I am not thrilled to be leaving Patricia and A Definite Difference a less than 5 star review, but…read moreI'll share my experience and you can decide for yourself if you want to use her services.
After emailing a few housekeepers on Yelp, I settled on A Definite Difference as Patricia wrote back quickly on pricing for my home and was able to schedule a cleaning very quickly. She quoted me $75-$90 for my small one bedroom home, which was on par with her competition.
Her cleaners showed up on time as promised, and I was surprised to see 3 of them. I figured I'd go run some errands so I could get out of their way, and when I returned just over an hour later, I was informed there was a leak under my bathroom sink. I have lived in my apartment for over a year and have never had a problem, yet somehow in the hour these cleaners were in my home, this leak came up on its own. The staff was very defensive when I said it was a very odd coincidence, which made me think they caused the leak. I spoke with Patricia on the phone, and she asked me to send a video of the leak. I sent that along with some photos of spots her cleaners had missed. Her reply was simply to get my email address for the invoice.
I received an invoice for $90, and not even an apology for the leak or the missed spots. Most of the apartment was very clean, and they were definitely fast, but it seems very damning that a leak sprung while her staff were cleaning. I had to call a plumber and deal with that issue on my own, with no offer from Patricia to discount the cleaning. I have given her over a week to reach out to me and address the issues, but she ignored both the leak and the overlooked areas, so it is clear she's happy billing me and moving on. And the total was on the high end of the estimate, no less.
I won't be using them again.
Photos of the overlooked areas are attached to this review.
UPDATE #1:
Patricia posted a response on my review claiming I was supposed to contact her. I've uploaded a photo of our Yelp messages where she said she'd get back me. The only thing she got back with me about was the invoice, ignoring that there were overlooked spots. My place is an older building, not sure what that has to do with anything. And no, it wasn't "extremely dirty" before the cleaners. I have pictures I took of the apartment a few months before the cleaning was done, and it looks basically identical. Patricia never asked anything about the condition of the house, and I never claimed it was clean, dirty, or anywhere in between, so do NOT claim that I wasn't honest about ANYTHING. I can post the earlier messages as well, if you'd like, where I simply asked for pricing on mopping all the hardwood floors and cleaning the bathroom and kitchen.
Listen, Patricia, you own a business, you need to act like you own a business. When a customer has an issue, you need to address it with the customer. I got no apology for the inconvenience of having to call a plumber, whether it was your staff's fault or not. Obviously I cannot prove they broke it, and you cannot prove they did not. But you don't ignore that. You apologize for what is now an inconvenience for me, and perhaps offer a discount for the trouble. Further, when I point out actual cleaning issues you've overlooked, you don't even address those issues? Again, no apology, no discount, nothing. Of course I'm going to post a detailed explanation of your poor business practices when you do that. I gave you every chance to make things right before coming here, but you didn't seem to want to do the right thing. And to come on here and say I wasn't honest about something. Sorry, YOU are the one who is not being honest. All of our conversations are documented, and I will post more screenshots if you want to keep making false accusations.