UpperCrust Maids

I work in real estate and a lot of my clients need house cleaning services. I called UpperCrust (based on the good reviews) to ask them if it was OK to send my clients to them when they wanted cleaning services. I wasn’t selling anything, and wasn’t asking to receive anything in return. I just wanted to establish/​open a line of communication so when my clients call, they could say they were referred by us, and that they would be taken care of.
The woman I spoke to was so rude and cut me off mid-​sentence. I explained to her that I wasn’t trying to sell her anything, she claimed to understand, but kept telling me that she wasn’t interested. What business doesn’t want more customers?!
This review is solely based on customer service, which they failed. Not to mention, they just lost a LOT of potential business. Their loss I suppose.
**UPDATE: I received her contact information from Angie’s List where UpperCrust is listed as a house cleaning service. She could have easily said that her company no longer provides house cleaning services. Instead, she just kept yelling at me that she wasn’t interested and to remove her from «my list» (for the record, I don’t have a «list» — I was simply calling to inquire about their services. If asking questions is rude, forgive me.

The two-​person team arrived right on time. I pointed out the areas in my home that needed serious attention, and they did a great job, especially on the glass tub enclosure. Customer service is on point… it’s so nice to get a live person and not a recording where you have to wait for a call back.

Lifesavers! Cathy (co-​owner) has always done a great job — I’ve used them a few times when laundry got out of hand (we have no washer/​dryer in the apt) and it’s wonderful getting caught up! Thanks! (they pick up and deliver it back washed and folded)

I will not attempt to use this service again, unfortunately. Similarly to another poster, I was going to try out this company through purchase of a voucher. After receiving emails from the owner that were rather confrontational in tone (I had apparently not purchased the appropriate version of the voucher for my square footage and explained that I would have immediately, of course, been amenable to making up the difference withOUT a rude contact that seemed to indicate I was trying to short the company) I was quite put off. We arranged for me to pay the nominal difference on the day of the cleaning. I can’t speak to the quality of the service as the maids did not show up. So I waited during my assigned window and received no service. When I contacted the owner she suggested I obtain a refund and later said the maids had gotten lost and not called anyone. Her emails clearly indicated they were burdened by their voucher business. And while that could account for a missed appointment or adjustments, I just don’t find it to be an appropriate excuse for this type of tone of communication directed at would-​be customers.

«C» rating from the BBB speaks volumes. Not a well run business. However, I have to give Cathy 5-​Stars as she responds to all emails you send to her. Very attentive, since responding to emails/​upset Unilocal postings seems to be her primary business.

I give a 3 star review, because i am sitting in a thoroughly cleaned house and a very kind cleaning tech spent over 3 hours cleaning my apartment by herself.
I also give 3 stars because I understand what issues groupon and living social deals can cause in small businesses and i get that. I am sure that this deal has been a nightmare for the maid service and I was sure to tip on the full amount and then some because the tech did such a thorough job.
Groupon and living social deals should be a great way to bring in new business. i would have never heard of this maid service without it. And had i been purusing Unilocal,I would have passed them by because of poor reviews about coupon customers. If this is how you treat people during your first business interaction, which you deem somehow inauthentic, why would I jump to pay full price?
I won’t be looking to them for continued business because of my interactions with the owner. She changed my scheduled cleaning (which i made in november for april– the week before my wedding) and then at the last minute asked if we could do it a day early and at 8am. Her emails were terse and rude and it was clear that as a coupon customer, i was an annoyance, not an opportunity. Other coupon cleaning deals were much easier to schedule and pleasant to interact with and i will be seeking out their longer term business as a result.

I got a deal with UpperCrust through LivingSocial. This was my first experience having someone come and clean, but it was a fabulous one. They did an *amazing* job when they worked on my small condo. They cleaned the place with such care and effort, I was blown away, even staying way past their estimated time in order to do a good job. Plus, they saved my stove! I was ready to give up on it, it was in such a state! They were kind, conscientious, and courteous in their work and I couldn’t have been more pleased. I had to leave town a day later and I loved leaving it in such a great state!

Why are the coupon customers unhappy and full paying customers not happy (as Cathy point out)??
Do the customers who linked through Living Social get a different level of service? Seems like that’s what you are saying and it is no longer a deal not is it a good way to promote your business.
You need to focus on the way your employeed clean and not come up with so many excuses for the the negative reviews.
All reviews are valid. You cannot say that just the positive reviews are authentic. Nobody is buying that. Some people have good experiences and many have bad experiences. Everyone is allowed to tell their story.

I got their coupons from Livingsocial. They came and did an ok job — the part I was annoyed was that they are not very straightforward to deal with. The women came to clean and said that beds were excluded — when I checked the coupon it only said the dishes were excluded. When I spoke to Cathy, she said that it was a mistake that it was not mentioned on the coupon — beds were excluded and would cost $ 7 more. I had used a coupon before and such exclusion was not there before, but suddenly it came-​up. I would not use them again.

*Note my star is for lack of service.
I purchased a groupon for this company. Cathy e-​mails to tell me that my groupon was incomplete and that I couldn’t be scheduled until I sent her the information. I sent in the information, and never heard from her again, until she e-​mailed to let me know I’d missed by appointment and my groupon was forfeit. This of course started an e-​mail discussion, which ended only when I told her to stop e-​mailing me.
Cathy is very unprofessional. Her business demeanor leaves a lot to be desired.
I’ve filed a complaint on her company with BBB and also with Groupon, Groupon was gracious enough to refund the money spent on services not rendered.
Use the company at your own risk.
Update to address Cathy’s «comments».
1. Your MO seems to be people who use coupons don’t require basic customer service so rude behavior is appropriate. You seem to think it’s appropriate to treat «cheap» customers poorly and then blame it on the fact that we’re «cheap». Please continue to propagate that theory, you’re making yourself look good. Blame the issue on the fact that we used coupons instead of the fact that you lack customer service skills.
2. I received no reminder from her about my appointment, not a single one. I’ve made that very clear.
3. Also there are no messages left on my voice mail, home or cell, from her or her husband «frantically» trying to reach me.
4. I have my own documentation, that I sent to the BBB, but your C rating is truly definitive. I only wished I’d looked you up before I bought the groupon.
5. Not that price matters (everyone loves a good deal), but I’ve paid full price before for cleaning services, the point of the deals is just that to get a deal. However, what I did not expect was to spend $ 49 and have to deal with a headache, and a rude one at that.

I purchased a cleaning thru the Living Social site and just had my cleaning this week. I found the cleaning to be completely unsatisfactory. I have been trying out a number of cleaning services in the area through Living Social and Groupon to identify a company for longer-​term service, so I view this as an opportunity for the companies to get new clients by show-​casing their work. I don’t know if UpperCrust views it the same way or if they just deliver sub-​standard service for coupon customers or what.
I was not home the day of the cleaning, but left instructions on how to get into the apartment, which seemed to be no problem. It was apparent that the cleaner (s) didn’t vacuum, as there was still cat hair on the carpet and on the ottoman (and I do vacuum 1−2x/week, so there’s not a great deal of build-up…nonetheless, it was apparent that it hadn’t been done). The floor in the kitchen was also the same as I had left it and other items that I would have thought would have been cleaned were not done. It seems that the only thing the cleaners did was dust my dresser and hall table, clean the bathroom, and take the trashbag out of the trashcan (which they didn’t even take outside, so I’m not sure why they bothered).
Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this service. The cleaning was WAY sub-​standard compared to other companies in the area and scheduling was a pain in the butt.

I don’t have any context for housecleaning services!
Anna-​Daysi arrived early (she called to ask if it was OK) and did an awesome job. I was under the impression that there would be two people on this initial appointment, I didn’t realize it would just be one tech, but it seems to me she did a very thorough job. She was very pleasant and sweet, and I found it easy to continue my telecommuting work with her in the apartment.
Sure, there are some small spots she missed, but I have a lot of *stuff* around the house, and for what Anna-​Daysi accomplished in just over 3 hours I’m very impressed with spots she got (e.g. I didn’t realize until now that my bathtub hardware was supposed to be shiny). I imagine that with more frequent cleanings areas that need it will get more attention; I will update after my next cleaning!
At first I was feeling guilty on so many levels for having someone else clean my house, but ultimately I realized that it would have taken me much longer than 3-​and-​change hours to do the same work, I would have been much more frustrated, and I’ve never gotten my bathtub and stove to look as nice on my own.
With the two of us working full time and me back in grad school I finally decided to give in. I found UpperCrust Maids through a LivingSocial deal; it’s my first time with a maid service and now I think I’ll schedule more appointments with UpperCrust.
Cathy, the business owner, seems to respond a little emotionally, as a few other reviewers have noted, but it did not detract from the service. It was very easy to schedule an appointment through the on-​line system, and the website is generally useful.
Alright, so, some questions I have, as a maid service neophyte:
1) How much do you generally tip? (I hope I gave enough.)
2) How do you communicate nitpicky preferences (like, «I’d prefer it if anything that was ever in the bathroom, e.g. trash bag, never goes in the kitchen») without coming off as overbearing or rude?

This review originally went along with my fiancé’s review. He wrote on here first after hearing how upset I was. Unfortunately, Cathy removed his review (another sign of the «stellar» reputation this company is creating for itself). She has not removed mine (yet), though, so I guess I will edit it to give you the whole story…
Cathy was over the top mean and rude to me on the phone after her crew told me they were at my house on a day I didn’t realize they were coming. Honestly, she had me in tears by the time I got off the phone. Although they use a service typically to set up appointments, I called them on the way home from work and a woman (possibly Cathy herself!) was gracious enough to give me a mid-​February appointment over the phone. I told her I was driving and could not write down the date and time, and she explained that I would be receiving a confirmation email before the appointment, so it wasn’t any problem. I never received that email, and her crew showed up on a day where we were in the middle of moving in new furniture. It simply wasn’t a day that they could clean. As soon as the crew called me I immediately called the main number for Upper Crust to try to figure out the mixup and to apologize that my house wasn’t in a place where they could come in. She immediately started yelling at me about «wasting her and her crew’s time» and «costing her money. She called me a liar, saying that she and no one else would have set up an appointment for me over the phone, and I must not have received a confirmation email because I put in my own email address wrong. Now, how often do you put in your own email address wrong? Come on now.
I never meant to «waste her time» or «cost her money» or do anything else she claims I did in the call. I simply couldn’t remember which cleaning company I called (we have 4 living social deals sitting in my inbox… we’re new to town and hoping to «try» a service before making it permanent) or what day in February she had said she’d try to fit me in. I believed her when she said that I would have a confirmation email before the visit, so that I could make sure to have the house ready for their visit.
When Cathy called me back that day I thought when I saw a call coming through on my phone that I would have an amicable conversation with the woman — I didn’t even contest to her that I wasn’t the one at fault for not being there, I simply tried to apologize and see what we could work out. I honestly couldn’t get in a word edge wise, and every time I tried, she threatened to hang up on me. It was horrible. I got off the phone and my secretary came in to ask if I was alright because she could see that I was crying and shaking. The most horrible experience I’ve had with a company. Ever. And it’s kind of ironic — they sound so pretentious in their phone system and on their website, and yet she was the most rude, unkind, and unclassy woman I’ve talked to in a long time.
(After Cathy’s «response»)
See what I mean about professionalism? What would I get out of lying on here. Come on Cathy, you told me that you won’t use coupons again because you lose money.
Use this company at your own risk — and when it doesn’t work out for you and you write about it on here, expect an unprofessional response from Cathy. As you can see she does it every time…

To be honest, I was a little disappointed with this service. I was shopping around for permanent cleaners and got a groupon for a one time cleaning of my 2 bed/​2 bath condo. Previously, I’ve used MaidPro and though they did a great job, but thought I would try out UpperCrust. I was disappointed that I had to wait four months for an appointment, but also understood that it reflected that this was a very well-​used cleaning service and hoped it would be reflected in the work.
Nothing at all was wrong with the service. Two gentlemen showed up on time and were very professional and nice. When I came back, the job was pretty good. I wouldn’t say I was blown away by it at all, and was disappointed that it didn’t match MaidPro when it is a more expensive service. For example, I put clean sheets folded on the bed and when I came back they were still folded on the bed. I was a little surprised because I’ve never had a bedroom put as part of the pricing without a bed being made as part of the service, but realized that wasn’t explicitly laid out in the expectations of the service. But I’d rather pay a little bit less for service that goes above and beyond! Other things that I was just sort of surprised by were that when things were put back in the bathroom and kitchen they were just sort of placed haphazardly and there wasn’t much organization to it, it seemed like they might have cleaned around things in the kitchen instead of moving stuff (like small appliances — blender, knife block, etc.). But, this was a totally fine service, I wouldn’t dissuade anyone from using it.
** Edited after Cathy G’s Response **
I definitely appreciate your concern. What I don’t think I effectively communicated is that I completely understand that these things are excepted from the service, and were I shopping around for a cleaning service, I would want to know what was and was not included that deviated from expectations I had going in. I didn’t realize that a coupon equaled a reduction in value from what my expectation was (for example, when purchasing a coupon, I do not expect to have an 80% reduction on quality, etc.) — I had hoped to find a service that I was pleased enough to use full time at full price, and thought that this was a great way to try out a company that I wouldn’t have known about or used otherwise. Going in I had certain expectations of what housecleaning includes for what the coupon deal explained was a $ 145 value, based on every other time I have received cleaning for around that cost (between the $ 120-​$ 160 range).
** Edited after Cathy G’s Updates **
I would like to note that Cathy has now changed her ‘owner comment’ four times since my first comment, reaching a total of five ‘posted comment’ emails from her, as per Unilocal’s email notifications to me. I have neither the time nor energy to keep up with the back and forth, but I do think that is information that I would like to know as someone seeking information.

Did a great job cleaning my one bedroom in DC. Thorough, polite and prepared.

UpperCrust’s «Team B» swept through our place (literally) and I give them a solid 4 stars.
They did a better job than the last service I hired, dusting hard-​to-​reach places that even I don’t get to (I’m a serious cleaner.)
The guys were nice and friendly, on-​time and fast.
On a side note, I left some credit cards and other personal financial stuff out accidentally (I never do that, especially with a new company I have never used before) and it was all there and undisturbed.
I would definitely call them again.

My wife had been pressuring me to hire a cleaning surface for my 2 br /​2 bath condo in Logan Circle, DC for a few weeks. Lo and behold, the Groupon offer came through and offered me a cleaning for half of what I was quoted from the 4 or 5 services that I had contacted. I decided to take the chance and bought the groupon and jumped on the phone that morning bright and early (before 8 AM) to try and schedule an appointment because I knew that the service would be jumping after posting the groupon.
Let me tell you, I couldn’t have been happier with the service.
1) I spoke to an UpperCrust rep when I first called and was emailed by Cathy shortly thereafter giving me a price quote. When I emailed her back and told her that I would be using the groupon promotion and the cleaning was pre-​paid, she sent me the steps to schedule the appointment online. It was so easy.
2) Not only was I able to schedule an appointment immediately, I probably emailed back and forth with Cathy about 10 times to make sure that the groupon would be honored and I even requested the appointment be pushed back 30 minutes. She immediately contacted the cleaning crew and responded promptly that this wouldn’t be a problem. Again, peace of mind is very important in coordinating with a cleaning service because, in all honesty, Cathy was the first business that I contacted that had an excellent customer service base and spoke English! This is actually very hard to find in DC and I had been unsuccessful trying to find cleaners that I talked to on the street and promised they would send me a quote and I couldn’t communicate with them!
Day of the cleaning:
The cleaning day arrived and I was relying on my wife to be at home to meet the cleaners at 1:30 PM. Since my original appointment was at 1 PM, I was nervous there would be a breakdown in communication and they would show up early. This was not the case as my phone rang exactly at 1:30 PM and it was the cleaning crew in the lobby of my building ready to go right on time!
I checked in with my wife at 2 PM and she said there were 2 cleaners working hard all around the condo. I have a 1,000 square foot place and they ended up staying 3 hours to clean my place (even risking a parking ticket in a 2 hour zone!).
As far as cleaning goes, the place looked spic and span in that they did a great job cleaning all of my stainless appliances (including inside the microwave, which had been a mess)! They brought all of their own materials, including a vacuum, and did a wet swiffer mop of all of my hardwood floors. I have a sheddy dog as well and they took care of all of the dog hair.
My wife said that the cleaners’ faces lit up when she handed them a $ 20 tip (don’t forget to tip your cleaners!) so they obviously knew that their hard work didn’t go unnoticed.
The only negative I give the whole cleaning was I wish they spent a little more time in the master bath as this is the most heavily used room in the house and there were definitely some missed spots, but honestly, for the great deal that they offered, the communication of the owners, the timeliness of the crew, and the overall effort that they gave, I give UpperCrust 4.5 stars (5 stars is pretty much unattainable in my rating scale, so this is close to a perfect score).
I am so happy with the service and I will be using Cathy and her team again for future cleanings, as it is very frustrating trying to find a reliable service in DC. Thank you Cathy, you deserve this positive review!

Cathy and her team of cleaners arrived right on time and did a very thorough cleaning of my home. They even took everything off of my fridge and wiped it down– something that cleaners in the past have never taken the time to do. The service was nothing but professional from start to finish! Highly recommended.

I purchased a Groupon from UpperCrust Maids for a 90-​minute cleaning of our 2-​bedroom apartment. I only asked the techs to focus on the grimey bathroom and kitchen, and to just do minimal wipe-​downs of the living room coffee table and to vacuum that area. Considering that I didn’t even ask them to touch our bedrooms, I expected them to do a super job. Overall, I think they did a satisfactory job for the amount of money that I paid them, thanks to Groupon deal. However, several things really bothered me. Biggest irk-​factor was the fact that they showed up to my apartment around 25 minutes late with no explanation. 15 minutes into the scheduled appointment time, I gave headquarters a call, but no one picked up. Granted, it was probably before business hours (I had a 8:30am appointment), but no one ever got back to me. I wasn’t b*****g on the phone or anything, but I gave my contact info and would have appreciated a return call, maybe with an apology. Another thing that bothered me was how the techs finished 10 minutes before the 90-​minute mark, yet when I looked the apartment over afterward, I found that they’d totally missed the super greasy top surface of the fan hood of my stove top, which I ended up cleaning myself. I would have also appreciated a better vacuuming of the apartment. The wall next to my stove also has substantial amount of grease/​splash marks they could’ve easily wiped down, but didn’t. Yes, I should have probably caught these things before they left, however I was in a hurry to get them to leave since they showed up really late and I had to 1) pee really badly and 2) get ready for work and run out the door. In sum, good job for the amount I paid for, but I don’t think I will hire them for regular cleaning, especially if they’re going to make a habit of being that tardy. As an aside, if you do like them, they do have a pretty good referral rewards program, which is one free cleaning for every referral booked.
EDIT IN RESPONSE TO CATHY’S COMMENT:
Hi,
My permanent address is in Manassas, but I currently am renting an apartment in NW DC. And yes, I did leave a message, specifically on the morning of ⁶⁄₁₆ at 8:45am. I even gave a return phone number with area code of (703). My guess is you have no record of it since it’s been 2 weeks… It is VERY disappointing that instead of trying to get to the bottom of what happened (perhaps by messaging me for clarification – I would’ve gladly given you my full info) and taking my review as constructive criticism, you focused on discrediting someone who really was open-​minded about getting a regular cleaning service. I tried to be even handed in my review by mentioning your good referral program, overall satisfactory job of the techs, etc. I did leave a review on your scheduling website saying that your techs did a «great» job – they were nice and we have an ethnic commonality so I was temporarily biased and forgiving. My Unilocal review was more lackluster after I found the dirty spots after work, cleaned them myself, and after waiting a few more days and not hearing back from the company with any kind of explanation of why the techs were late. Anyhow, if you saw that I’d left a review on your **scheduling website**, doesn’t that show that I was an actual client? I got the link to the review page from your Genbook (scheduling site) auto-​reply AFTER the appointment had occurred. So why try to imply that I don’t exist? Lastly, the only reason I mentioned that I was in a hurry was not to present a logical fallacy, but to explain why I didn’t PREVENT your techs from leaving so I could do a look-​over. So yes, I did admit some fault for not catching the dirty spots myself before they’d left. However, it wasn’t my JOB to make sure that the techs had done their job, especially when their time wasn’t technically over. Keep in mind that since they were 25 minutes late, I was already 15 minutes behind in my schedule, and had to head to work fairly soon after. I was previously neutral about the whole experience (thus the 3-​star rating, which isn’t negative…), however after your response, I definitely have a much more negative impression of how you handle business.
Yes, I understood that this was a sample cleaning, but at the point where your techs basically only had to work on a small kitchen and a small bathroom (and your deal claimed to be able to handle 3 – 4 rooms), I thought my expectations and rating were thus fair. I’m sorry we disagree.