Desperate Housemaids No Longer In Business

We've been using the Desperates as we call them for more than a year. Started with a groupon and found them professional and efficient. We had a few scheduling issues late in 2011, but the house always looks great. We discussed the scheduling with Harry (who's very accomodating) and haven't had any problems since. Our cleaner on the current schedule is Sophia, who does really excellent work.

Had a terrible experience with this cleaning service not showing up for the first cleaning and then when they did its was a very bad job. I called to give feed back and I recieved no answer all the time and eventually gave up and got a refund from groupn for the service. DONT ever use these guy's...

Purchased a voucher for 3 hours of cleaning through Deal of the Day for $40 (it said value of $139). When I called to book I was told it would either be 1 person for 3 hours or 2 people for 1.5 hours. They told me to make a list of what I wanted done, which I did. Two young girls arrived on time, who were very nice and polite, and I gave them the list before popping out to run some errands. When I was on my way back, they called my phone to tell me they were finished (about 10 minutes early). When I got home and looked around, I noticed they didn't even wash the kitchen floor! I had that on my list, towards the top, but they clearly ignored it. They cleaned the kitchen sink and emptied the garbage. Wow - thanks . . . because that's why I want to pay someone to clean my house. If I'm paying you to clean my house you should wash all floors! Other areas that had been cleaned were done half-heartedly, with streaks and clumps of dust still left on the ground and in corners. Really disappointed as I had high hopes but after this trial will not be using them again.

I contacted Desperate Housemaids to schedule an appointment after purchasing a Groupon. It took a few days to get in touch with someone, but I finally reached someone. The woman who answered seemed nice but you could tell she was busy. They seem to be a small operation with perhaps too many bookings. She said “We may not be able to fit you in until the New Year” (because there are so many appointments.) She went on to advise me that their method of booking appointments was fairly unorganized and could result in an appointment having to be rescheduled. After a few minutes she found something and told me that there actually was an opening before Christmas! I was happy and we booked the appointment for December 23rd at 2:00PM. However, she PROMISED she would contact me in advance to let me know if mine would be rescheduled. This way I could re-book the day I took off of work if needed.... She said “If I don’t call you, assume that the appointment stays the same.” Seeing as she sounded a bit frazzled and extremely busy, I said "No problem. Just call me as soon as you can if anything changes”

I don’t receive any calls so I am left to assume it’s still scheduled for the same day and time. The day of the 23rd rolls around and no one shows up. Naturally, I began calling them around 2:30PM (30 minutes after they were scheduled to arrive) and after about 10-15 phone calls, at 4:00PM, I FINALLY managed to get someone on the line. She asked for my address and then said I was not booked for next Friday the 30th. The 23rd and the 30th don't sound the same so I doubt it was a miscommunication. I specifically remember her saying December 23rd because I even went and booked the day off of work immediately after booking my appointment with Desperate Housemaids. I upset and told the woman on the phone that this is not fair to me and that I would like either a free hour of cleaning OR a refund. She said she would have to ask her manager and would get back to me today or by Wednesday. I told her that I wanted to know by the end of the day because I would need time to make arrangements otherwise. She calls me at 6:15 when I was already serving dinner to my friends and left a message saying “Ok, we are booked for Friday and see you then!” No other details about what they were going to do to compensate for their mistake. That is not what I asked for. So, I tried again to contact them on the 29th. Three calls. No answer. I left a message and send them a message through HomeStars. NO RESPONSE.

Guess what….? Again they did not even bother to show up today, even though they called ME to reconfirm the 30th. Of course I cannot get through to anyone and the mailbox is full.
What a joke of an organization.

I also found out last night that they bailed on my friend and never called him.

My Mom bought me a groupon gift certificate for my birthday. I scheduled them a week and a half in advance to come in the week before Christmas. I cancelled my regular cleaners. They were supposed to come in at 9:30am and they called the night before at 6pm and left a message on our machine cancelling. I tried to reach them to reschedule and they finally returned my call 9 days later. By this point my Mom had already gotten her money back through groupon. Very pathetic.

I have had other cleaning service in my home. I though I would try this voucher. Worst mistake. It was like throwing my money away. I was told that 2 woman would be coming and 10 min before, my husband recieved a call that only 1 person would be coming. This person was a very young man. I was NOT impressed with the cleaning. My husband was quite upset. The kitchen sink was not even clean. When calling for my appointment, the guy wanted to set up another appointment before I even had the 1st cleaning done. He kept pushing me to make a second appointment. It seemed very odd. I feel betrayed and such a fool. I would like my money back!!!!!!!!!!!! A lesson learned. I will be staying with my regular cleaners.

I paid for 2 hours of house cleaning with 2 cleaners. I made the appointment 2 weeks in advance. The man on the phone told me prior to hanging up that if I was there the day that my appointment was schedule for that I would stilll end up owing for the service. On the day they were suppose to show up they called 10 mins. AFTER the appointment and advised me that no one would be showing up and that I would have to re-schedule. No explanations given not even a sorry. The second time they showed up 15 mins late and left 15 minutes early. I would not recommend them to anyone. The cleaning was average at best.

i paid 50 dollars for them to come
they kept calling last minute and rescheduling
when they finally came they took a whole hour to do a simple job like vacuuming

do not choose this company
very unreliable
lazy
and does not value customers

I purchased a coupon from Living Social for 3 hours of cleaning. I had no issues scheduling an appt. and the three (3) cleaners came on time. My house (townhouse) wasn't all that messy to start with, and they only had to do the downstairs plus one bedroom, full bathroom and semi ensuite upstairs. I left a list of things to be done and right away, my husband called me and advised me they don't do this, they don't do that, we are talking about cleaning baseboards, wiping down kitchen cupboards, etc. These are usually basics with anyone else I have ever used. I had left $20.00 tip for each of them but instantly told my husband forget it. When I came home, the place was soso, nothing was really dusted properly, there were white streaks from some cleaning agent they used. They vacumed but the baseboards stayed dusty and dirty. All in all, it was pathetic and the house definitely did not have that clean feel . You would think they would do their very best for a first time customer to establish repeat business - WRONG. They didn't even bother following up on the job. All in all, a definite Zero and I have advised many people of this. Customer service is non existant. The only consolation was that I only paid $50.00, it was barely worth that.

I purchased a home cleaning service by Desperate Housemaids from a LivingSocial deal offered online. From the very start I had issues with customer service, making multiple calls back and forth just to book a simple appointment. One of the most prominent customer service issues is that when you make the initial call to book you are forced to leave your contact details so that someone can get back to you to book?...
Doesn't this defeat the purpose of giving your customers a number to call for bookings if they then have to wait for a call back??

After making several calls I was finally able to set up my appointment. I even called the day of the scheduled cleaning to confirm. I tweaked my work schedule the day of the cleaning so that I could work from home and let the ladies in. I waited 30 mins past my appointment time and no one showed up. I called the head office to find out what was going on and was told that they would try to get in touch with the cleaning ladies. After over 10 additional calls on my part to find out updates along the way, I was finally told the cleaning lady would call me directly. When she did call, there was no apology or explanation for her tardiness (at this point it was over 2 hours after my scheduled appointment time). I then asked if she was still coming and when, to which she said 'oh yes, I will still come but I really can't say when I will be there'. This was absolutely shocking and I once again got on the phone to head office to ask them to follow-up with this woman and nail down a time.

When it was all said and done the cleaning ladies showed up over 3.5 hours late and the job they did was medicore at best. To top it all off they sprayed a very strongly scented room spray all over our house as a 'finishing touch' which was completely unnecessary and not appreciated. I couldn't get the smell out of my house for two days! I would hate to how this would affect someone even more sensitive to smells than myself.

My advice is to look elsewhere for cleaning services!!!