Merry Maids

I should have read the reviews!!!! Do yourself a favor and read mine.

That was my first mistake. After I booked a one time cleaning, my wife told me the reviews weren't great. I shrugged it off thinking nothing of it and I'm sure kicking myself now.

The company was prompt with communication via email or text. I'm selling my property and requested a whole house clean. I was staging the home and prepping for showings and a open house and wanted to make sure the place was presentable. The house was not in bad shape and needed a very generic cleaning (windows, window sills and tracks, clean outside and inside of appliances, mop, dust fans, etc). This would be something I would have done myself, but for anyone who is moving out of a home or rental, sometimes it's just easier paying someone to do it for you.

Well I paid the ultimate price. $482 to be exact and my wife and I going through and redoing all the work over again.

Two employees showed up promptly and on time. We did a walk through of the work to be done. Several questions were asked of the work to be done in confusion. I explained this was a moving out clean / I'm selling my house. The employee was caught off guards and I remember her stating "ah, this all makes sense now." This is when it started to go down hill.

Merry Maids had 4 hours to complete the work. I was then told it was whatever they get done in that time frame versus what I was told by the Merry Maids office which was "4 hours is all it should take."

One employee seemed like she knew what she was doing the other was new. Employee 1 was giving direction to employee 2 most of the time which to me is time wasted, it would have been better to have some trained and qualified working in tandem. I caught employee 1 secretly using phone while on the floor pretending to clean, I said nothing as I am passive aggressive and have much more to worry about. As much as it pains me to say this, employee 2 was also very over weight, the bending, cleaning and repetitive movements made her very slow and was barely functional at the end of the cleaning.

At the very end of the cleaning we did a walk through. The walk through I was shocked, I was stunned that after two people cleaning for 4 hours on a 1300 sq foot home it could still look so dirty. The walk through consisted of everything they did and everything they couldn't, and believe me when I say the conversation was 70% of what they "couldn't do" or "didn't have time to do."

Let me start with the mirrors in the house were absolutely perfect, couldn't have done a better job. Everything else was poor at best. Window sills and tracks dirty, fans dirty, applicants dirty, floor not mopped, so many things missed. Everything in the house that was still dirty looked as if a rag was taken over it once, smearing dust and dirt versus removing it, especially the window sills, tracts and fans.

They stated they could only clean what they could reach and employee 1 was about 5ft tall so go figure. I was told I couldn't reach that (aka top of my fridge) or I couldn't scrub that (my sink sponge worked fine for me). At the end of the walk through they made me sign off on the work completed and then rate them. The best part, during the walk through the employee was suggesting all the chemicals and cleaning techniques I could use to do what they couldn't!!!! Is that mind boggling or what!!!!At that point I just wanted them out of my home as I knew this complaint would be handled directly by the office.

I called the office. They pretended they didn't know if was a move out clean and then they reiterated it's whatever could be cleaned in 4 hours, even though I had the emails and texts to show the opposite. I then explained, that's fine, but whatever they did clean wasn't done right. The office was unprofessional, a lot of bickering back and forth defending the employees and Merry Maids service as a whole. Even though much of what came from the office was contradicting, like, they are supposed to bring step ladders, etc.

After all the pictures I sent, I was told they could come back out to fix their mistakes. Why would I? And I told the office, no. My wife and I actually spent a few hours going back and fixing the house ourselves that same day in the evening, carpet cleaning was scheduled the next day so we had a timeline to meet. Merry Maids work was done on a Friday afternoon, the office complained I reported it first thing Saturday when they aren't open.

At the end of the day all we got back was $75 for window sills and top of fridge. Not only did I waste over $400 bucks but I was forced to stay up late reworking a piss poor job.

Lessons learned. Read reviews. Reach out to property management or real estate agent for cleaning company recommendations (after the fact found out this company is on the D-list) and never use Merry Maids of Chico AGAIN!!!! Trust me.

I hired them to do a move-out cleaning for an apartment. Specifically only the kitchen, both bathrooms, and all windows. The owner came over to inspect, and we went through the details I wanted to be completed. I was quoted $305.

When the day came, their staff was 35 minutes late. My appointment was at 9 am. Things happened, so I wasn't too worried about it. They thought it would only take them 2 hours, which sounded weird, but there were two of them. I asked if they could text me when they were completed. 2.5 hours passed, and I heard nothing, so I decided to show up.

I walked into the apartment and saw no one was there. Immediately, I saw issues with cleaning. They did the bare minimum cleaning they could do. The freezer was not cleaned at all; the oven was barely touched; there was soap scum still left on the kitchen faucet and in the bathtub; the blinds were still dusty, the window tracks were dirty in corners. See the first seven photos. Everything else was ok.

To me, this was a complete waste of $300. Move-out cleaning is a deep clean, not just a basic wipe down of everything. I emailed pictures to the company and left a voicemail asking for a partial refund.

The owners contacted me and expressed their apologies and wanted to come personally finish. I said ok and requested they clean the freezer, window seals, blinds, and oven. They came over that night and cleaned for an hour.

I went to inspect later that night and, honestly, was still disappointed. The freezer looked good, but there was still a few spots that I ended up cleaning myself. The oven looked a little better but not by much. They obviously never cleaned an oven or use oven cleaner. The blinds were still dirty! I received a text stating it was hard to see the blinds because it was nighttime. But I shined my phone flashlight on them and quickly saw the dirt (see last two photos). I also received a text stating the windows couldn't be cleaned more without damaging them. But the windows seals looked ok, but still some dirt I was able to remove by simply spraying windex and wiping the corners.

Additionally, I went through and scrubbed the soap scum off the faucet in the kitchen and the bathtub.

I was very disappointed with Merry Maids' lack of attention to detail. I honestly could have done a better job myself, but I was short on time. The owners were friendly and wanted to remedy it, but they didn't. I will not be using this service again. I do not recommend using this service for a move-out cleaning. They cannot perform a good deep clean.