Merry Maids

2016 is a whole new year and I’m doing my damnedest to eliminate things in my life that «grind my gears.» One of those things is cleaning up after my S.O. Let’s face it, this mofo doesn’t want to clean and I’m too tired to follow him around and scrub the dried urine he leaves behind on the bathroom tile around the toilet because he’s too lazy to aim properly. Instead of nagging him, I just up and called Merry Maids. I needed a deep clean, not only in my bathroom… but, also my life needs a deep clean.
Claudia came to my apartment and quoted me. She was very nice and personable! I keep the living room presentable and the kitchen clean (scared of getting roaches). So, not much for the ladies to do. But, that damn bathroom.
After I had to do some rather aggressive proactive following up, the ladies finally showed up a few afternoons after my visit/​estimate. Embarrassed, I hid in my bedroom and finished my work. I could hear them in the bathroom cursing the day I was born (and me cursing the day my S.O. was born) as they scrubbed with all their might until the elbow grease ran dry. An hour later they whispered, «Okay.» And I came out of my hiding spot and handed them a tip.
Forget Cinderella and her glass slipper and her handsome prince. Merry Maids is my new handsome royalty. As soon as I saw that sparkling, shiny, and white (holy crap, the bottom of my tub is white)…I was turned on. They cleaned and reorganized my toiletry baskets, cleaned the weird laundry dryer lint off my bathroom window in the air shaft, mopped my kitchen floor AND threw out my kitchen trash! What?!
Dear Merry Maids, I’m sorry that I’m a busy and lazy rat bastard that is trying to protest and make a statement to my S.O. by not cleaning his encrusted urine off my bathroom floor. I’m more sorry that you had to do it. But, you did an amazing job and more than likely, I’ll call you for a date next month. Dinner and drinks on me.

I will never use Merry Maids in Richmond, CA again. I used them twice, once for 3 hours and once for 4 hours + windows. In both cases the maids did a good job — they missed a few spots but nothing really bad, nothing broken, nothing stolen. Instead my complaint is with the management of this franchise, their office staff, and their «estimator» Claudia. Some of the issues include: They don’t follow up with itemized billing (I’ve asked four times for the itemized receipt on the last service and still haven’t received it). They charged the wrong credit card for the second service (I’ve given them the correct card twice, and they still haven’t fixed the issue). I even contacted corporate Merry Maids to complain and spoke with a regional manager for over half an hour a few days ago and STILL no itemized receipt, no follow up via email or phone call from local office to apologize for administrative service errors, no fixing of those administrative errors, and overall poor service. Also, beware when dealing with Claudia: She quoted me one price for the windows, and when I expressed happiness with the figure she cited, she immediately backtracked and jacked up the rate — claiming that she needed to up the rate to hire a crew of men to do the job (10 windows, one-​story house). One — ONE — man showed up on day of service and did all work himself, and he wasn’t prepped on the job (didn’t know how many windows, didn’t know if screens were included, etc.) so all the time I spent with Claudia a few days earlier was a complete waste of time. I left their office a message on the morning of service to complain about Claudia’s rate increase based on a «crew of men» when it was really just one guy — they didn’t bother to call back. So if you choose this company and your experience is anything like mine: Expect low quality customer service, expect to be overcharged, and expect days or even weeks of frustration after the fact trying to get issues resolved.

Merry Maids did an amazing job on my kitchen. I am so impressed. This is the first time I ever used them. I have a 1924 Craftsman bungalow with a Wedgwood stove that must be 40 years old if not older. They removed years and years of caked-​on grime and grease from the stove and had it shining. The floor is linoleum and wasn’t well taken care of when I bought the house, also with years of grime, and they managed to scrub off all the grime.

I chose Merry Maids of Richmond because of their great Angie’s List reviews — wish I’d seen the Unilocal reviews first :-(This job was EXPENSIVE and badly done.
The OK: most of the cleaning was adequate. but not better than my usual person, and looking underneath e.g. cabinets and other hidden spots revealed no attention to those details.
The bad: incomplete work (I paid for the oven to be cleaned and it wasn’t), BAD work (some of my grout was dirtier than it was before they arrived), and DAMAGE to one of my window screens. I absolutely should have been told about the bent screen but NOBODY ever followed up with me to see how the job had gone.
I’m sorry I used Merry Maids and cannot recommend them — especially at the price.

Office there is quite rude and unresponsive.
First cleaning was very good.
Second cleaning so/​so and they managed to break two items in our house,

I am a cancer patient and approached this business to see if they would join Cleaning for a Reason. Cleaning for a Reason is a nationwide group that helps match cleaning services with people with cancer undergoing chemo. The participating cleaners clean your home for free up to 4 times. There aren’t any participating cleaning services in my area yet so I approached the owner to see if she would be interested. She was unreceptive and challenged Cleaning for a Reason’s goal to clean for WOMEN undergoing treatment. Don’t like them, wouldn’t hire them. I thought the owner was kind of rude.

I had a great meeting with Kate to set up a cleaning schedule. The first cleaning which I contracted for was an all day «top to bottom» cleaning of my house and they did a great job. I then set up a cleaning schedule on a monthly basis. With the exception of one time, I never had a good cleaning job again. And I was only requesting a basic cleaning. I was told each cleaning would last two hours, but they generally cleaned for an hour and 15 minutes. The last time they cleaned, cleaning fluid of some sort (it had a green hue in my carpet) was spilled and not even cleaned up. I was very disappointed with the level of cleaning I received and would not recommend them to anybody.

I love my Merry Maids. The office crew is always polite and accommodating. The cleaners do a good job — but I’m not a particularly picky person on that score. MM does not require a contract which is grand. Priced quite reasonably. I love them.

Merry Maids, in my opinion, is one of the best cleaning services available. We’ve been through several cleaning services (agencies and individuals) and Merry Maids always comes out on top. We have used the Richmond Merry Maids service for almost a year now and we love them because:
— They are consistent. Our house gets cleaned regularly every other week, no matter what. They have never had to cancel a service because of illness or overbooking or even holidays. We can absolutely count on them.
— They work as a team. Working together, the team (usually two, but sometimes three people) can clean our three bedroom, 3.5 bath home in just over two hours. This is really helpful if you corralling children.
— They do superb work. I’m military, I have three very young children at home, and my husband has allergies, so I’m pretty obsessive compulsive about cleanliness. But my husband and I also work A LOT and don’t want to sacrifice too much time to house cleaning. I have never been disappointed by Merry Maids’ service. They make the beds just right, wipe down every surface (including the vertical bars on the child gates!), vacuum under the cribs, and never forget to clean the inside of the microwave. They even empty the trash and recycling and take it with them! When they leave, it is a challenge to find any dust in the house whatsoever.
— They are responsive. Merry Maids actually cares about customer service. They have an organized, friendly office staff that responds quickly to any issues.
— The price is right. We have actually used Merry Maids in three other cities that we lived in. But when we moved to the Bay Area, we did shop around. One individual charged me $ 125 per service, used all my own cleaning supplies, and was only in my house for an hour and a half (it takes me at least four hours when I clean alone). Another agency charged $ 210 per service (although they cited «green» cleaning materials for the upcharge). Merry Maids is right about in the middle of that, which I believe is very reasonable for the service offered (if you don’t know already, Merry Maids provides all cleaning materials — including vacuums and mops). The price is actually set after a representative visits your home and sees what your needs are — a very professional and accurate way of doing business in my opinion. I realize prices change, and you certainly don’t have to believe every review on Unilocal,but I really do think Merry Maids is awesome.

The office people are decent and the crew very nice. But the cleanings are okay at best. I called to ask that the floors be mopped and the cobwebs removed. The next cleaning was worse than the previous. The kitchen floor was not mopped and the cobwebs were still there.
I’m going with an independent contractor now and crossing my fingers…
If you use them ask for their «best crew» who will do a pretty decent job except they won’t get under the furniture and they may or may not mop your kitchen/​bathroom floors.