again.

I've already recommended Empire's and the job was just done yesterday. Violet and her team are wonderful. And this isn't a "friend of the family" review -- I only know them from this one job. It went amazingly well. I called Violet on the afternoon of a major snowstorm which caused my other cleaning plans to fall through. Other services said it was impossible to schedule on such short notice, especially given the terrible weather. I hadn't used Angie's list before but decided to try it, given the urgency. Despite the roughly 9 or 10 inches of snow that was accumulating, Violet was able to arrange for two lovely women to come to the apartment the following morning at 9am on roughly 18 hours' notice. Then later that evening I learned that the contractor needed an additional 2 hours, and -- while snow was still falling -- I left a voice-mail message around 7pm for Violet asking if they could push back their arrival time to 11. I assumed there was no way that could happen -- after working hours during a major snowstorm -- but thought I'd try anyway. Sure enough Violet called me back and was extremely accommodating. The cleaning team arrived on time the next morning, and stayed for nearly 6 hours, putting up with the noise and somewhat chaotic environment of the construction crew. They were extremely efficient, thorough, precise -- and just as important, kind, pleasant, friendly, and intelligent -- everything I could possibly have hoped for. They did a stellar job under trying circumstances, rolling with changes in plans throughout the day. To top if off, Violet trusted me in terms of payment -- she didn't ask for any pre-payment, and in fact wouldn't send an invoice until she was certain how many hours her team put in -- though we'd never met. She charged for exactly the amount of time the team worked, the price was extremely fair, and payment was via PayPal which took all of 3 or 4 minutes. Again, this is a terrific company; the head of the construction crew himself asked me for their contact info because he was equally impressed -- and that's truly saying something!

From the start, Empire's Aide was great to work with. Violet was very responsive both on the phone and via email. I called with very little notice, and on a holiday weekend she was able to find someone to come out and clean our house. After a quick discussion about what we would like done and an email exchange to review the contract and terms, things were all set. Jackie was the one assigned to do the work and she didn't stop all day. She started on the top floor and worked her way down cleaning everything despite other workers being at the house. She was very thorough and gave us tips on things to do in the future. We look forward to having her out to the house again. Thank you for doing such a great job.