You've Got Maids

To Whom It May Concern?*** *** received service on 5/27/She signed the work order after the cleaning was completed by a team of three cleaning techsThe team arrived on premise according to GPS at? 10:58am? and left at? 1:47pm.? The ladies clocked in at her house
at? 11am? and clocked out at? 1:45pm.? Both of the time matches with in few minutes.? Attached us the initial agreement that was sent to *** from? ***? to her email address of? ***? with and estimate price quote of $480-$her prior to agreeing to commit to service on May 26th, 2017.Our price is $per maid per hour which is $for ladies per hour.We spent hours and minutes each per lady multiply by ladies (Cecy, Blanca, and Josephine) is equal to hours and minutesTotal hours *$Hours per maid = $495We charge $with a saving of $54.We have explained to *** how we do our billing per maid per hourShe understands how we charge however: for some reason she feels she should only pay for one maidThis is how we charge all our clients and is industry standard.Our company follows ethical and honest business practicesWe gave *** the entire tool necessary to make a buying decision.Kind Regards*** ***

I was hired to clean the Apartment located at [redacted] Rd., [redacted], NY [redacted]
The client explained that she was diagnosed with Dust Mite AllergyDue to this fact, I offered a 52-Point Spring Clean, our most thorough cleaning, as what would be the best for her needs. We also offer a less expensive General Clean, which is routine, surface cleaning. I clearly defined the differences (see copy of email confirmation)Additionally, I provided a detailed point-by-point description (checklist) of what is included in each cleaning options.Attempts to see the apartment before the cleaning were not possible. So all arrangements were made over the phone / Internet. Therefore, pricing was based entirely on what the customers saidI was careful in telling [redacted] that the cost was "depending on the actual situation in the house"[redacted] decided explicitly for the General Clean, despite the fact that "we will dust the surfaces" and "we will NOT hand wash". However, dusting was impossibleFor no additional cost to [redacted], we decided to perform the more expensive, more thorough 52-Point Spring Clean for the initial clean. Naturally, the home owners appreciated the "premium" service, at the lower "general" cost - a monetary advantage of $
We appreciated [redacted] as a new recurring client, and valued her business, so we did not even mention that conditions were more challenging than she described, or the additional work that was required, or the time, labor and supplies that were used to get her home to a high level of clean
In regards to dust, we exclusively use the only Hepa Filter Vacuum that is required by the American Lung Association, to conclusively remove as much dust as is possible. However, [redacted] declined weekly or every-other-week service, and wanted us to clean every weeks. Naturally, dust will accumulate in weeks. My wife and a cleaning associate cleaned the apartment on the next service, weeks later, as well as the basement added extra to the service plan
A couple of days later [redacted] complained that one bedroom had not been touched by the MaidsNote: we have a 24-hour guarantee. Also, there's only one bedroom in this apartment, and my wife personally cleaned that roomStill, we care about our customers, and we take complaints seriously, even when we are contacted some days later, and one of the owners was on site for the entire service. So, a week after the cleaning, I inspected the room of concern. The low level of dust was appropriate for a few days, and not for over a month
Still, I offered to 52-Point Spring Clean the surfaces in the concerned room immediately. But the homeowners decided not to at that momentWe spoke about the service and more specific about their needs and came to the conclusion that a more frequent cleaning as well as wet ragging the surfaces instead of feather dusting were needed, so we were discussing a service every other week with an adjusted plan with an adjusted service chargeThe homeowners wanted to think about different options we discussed, but we agreed on re-doing and paying special attention the room of concern with next service, supposedly within the next coming days (weeks from last service)But instead the homeowners wanted to keep the monthly cleaning and kept on insisting on either the cleaning (of the entire house) for no charge (I refused, pointed to re-clean the area!), or refundThey filally turned to HQ with the complaint that I don't honor our guaranteeBut the guarantee says: complaint within 24h, concerned area, and not the whole house
Our Guarantee is proudly promoted on our website. It states:
"If you are not happy with any area we've cleaned, simply call within hours and we will come back out and re-clean it free of chargeThis makes hiring You've Got MAIDS® virtually risk free."
Our guarantee is more than many cleaning companies offer, as people start to ‘live' in their house immediately...yet I went above & beyond by offering to do a deep cleaning of the area for no charge a week after the cleaning, just to make them happy. To that end, I felt that the more I tried to make them happy, the more they asked for. In any event, the last attempt the home owners called me to ask for 50% refund, and threatened that if I don't grant that, they will go public, online etcThis request is even out of proportion, 50% refund for room of concern? Decline my free offer to re-clean several days later?
I thank you for looking in this matter
Best regards,
Christian KDirector
Buffalo Real Estate Management, LLC dba
You've Got MAIDS®

I am rejecting this response because: My initial complaint: I paid for agreed maid service of 2.4 hours at $60/hour which is $144. This "maid hour" was not part of the conversation, and when I received an email with a link to explain this "maid hour", the link is a YouTube video of a person buying a franchise of You've got Maids. This is Customer Fraud. I signed a paper that had no relevant information to this issue, nor did I get a copy of it.  I immediately emailed them when I saw the overcharge, as I would never agree to a $441 charge to clean an empty 1300 sq ft townhome. The National Average to clean a 1300 sq ft home is $100 or $25/hour. Please note that this is not a lived in, furnished home. It was empty, dusty, but otherwise clean. The Master bathroom was completely remodeled and I requested the maids not to clean as it was spotless. They did not clean a laundry area or refrigerator as they weren't present. In fact, I'm surprised that 3 maids took that long to complete the task on an empty, newly painted 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath home.My other complaint is that You've Got Maids fraudulently charged my bank account for $441.00 on 10/10/17, and then sent me to collections for this fraudulent charge. I seek both to be rectified immediately. Thank you, [redacted]

To Whom It May Concern?[redacted] received service on 5/27/17. She signed the work order after the cleaning was completed by a team of three cleaning techs. The team arrived on premise according to GPS at 10:58am and left at 1:47pm. The ladies clocked in at her house...

at 11am and clocked out at 1:45pm. Both of the time matches with in few minutes. Attached us the initial agreement that was sent to [redacted] from [redacted] to her email address of [redacted] with and estimate price quote of $480-$600 her prior to agreeing to commit to service on May 26th, 2017.Our price is $60 per maid per hour which is $180 for 3 ladies per hour.We spent 2 hours and 45 minutes each per lady multiply by 3 ladies (Cecy, Blanca, and Josephine) is equal to 8 hours and 15 minutes.8.25 Total hours *$60 Hours per maid = $495We charge $441 with a saving of $54.We have explained to [redacted] how we do our billing per maid per hour. She understands how we charge however: for some reason she feels she should only pay for one maid. This is how we charge all our clients and is industry standard.Our company follows ethical and honest business practices. We gave [redacted] the entire tool necessary to make a buying decision.Kind Regards[redacted]

"I recently was in search of a new house cleaning service for my real estate clients when I was recommended to You’ve Got Maids in Orland Park. I just had my first experience with them and was very impressed by Owner Kim [redacted] and her crew. I represented my sellers in this case and was assigned Nicky, Kelly, and Valerie … all three ladies are friendly, very hard working and thorough in their cleaning checklist. They have a great system in place and I would trust them in any home.”
Carla [redacted], REALTOR®
Baird & Warner

You've Got Maids is an excellent cleaning company. The two maids who cleaned my townhome were efficient; friendly; prompt and hard-working. My home was cleaned to my every satisfaction. I will use them a lot more often in the future.

I was completely thrilled with the services received by the You've Got Maids staff. The ladies that cared for our home were Kelli and Nicky, both were very polite, professional and thoroughly cleaned our home. Without even using scented cleaning supplies or air fresheners they left my home smelling a complete delight. The price of the 52 point clean was quite expensive but considering that I wanted to treat myself to something special for my birthday this was one of my finest ideas. If you have not had a maid service in your home I highly recommend that you experience it. I am a pretty "neat freak" and the ladies were able to identify areas of my home that even I wouldn't have thought of routinely cleaning.

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. There was no offer of resolution provided by the company. I have copied/pasted their response below with my concerns set forth in Blue as follows:
MESSAGE FROM BUSINESS:I was hired to clean the Apartment located at [redacted] Rd., [redacted], NY [redacted].  
The client explained that she was diagnosed with Dust Mite Allergy. Due to this fact, I offered a 52-Point Spring Clean, our most thorough cleaning, as what would be the best for her needs.  We also offer a less expensive General Clean, which is routine, surface cleaning.  I clearly defined the differences (see copy of email confirmation). Additionally, I provided a detailed point-by-point description (checklist) of what is included in each cleaning options. Christian's email to me (as attached to complaint) stated "A General Clean is like the 52-Point
Spring Clean™ except your maids will not hand wash all of the baseboards, door
frames, door jambs, doors, or kitchen cabinets.  They skip cleaning the
inside of your refrigerator and oven, and do not vacuum under the seat cushions
of upholstered couches and chairs". None of these spring clean additions had any impact on the dust level in our home. Therefore the General Clean was agreed upon without any warning or expression from the company that it might be inadequate. Additionally, I am concerned that he is misrepresenting the descriptions found in the company's check lists. Hand washing of the items mentioned, from door jams to inside ovens, is not suggestive of dusting, but of cleansing areas of dirt and grime with water, solvent and rag or sponge. It is also disconcerting that where dusting is clearly mentioned in the correct context (nick nacks, light fixtures, blinds, ceiling fans etc), there is no specification of how the dusting is performed. NO adjectives are mentioned, such as the use of feather duster or rag. Can you imagine the amount of dust that goes airborn upon feather dusting the top of a ceiling fan?? This was why I asked for the rag dusting to begin with, upon working with him to prepare a quote. With him knowing my needs to specifically be dust removal (as he confesses knowing here), should he not have been straight forward, and offer a higher quote for the Spring Clean? After all we arranged on the same fee monthly as at first visit. Had he been honest, I would have had the opportunity to compare prices with other companies. Instead I came home to find after the second clean that I did NOT get was I was led to believe I was paying for. 
Attempts to see the apartment before the cleaning were not possible. An offer or request to stop by was not ever mentioned. So all arrangements were made over the phone / Internet. This was his decision and lack of initiation to visit my home. Therefore, pricing was based entirely on what the customers said. I was careful in telling [redacted] that the cost was “depending on the actual situation in the house”.  I am not sure HOW this is relevant, as I was quote happy with the price we agreed upon (see my attachment for details, 109$ for first and all following cleanings). The question of cleaning with feather dusters or rags should have no relationship with the actual situation of the house, which is very tidy and uncluttered anyway. Otherwise, the conversation would have been, "[redacted], we need to charge you more for the visit, the apartment took longer to clean etc than we thought". On the contrary, nothing was said to me, and there was no advisement that rag cleaning would be discontinued next time.
[redacted] decided explicitly for the General Clean, despite the fact that “we will dust the surfaces” and “we will NOT hand wash”.  Please see my comments under paragraph #1. However, dusting was impossible. What? Maid Pro comes in every month for me and removes dust with rags beautifully for a better price. Amazing! How can dusting be impossible? For no additional cost to [redacted], we decided to perform the more expensive, more thorough 52-Point Spring Clean for the initial clean.  Naturally, the home owners appreciated the “premium” service, at the lower “general” cost - a monetary advantage of $90. This was not advised to us, and I am surprised by this! My oven is evidence to the contrary! Our receipt from the service also states "General Clean". 
We appreciated [redacted] as a new recurring client, and valued her business, so we did not even mention that conditions were more challenging than she described, or the additional work that was required, or the time, labor and supplies that were used to get her home to a high level of clean. Given the health issue, a courtesy such as this should have been clearly communicated, with their knowledge of my need for dust removal and the arrangement to have them back monthly for that purpose.
In regards to dust, we exclusively use the only Hepa Filter Vacuum that is required by the American Lung Association, to conclusively remove as much dust as is possible. I appreciate the feature, but when you take feather dusters and throw everything into the air, it takes at least 2 hours for it to settle again. When it settles, it isn't all going to conveniently land on the rug so it can be vacuumed up. It falls on all other surfaces besides the floor, where vacuuming is not possible. This goes back to dust removal, not throw it around and try to vacuum it all up. However, [redacted] declined weekly or every-other-week service, and wanted us to clean every 4 weeks.  Naturally, dust will accumulate in 4 weeks. I personally dust everything I can touch in my bedroom once a week so that I am not sick to remove it and so I can live in my home between cleanings. I am unable to keep up with the whole house in this way every week, which is why I hired the company monthly. He was trying to come more often so that he could make more money to throw less accumulated dust around with dusters each visit. My wife and a cleaning associate cleaned the apartment on the next service, 4 weeks later, as well as the basement added extra to the service plan. Yes, we happily agreed to include the basement after the great job done at first cleaning for an added price. It would now be about 150/month up from 109.
A couple of days later [redacted] complained that one bedroom had not been touched by the Maids. Note: we have a 24-hour guarantee.  Also, there's only one bedroom in this apartment, and my wife personally cleaned that room. My mom came over to watch my personal belongings and keep an eye out while the crew was in, she reported that the assistant cleaned the bed room, not the wife. She also banged equipment into the walls and shook dirty rugs into the air INSIDE the house! I found one month's worth of thick dust on the front of the dresser where I do not routinely dust as part of my weekly routine, plus the one week's worth of dust was left untouched on the bed frame, and dresser tops where I weekly dust. I was sick after the second cleaning and did not submit my complaint within the 24 hours, not realizing I was limited by 24 hours. When I have a dust reaction, I have a terrible skin reaction from head to toe, and even steroids don't stop the itching effectively. Still, we care about our customers, and we take complaints seriously, even when we are contacted some days later, and one of the owners was on site for the entire service.  So, a week after the cleaning, I inspected the room of concern.  The low level of dust was appropriate for a few days, and not for over a month. As stated, every week for 3 weeks out of the month I do it myself, so there should only be 1 week's layer noted. He "made a note" to be sure it gets done next time. I also showed him the shelves in the bathroom where dust was not removed at all.
Still, I offered to 52-Point Spring Clean the surfaces in the concerned room immediately. Please see comment paragraph #1. Appliance washing is not going remove dust carefully from dresser tops, nick nacks, shelves, etc. But the homeowners decided not to at that moment. We were still trying to figure out what happened to our rag dusting agreement. We spoke about the service and more specific about their needs and came to the conclusion that a more frequent cleaning as well as wet ragging the surfaces instead of feather dusting were needed, so we were discussing a service every other week with an adjusted plan with an adjusted service charge. The homeowners wanted to think about different options we discussed, but we agreed on re-doing and paying special attention the room of concern with next service, supposedly within the next coming days (2 weeks from last service). Unfortunately, there was no offer such as this. He only made a "note to talk to the maids" to be more careful next time. After expressing my concern, trying to understand why we were going to be charged more to have the service we received at first clean, I received only one response email and it was not connecting in reasoning. I broke down and requested a refund for misrepresentation of services and fracture of our initial agreement. My messages were not returned.
But instead the homeowners wanted to keep the monthly cleaning and kept on insisting on either re-do the cleaning (of the entire house) for no charge (We requested he come in and rag dust as promised and payed for - or so we thought) (I refused, pointed to re-clean the area!), or refund. We requested a 50% refund, as we hired them for "dust removal", again not serviced. They filally turned to HQ with the complaint that I don't honor our guarantee. But the guarantee says: complaint within 24h, re-do concerned area, and not the whole house …I submitted all concerns to his franchise headquarters as a last resort, as he did not respond to my emails of concern and request for negotiation and reconsideration of his changed offer. They stated they were sorry but have no jurisdiction over how he runs his company. I did not realize that there was a 24 hour limit on the guarantee (which I can understand in his line of business), however the main complaint again is his failure to follow through on the agreement at large; poor service was the icing on the cake!
Our Guarantee is proudly promoted on our website.  It states:
“If you are not happy with any area we’ve cleaned, simply call within 24 hours and we will come back out and re-clean it free of charge. This makes hiring You’ve Got MAIDS® virtually risk free.”
Our guarantee is more than many cleaning companies offer, as people start to ‘live’ in their house immediately...yet I went above & beyond by offering to do a deep cleaning of the area for no charge a week after the cleaning, just to make them happy. Deep cleaning? NO such offer was provided!  To that end, I felt that the more I tried to make them happy, the more they asked for. Our final conversation was over the phone. Christian was taking us in circles, justifying himself repeatedly without logical connections as in this report.  In any event, the last attempt the home owners called me to ask for 50% refund, and threatened that if I don't grant that, they will go public, online etc. Yes I did. Because poor business practice such as this will most likely reoccur for someone else, and consumers should be given the opportunity to make safe judgement calls in terms of how they spend their hard earned money, to avoid being taken advantage of, especially those in vulnerable positions including the sick, disabled and elderly.
This request is even out of proportion, 50% refund for 1 room of concern?  Decline my free offer to re-clean several days later? I am really offended at this level of dishonesty.I don't believe my request is out of proportion. The company did not uphold our agreement, but left me with a filthy dust air born house still in need of cleaning. 
I thank you for looking in this matter.
 
Best regards,
Christian K.
As a person of integrity, I would honestly have given him a refund were I him, and he me. I believe in treating people the way I would myself like to be treated. A good business person is honorable and acknowledges their errors, especially if they incur harm or such significant misunderstandings of legitimate concern. A good business person does not neglect his costumer's needs and deny there is a problem or any fault with his company's actions, deflecting sound reasoning. I very much regret doing business with this person. At this point I am more seriously concerned that they be justly dealt with than anything else. It was really painful for me to read his response. I am really totally disgusted at the whole thing.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
[redacted]

06/12/2014
To whom it may concern Ref ID [redacted].This is my statement in Reference to this situation.First the cleaners visit to [redacted] was on May 7th 2014 and not on May 8th as was claimed by [redacted] have been a past client of my Cleaning Agency since 2013....

In the past she has expressed how Satisfied she was with the service. (Please see attachment for email from her office)On Wednesday May 7th 2014 we provided services to [redacted] at her residence, four maids were Scheduled for that service, [redacted] was present throughout the entire service. She gave instruction and directions all throughout the service. After the service was completed she did a final walk through and confirmed that she was very satisfied with the job.Later on that day her assistant [redacted] called to thank for the service and paid in full with her credit card. At this time he indicated that she was very satisfied and request another appointment in two weeks.On Monday May 12 2014, I received a call from my franchise office that [redacted] was claiming that large amounts of cash and valuables was taken from her residence during our visit,I then placed a call to her to find out what was the situation and immediately I was threatened by her with a law suit. [redacted] gave no speciation of what or how much of her property was missing from her Home, except to say that large amounts of cash diamond jewelry, gift cards and medication was missing. I advised [redacted] to immediately report this incident to the Police.The Police have opened up an investigation on this matter. They have questioned and examined all the maids that was present in her home for that service. The Maids have all denied any knowledge of the missing itemsAt this time I am awaiting the results of the [redacted] County Police as to their findings before any determination as to what steps to be taken.Signed /Manager

I had a 52 or cleaning today with Nicky and Kelli. They were both very pleasant professional and thorough in the process. Thanks again and look forward to working with you in the future.

Review: I contacted You've Got Maids on December 14th, 2012 for a quote on a deep cleaning service for my parent's house as a gift. They quoted it would take about $400 to deep clean the house. I went ahead and ordered the service. After a week went by I contacted them about the status of my order since I didn't receive the paperwork in the mail. They never answered that question to date but I finally got the paperwork two weeks later. After the holidays were over in January my parents tried to contact their local You've Got Maids location to schedule an appointment. No one ever returned their calls. My parents tried for two weeks and left multiple messages. So I sent an e-mail to the location where I placed the order. They put me in contact with the local office and got back to my parents. By then it was very frustrating so on February 4th at at 2:50 pm I talked to the local office and was told I would get a refund in eight days. Two months have gone by and I still don't see any refunds on my credit card that was used to purchase the service. I contacted the corporate office and the local office about four times now and no one gets back to me. Not even a courtesy call. I am still waiting to get the refund that was promised back in February.

Product_Or_Service: House cleaningDesired Settlement: DesiredSettlementID: Refund

I would like the $400 refunded to my credit card.

Business

Response:

Consumer's Final Response

Hi,

[redacted], CFO of You've Got Maids, in South Carolina contacted me via e-mail. She is mailing me a check on behalf of the local branch in Sacramento.

Thank you for your help!

Best,