Cardinal Maids

At the time of her service, I was the operations manager and her contact with Cardinal Maids. I booked the job. I made the agreement with her. Though it's not really my business anymore, this is so misleading; I had to ""say"" something. When she initially called, she said that her house was 1000 square feet and wouldn't take long since it's empty. This is a common misconception. I explained to her that a move-out clean entails things that don't always occur in a residential cleaning. Cleaning out the appliances. Cleaning out kitchen cupboards. Vanity cupboards in the bathrooms. Wash (not just dust) baseboards & walls (to either prepare for painters, or keep the landlord from having to hire painters). Wash (not just dust) light fixtures. Wash (not just dust) blinds. We remove bathroom fixtures if necessary. I was explicit and thought we were on the same page. And she was supposed to be there, so the implication that Cardinal Maids had this plot to take advantage because she wasn't going to be there is comical. I actually prefer that the client be there so that they can see how they get more than their money?s worth. On that Saturday, (yes, we were THAT accommodating; we booked her for Saturday because she wanted to be out by the weekend); she called me @ 7:30 am. She just left the house and won't be back, but left a check. Oh and all the roads are blocked for the race (Komen Race for the Cure) so no one can get in or out of there until 11. But she'll just leave a key under the mat and the check on the counter. The housekeepers had to change their child care arrangements. We didn't blame her. She didn't have control over the roadblocks, so we were still going. When we get there at 11, there?s a check on the counter for $90 and a note that says just do $90 worth. That?s what we did. We actually worked longer, but the company ate that cost; we didn?t bill her for it. Now a few things in her ?review? don?t work if you apply common sense. For example, if it was so clean and her expectations are so high in general, how did her landlord sweep up dustpans full of dirt from her so-clean-that-it-would-never-take-take-three-hours-to-clean-floors after we cleaned? One would infer that with such high expectations, there wouldn't be much dirt ever, right? Also, she called over a month after getting service to complain. Had she called within a reasonable period to complain, she probably would've gotten a good faith refund. When you read her review, just think about the inconsistencies. Dustpans full of dirt in your house? How realistic is that? Think about washing your blinds and window sills. Cleaning out your cupboards. Cleaning out your fridge. Fingerprints. How long would that take? Probably more than three hours unless you're cleaner than anyone I've ever cleaned for in 15 years. more

I had a very negative experience with Cardinal Maids. I scheduled them to do a ""move out"" cleaning of my house, and they completely took advantage of the fact that I was not going to return to the house to inspect their performance. My landlord, who is a close friend, had to call me and inform me of what an unsatisfactory job they did. The cleaning should have been easy since the house was completely empty. My landlord said that it looked like the 100% hardwood floor house had not even been swept. She said it looked like they just pushed around a wet mop and moved the dirt around. She had to re-clean the entire house and swept up several dustpans full of dirt. The toilets were also not cleaned to pass muster. They were not that dirty to begin with, so they also should not have been that hard to get clean. A three-hour, move out cleaning of a 1,000 square foot one-story house for $90 should have resulted in a clean house regardless of the person's cleaning standards. I know I have high expectations, so this is a caution to all those who expect great performance when they are paying for a service. If you want something done right, you should just do it yourself. To add insult to injury, the customer service I received when I contacted Cardinal Maids with my complaint was accusatory and rude suggesting that I and my landlord were at fault. No responsibility was assumed by Cardinal Maids and nothing was done to try to compensate me for their less than par performance. Under no circumstances would I recommend Cardinal Maids after my experience. I would give zero stars if I could. more