Dynamic Duo Cleaning

I called a week ago and left a message inquiring about a cleaning and for them to call me back and no one ever called me back. I just wanted my bathroom and kitchen cleaned. I guess they don’t want my business
*typically, if you are going to be away from your office/​business for 2 WEEKS the answering machine would have been changed to inform the caller of that so you don’t end up with people like me wondering why after a whole week I haven’t gotten a reply.

Very frustrating experience.
If only I had checked here before hiring them! I hope you do. I had high hopes after a successful first clean with only a few issues, like spreading the saltwater from boots around the floor and calling it clean. Today was the first day of a regular service. I left a list, copying items from their list, said, «If there’s time in the end: oven.»
I left the house and left the house key as I had to run out for an hour. The cleaning person called me, «I see the key and the list, but there’s no money.» I called back within 5 minutes and said, «That’s because I will be there soon!» «Okay!» she said.
I came home to an empty, dirty, locked house. They would not return my calls, and I received the email below from office-​sister. They can’t think through that if I leave them my house key, of course I’m going to pay them? They said asking to clean the oven was too much. The oven is on their checklist! That’s where I got the idea. OR they could’ve said, «We can’t do that.» And I would’ve said, «Okay.» And if I really cared, I would’ve scheduled it for a different visit.
These people cannot communicate clearly. $ 30/​hour to clean a house; it’s still hard to wrap my head around. Charging that much, I expect you to be able to communicate professionally and be flexible with very, very simple and run-​of-​the-​mill issues concerning leaving the house open and leaving lists of things to do.
Guys, it’s not a «Honey-​do» list unless it’s a list you leave for your husband, okay? It’s just a «to do» list.
Disappointed. They just took off and didn’t do the work.
Their email:
Unfortunately, we are going to need to cancel our service with you for a few reasons.
With your list today, it was a bit much since there was a request for deep cleaning of the oven, extensive dusting and $ 90.00 would have not covered everything you wanted done in the time you wanted it completed.
You never mentioned that you were not going to leave a payment and Linnea had to wait almost an hour for you, we have a no payment /​no clean policy.
I don’t feel we are a good fit with your expectations and our business protocol.

Not a great experience. We hired them for packing and moving services. They contacted us multiple times, asking us to accommodate their schedule (including the day of the packing services!). We went out of our way to be flexible. Unfortunately, we only required just over one hour of packing as we made more progres than anticipated. Yet, they were not flexible AT ALL, charging us the minimum. Diane was very rude in her explanation — certainly not needed at an already stressful time. We promptly cancelled the scheduled cleaning services, costing them far more than the $ 40 extra they yielded due to the required minimum.
Overall, the packing was done well. Plan to have A LOT of bubble wrap on hand. She really burned through it.

Here is the email traffic I had regarding an experience I had… don’t use these people! start at the bottom… all this email traffic is w/​the president of dynamic duo cleaning. I’ve removed names so this review doesn’t get thrown out.
Dynamic Duo,
You never asked, you just assumed that we would need more time. Furthermore, had you explained that you were adding additional labor hours for the next cleaning instead of just telling us it would be another $ 50 charge, I might have understood more. There was no mention of an adjusted quote, just that a monthly clean would be more money.
Calling me unethical in return does not help your case. I think this conversation that I will post on Angie’s list, google reviews, etc, will not look favorable for you as the business owner. My family has owned a small business for a decade and the way to deal with unhappy customers is to apologize and seek to correct the error… not defend your stance to the end. This is already strike two since we had the issue with poor cleaning the second time you cleaned our house. Despite photographic evidence, you insisted that I was wrong and your team had cleaned everything as agreed.
Regards,
Customer
Dynamic Duo response:
Hi (customer),
I was under the impression that we would be spending a bit longer in your home the next time we were out so I added 1 hour /​2 labor hours (with a team of 2) on to your schedule and adjusted the rate accordingly. I understand you’re skipping this cleaning for a good reason, but it wouldn’t be just a week gap as you state, it would be a 4 week gap since the last time we were out because we were out on ⁸⁄₇ and our return back was scheduled for ⁹⁄₄
Furthermore, you never made it clear to me that your mom would be filling in our spot when it came to cleaning, had I known, we would have left the quote alone since you are correct about it remaining clean regardless of the gaps in question.
I am sorry you feel I was being unethical, but I don’t know any other company who doesn’t adjust quotes based on additional time and I have never had a client who would expect us to, now that’s unethical.
Best of Luck,
Dynamic Duo
Customer Response:
Dynamic Duo
I’m sorry, but we will not be using your service any longer. $ 175 is way more than we agreed and while I get that we have skipped a week (for a VERY good reason), it seems very unethical to try to get $ 50 more dollars. I’ve got my mother here cleaning and keeping up on things while we are caring for a newborn so I wouldn’t expect an «extra dirty» house on the next cleaning.
I’m very disappointed that this is your policy. It’s not like you didn’t know this was a possibility well in advance.
Regards,
Customer
Dynamic Duo Response:
No problem, and congratulations Zach!
I will place you down as a monthly clean for your next clean on Thu, 09/​04, please note monthly cleaning is $ 175.00
Thanks,
Dynamic Duo
Dynamic Duo,
I will need to cancel this week’s cleaning. We just had our baby and with family members in and out having you guys clean this week is not needed. Thank you!
Regards,
Customer
Dynamic duo response:
Yikes, the only availability «currently» is Fri, ⁰⁸⁄₂₉ but I will keep you posted if anything changes. This time of year is crazy busy for us.
Best of luck with delivery, you will do great!
Customer Response:
Great, thank you. I’m on maternity leave now, so I might be in and out during the cleaning. My due date is the 17^th. Would you have any flexibility that week if we needed to move the cleaning up a few days? Would like to have it done while we are still in hospital before family comes to town. Of course, who knows when baby will arrive, so could be fine!
Customer
Sent from my iPhone
Dynamic Duo:
Good Afternoon,
I just wanted to send you a friendly reminder for your cleaning on Thurs, ⁸⁄₇ —
We placed you on the schedule for arrival between 12:00 — 1:00 pm
Please let me know if you have any questions, thank you!
Please note:
Because we guarantee hours to our cleaning staff it is important that you provide us as much notice as possible if you need to cancel or change a scheduled cleaning. We require 2 business days notice to make a change or cancel a cleaning. Cancellations without at least 2 business days notice will result in a $ 25.00 late cancellation fee. Cleanings that are cancelled on the same day of the service will result in a $ 50.00 fee.