Distinctive Cleaning

I NEVER review anything and not because things are not worthy of review. I'm lazy when it comes to doing things like this - it is usually not worth the effort to me - and there are those who enjoy doing it. But, I appreciate the commentary of others, which has prompted me to share. I just wish I had read others' reviews before engaging this company for their services.

This has taken me close to two years to write. It was prompted by being erroneously charged some two years after the initial service I enlisted as a gift for my dad. I happened to be reviewing my credit card statement and noticed the charge by Distinctive Cleaning - mind you, two years or so after the service.

I contacted Distinctive Cleaning, spoke with Bessie, and explained the issue. I was told to call back and that I could speak with whomever answered. No, certainly it wasn't incumbent upon them to contact me back - given it was their error and I was their customer and already performed my role in calling and bringing the error to their attention. Bessie told me they had received other calls of the same issue and said their had a software issue.

But considering I wanted to be credited, I called back later only to receive their voice mail. I left a message and did not receive a call back - a week passed. I contacted them today. I was advised by Bessie that the woman who handles the accounting was out for the day, but that she would take care of it right now. She took my email in order to send me the confirmation. I also requested they delete my account number out of their allegedly "secure" system - her words.We'll see what happens with that credit and confirmation.

About the initial service - POOR. It was a surprise gift for my dad (from several of his kids) who has a large house he does the upkeep on himself. I inquired into the service the day it was performed - he said the woman was nice, but did very poor work and completely failed to do what was promised with their service and what was paid for. Frankly, I should have done the job myself!

I requested a refund - even a partial one - for their failure. My dad did not want to have to deal with the awkwardness of having someone come in - potentially vindictive - and re-clean the house. Well, that is the only option given - re-clean. And so I allowed it - because I certainly wasn't going to to pay for half-assed service and then not hold them accountable for actually performing the work. My dad said it it was done better. I probably showed up a week or two later - unimpressed.

And so you can imagine, my utter disdain in having to deal with this company yet again.

I completely recommend NOT engaging this company for their services. Unprofessional, poor service, and a charge on my credit card some 2 years later . . .

There's something distinctly dirty at Distinctive Cleaning. On a recommendation, I called them for a final move-out cleaning of our home. The estimate given was based on very specific and clear details about what the cleaners would be dealing with in terms of rooms, as well as the fact that part of the time, they'd be working around our movers, given the cleaners' scheduled arrival time of between 11 and noon. I can't stress this enough--they knew that we'd have movers there and how big our home was.

Well, moving day comes, and cleaner--that's right, I said cleaner, as in singular...as in one cleaner...to clean a whole house for moving out--cleaner shows up at *Ten* a.m. Generally, promptness is a virtue, but in this case, an hour earlier than planned upon is just not helpful. She sets to work, and seems unfazed by all the hubub going on around her. We'd asked for basic cleaning--dusting, vacuuming, wiping down surfaces; the only special thing we asked for was cleaning the fridge (btw--mopping the floor is extra). A few hours later, we left a friend in charge of overseeing the movers and the cleaner, left a hefty tip for the cleaner, and headed to our closings (the first of which--story for another day--made us a tad homocidal, but such is the stress of moving...I guess)

During our second closing, we get a call from management at Distinctive Cleaning. She tells husband that they want more money (!) because it was a "bigger job than anticipated" and the cleaner had to "work around the movers." He tells them we're in the *middle* of our closing, and will call back. She pushily insists it gets taken care of then and there. Husband, sick of the whole day, talks her down a bit, says to apply the cleaner's tip, and we'd send the rest. What Manager didn't know is that she had two realtors and a closer listening to husband's side of the conversation, and all immediately asked, "Who was that, so we won't recommend them?" Or that I'd be writing this. Clean up your act, Distinctive Cleaning.

I purchased a 3-cleaning Groupon for Distinctive Cleaning a while back and after many tries, I have finally completed all three cleanings. They cancelled at the last minute on multiple occasions and once after I waited and waited for the cleaner, she just never showed up - no call or anything. I called the office and they said they has no idea where she was. I asked to have a different cleaner for next time and they assured me they would send a manager. So when the next cleaning rolled around, the same woman showed up. Her actually turning up was a plus, but I was a bit miffed that they didn't honor my request and didn't notify me that they weren't going to honor it.

When the cleanings actually did happen, they were mostly fine, but not great. Since I paid so little for the Groupon and knew I wouldn't use them again, I didn't see the point in being critical.

I would not use this company again.

Rarely do you meet a company that is this disinterested in securing your business.

I called and left a message a month ago to redeem a gift certificate my husband bought me. No return call.

A week later, I call again and reach someone. Mention, my call was not returned. No apology. I schedule an appointment for a few weeks out. The woman on the phone says they will call first to confirm.

No confirmation call comes.

Day of appointment, no one shows up or calls.

I call and reach someone and tell them I had an appointment but no one showed up. No apology (are you sensing a theme here?) Woman on the phone tells me that she has no record of my appointment, address, name...anything. (No apology for that, either.) I reschedule.

I'll update this (if) when they show up and actually clean something. But so far, I am astounded by their utter lack of interest in cleaning, securing my business, anything really.

UPDATE:

The cleaner (a lovely woman named Patty) arrived today. She did a great job cleaning the house and was very nice to work with. I explained that I had had trouble booking the appointment and she said she was sorry to hear that and mentioned that things had been busy lately. She also tactfully inquired if I might be in the market for more regular service and suggested that I ask for her by name if I was pleased with her work.

So based on my experience with Patty, I'm moving this from one star to three.

Hopefully this company can ensure in the future that their level of administrative services matches that of their cleaning services.

THE WORST cleaning company EVER. They are rude. unprofessional and on top of that they lie like crazy. Also, if you buy a groupon, the earliest day they will schedule the cleaning for will be months later. The receptionist/scheduler, god knows who she was, was the rudest of them all. I think her name was DARLENE... My husband had taken the appointment and when i called back to give them our groupon code, she said "You are lying, because you were the one who called earlier and it was not your husband" this was all because my husband didn't have the group on info on him and so i called instead of him. WOW! I was shocked.

Upon talking to one of their cleaning ladies, they said i was right and they talk to all their customers and cleaners like that.

Please take my suggestion, do not give them anymore business. They need to be taught a lesson, they need to understand common decency. I will NEVER go back to them and make sure all my friends also take their business elsewhere.

I rarely write poor reviews, this is actually my first one. I'm compelled to in this situation because of the extremely poor service I received. If I could give less than one star I would.

First off I didn't even receive a service and my credit card was charged. I used them once a few years ago and evidently they have my CC info on file because they took out over $100 from my bank.

When I called to bring the matter to their attention they didn't seem the least bit concerned that they'd taken money out of my account erroneously, rather telling me the "person that handles accounts isn't in today". They suggested I email her.

I had to call them back two days later after I hadn't heard back from the emails I sent. Then the receptionist (who two days earlier didn't "handle accounts") informed me she'd taken care of the refund (no one bothered to let me know).

Except the money (3 days later) still isn't in my account. If you ever use their services (which I wouldn't recommend because the customer service is the worst I've see in a long time) DEFINITELY don't give them your CC info or two years later you'll be dealing with a mess like mine.

The thing of it all is I wouldn't even be here writing this if they'd shown the least bit of care and concern about their mistake and apologized and followed up with me.

I got a great deal for a three-cleaning package on Crowd Cut, so I wasn't expecting much ... but they really disappointed me. When I called to schedule my cleanings, the earliest they could do my first one was more than a month out. Whatever, that was fine, so I scheduled all three at that time, each a few weeks apart.

I didn't get a confirmation call for the first scheduled cleaning, so I didn't know what time they were going to show up. I was working from home all day, so it wasn't a big deal, but when 5 p.m. rolled around and I still hadn't heard anything, I called. "The cleaner called in sick - call back in February to reschedule" was the response (also, this was in DECEMBER).

So when it was time for my second cleaning a few weeks later, and I didn't get a confirmation call, I called them in the morning to see what time my cleaner would be coming. The response: "She called in sick." After giving the "manager" a piece of my mind about what horrible service that was, she finally agreed to send someone out the NEXT week. I said no thanks, canceled my third cleaning and called Crowd Cut to get my money back.

I really think this company thrives on using daily deal websites and not following through on the service. :(

Well, it only took 10 weeks for Distinctive Disappointment to be able to fit me into their schedule (e.g. only a limited number of "Crowd Cut" redemptions per day...okay, fair enough).

A day before the scheduled appointment, DD called and said that due to an employee absence, I would need to reschedule sometime later the same week. So, I called DD, attempted to reschedule within the same week, and the person's response was "who said you could do that?"

However, since I was rescheduled for the following week (for an arrival of between 9-10am), I accepted. I got a call the day before saying the scheduled arrival was changed to between 12:00pm-1:00pm.

Well, it's now 1:58pm. No status call with an updated arrival time; once I finally got through to their business number, I was relegated to leaving a voicemail. I'll update this if/when anyone shows.

At least I cleared my counters and desk areas for deep-cleaning prior to DD's scheduled arrival, so I guess I'll contact Crowd Cut, pursue a refund, and clean all of the freshly exposed areas myself. My sarcastic self can only hope - during "self-clean" mode - that it feels an awesome sense of accomplishment.

At least I can let my two howling cats in from the garage sooner than planned...bonus for them, I guess.

I hired Distinctive Cleaning to clean an empty rental property. During the process they damaged personal property and rather than report it to me, covered it up. Once discovered I alerted the manager who indicated she would investigate and call me back. She never called and no one has returned my subsequent phone calls. I spent $350 to clean the house and another $150 to repair the damage.

Do not hire this company to do any work for you!

I have never used this company before. Apparently my fiance had 3 years ago before we combined bank accounts.

I noticed that they charged our account $119.90 for no apparent reason. When I called they were unavailable to answer, but I was given an email address.

I emailed my concern and was actually answered fairly quickly. However the answer was that a glitch in their system caused past customers to be charged again.

Ridiculous. Why do you still have my account information on file?! And that excuse sounds pretty shady and suspicious to me. Sounds like they were hoping to make some change off of people who don't closely monitor their bank accounts.