Ecomaids

I had an appointment with Ecomaids for ¹⁄₁₄ at 1:30, however I received an email at 7:30 that morning that they needed to reschedule due to a flat tire on their vehicle. Disappointing, since I took off work for them to come, however I understand that things happen. They promptly rescheduled my appointment for ¹⁄₂₈ at 1:30 pm.
I can’t speak to Ecomaids cleaning skills, because I am currently sitting in my home waiting for them. It is 3:40 and I have yet to be contacted by Ecomaids or the cleaning crew itself. I called their office at 1:45, 2:30 and 3:30 and each time was told by the receptionists that only Jacqueline could get the maids’ ETA and she was in a meeting, but they had been giving her my messages. The receptionists both informed me that they could see my name on the schedule. I asked to be connected to Jacqueline’s voice mail and was informed that they do not use voice mail (interesting since I DID leave a voice mail after hours). I have also contacted Ecomaids twice via email (at 1:50 and 3:00) and once via Facebook and have not heard back.
As of yet, I am very disappointed, since I took off work for the second time in order to have my apartment cleaned. Further, since I have not even been told the maids’ status (whether they are late or not coming at all) I have been sitting at home for the past 2.5 hours and haven’t been able to leave to get anything else done on my day off. I also spent a couple of hours this morning making sure the apartment was tidy, in order to make the cleaning crew’s job easier.
To Jacqueline/​Ecomaids: I am more than happy to revise this review if we get this issue resolved! Thanks in advance!
**UPDATE**
At 8:50 pm on ¹⁄₂₈ I received an apologetic email from Jacqueline. She wrote: «It seems the ladies were not able to make the appointment and I have yet to get information about what happened». She offered to schedule a new cleaning crew for 9am Saturday ²⁄₂ and throw in a free fridge cleaning, however I declined as I had already resolved the issue with Living Social and obtained a refund.
In order to resolve this issue, I did the following:
— Sent ONE email to Living Social and received a response and a refund within three hours.
— Ecomaids: I left three messages with receptionists, one voice mail, two emails and one Facebook message. Received a response SEVEN HOURS later.
While I appreciate Jacqueline’s eventual response and offer to reschedule and clean my fridge (hence my rating increase from one to two stars), it was too little too late. I had already cleaned my own apartment at that point and obtained my refund, not to mention that I am wary of rescheduling and having to spend another four hours waiting to no avail.
What bothered me the most was that no one from the cleaning crew even called to CANCEL the appointment. Even if it had been at the last minute, I would have appreciated a call and an apology. If the crew had my phone number, they should have called and if they didn’t even have my phone number, then they obviously were never planning to come at all (they would have needed to call me to enter the building). Another strange thing about Ecomaids is that apparently no one has the access/​authority to do anything except Jacqueline… every time I called to make an appointment or check on the status of the crew, I was told by the receptionists that they couldn’t do that, but they would leave a message for Jacqueline. What is the point of having receptionists who can’t make appointments or make a simple call to a cleaning crew? Also, if the owner of the business is busy for 7+ hours at a time (understandably so, for a business owner), another employee needs to have the authority to assist customers.
Overall, Ecomaids has some serious logistical issues to work out. One of the most unprofessional operations I have ever dealt with.

I purchased a LS voucher for an apartment cleaning. I emailed Jacqueline at the address provided on the website. She replied promptly within 30 minutes and gave me an available date/​time within a week. I gave her the address and contact information for the day of cleaning. Three people arrived at the exact time as promised and spent over 2 hours cleaning our apartment (2 bedrooms, 1 bath, kitchen, living room). Very thorough cleaning, did a great job getting rid of dust (we had a lost of it!), and eco-​friendly :) Overall, A+ service and response from Jacqueline, and met my expectations. Will most likely use again in the future.

Unfortunately the service was unsatisfactory. I scheduled them to clean my home prior to moving in. I came home in the middle of the cleaning to meet with the crew and to provide the payment. During that time, the crew lead indicated that the cleaning was almost complete. I reviewed a few of the «completed» areas only to find significant dust and dirt as if nothing had been done. I expressed my concern to the crew lead who assured me that everything would be finished to my satisfaction.
I then contacted the owner who was very pleasant. Unfortunately, when I returned the home was still not clean (dust on the floors, bathroom dirty, and the kitchen seemed untouched). I took pictures and forwarded them to the owner. She offered to visit the home to clean the following evening. But, my movers were already scheduled to arrive with my things that morning. I spent the entire night cleaning in preparation for the movers.
I think that the cleaning staff simply lacked experience and motivation. The one silver lining is the professionalism and courteousness of the owner.

Spare Yourself the Aggravation – Stay Away from This Company!
Ecomaids has been my worst experience with a local business by far. My main complaints – unresponsive, casts blame on the customer for their failures, and failing to provide the advertised service. I’ve been trying to get Ecomaids to clean my apartment since September (it’s now December), and they still haven’t cleaned it. With all the time I’ve wasted trying to get Ecomaids to respond, I could’ve cleaned the apartment myself several times over. This completely defeats the purpose of employing a service provider – they’re supposed to save you time, not cost you time. I’ve given Ecomaids half a dozen chances to follow through, and they’ve let me down every time.
I bought a Living Social voucher to use with Ecomaids in August, and in September I started sending emails to Jacqueline, the apparent Ecomaids owner/​manager, to request an appointment. No response. I started calling, but her voicemail box was so full, I couldn’t leave a message. After a few more email and phone call attempts over a six week period, and ZERO response, I decided to wait a month and try again. I figured they were overwhelmed by the response to the Living Social deal, so I would give them another chance later.
I contacted Jacqueline by email again in mid-​November, and low and behold, she finally replied! After a few emails back and forth, we scheduled an appointment for late November. Then the day before the appointment, she cancelled it, saying that snow was in the forecast and she couldn’t send the maids. If she had looked at the forecast more carefully, she would’ve seen that snow was forecast only for the mountains of West Virginia, with DC expected to get only rain. I was dubious about her reasoning, but agreed to reschedule for early December.
When the day arrived, I was so happy to be getting my apartment cleaned, finally! I got a phone message early in the morning from the cleaning ladies, who said they were on their way. Later, there were calls from two other, completely different numbers, but they didn’t leave a message, so I didn’t think much about it. When I got home, I was dismayed to find the apartment had not been cleaned. I had left my dog in her kennel all day – which she finds rather traumatic – so the cleaners could clean without disruption, but it was all for naught. I didn’t get any emails or phone calls from Jacqueline explaining what happened, so, as usual, it was up to me to try to contact her.
I sent an email asking why the apartment had not been cleaned as scheduled, and she replied, rather defensively, that the cleaning ladies showed up but that I hadn’t left any keys for them. All they had to do was ask the concierge for access, and they could’ve gotten in – I’ve told the front desk to expect cleaning services for me, and this has never been a problem with other cleaning services. Apparently it was too much of challenge for this crew.
When I tried to reschedule with Jacqueline, she gave me several options in a flurry of back-​and-​forth emails, but she kept pushing the date out, saying the day I wanted had just been filled. When I expressed my frustration with this bait-​and-​switch game, she put the blame squarely on me, implying that I was being unreasonable. Trying to schedule fast-​changing appointment times by email during the work day is very inefficient – what business tries to do this!!! If Jacqueline would just answer her phone so I could schedule an appointment on the spot, the problem could’ve been resolved by now. If she’s so overwhelmed, as she claims, then she should employ a scheduling service.
Well, after my last email to Jacqueline last week, she again has stopped responding to me. This week, I’ve sent several more emails and left another phone message, but to no avail. Is this out of spite or incompetence? I can’t tell. But in any case, I feel like I’m out of options. Maybe this post will get a response – it seems to have worked for others. If I still don’t get a response, I’m going to ask Living Social for a refund and report this company to the Better Business Bureau. I think three months is long enough to try to get a simple cleaning done.

We started using Ecomaids DC SW through their Living Social offer. The price was more than fair, and we both work extended hours (as most do in this area) and wanted to provide ourselves with a well needed break. We e-​mailed Jacqueline before going on vacation in August and set up a time for them to come by while we were away, and that’s where the concerns started.
When we returned from our two week vacation it was to a dirty home as Ecomaids had not come by. Jacqueline informed us that they were very busy given their Living Social offer, and had not been able to come by as promised. We had to reschedule several weeks after coming home for our first cleaning. When we did receive the cleaning it was «OK», but there were streaks on the counters, the appliances in the kitchen did not appear to have been cleaned on the outside, the floors had dust remaining, and the mirrors were also full of streaks. All of this was reported to Jacqueline, and she indicated that her cleaners were going to use a different product on the mirrors, and would rectify the other issues and make everything right. We also decided to have the oven cleaned. After our not receiving our vacation cleaning, Jacqueline offered us a free refrigerator cleaning, which we also scheduled. We also talked about carpet cleaning services and were told that this would not be a problem.
The next cleaning was done by Chris, and he generally did a much better job. The refrigerator was cleaned out, but the oven had not been done. We were unable to get the carpets cleaned due to lack of staff. I called Jacqueline and complimented her on Chris and asked to use him regularly. We tried to lock down a regular time for him to come by. We also talked about the oven not being cleaned and the need for the carpet cleaning to occur.
Jacqueline called me on a Thursday morning and indicated that the carpet cleaner could come by that day or the next. I said great. She was extremely personable and seemed concerned about our cleaning needs. Nobody showed for Thursday or Friday or over the weekend.
We received a message from Jacqueline indicating that the carpet cleaner was not available because he was new to the company and had several clients that he had taken with him from his prior employment, so he was very busy and she was trying to organize his schedule. She assured us that the service would happen this week. She also indicated that she would «see us tonight» although the e-​mail was sent on a Monday and we thought we had scheduled cleaning for either Tuesday or Thursday.
I sent her an e-​mail indicating my list of complaints since the start of us working with her, but received no response. I had asked for a regular time that we could expect service and explained that it was taking too much effort to coordinate times repeatedly and to have to advocate for our needs– this is not the point of hiring a cleaning service– it is supposed to make your life easier.
When I returned home from work yesterday, the house had been cleaned, but nothing had been vacuumed. Additionally, there was dust on the floor, the mirrors were streaked, and the stainless steel appliances were also streaked badly. Also, I had several Turkish tiles that I had just mounted on backing to hang, and marked «Wet– Do Not Move» in large lettering on a sign attached to the tiles. The cleaner moved the tiles despite the warning. I called Jacqueline that night to cancel services, and sent an e-​mail to confirm this as well. It turns out that communication and commitment to service was somewhat lacking from this company, and it was too difficult for us to continually have to address issues as busy professionals, so we had to unfortunately look elsewhere. My advice would be to not utilize their service until they are able to hire more staff and adequately service their rapidly growing clientele. As it stands, my opinion is that they have grown their business too quickly to be able to service everyone properly.
******Update– I have added a star to this review for Jacqueline alone. She called me concerned about the service provided, and she is certainly passionate about her business and wants it to do well. I believe that she works as hard as she can to try to make this happen. While the service provided by Ecomaids did not work for us, I do wish her business luck in future.*******

I used a Living Social coupon for my cleaning. They were a bit difficult to get in touch with at first, when I finally got in touch, Jacqueline was accommodating to my schedule and was willing to reschedule when I ended up having a conflict with my original appointment.
The cleaning crew was very pleasant and spent almost three hours cleaning my two bedroom townhouse. While I wouldn’t say it was the most amazing job ever, they did a good enough job for the cost of the coupon. They cleaned all the visible areas but didn’t get under any of the furniture and left some dirt and dust in some of the corners.
The only reason I won’t be using them regularly is because the normal price of the service is much more than the cost I believe the cleaning was worth.

While I had no issues making an appointment I had severe issues with them not bothering to show up or even call for my scheduled appointment. I took an afternoon off from work for this appointment (and I’m paid hourly, so this is money out of my pocket to not be there for 4 – 5 hours) which was scheduled for 2:00 pm. 2:00 came and went and no one showed up.
I finally got ahold of Jacqueline at 3:00 pm and she told me that due to the holiday weekend a number of people had called out and the team assigned to my house was running behind. Delays happen, I understand this. What is poor business ethos is to not even alert a customer that there is a severe delay. She told me at 3:23 pm that a crew was on their way from Arlington and would call me to let me know where they were. At 4:32 pm I had still heard nothing so I called and told her to cancel and I would contact Living Social for a refund, as I need to leave at 5:00 for another appointment.
I fully understand that places like this sell many vouchers for cleaning deals and can sometimes take awhile to accommodate everyone. But for pity’s sake, if you tell someone 2:00 and it comes to be day of and you know you are short staffed, take the time to let your customer know. If I’d gotten a call earlier today saying, Hey we’re short staffed, we might not be there until 4:00, I would have rescheduled for another day and not wasted an afternoon off and ended things requesting a full refund.
I’ll be shelling out for full cleaning services in the future to avoid these voucher issues and I CERTAINLY will never use or recommend DC Ecomaids.

Good luck getting Ecomaids to call you back. I purchased a Living Social deal for Ecomaids last week and have called multiple times to schedule my cleaning. No return call. Unacceptable. Contacting Living Social for a refund.