Complaint Review: Merry Maids

I own a house cleaning business in Riverside county. I came across this website
so I decided to read several complaints filed by consumers.

Although I have heard some of the same complaints about some of the companies
I read about I felt some were unreasonable.

lst, the one in Long Beach, the lst red flag is the price. There is no way 2 people can clean a vacant home do the blinds, wash windows inside and out for
$110.

Most persons that clean homes do not do windows other then a slider or window
inside over the sink.

We employ a separate person to do windows as it is an entirely different job.

2nd, ask for the price in writing if it's not by the hour. If it is by the hour ask for
the maximum time it will take and still get it in writing.

What I do is charge a flat fee if I do an estimate in person. Since I see the condition of the home I'm able to give an accurate estimate.

If I give an estimate over the phone I tell them that it will be approximately
a certain amount but it may be a little more if the tub/ showers are stained
mildewed etc. or other things the owner may not have mentioned.

Because a house is empty does not mean it is easy to clean. Our company
wash all ceiling fans, stove, oven, broiler, cabinets washed inside and out.
Wash baseboards, Scrub, sanitize tubs, showers, wipe all doors, door knobs,
light fixtures, outlets and more.

I do not believe the average customer understands what is involved and the
time it takes to thoroughly clean a home.

Windows: washed inside and out including screens, and tracks on one
and 2 story homes.

Blinds: Are washed one by one and are very time consuming. If you want
them done professionally, you may want to call a business that does blinds
only but they will charge more than $110 just for blinds.

If you company is more than 1/2 hr. late without calling you then you may want
to consider using another company. It is true that sometimes they can't find
the address or they finish the last house a little late but a simple call is advised.

I think that some companies are out to make a fast buck but there a others
that take pride in their work and business and try very hard to please the customer. Keep looking for the right company in your area and ask questions
and get price in writing.

I always give my customers a written estimate/ price and list of what we clean.

Thanks
E.R.

I wanted the same kind of thing done to my new apartment...I'm just particular about those kinds of things..but for personal reasons...it's hard for me to clean something like that to the point where it has a good "scrub down." If some you other girls that work as Merry Maids would've read it all...he didnt imply that all Merry Maids suck..but the ones in his town do....as for the ones here in Texas..I've dealt with a couple and they suck....If I had to cover myself in plastic, wear goggles and a mask..I couldve done a better job...and it's interesting how the first comment said her "high priority" houses..meaning folks that she had a history with or just liked period...It shouldn't be that way..but thanks for admitting you get more done for the ones that you "respect"...all that does is let us (those that request service) know that sometimes we might get a half A**ed job if you dont like us.....

I would like to explain both sides of the fence for a bit. so excuse me if I am rambling.
I have worked at Merry Maids for two summers now (I am a university student and find the hours desirable), and I have faced problems with both the customers and the management.

Some customers are impossible to please. We get quality control checks by management once in a while, and everybody misses something at some point. Some customers are good at taking it upon themselves to inspect everything (almost to the point of overkill), and are especially good at making us feel like crap about it if we did miss something.

Some customers are awesome. they tip, they are friendly, they offer a cool drink on a hot day, and are a pleasure to clean for.

Also, I know it is our job to clean, but it IS tiring work. The weather gets grossly hot in the summer where I live, and cleaning 4 houses, or move outs/ins can be incredibly draining and demotivating.

I have spent 4 hours in a kitchen and still not been able to finish it, and then we are told that we have to try to finish it AND still make it on time to our next house. Sometimes it really is a challenge to make it to our next houses on time, and sometimes we fall behind trying to keep up, and can never make it 'on time' again by the end of the day.

This also leads into my experiences with management. I have heard better stories about other Merry Maids franchises and their employee situations, but the one I am currently employed at struggles with an extremely high turnover rate. Often is the case where we are lucky if half of new hires actually stay past training time. We have people who have only been working for a few weeks training NEW people.

Often, people give their 'two weeks' notice and fail to show up for the last week. Some people just stop showing up. With gas prices where they are, we feel we aren't properly reimbursed for gas expenses.

Sometimes the directions to the houses are wrong, or non-existent. Occasionally, the customer isn't home (and they haven't given us a key), and we try to call the office but nobody is there. I have waited for 30 minutes for either a customer to come to their house to let us in, or to get a call back from the office to tell us what to do. And when the office calls back 40 minutes after the call I've made (we're on the way back to the office by now), and are told that we may have to go back and still do the house. it's frustrating.

I can understand both the customers' complaints I read, and the frustrations from staff as well. Some of the girls ARE sloppy in their work and don't care. The management is biased and unfair, and I have seen some geuinely hard working girls leave because of how they are made to feel by the management (and that will be me soon as well, as I am done in two weeks).

I have spent 6 hours cleaning a house with another hard working partner, and been told the next day by management that the work we did was disgusting, filthy, and had to be redone by other girls the next day. As well as that humiliation and blasting, we also lost our commission. it was a very demotivating experience, and one I would not want to relive.
I can put up with picky customers, but I have had enough of management that does not support it's staff, is biased and unfair, and treats the employees like crap.

I am an employee of the company merry maids. I have been for 4 years. I think some of you customers should just get a life and clean your own d**n houses. If you have so much to complain about then don't be so d**n nasty. Give the maids time to get to your house, because we do not make the schedules. So blame the office for that. Who gives a fridge for a tip anyway. Whatever happened to cash or gift cards. Thats very cheap. Get a life.

I am an employee of the company merry maids. I have been for 4 years. I think some of you customers should just get a life and clean your own d**n houses. If you have so much to complain about then don't be so d**n nasty. Give the maids time to get to your house, because we do not make the schedules. So blame the office for that. Who gives a fridge for a tip anyway. Whatever happened to cash or gift cards. Thats very cheap. Get a life.

I am an employee of the company merry maids. I have been for 4 years. I think some of you customers should just get a life and clean your own d**n houses. If you have so much to complain about then don't be so d**n nasty. Give the maids time to get to your house, because we do not make the schedules. So blame the office for that. Who gives a fridge for a tip anyway. Whatever happened to cash or gift cards. Thats very cheap. Get a life.

I am an employee of the company merry maids. I have been for 4 years. I think some of you customers should just get a life and clean your own d**n houses. If you have so much to complain about then don't be so d**n nasty. Give the maids time to get to your house, because we do not make the schedules. So blame the office for that. Who gives a fridge for a tip anyway. Whatever happened to cash or gift cards. Thats very cheap. Get a life.

I was an employee of Merry Maids for over 3 years in Maryland. Let me just first say that you cannot judge the company by your expierence in California. Each Merry Maids is individualy ownwd and operated. Another thing is that even though you were given a time for the cleaning, that does not mean that the girls would be there at that time. If you were told 1 pm then that means they could be there between 12 and 3. That is something that is told to the customer. Also I dont know why you waited for them. Merry Maids always asks for a key or a lot of our customers that trust their neighbors, leave their door unlocked and since the apartment was empty you could of done that. Another fact is that when you are having a one time only cleaning you are not charged a flat rate. It is an hourly rate. Usually $75 per hour for two girls. If you were given a flat rate then that means that someone came out to your house and gave you an estimate for a weekly, bi weekly, or tri weekly cleaning and you would of received a welcome book that would have explained all poicies such as the time. If the above things were not done then shame on that owner. Another thing is that if you were not happy with your cleaning all you had to do was to call them up and they would of sent someone out to look at the house and if it was as bad as you said it was the girls would of had to return and re clean at no charge to you and they would not be getting paid for it. They know this is a company policy and that is there fault. I also know how customers can be crazy when it comes to cleaning. They think we have magic powers and that we can take a diry, nasty room and make it look like new again in a few hours. No it does not work that way. Also windows are not included in the regular cleaning price. They are a few hundred dollars more and are usually not done by the girls cleaning the inside of the house. If the price of your cleaning was $150 that means you only paid for 2 hours. When that 2 hours is up we leave unless you pay for another hour because we are not going to stay and finish for free. You must be insane. Those girls were only paid $30 to clean your house. Would you have stayed the extra time and only got paid $30? No, I dont think so. Either the owner did not explain the company policy to you or you just happened to leave that part out of your letter. And a fridge for a tip? Give me a break. The men are always the worst. They are so picky. So pretty much all I wanted to get across was to not judge the entire company off of one branch. Oh also we dont use bleach or brooms. The one thing I hated the most was when a customer complained after we left instead of having the balls to point it out to us while we were there and being paid to be there. If you are that upset about the job they did, then you need to call the home office and have that branch investigated.

I am the original poster of this article...

the last few days it has been getting a lot of attention, let me clarify a couple of things-
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"You have to admit the refrigerator is a bizarre *tip*"
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Yes, it does seem strange to give a refrigerator as a tip, but it was the maids who were talking about how nice it was and, "they wishes to have a fridge like that". It was really a nice refrigerator, I could of sold it for $150-200, but since there was someone before me that had NEED I saw it fit give it to them.

I am really a nice guy when it comes right down to it.

I only wanted a empty little two bedroom one bath house scrubbed down... I offered to pay $300 when I called Merry Maids the first time to set up an appointment, I described what I wanted and I had a promise of action on their part... and from reading my above post you know the result.

I am not in the wrong here, say you go to a tailor and you want a suit made to fit... if the sleeves on the coat end up like bellbottoms, they failed. You go to a car mechanic to get the front-end alligned and when you drive off there still is a pull to the right, they failed. You go to a restaraunt and later that night you have -IT- coming out of both ends, they failed. Same as if you hire professional cleaners to clean, and they cannot perform, they failed. Very simple really.

So, I have learned to not be lazy and trust Maid for hire places... If I do the work, then I have some extra Vegas money, and in Vegas we are all winners ;)
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I would like to thank Krystal in Westminster for your support.

You have to admit the refrigerator is a bizarre *tip*

Paul--read more carefully before you make comments or suggestions.

1) I'm sure no one in hell has 1 hour and 40 minutes to wait around for maids to clean their house. Do you not have other things to do than wait around for maids? They schedule 1pm, they better be there @ 1pm. That's why you schedule in the first d**n place.

2) They are hired to CLEAN. Yet they come unprepared and b*tchin and complaining. Umm...that's their job--TO CLEAN. No need for complaining. He even offered to reschedule becuz of their complaining BUT they said NO.

So all in all, Mike has the right to complain. He hired them, expecting them to be on time and do a decent job. I think that's quite reasonable.

First of all, if you were not satisfied with the work that was done, why did you not speak up while the maids were still there? Oh let me guess, you were waaay too busy to take a moment to look at the house before they left? Furthermore, why didn't you take these specific issues up with the company BEFORE posting your hateful report? At the very least you should have given then the opportunity to fix the problems to your satisfaction.

Second of all, give the maids a break! Calling every 15 minutes to check their whereabouts ... popping your head in with your not-so-helpful reminders and instructions ... they are there to do a job, and your constant interruptions are not going to get the job done any faster or any better. If you wanted to be helpful, you should have grabbed a mop and broom and gotten to work!

Thirdly, who gives a refrigerator as a "tip?" Most everyone who relies on tips prefers CASH, not some used piece of junk that is not good enough for you to keep in your own home. How are the two maids supposed to divide that one fridge between themselves so that they each get a "tip?" You sound like a cheap fool with too much time to complain about nonsense like this.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for this post. I will surely be more careful w/this company also. I have a posting on this site regarding Select Maids in Westminster and I feel your "pain". Don't choose Select Maids either to clean your house/apartments. They will surely take your money and not clean....same problems as yours.

What's interesting about my situation is that since my posting and other people's comments on my posting, that owner may be out of business right now. Not sure. I recently received a coupon in the mail w/comments that they are under "new management" and has a different address also....hmmm.....makes you think.

But it's quite frustrating and ridiculous that we have to go thru this crap for something as simple as cleaning.......

Hey they might be great in Flordia it is a franchise, but in Long Beach and Signal Hill the jury is still out... Since the original posting of this I see that Merry Maids has moved to different address.

Are there any other people that have used the California, Los Angeles County, Long Beach, Signal Hill Merry Maids?

After reading this report and talking with my friends I have found that there are other cleaning services that do a wonderful job.

I have them come twice a week in Jacksonville, FL and I'm happy with their work. Sometimes they miss something here and there, but very minor and very excusable. Overall, I've been very satisfied with them.

Dear Those who had crappy cleaning services:

From my experience working for Merry Maids for 2 years, I can say that MOST off all of your complaints were justifiable...accept for the part where you blamed the maids for being late. The maids don't put the schedueles together in the beginnning of the day, the owner does, so we have no control over how late we are, we often get yelled at for this. Blame Merry Maid Secretarys or owners. They don't pay us enough either.

Sometimes we are forced to rush through houses to be able to be on time for others. As for the maids getting lost finding the house, our boss writes the directions to the houses too...and frequently messes them up.

Anyways, MY high priority houses, meaning the houses I clean the best are the ones with customers who have been respectful to me, by NOT complaining when I'm late, understanding that my job is alot of hard work and pressure...and most of all, reminds me nicely to fix something WHILE I'M THERE, rather than later. we do like it when you check over the house so we can fix it.

It would be nice of you to consider our feelings - yes that one woman mentioned really did clean 9 houses that week..that isn't that many compared to my average of 25 houses a week(5 houses a day), If you can't understand the pressure we are under to service you the best we can, then do the f-kin job yourself, its excercise, and that's exacly what this fat country needs to do anyway.

Dear Those who had crappy cleaning services:

From my experience working for Merry Maids for 2 years, I can say that MOST off all of your complaints were justifiable...accept for the part where you blamed the maids for being late. The maids don't put the schedueles together in the beginnning of the day, the owner does, so we have no control over how late we are, we often get yelled at for this. Blame Merry Maid Secretarys or owners. They don't pay us enough either.

Sometimes we are forced to rush through houses to be able to be on time for others. As for the maids getting lost finding the house, our boss writes the directions to the houses too...and frequently messes them up.

Anyways, MY high priority houses, meaning the houses I clean the best are the ones with customers who have been respectful to me, by NOT complaining when I'm late, understanding that my job is alot of hard work and pressure...and most of all, reminds me nicely to fix something WHILE I'M THERE, rather than later. we do like it when you check over the house so we can fix it.

It would be nice of you to consider our feelings - yes that one woman mentioned really did clean 9 houses that week..that isn't that many compared to my average of 25 houses a week(5 houses a day), If you can't understand the pressure we are under to service you the best we can, then do the f-kin job yourself, its excercise, and that's exacly what this fat country needs to do anyway.

I recieved a letter today from Merry Maids, I sent in a scanned image of the letter to be posted on this report.



My response to the letter:



In the letter I am asked if I would like to respond to the behaivor to their professional cleaning teams, specific comments wanted.



After posting my ripoff report I told my fianc and my father of what I posted for all to read, they reminded me of another thing that happened during the clean job... Above the kitchen sink there in the cubbord there was a heavy cast iorn skillet and a large lidded cast iorn pot. Those two items were stolen by merry maids professional cleaning team. That is a fact.



The floors were promised to be cleaned... cleaning the floors consisted of sweeping and wiping them down with a damp cloth wrapped around the head of the broom. At the time the floors had the appearance of clean, they were not, for weeks after my socks and slippers looked like I walked down the city street, dirty, dirty, dirty.



The miniblinds throughout the house... streaky and dirty. enough said.



Windows in and out, paid for to be cleaned. They were not cleaned.



Professional cleaning staff... not professional. They brought their personal problems into the workplace and acted anything but professional, and FAILED to do their job.



I am by no means holding Merry Maids to a higher standard because they are the largest residential cleaning service in the United States. I just expected a clean house, that is what I was quoted for and that is what the property owner paid for. That is what was expected. period.



From the letter: "We have build a reputation as an honest and hard-working origanization in Southern California."



After my experience I started talking about this company and their business practices to a few people, there are alot of other people in Long Beach that love Merry Maids just as much as I do. I have heard that there have been complaints to the city in the past regarding parking issues.



I am not alone in being the only customer that has had a bad experience.



From the letter: "I hope that we can rectify your opinion of our business and you can find it in yourself to remove those comments about us on that site."



I don't want money and I don't want your company in my house... I feel full vindication and totally at ease by having the truth posted on this website. Hopefully this report will help out others when choosing a cleaning professional.



If your company offers to reimburse the landlord that would be great; I will kindly edit out words such as, suck, jackshit, and F-D. I will also remove the information about being double charged.

But the record must stand that your professional cleaning team has sticky fingers and can not clean.



I would like to thank, "that site", ripoff report.com... this is a great public forum for opinions to be expressed. Please keep this going and I will tell everyone I know about this place!!!!



Thank You.

Correct website: http://www.amerrymaids.com/

Correct Street Address: 2001 Palo Verde Ave., Long Beach, CA

Phone # : 562-493-2671

Directions to these crook scam artists: http://www.amerrymaids.com/bdirections/



Once again... Merry Maids SUCK, SUCK, SUCK!!!



They DO NOT know how to clean worth JACK s**t!!!