The Maids

Used the Maids of Madison this week to deep clean the house we have moved out of before we put it on the market. My realtor had suggested them as one of their other clients had used them earlier. I have to say that I didn't have a good experience and was a little disappointed by the service. They were sending a team of 5 cleaners so I put a cap of 2 hours for cleaning as I thought that 10 person-hours will be sufficient to clean an empty house (5BR, 3.5 Bath). As it turns out, I totally underestimated the time it takes to deep-clean a house. With 10-person hours, the cleaning team was not able to do some of the basic things like deep cleaning the cabinet doors, light fixtures, wash countertops, washing the kitchen floors, and do all bathrooms. They did do a good job deep cleaning the refrigerator which needed a lot of work. Since I am not their regular customer and was using the service for just a one-time clean-up, I was not expecting much and was not going to call back. I did get a call from them the next day to follow-up, which was really good. The person on the phone was appreciative of my concern and initially offered to come take a look but later talked to her manager and told that they could come back and clean again but I will have to pay again. My realtor did a walk-thru of the house with me and pointed out the work not being of quality and what she also expected with 10-person hours of cleaning. That confirmed for me that it was not an unrealistic expectation on my part and it truly was a service issue. I now plan to call my regular cleaning lady and have her spend a couple of hours in the house before I put in on the market.