Homejoy

I purchased a groupon for three months of service at a fixed price with homejoy. To date, I have made five appointments with homejoy. Two of these appointments were kept and the cleaners did a fine job. Three of the appointments were cancelled on the day the service was to have been completed and I was offered new appointments the following week. Twice, the cancellation call came after the appointment was supposed to have started. After the third cancellation (today), I cancelled my account with homejoy and requested my money back for the groupon purchased. The rep explained that they couldn’t refund my groupon. I requested to speak to a manager. The customer service rep became argumentative, spoke over me, interrupted me, and hung up on me.

Tara did a wonderful job. My apartment is so clean. I’m really happy with the whole experience.

Honestly, when HomeJoy works, it’s an absolute pleasure. Their systems are nice, their customer support is fine. Unfortunately, it rarely works.
More often than not our appointments are cancelled last minute by cleaners, and when cleaners do show up, they show up late, and once even brought in a random unknown person in to my house for cleaning. Luckily I was home for that one. When I brought it up with their support the admitted to me that the person was unknown.
That is pretty troubling, because HomeJoy sells a certain amount of security by providing background checks and not hiring known felons to work for them, and assuming this random stranger couldn’t even land a legit homejoy job (seriously, you can be a complete idiot and work for homejoy) I’m left to assume that this person has a criminal background. They seemed uninterested in providing me any sort of satisfaction after that.
Cleaners have routinely been late, or just never shown up — they never called to cancel, they just never show up.
Anyhow, if you’re thinking of using HomeJoy Seattle I HIGHLY recommend you look at some of our local businesses that HomeJoy thinks they can do a better job than, because, homejoy is not being truthful.
Sub-​par cleaning, sub-​par staff, rampant security and quality issues.

My overall experience in general: Homejoy itself rates three stars for «a-​ok» with some highlights (and a few snags). This rating is separate from my favorite cleaner who I rate FIVE stars: her name is Betty Jean Rober. More on her below.
Homejoy cleaners ARE individual contractors. Therefore quality, attention to detail, punctuality, and consistency can be hit-​and-​miss.
As a Homejoy customer, if you’re persistent and communicative, you CAN get your house cleaned by someone who does a GOOD job and the price isn’t going to break the bank. You have to work at it a little from time to time, but Homejoy makes it easy to book, easy to request exactly what and who you want (and when), easy to provide feedback, and thankfully — because things do come up — they also make it easy to reschedule or cancel. Homejoy uses technology to their advantage and does a decent job of having cleaners show up and do an acceptable job (with snags here and there). For me, Homejoy has been good enough to keep me for a little over a year.
My current favorite Homejoy cleaning professional is BETTY JEAN ROBER.
She is punctual, thorough, personable, professional, efficient, and consistent. I give BETTY five stars. Betty rocks. She’s nice. She’s on time (usually, even a few minutes early). She’s compassionate. She’s real. I like her. She works her ass off. She cares. She gets to know you. She remembers the little things that are important to you about the way you like your house. She’s kind. She is good at her job. I make sure she knows I appreciate her. And I ask for her by name every time.
NOT EVERY CLEANER IS AS RELIABLE OR «ON IT» AS BETTY IS. In the year I’ve been a customer I’ve cycled through three other favorites (prior to Betty) and I have encountered some REAL DOOZIES along the way.
EXAMPLES:
— I’ve had a cleaner totally destroy my blinds (THIS is a HUGE no-​no, they’re not supposed to touch the blinds).
— I’ve had a cleaner put all of my to-​be-​shredded materials in my recycle bin ALONG WITH THE SHREDDER; this mystifies me. This completely destroyed my shredder. It was also a GIANT pain in the ass to pick out all of the many, many papers from out of the recycle bin — stuff that CAN’T BE RECYCLED WITHOUT BEING SHREDDED, BECAUSE HELLO IDENTITY THIEVES. For whatever reason the cleaner who recycled my shreddables didn’t seem to grasp this concept, for unknown reasons.
— One cleaner, bless his heart, attempted to clean a bathroom vent and ended up pulling it out of the ceiling, which he replaced in a precarious manner and it later fell out of the ceiling when I was brushing my teeth — showering me with bits of drywall and lots of dust. I know he is responsible because HE LEFT A NOTE apologizing for this and warning me that it might fall.
— I’ve had cleaners show up with «helpers» because that way they can «do more» for the «same price.» (I didn’t allow that person[s] back, as it seemed shady).
— I’ve had a cleaner supposedly show up at my house and start cleaning when I am standing there waiting and nobody has arrived: a simple call to Homejoy rectified this situation.
— I’ve had cleaners spend more time organizing my spice jars in color order (light to dark) or rearranging the books on my shelves (tall to short, and also by color) than actually cleaning. (it was at that point that I realized it might be wise to either reduce the amount of time I book for the cleaning, or leave them a long list of cleaning to do after they’ve «done the basics» — if they «have time.» I think the cleaners who did these things were a unique type of OCD and just couldn’t help themselves? Maybe?).
— I’ve had cleaners do random things like put every throw rug I own in a different room than where it started, some of them upside down. (This rug thing has happened more than once, with more than one cleaner, which is also tremendously mysterious). Maybe that’s part of the charm. Maybe they’re saying, «I REALLY DID CLEAN THIS AREA.» I don’t know.
And right now you’re probably thinking, «if you’ve had all of this happen to you — WHY are you still a Homejoy customer?»
Because I’ve had really good experiences with Homejoy, too. The good things aren’t as colorful to talk about (hey, she cleaned everything I wanted her to in the timeframe she was given!) — but that’s the point: during those times, I got the service I expected. Solid service. With some surprises (why is the bathmat on the bed? oh who cares, at least the floor is clean). That kind of thing.
Three stars is solid. It’s honest. There are things that could be better, but in my experience those things WERE made better by Homejoy once I contacted them.
So, three stars for Homejoy. Five for Betty.

I am very impressed by this service. It’s very easy to use– you book your cleaning online and they even have an app. On the morning of, I got a text from a number I could communicate with my Homejoy rep with, which was convenient.
Nicole showed up on time. She was very thorough with her work, which I really appreciated.

My girlfriend got an online deal for a house cleaning with Homejoy, and got a great cleaning from them. She scheduled a second cleaning that was cancelled on short notice (one day), and was offered a $ 45 credit. The customer service agent she emailed with (she cc’ me on all emails) offered her another appointment, and she emailed them promptly back to take it. He emailed her at the end of the next day telling her it had been filled. Frustrating!
When she complained about it they offered her three hours of free cleaning.
Great.
We get an appointment for today. I picked up the house, got a day off, and blocked out my time from 3 – 6 for this cleaner. She got an email at 10:30 am (four and a half hours notice) saying «A diligent effort was made to find a cleaning professional in your area to honor your appointment, but we were unable to find any available cleaning professionals and had to cancel your appointment».
What?!
That’s like ordering a pizza, getting a delivery time, and then after waiting for half an hour having them call you and say «Sorry, I know you ordered s pizza, but we don’t have any pizzas right now so we’re going to go ahead and just cancel your order».
My girlfriend was at work, and it’s my day that’s being wasted, so I called and talked to their customer service agent. I told him I was frustrated because we had already had one cleaner cancel, had had a hell of a time with being offered appointments via email and then them not existing when we promptly responded to take them– and now we had an appointment and got a cancellation on five hours notice because they ‘didn’t have anyone in our area’. The point of making an appointment is that they send someone to your area at that date and time, and they clean your house. That’s literally the whole concept of a house cleaning service.
The customer service agent cut me off mid-​sentence and told me (very slowly, I n a condescending tone– like you would explain something to a toddler) that their cleaners are independent contractors, like on Craigslist (his exact words– ‘like Craigslist’) so your appointment can only be honored if someone is in the area to take the job.
What?! So what is the point of scheduling the appointment, picking up my house, and cutting out a huge chunk of time for an appointment that will only maybe be filled if an independent contractor is in the area and wants to show up?
I told him that I thought I would have had better luck with Craigslist at this point and he chuckled at me and told me I was free to explore other options if I wanted.
Literally the worst, rudest, most condescending customer service imaginable. This guy was a smug, unhelpful a**hole, and I told him so before getting off the phone, since he was clearly more interested in telling me about how his company is not at fault than actually being helpful.
I did costumer service, lots of it– years of it. If your company completely messes up and someone calls you and is upset about it, the best thing to do is apologize for it (you’re representing the company that’s at fault) and offer a solution. The second I went from giving him my girlfriend’s contact information to saying «It’s really frustrating because we have already had a cancellation and had a really hard time with you guys just getting this appointment» he was making dismissive grunts and sighs, deflecting any blame on the part of the company, and talking down to me.
I would give Homejoy 0 stars if I could. They’re unreliable, they cancel a lot (as the sea of other one star reviews shows), and the customer service is horrible.
We won’t even use our free credit with them. They are MUCH more trouble than they’re worth. Read the reviews, skip the missed appointments and endless emails, and find another (better) cleaner– apparently that’s their advice when they completely mess up anyway.

I had written a 5 star review after several cleanings… but as of late it’s gotten really lame. Many last minute cancellations. One cleaner was very late and only cleaned about half of the house, then they gave me a credit for my next cleaning — which wasn’t applied. Then the next cleaning that the credit was then going to be applied to was cancelled by Homejoy at the last minute. When they show up 90% of the time they do a great job, but it’s just wearing us out trying to manage the recent unreliability.

A friend recommended I buy a groupon for house cleaning. I bought the groupon immediately and then checked Unilocal to see how good of a deal this actually would be. A lot of negative experience but some really good ones. So instead of rolling the dice I went with Wendy who was mentioned in many of the comments.
She arrived on time. She was very polite and courteous. I was at work while she was cleaning, but when I got home she took care of the entire downstairs and it looked great. If you are having a bad experience I recommend Wendy. She was absolutely awesome! Will definitely schedule with her again in the future. :)

I scheduled a cleaning appointment with Homejoy after being sent home from the hospital for a week bedrest. Homejoy sent Wendy for my appointment. She is the best! I’ve used services in the past and never have I had someone so thorough, yet fast, reliable, pleasant, and professional. She didn’t waste time, or kill the clock (I’ve had experiences where the cleaner would go over the same area three and four times just to kill time to justify having me request more hours to finish a job). She exceeded my expectations.
I will continue to request Wendy, but highly recommend Homejoy services in general. They are quick to resolve any concerns (I had a concern about a previous cleaner with them, but they resolved it quickly and efficiently). It’s all about the customer and his/​her needs. They are great. Thanks, Homejoy and Wendy.

IF I could give zero stars I would. I’ve tried them 3 times. 2 times they cancelled right when the appointment was due, I had set up my house, cancelled any plans and got stuck cleaning it myself. It’s not like the service is cheap, either, I expect someone to show up and better than same day notice, they would charge me money if I cancelled same day.
The only time the person showed up was because they were trying to cancel that appointment, and I told them they had already rescheduled me once and if they did it again they could count on me being not interested in their service. The person who showed up did a good job on the rooms they got to, but they ran out of time for the rest of the house and had to leave. Again, just the worst managed service I’ve tried since I’ve been in Seattle, and I’ve tried a few. You can’t get a hold of a real person, either so skip the service. A 6 hour commitment on your weekend and being cancelled on 3 times in a row? No thank you.
i’ve gotten plenty of texts and calls asking to book me again for $ 25 dollars off and the soonest they can come is 5 pm on a Saturday? So you are going to be here until 11 pm? If they indeed actually show up? I don’t think it’s the cleaners that work there fault but really, you either need more employees or better scheduling. If I am going to give you 180 dollars and you can’t manage to make it to my house. I’m amazed you are still in business.

Janesse is fantastic. Always on time and she goes above and beyond. She even folds the TP like they do in fancy hotels.
She’s pretty cool to boot. I’d give 5 stars for her, but I’ve had some other cleaners from Homejoy that were consistently late.

So I book another cleaning after the first one and it turned out pretty good. Book again months for a cleaning right before the holiday and they cancel the day before!
I thought something was wrong when there was no cleaner assigned the day before. And Sama the cleaner who I thought did a pretty good job was listed as no longer available a week before the cleaning. So the day before the cleaning I get a call that Sama had a «family emergency». They knew she couldn’t make it at least a week before, why tell me the day before late in the afternoon that they aren’t going to make it. Now I have to spend hours cleaning instead of cooking. So pissed won’t used them again!

See the Groupon they are ALWAYS offering? Yeah. Me, too. I decided I was going to buy and try even though reviews are less than stellar. I really wanted to try it out and my house was super dusty and needed some help.
Booking was easy. I think their website is mostly good and intuitive. The app is alright, too.
The day before my initial cleaning I got a message that the cleaner they had assigned could not make it, but someone else would come out. No problem.
The cleaner showed up on time. She was very nice. She was very young. We chit chatted about things and I showed her exactly what I needed done. She told me she felt very confident she could get everything done because our home is small. Hooray!
I work from home, so I let her do her thing while I worked in a room she didn’t need to clean. About 15 minutes before she was to leave, she was on a personal call. It happens sometimes. I only became annoyed at this when I realized that she didn’t do a damn thing that I really needed done. My gas range looked amazing! … but that was it. Literally. That was the only thing that looked like it had been touched in three hours.
She didn’t dust. She didn’t clean the hardwoods. I was super bummed. I shot an email off expressing that she was very kind and on time, but not a professional cleaner. They offered a make up service, but couldn’t get me anyone until more than a week later. I opted to just have those makeup hours added to the next cleaning with a brand new person. Someone they assured me had glowing reviews and was experienced.
Sigh.
Again, super nice guy. He was here for SIX hours. Dusting? Some. But not all. The inside of my windows looked nice. Aside from that? Nothing. Not even the inside of the fridge which was not even that bad didn’t even get as much as a wipe down.
What he did for six hours? Who knows… but it wasn’t cleaning.
I feel pretty awful as I know that it’s their livlihood, but the biggest issue with Homejoy is they are just a company that offers work to IC’s. Much like lyft and über. The only thing that keeps you with them or doesn’t is the rating system. They are not trained professionals. Some probably are naturally good at cleaning, but I have had very good cleaners come to my house and it looks clean, it smells clean, and I can visibly see that someone came in and cleaned. Not these guys.
Their customer service is great. They want to keep you as a customer so they will offer everything to you to make that happen, but I don’t have the time or patience to keep «trying them out.»
Do yourself a favor. Find someone that is professional. You are going to have to pay more, but you will get a much better result.
Lesson learned.

I have to say that, after writing my previous review, I was able to reach someone else from customer service who took care of the extra charges, gave me an extra hours worth of credit, and allowed me to make a claim for my missing guest pass. I heard back about the claim very promptly and they said they would send a check in the mail to replace the pass. I’m hoping I’ll get that just as quickly.
Once the additional charges were taken off, I went ahead with the scheduled second cleaning and I have to say, Monique did a fabulous job. I left a list for her to know what my priorities were and she was able to do everything on the list. My place smells and looks great. I guess it’s touch and go with this company. I suggest reading the reviews and trying to schedule with a specific person who has received high reviews. Otherwise, proceed at your own risk. I’m on the fence if I will try this again because of my first experience. If I do, I will be sure to ask for Monique. Although my issues after my first experience were addressed very well, I’m giving my overall experience 2 stars because it shouldn’t take a complaint to get good service and because the service in general fluctuates so much. It’s a shame, because when things go well, they do a great job.
My second experience gets four stars.

Tried homejoy several more times… and got several more cancellations.
I’ve had several really good cleaners, it is too bad I can’t hire them outside of Homejoy. They are being penalized by a company that can’t schedule anything correctly.
If it’s 2014 and you cancel things with under 24 hours without a chance to reschedule, you deserve to fail. Such is Homejoy: A service that is great when it works, but it hardly ever does.
Imagine if Über only showed up 40% of the time.
Homejoy: Get it together, because I won’t miss you (you never show up).
Case in point, look at this page: 2 random entries have a reply from Homejoy.
I guess only some of us are worth following up with? Then enjoy your negative reviews.

I guess it just depends on the person who cleans your house…
Roman was awesome. She was 15 minutes early, asked about the focus areas, cleaned for 2.5 hours straight and did a great job. One of the focus areas was underneath the bed, I won’t lie, there was a lot of stuff under there, and she asked what she should throw away and what to keep. Put everything in a bin for me to go through later.
I had purchased a living social, so total was $ 45. I just had a baby not too long ago and so this clean was needed. She dusted everything, the bathroom looks sparkly and everything is organized.
I would definitely try this again if I felt the need to hire someone to clean. I just needed a «fresh start» clean. Definitely would recommend!

On my Facebook newsfeed, I saw a coupon that was too good to pass up. Because it entailed having a stranger come in to my home and I hadn’t personally ever heard of Homejoy, I googled reviews (like this one) and also looked them up on the BBB. At the time of this review, they hold an A– which is pretty good and the reviews were pretty good as well.
Redeeming my coupon and setting up the appointment on the Homejoy website was very easy to do and I loved that it gave me a calendar with available times that I could choose. This allowed me to look and see what worked with my schedule.
While the reviews were good and they had a good rating with the BBB, I still decided to stay at home for the cleaning, to be on the safe side.
A few days before my appointment, Homejoy emailed me to tell me the name of who would be coming to my home to clean as well as provided a photo. My cleaner was Thomas and knowing what face and name to expect when I opened the door was a huge comfort to me.
Thomas was in my home for 2.5 hours and focused on the areas that I requested during this time. He brought all of his own supplies and took out whatever garbage he used. While he was cleaning, he also shared some quick tips with me which I found to be extremely helpful and useful!
After he left, I just stared at my bathroom, kitchen, and shelves that I requested be dusted. I don’t think I’d ever seen these areas so shiny in the almost 9 years I’ve lived here. He even put a cute little design on my TP roll.
I would pay full price for this service and would highly recommend Thomas at Homejoy.

**Update on 8÷28÷14. Homejoy contacted me after my previous bad review with sincerest apologies, asking for me to give them another chance with a better cleaner this time. they offered me 3 hours of cleaning for free so I obliged to see if maybe it was just bad luck the first time around. first of all, remember, I have a 500 square foot studio apartment with hardwood floors. 3 hours is more than enough time to give it a good clean.
my cleaner Leona showed up right on time at 7 AM this morning. she was warm, friendly, and very charming and goofy. I liked her immediately. she got to work about 10 minutes past 7:00 after I told her about my previous bad experience and how the last cleaner didn’t even properly sweep or mop my floors, which was one of the specific things I asked for when signing up for this service. she told me that she was told about my bad experience and she was here to make it better. she was very confident in her assurances that she would be giving my apartment a ‘total make-​over’. I have a small space, but my boyfriend and I work a lot and also with totally opposite hours. he recently moved in so my apartment became cluttered and I told Leona that I needed help by having a clean start to maintain from there. she understood and got right to work.
she started with the bathroom and cleaned it exceptionally well. she washed the shower walls, all the faucets, hell she even cleaned the door, door knobs, and my toilet brush and plunger! I was super impressed at her attention to detail without me having to ask her. However, I did have some creeping concerns after she had been at my place for about an hour and was still in the bathroom. She also kept offering to take me to Starbucks to go get coffee (??) even though I repeated several times no thank you. I appreciated the offer, but she wanted to seriously take me to go get coffee after she had been in my apartment for 20 minutes. I told her I wanted to make sure this place gets clean, and that I usually get coffee near work.
fast forward a bit. Leona is continuing to tell me how she’s going to get *everything* done. she’s even going to go get her vacuum and get at the corners of the floor to pick up every little piece of dirt and dust. cool! time keeps ticking. she’s cleaned the dishes. then she starts polishing my wooden wardrobe attached to my apartment. I thought this was a little unnecessary, but she’s the pro, right? so I went with it.
I go do my own thing while she cleans and I notice that our time is running out and the two things I asked her (and Homejoy TWICE before) to do, she hadn’t done. I wanted my desk and coffee table wiped off, and the floors cleaned. The *BIGGEST* thing I wanted done was just to have my damn floor sparking clean.
before I know it, it’s 10 minutes before 10:00 and Leona is half-​ass sweeping my floor. She tells me that she is working slower than usual because she’s coming down with a cold. wait a minute. weren’t you just assuring me 2 hours ago that you’d get everything that I wanted done, and then some? As 10:00 draws near, she literally takes her cloth mop and a spray bottle, sprays TOTALLY RANDOM areas of my floor, wipes them and *mops her way out of my apartment*, thanking me for allowing her to clean my home. I tip her $ 20, as that is all the cash I had (which I wanted to tip her after she made my bathroom sparkle!) … She leaves. I inspect the floor. after telling Homejoy from the get-​go I want my floors clean more than anything, after the FIRST cleaner FAILED to do so… low and behold, my floor was FILTHY, STILL. after THREE HOURS. Sorry, I’m a bit frustrated. but do you blame me? Leona cleaned my doors, wiped off my bathroom ceiling, and cleaned my doorknobs, but she decided that the one thing she’d rush on and half-​ass in 5 minutes is the one thing I wanted the MOST focus on!!! this makes ZERO sense to me. I frustratedly had to leave for work, and when I came home I had to sweep and swiffer my own floor AGAIN! THE SECOND TIME I’VE HAD TO CLEAN UP AFTER HOMEJOY! Dust bunnies are all over the place, there are random pieces of cat litter scattered about, and my bathroom floor had hair and dirt on it; a sure sign it wasn’t touched much, if at all. Is there some sort of unwritten rule to piss consumers off as much as possible? to do just enough work that your customers have to clean up after your «professionals» leave? Someone tell me, please. is it too much to ask for to expect a «professional» cleaning service to not leave footprints, dirt, dust, and other grit on my floor? Especially in a space as small as mine.
As if this wasn’t enough, while she was cleaning she placed my dog’s water bowl on the coffee table and didn’t put it back where it was before she left. I wonder if I wasn’t home at the time, would she have even noticed this? Or would my dog have gone all day without water?
I WILL NEVER USE THIS SERVICE AGAIN. and I suggest that you don’t either.

I live alone in a 650 sqft apartment and really only need the service 1x/​mo. Until recently, that’s been very reasonable at $ 20/​hr but has now increased 75% to 35x/​hr. I suspect that is still a good rate, but that’s a SIGNIFICANT jump in price.
I’ve been using Homejoy monthly for the better part of a year and have had hit or miss service depending on the assigned cleaner. As others have noted, I recently had Tanner C and am hoping that I can now be a regular of Tanner’s. I was very pleased with the quality of work and the overall service of the cleaning.
What I like most about Homejoy and what will be probably keep me from leaving them (particularly now that I’ve found Tanner) is the online booking system. It’s fairly easy to use and quite convenient.
I totally recommend giving them a shot when you see a groupon/​living social. You too, might get Tanner!

We finally gave these guys a try. We were scheduled for 3.5 hours. I have to say I did expect more detailed work (tidying up of DVDs & books on the TV stand, etc.) But I was pleased with how spotless the bathroom was and the kitchen counters and floors. I had to remind her to clean under the couch but she was happy to do that and whatever I needed. Our cleaner was Dimi, she was very sweet and worked efficiently.
I will use them again and next time have a more clear idea of what I want cleaned specifically.