DJ’s Janitorial Services

I originally found Jennifer through Thumbtack. We wanted her to come in and do a deep cleaning of our less than 1,000 sq. ft. apartment. We maintain the apartment pretty well, so I had hoped Jennifer would focus on the tougher areas typical for a deep cleaning (i.e., cleaning inside the oven, inside fridge, scrubbing bathtub, etc.). I initially asked Jennifer for a list of specific areas she would cover in a deep cleaning, but all I heard back was «she had done this before» and that it would cost $ 120 plus tax.
The night before she was scheduled to arrive, she asked if she could come in 3 hours later. Despite having agreed to this time almost a full week in advance, I obliged. We decided on noon the next day (3 hours later).
When noon came the next day, I get another call from Jennifer saying she’s running behind because of traffic, and won’t be here for another hour. I wondered — where in Buffalo could you lose a full hour to traffic? (maybe at a Tim Hortons drive-​thru).
Another hour goes by and I get another call, this time from her co-​worker who says that they are «on their way». This makes me wonder whether the traffic excuse was simply made up.
Another 45 minutes go by, and FINALLY they arrive — 5 hours later from the original appointment. Now I have to cancel my plans for the rest of the day so that they have time to clean.
Jennifer, the business owner, spends 90 minutes cleaning while her co-​worker spends 45 minutes cleaning and 45 minutes watching Jennifer clean. Unfortunately I had already scheduled a phone interview two weeks in advance for that afternoon, but because Jennifer arrived 5 hours late, I had to take the call while they were here. I could not inspect their work while I was on my call, so after they finished up, I wrote them a check and they left. The co-​worker mentioned at one point that I owed $ 20 in sales tax, which prompted me to mute my call and show her how to properly calculate the sales tax ($ 120 * 1.0875 = $ 130.50 $ 10.50 in tax)
After finishing up on the phone, I did a thorough inspection and found the following: an oven that wasn’t cleaned (although she had her own supplies handy in her car), dirty bathtub walls with soap scum, and several minor items like streaks on TV monitors, dusty electronics, dirty window sills, fingerprint smears on dresser, dusty lamps, greasy stovetop burners, greasy microwave vents, streaks on bedroom mirrors, smears on trash can, dusty end tables, dusty computer monitor, sticky cabinet surfaces, and more. This ‘deep cleaning’ service did not include any work on the windows, so those were left untouched.
Overall, this was a very disappointing experience. There was a clear gap in my expectations vs. what Jennifer delivered, and it easily could have been mitigated had she provided a checklist of items she would cover (like I had initially requested). Even in this case though, she was several hours late to her appointment and made many excuses — completely unprofessional and unacceptable.
We will not be using her services again.