Merry Maids

I was impressed with the woman who gave my estimate. She inspected, quoted a reasonable rate, suggested staggered cleanings of less-​used rooms to save money and keep the heavily-​used rooms cleaner. I was especially excited that they offered to waive the initial deep-​clean fee if I signed a contract.
I was out of town the first time they came, but my son said only one girl arrived, late at 10 a.m., and left at 11:30. When I got back, the house was NOT even CLOSE to clean; so I called and was told that one of the two girls was sick that day and the other had to leave for class, but that I’d be getting my deep clean as promised the next week.
The next week, I came home excitedly to see. The house was in very disappointing condition, and I called again, and a supervisor came out and inspected. She agreed that the house was not cleaned to their standards (microwave dirty inside, bathroom floor grimy and dusty in the corners, counters greasy and crumby etc., etc) and set up a time for her and another cleaner to come back and re-​do it. After they came back and re-​did it, it was somewhat better. I would say it was satisfactory for a routine cleaning, but the baseboards were still dirty, the corners and doorframes and bookshelves were dusty, the bar sink in the rec room was not wiped, much less scrubbed, and similar.
This week, after rescheduling without telling me, they came again. THIS was supposed to be the «deep cleaning». Two young ladies arrived promptly and got to work. After they finished downstairs, I inspected. They hadn’t gotten corners of bookshelves, steel sink, wiped counter or microwave, or vacuumed near the dog’s crate. Shelves in utility room they hadn’t mopped under. Dirt packed into floor corners. I made a list and politely informed the cleaner who was in the kitchen that there were some items missed, and I placed the list on the counter to get before leaving. A few minutes later, I noticed one of the ottomans the cat likes was discolored and I told the other girl that the best way to get the cat fur off was to use a slightly damp paper towel. She smiled and said okay.
A few minutes later, my cell phone rang, and the supervisor told me she was pulling the crew from my home because I had been rude to the cleaners, «who don’t make very much money and deserve some respect.» I was flabbergasted as I walked out of the garage and saw the two standing on the the lawn on their cell phones! I told the woman on the phone that I was angry and insulted, and that I had been polite but clear in telling them what was needed. She stated that she was going to charge me for a deep cleaning, and I refused. I agreed to pay for two regular cleanings, as this is all I had received, and at the cost of a lot of aggravation. The two girls left before I could even inspect the upstairs.
Pet owners beware: several of the problems centered on pets. They do state in the beginning that they will not clean up animal waste; fair enough, and I wouldn’t expect them to. The first time the cleaner came, she didn’t clean near the dog’s sleeping crate and claimed there were dog feces present. This was ridiculously untrue; the supervisor who came to inspect agreed, but it needed cleaning, the dog is black and indoor-​outdoor, so there was a fair amount of black dog hair, yard dust, and dander. I gave the crate a good cleaning and fresh bedding two days before the last visit, but apparently the girls claimed they still could not get the floor next to it clean «because the crate was dirty.» (Today I was able to clean around it with no trouble.) The shelves under which they did not clean were in the same room with a (freshly-​scooped) cat litter. The girls not only didn’t kick the catbox away from the wall and sweep and mop behind it, they didn’t clean under shelves a foot away or under an AC duct two feet away. I think they are trained not to deal with animal wastes, and the management lets them stretch this to not working anywhere even NEAR anything having to do with animals.
Today I spent two hours cleaning things they missed: cleaned under shelves, scoured sinks, wiped the filthy backsplash and microwave in the rec room, wiped the bases of lamps and the sideboard and cocktail table in the rec room, dusted corners of the shelves and (untouched dusty) tops of corner armoires, wiped out the corners and baseboards, wiped the kitchen microwave (yech, greasy buildup on the vent fan grill untouched), cleaned the fronts of the kitchen cabinets, swept out untouched crumbs and scraps in the corner of the kitchen toeboard, and re-​mopped the kitchen (grey yuck on the mop!).
I was still going to let it ride and not post a bad review, since they agreed to charge me only for the two «regular» cleanings instead of the deep cleaning I never got, when I checked my account and saw that I had been charged for THREE cleanings instead of two! I feel really ripped off and angry.