Desperate Housemaids

Two people for two hours managed to vacuum 800sqft — didn’t touch our rooms– mop and cleaned a shower. Dusting was minimal (or not at all) and an overall shoddy job for the amount of time/​cost. Don’t use! Not as advertised!

I’ve only ever called the company, and spoke to the personable owner of the business, Harry.
He told me that a while ago, thanks to the influx of business stemming from those group coupon sites, there was a period where Desperate Housemaids offered poor service — ex: no shows. I was reassured that if I checked the reviews, that the negative ones were from the past — year 2010, and that things [have improved since].
I saw on a group coupon site that they were offering a promo — $ ⁵⁹⁄₃ hours of cleaning, or $ 615 for 1 cleaning/​month/​year. Seemed ok enough, esp. compared to their listed reg. rates.
However, out of curiosity I did check the reviews. I was expecting negative ones, from the past… but found also recent! negative reviews — from just last month! (March/​12)
Maybe Harry hasn’t checked his company’s reviews in a while.
Still, I’d expect a business to be on top of quality service (showing up on time, showing up, timely bookings (not weeks or more in advance), and doing a better than average job at what they base their bu$iness on).
As of today, they have almost 300 new clients thanks to that recent deal. Doing the math, recent bad reviews plus a hike in customer numbers, will not and can not equal improved service.
Of course, any business should welcome a flourish in numbers — it’s good for business in the short run. But unless they want to rely on a repeat in customers who won’t be bothering to investigate a company they’re supporting, how on earth will they maintain positive business relations?
— — — —
good — nice phone service by Harry; uses eco-​products (Method); provides all necessary cleaning equipment incl. vacuums;
to be improved — their reputation!
conclusion: proceed with definite caution (google the company). I’ve had to cancel my order. Obviously, I wouldn’t recommend going with DH. Not until a 180 degree reputation is earned.

Like another user review I read, I preface this by saying that I don’t make a habit of writing reviews but I felt particularily inclined to after my recent experience with Desperate Housemaids.
To start, I purchased a deal with Living Social for a 3 hr home cleaning. It took MULTIPLE calls via their booking phone number just to set up a simple appointment. One glaring issue from the start is that Desperate Housemaids requires you to call, then leave your contact details so that someone else from the company to call you back? Why not set things up so your customers can actually book an appointment when they call the first time?!
My MAJOR complaint with this company however was the fact that the cleaners were over FOUR hours late the day of my appointment. I had gone so far as to confirm with a call earlier in the day that my appointment was still okay. I had also taken the day off from work so that I could be home to let the cleaning ladies in. After 30 mins past my appointment time I became suspicious and called head office. What proceeded was a game of telephone tag as head office attempted to track the cleaning ladies down. This went on for a few hours until finally I received a call from the cleaning lady herself. No apology or explanation was given, when I asked if she was still coming she said ‘um, yes, ya I will still come but I really can’t say when it will be’. I was shocked and extremely frustrated and so I pressed her further for a time that I could expect her, still she would not give me any time frame.
Back on the phone again, I got in touch with head office for the 15^th time that day to tell them that the answer the cleaning lady gave me was unacceptable and that I NEEDED an exact time to expect her. I was finally told that she should be there about 6pm… my original appointment time was 2pm!!!
After it was all said and done the job the two ladies did in 1.5 hours was medicore at best. To make matters worse, they took the liberty of spraying my entire home with a very strongly scented ‘room spray’ without my permission. This was completely unnecssary and I could not get the awfully strong scent out of my home for days.
My advice, look elsewhere for home cleaning services!!!

The customer service is terrible.
The cleaners were 15 minutes late, and left half an hour early. They said «there was nothing more really to clean» — I later found dust and dirt behind a kitchen cart (that was on wheels — could have easily been moved). The cleaning was definitely mediocre at best, and as I was entitled to another 1 hr of cleaning, I called the head office to ensure this was on my file. I have now called them at least 4 times — everytime I am told I will get a response, and everytime they have not called me back.
I understand Groupons can be overwhelming, but businesses should be prepared for the influx and properly train their staff to deal with it.

Having your house cleaned by someone else is awkward. For me, at least. That said, it is a luxury that Groupon allowed me to afford twice. It took us a month to get the appointments, but as expected with an influx of groupon’ers clambering at the deal.
The service was different each time. The first set of cleaners were very fast and cleaned most of my (not so large) house in 2 hours and 15 minutes. The house felt gleaming clean. I was thrilled.
The second set of cleaners were more thorough but did not listen to my instructions that bathrooms and floors are top-​priority and did not have time to even start our second bathroom and basement. I wasn’t as thrilled.
Mixed feelings on this company. I find it hard to decide whether I will hire them back because they did a good job or because I truly love having my house cleaned from time to time.

Although I originally had some difficulties scheduling an appointment, the situation was rectified by Harry within a week.

This is my first review — solely based on booking an appointment… I will post a follow-​up once the appointment is booked and I’ve had a chance to experience the fruit of their labour.
But um, yeah, I’m already on my fifth phone call to this place. I found it via Groupon. Okok, yes, so I’m getting a deal here but does that mean because they’re offering a deal that they have to compromise their quality of customer service?
Methinks not.
Anyway…finally right now I actually got through to someone who was finally able to book me an appointment… in three weeks. The coupon said 5 – 10 days (even if that’s working days, that’s still 2 weeks max).
I asked a few questions about their booking policy and the guy finally just came out and was all «listen, we had an overwhelming response… etcetc…» which I can understand, so I’m definitely giving them the benefit of the doubt there… despite the fact that I called them as soon as I had paid for this Groupon and followed up four more times after that with no response… I was still booked into end of month.
Anyway…I do believe the guy tried to do the best he could, so I will now wait till the actual cleaning to post a full review. I’ve yet to find a decent cleaning service in Toronto so I’m looking forward to this.