1. Major clean of 2,200 sq ft house as first in a series of regular visits 2. Return every two weeks to clean Service requested was: a. Clean bathrooms b. Clean living room, dining room, den (sweep/mop/vacuum floors, dust/clean tables) c. Vacuum floors in children's bedrooms, sweep/mop master bedroom d. Clean kitchen floors, sink, counters Our primary focus was to make the house more comfortable for allergy sufferers. Dust, pet hair, etc were taking a toll on our family's health and happiness so we were willing to pay $180/month for someone to help us with that.
I called Ruth on a Friday in September after reading her reviews here. She and her friend/coworker Hope met me at home that afternoon. Based upon the size and condition of the house, they offered a proposed price and I told them we would talk it over. I also told them that we were wary because we had recently been disappointed and even ripped off by by bait-and-switch cleaners. They would do a great job the first time but then send a subordinate who wasn't able to perform at the same level or who just didn't care. I looked Ruth in the eyes and said, and quot;You got great reviews on Angie's List. I want YOU to clean our house, not someone else.and quot; She said the house was too big for one person but she and Hope would clean together and she would look over her work before they left that day. I told Ruth we would be interested in regular service if all went well with the first round. I reminded her that it was important for us to have someone we could trust and someone to be accountable for the work performed. She warned that after the inital and quot;bigand quot; clean it would probably be Hope cleaning by herself most times, but she (Ruth) would still check her work and vouch for it. I was disappointed because I made a point of asking that Ruth do it, but we discussed at home and decided we trusted her to look over Hope's shoulder as was necessary. They had already told us they were friends, went to the same church, and worked well together. We scheduled Hope for a Monday the following Monday or Tuesday. We had to reschedule the first visit because of a last-minute conflict at home. I felt awful after lecturing them on responsability, but we didn't have a choice. We scheduled for the following week and Hope said it would be fine. The next week Hope contacted me to say SHE would have to reschedule. She said she had to remove her daughter from school because of bullying and she needed the day to find another school in which to enroll her. She was very apologetic and promised they would do it the following week. I found the reason to be bizarre but couldn't complain after we moved the first visit. On the next day they were supposed to come work, Hope sent a text message asking to reschedule again. She said she was covered head-to-toe with a rash and running a fever of 103. She wanted to know if we could do it another day. I told her to cancel it, and as best as I can remember, I didn't speak to Hope again. Ruth reached out to me and said Hope told her what happened. Ruth said she felt bad because she had and quot;recommendedand quot; Hope. I was confused because we HIRED Ruth and weren't sure at this point if she was even going to be the person helping Hope. Ruth said she would bring and quot;Faith,and quot; (yes, Hope and Faith) an older and more stable lady who did good work. Ruth and Faith would clean our house together. We agreed and they (or whoever cleaned) did an excellent job for $200. The wife was happy, the kids were happy, we were all happy. We told Ruth that as long as she was personally doing the work, we would make it a regular thing. Every other week for $90/visit. We had an extra key made and gave it to her as well. After the next visit, Ruth asked if Faith could clean our house by herself. I was stunned because of the many, many times we had revisited the subject. After some back-and-forth with Ruth (I told her I wouldn't pay the same rate for someone untested and unreviewed) Ruth agreed to help Faith clean on the next visit. She said she wanted to help Faith and other and quot;people in her church family get work and have their own little business.and quot; I told her that was admirable but reminded her that we hired her and not her church family. Angie's List had glowing reviews for Bailey Cleaning, not them. I wanted to terminate the relationship at this point because it was clear Ruth either wasn't listening to us or she was more interested in expaning the business than helping with our house, but she agreed to come with Faith so we kept the arrangement. After we both juggled conflicting schedules in November and December, the best date for the next cleaning was a day Ruth wasn't available. We agreed to try Faith's solo work and it was not to the level of Ruth's. The stove top and dining room table were sticky and looked and quot;wiped downand quot; at best. Random chunks of food and soap scum were left in the sink. We told Ruth and she said Faith and quot;forgotand quot; to clean the table but had used 409 on the stove. She suspected Faith failed to rinse the sink after mopping and that was why it was dirty. Minor things, but still a drop-off from her own quality of service. She said she would remind Faith to check these things if she wasn't there to help in the future. Before the next visit Ruth sent me a text to inform me she was too busy to clean our house anymore and would have to send Faith or a woman named Toni whom we had never met or even heard of before then. My only response was to ask her to return the key we had given her. Ruth is very good at making a house clean and comfortable. She really does excellent work when she is personally involved, but she appears anxious to delegate at the first opportunity so that she can tend to other customers or grow her business more. She apparently doesn't enjoy direct or telephone interaction, as the majority of our exchanges were via email or text message. The upside to this is that I was able to refer to those texts to write this review and provide dates and specific quotes. The obvious downside is that the simplest discussions or decisions can stretch on for hours as you write back-and-forth.
