Merry Maids of Falls Church

The issue on on Jan 31,2013 is that a sponge seems to have been left in the toilet. This was not discovered until the toilet did not flush the following day, nor did the level diminish the day after that. The plunger was minimally effective. Fortunately my husband was able to avoid an emergency Plumber's charge by using his plumber's snake, and was able to extract the sponge which had traveled almost to the point of damaging the entire system. Previously they broke an antique piece of China. The business is not run as professionally as was done in Chicago: 1) there is no reminder call the day before 2) they do not leave a list of areas covered, areas intended for special focus the following week, with the receipt. The women are very nice, and they are accommodating if we need to change our schedule.

I called and spoke with the man at marry maids several times. the first time he gave me pricing and answered questions regarding background checks, reviews, etc, etc, etc. The pricing was good and I was impressed with their background check policy, so on Sunday I called back to schedule a cleaning. I asked if the $135 first cleaning fee would be waived (lots of cleaning companies do that now) and instead, I would just pay the regular bi-weekly chart (about $85 for a 2bed 2bath). The man said that wouldn't be a problem and I scheduled for the next Friday morning. The day before (thursday) I called to confirm the appointment and verify the check amount... I'm not one for surprises. The same man said he couldn't help me because he wasn't on the right computer, so another woman called me back and left a message saying I had an appointment for the next day, but the charge was $135. After brief phone tag (and picking up the house and preparing for maid service), I received a phone call from the same man about an hour before the maids were supposed to arrive. He said he couldn't honor the $85 price and because we had a misunderstanding, we would have to postpone the cleaning. I took the morning off of work, had picked up the house, and had company scheduled to come a couple days later, so I told him that wasn't a good option. I said I was fine to pay the $135 fee, but as a mater of principal he should strive for better business practices and clearer more consistent communication. the man (wish I had his name) said that because we were arguing, he wasn't going to send his people out... for the record, I didn't think we were arguing, just discussing a "misunderstanding." He then said he was canceling my "contract." Very weird. No voices were raised, and in my opinion we were working to come to a mutual agreement. I hadn't checked Angies list prior to scheduling and just assumed that since they are a well known, national company they would be fine. Now I'm so glad that I never allowed them in my home or god forbid, gave them a key!!! Don't do it. They can't even schedule a cleaning appropriately.

They sent two people, on of whom spoke a modicum of English; the other spoke none. I could not get them to clean the top of the stove or the little vent from the oven. They didn't dust under the furniture. They didn't dust the tops of the mirrors or the medicine cabinet. They didn't dust the TV screen. They would not vacuum the draperies. The lady who orchestrates the operation wouldn't refund any of my money or make it right, except to offer to send them back out, which I didn't want. They cleaned the refrigerator and put the shelves back wrong and they are very hard to move. They also blocked the cold air vents. They also cleaned the shower doors. It took me 20 minutes to undo what they did to my temper glass shower doors that crisscrossed. I had to take my time moving that so that I wouldn't break the shower doors.

The first cleaning we had was pretty good, it seemed like everything but the cabinet wiping had been done, but a lot of the rugs and some furniture had been moved and had to be put back in place. The second cleaning wasn't as good, nothing had been dusted, called and asked for better attention to this and the next cleaning, the dusting was better, and the house appeared clean. Next time, no dusting and whatever had been used for mopping had left a white residue on the hardwood. Called the company to ask for better over site next time and for cleaning to be moved to Saturday so that we could be here for it and were told no, we had to keep Friday. But the next cleaning was better, things were dusted and the house appeared clean. This last cleaning, yesterday, Friday July 13, was so terrible that we are writing this report. We came home and the rugs and chairs were moved again but nothing had actually been cleaned. No vacuuming, mopping, dusting and no trash removal.

Cleaning was done too fast. Furniture was not dusted, corners were not hoovered, dust accumulated under sofa, etc.

I THINK THAT THEY ARE A GOOD COMPANY. THEY COME EVERY TWO WEEKS. THEY ARE PROMPT AND KEEP THE HOUSE LOOKING NICE. I HAVE BEEN USING THEM FOR ABOUT A YEAR. THEY ARE ALWAYS ON TIME.