Little Helpers

This company fraudulently charged my credit card for more then I authorized, then provided information to my bank that was altered. The girl who answers the phone (Toni) and perpetrated the fraud refuses to let me speak with the owner to complain about her practices.
Toni requires a credit card prior to staff coming to the house. I authorized Little Helpers to charge my credit card for $ 160.00 and no more. They agreed to send out 2 maids for the duration of the cleaning of my 2^nd floor apartment, plus one tall gentleman to clean some of the high items such as ceiling fans. That gentleman was not to remain on site. As my tenant was home, I did not remain in the apartment for the cleaning. Once it was complete, I came to the apartment, confirmed my tenant was happy with the work, and signed the paperwork provided stating that I was happy. The next day, I received an electronic invoice for $ 192.00, with an explanation that they had to charge more because the work was more then they expected, and that the gentleman ended up remaining and helped clean for the duration. I contacted Little Helpers and explained I had only authorized $ 160.00 charge, and they had no right to change that amount without my permission prior to the work being done. They refused to refund my money, so I filed a claim with my bank to remove the additional charges. Toni with Little Helpers provided the bank with a document that I signed, with fraudulent information. So the bank denied my claim, and Little Helpers is now being allowed to keep the additional money that was never authorized.
Others have made complaints about this company, and many have included Toni’s name in their complaints. She comes across as nice and also as professional. But when a person answering the phones and handling all financial arrangements refuses to allow someone with a complaint to speak with the owner, she is trying to hide her incompetence from the owners. There should never be any discussion when an unhappy client requests to speak with the owner, especially when the reason for that unhappiness is the person answering the phone.

Horrible, unreliable, unprofessional service. There is someone who handles calls and coordinates (Toni) who is artificially nice on the phone but completely incompetent. Messed up their own appt time. Did not complete services booked due to their own error (had it in their system, just forgot to check that day). Broke a mirror while cleaning. Called to tell me my credit card was declined. When I told her that wasn’t possible, she re-​ran the numbers and it went through. Then had the nerve to tell she would do me a favor and not charge me the return check fee given all of the hassles they had put me through. So you’re not going to charge me for your own incompetence? How generous. STAY AWAY. Far far away.

I just hired Little Helpers to install my swing set. They did a fantastic job! They assembled the swing set within the time frame they estimated. They were on time, professional, and knowledgeable. Overall it was a good experience and I would recommend them to anybody looking to have their swing set installed or removed.

I was very pleased with Little Helpers. After the cleaning company I hired for an apartment move out clean up was a no-​show, I found Little Helpers. I was at the mercy of the Internet because the cleaning was for my college son who lives in the city — and I live out of state. Rei was very helpful and assured me the job would be done. I had no problems with payment. I would hire them again.

Should having gone with my gut and trusted the Unilocal reviews!
I spoke with Brandon on the phone to get a price for the swing set build. I explained the set was a set from Costco and was wood and plastic. I was quoted a fixed price and informed Brandon that I would schedule something as soon as I purchased the play set. Two weeks later we purchased the set and I went on their website and scheduled a time. When selecting the service type, I selected swing set-​fixed rate, which seemed consistent with the fact they had already given me a fixed price. The company does assemble other things and they charge by the hour for those services.
The day of our service, two people arrived and informed us that this set would take between 16 and 32 hours to assemble. They also wanted to charge by the hour for this service. They indicated this would cost between 800 to over $ 1000.00. This was significantly higher than the $ 350.00 flat rate they had originally quoted me. The work was in progress when I was informed of this price which left me feeling stuck. I spoke with Brandon again and he said he did not quote a flat rate and that the selection of «swing set –flat rate», I selected when making the reservation, was for swing sets built on flat ground. Although this made no since I was at a point where I was going to have to pay what they asked or pay them and find someone else to finish building the set. The set was completed and seems ok. I was charged $ 620.00 and paid on the spot.
Today (2 days after assembly), I was charged another $ 620.00. I called the service and spoke to Brandon again who said I had not been double charged that the additional «charge» was just a confirmation. I explained to him that my back account was now out $ 1240.00 indicating a double charge. He put me on hold and came back a while later and said «The charge on Sunday stands, we will refund the charge for today». This is where, based on the bad service I had already received, a sorry and admission of problem would have gone along way. I was not going to say anything about this company but today was the last straw. I would not use this service again and strongly recommend other not use the service.

We hired little helpers when we moved out of our 2 bedroom apartment. The place was a mess after packing up all of our stuff and I have to admit I hadnt cleaned certain areas in a while such as the microwave. They did a good job cleaning everything. But they didnt take out the trash and they forgot to clean some parts of the freezer which we told them. So they did clean the rest of the freezer but we ended up taking out the trash. I guess there was just a language barrier. They didnt speak english.
Overall we were happy with the results though. Just make sure you check everything before they go, they seem to be on a tight booked schedule and leave right away if you dont tell them.
I payed online with the credit card. No problems there.

I scheduled a visit weeks before because I had a limited time I could be available. One business day ahead, they e-​mailed and canceled the service. When I called that morning to ask why, they replyed that the online service had overbooked that day so I was cancelled. No warning, no consideration.
Now I had no time to even book another service. They are not reliable, I would not recommend this service.

Buyer beware! So I completely ignored previous reviews on this site and purchased the Unilocal deal for this business. Big mistake!
I agree management is a huge problem with this company. My troubles all started when I initially made an appointment for Saturday morning. The next day I received a call from management saying somehow they were overbooked on Saturday so I needed to reschedule. Fortunately my schedule was pretty flexible for a change and that was not a problem. So I rescheduled for Monday at 11 am.
Approximately 10 – 15 minutes after my scheduled appointment I realize no one has arrived. I call little helpers and was told someone should be on there way. It’s 3 pm and not only has no one arrived but I have not heard from management as to why. That being said during that time I tried calling the office multiple times and even left a message informing them that no one showed up. Not only did they not answer the phone but my call was not even returned. finally at 6 pm I called the office again and was informed that the individual assigned to assemble my furniture was in a car accident. They offered to reschedule the appointment and give me 1 hr of free service. Giving them the benefit of the doubt I rescheduled AGAIN for Friday.
And guess what… no one showed up and… I did not receive a notification from the management office as to why. this time I did not even bother calling. I just simply emailed the folks at Unilocal requesting a refund of the voucher I purchased which was granted and left it at that.
Overall I find this company to be unreliable and outright unprofessional and quite frankly I’m surprised they are still in business.

My cleaners did great. The management was HORRIBLE! And yes, I did need to capitalize the HORRIBLE! I scheduled the service on Tuesday for a Friday move out clean and combined it with a carpet cleaning. Wednesday I get a call asking if the carpet cleaner could come at 3pm and I said fine, the house cleaners would be there at 2pm and it would be all good. I took off work to be there at 2, my tenant took off work to be there at 2 and nobody showed until 3:15. I called three times to inquire where they were with no one answering the phone and no one returning my calls. I finally got a call from a manager and we spoke about pricing and I stated their own rules, and I quote from their email, «Appointment Cancellation Policy
Appointments must be canceled at least 36 hours in advance to avoid a
cancellation fee of $ 30 per person. Appointment No-​Show Policy
If we appear at the scheduled time and no one answers the door and/​or
our phone calls, we will charged $ 35 per person.» Their email does go on to state that the customer should allow them a window of 60 minutes; great for them but God forbid the customer should be late or they will incur the wrath of the penalty fee. We finally came up with they would honor the $ 15 dollar discount for combining services, a $ 10 dollar discount for the mix-​up and then one hour of free maid service as long as I paid the full $ 190 due for todays service. Mind you I had been quoted $ 200 dollars. The maid tallied up the total and wanted to charge me almost $ 400 dollars and she claims that’s how she was instructed. She got her boss on the phone and we got the the total correct and then he blurted out, «Oh, don’t forget about the $ 5 dollar gas charge.» I blew up and told him he can forget the free hour, he can just deduct what that was worth from the new total and I will not use their service again. He said that’s not the way it works, they don’t give services for free and I said, «Fine, take nothing and take me to court.» I tipped the maids ten dollars a piece and shut my door. I’m not one to screw someone over so I opened the door and told the maid if he wants to accept $ 165 I will pay that and call it even. He accepted the payment. Trust me, I will not use this service ever again.

Please don’t use this place for your cleaning needs, I paid for the apartment moving package and they did not clean inside the fridge and stove even though I verified they would clean the fridge and stove when I set up the appointment. Also, I had two maids and I asked them when they would be finished and they said two hours, so I left. I came back at 1 hour and 30 minutes and they were gone and did not finish cleaning. When I called the office they said the maids were told to leave by me. I am going to the BBB on this one, they really ripped us off.

We have had little helpers clean our house for over a year now. When they come they do a pretty good job. They are easy to book online and send very competent individuals. We have run into issues with them, though, with scheduling. They have called our home at least three times on the day of service (or the day before) to cancel our appointment. The last straw was yesterday, when they called to cancel our appointment for today (new years eve). My husband and I are expecting 10 guests in our small home and were really counting on then to clean our place before the guests arrived. They called us yesterday evening to cancel (around 6PM). They had already sent email confirmation and we booked the appointment three months ago. We both work full time and have a baby and were up until midnight cleaning. There are tons of cleaning services in chicago that charge as much money. Might as well hire one that comes when they say they will.

My first experience with Little Helpers was very good. I hired them for my mother as a late Mother’s Day present. I wasn’t there the day of, but we got two cleaning ladies and they did a fine job. They broke something, but my mother admitted that she shouldn’t have left it out, and they apologized. The company charged the debit card I’d held the reservation under, as I’d asked them to. Great.
Then my sister and I hired them to clean our place. We weren’t doing my bedroom or bathroom, just the living room/​kitchen/​dining area and her room and bathroom, so we hired one cleaning lady for three hours. She did a good job, though she never made it to the kitchen. I feel like she spent a really, really long time on my sister’s bathroom, but I could normally overlook this because everything she got to was very clean.
However, I had a similar experience to another reviewer here. I had held the appointment under my debit card but we gave them a check from my sister’s account. They cashed the check and charged my card ON THE SAME DAY. Which to me looks shady. It took forever to get through to the anyone at their telephone number. I called many times, always got voicemail. I left a message, never heard back. Called again and again one morning, finally emailed them with threats of contacting the BBB or any other relevant associations, and coincidentally (ha) they finally picked up when I called again a half hour or so later. It still took over a week to get the credit.
Major annoyance, next time I’ll clean my own place. That’s what I get for acting all uppity and hiring a maid service, huh?

I gave Little Helpers Maids a shot because thier website looked professional, but I eventually learned NOT to judge a book by it’s cover. I paid $ 100 for three hours, but she didn’t even vaccuum, mop, or clean the glass tables. These are the most basic cleaning services and are included in their online checklist. On top of this, they didn’t use the check my boyfriend gave them (it was his place, not mine). Instead they charged the credit card I used to originally make the reservation even though they specifically stated they would not use it. I had no warning about these charges so they totally screwed up my balance. When I tried calling and emailing them about everything no one responded to any of my messages. I even sent an email asking if anyone got my email… still no response! Horrible customer service; if I had the option to rate Little Helpers Maids with zero stars I would.

OMG! A coveted 5-​star rating.
Well, let me tell you guys: THEY DESERVED IT!
All those nooks and crannies (did I really just say that?) are spotless! They really really do a great job and they don’t waste time.
I’ve had my places cleaned for a year with numerous other services. Always the same crap not cleaned up. I hate being that guy who has to walk them through the house to point out what clean DOESN’T LOOK LIKE.
If you are human (and therefore ironically despise cleaning while at the same time needing to live in a house that doesn’t make people say «that’s nasty…»), then call up these guys.
(Rate was 30/hour…took 1 woman 5 hours to do 2200sq ft condo)

Do not call Little Helpers for cleaning services. We had our condo cleaned by Little Helpers and never again. I came home to a totally broken sink! The new sink (less than a year old) was completely detached from our countertop. The woman said she was just standing there and it fell out — YEAH RIGHT. We had a plumber out and he said that she must have been standing in the sink for this to happen. I called Little Helpers to complain several times and was always given the run around. The cleaning cost $ 90 and we spent $ 200 to have the sink fixed.