Complaint Review: Maid Brigade - Atlanta Georgia

For years, I have wanted a maid service to "spring clean" my house - just once. So after looking around at several companies, I decided on Maid Brigade of Atlanta. I spoke to a guy back in April, who quoted me at $350 for everything I had requested. They also required payment ahead of time and gave me 2 options: credit or debit card by phone.

At the time, this didn't strike me as odd since all of the other maid services I had researched also required payment up front. Anyway, he told me that they usually "pre-approve" clients (withdraw your money) a day or two before the scheduled cleaning date, "but 2 days at the most". My credit card wasn't an option at the time, so I gave them my debit card information, with the stipulation that the money not be withdrawn until May 31, 2007. The cleaning date was to be June 1st. He agreed and even added that special note to their computer system in "my file" with them.

At about 1:30 p.m. on Friday, May 25th, they withdrew $470 from my debit card, throwing my checking account seriously into the negative. I had some money in there, but not quite that much.

I called them at 2:30 and was told that the one & only person who could help me (the office manager Bonnie Clair) was "out to lunch". This was the Friday before the Memorial Day holiday. She was still "out to lunch" when I called back at 3:00, 3:30 and 4:15. At the 4:15 call, the person who answered the phone put me on hold and tried to call her on her cell phone but didn't reach her. It became obvious to me that her own employees didn't even know where she was. They sounded almost as confused as me. However, they did tell me that they saw the note in their system about not taking the money out until the 31st. I left my name & number each time.

When I called back at 4:45, I was told that she was actually at her niece's grade-school graduation but that she would be back that day. When I called back at 5:45, the guy said "well I guess she's not coming back today". Obviously. I still left my name & number. I never received one phone call from her even though the guy who I had talked to all afternoon told me that he had told her about my situation and that I had called numerous times.

Guess who is going to get a personal visit from ME bright and early on Tuesday morning? Ms. Bonnie Clair, the long-lunch manager. I will not yell. I will not curse. But I WILL let her know exactly how I feel and how I will share this story with anyone I know who wants to have their home or office cleaned.

There is no way that this company is setting foot in my house. The last time I talked to that nice young man, I canceled my appointment. If they would deceive me this way, how do I know they're not going to walk off with something from my house - or how do I know they're even going to do a good cleaning job? No way.

Finally, I will be closing that checking account on Tuesday morning as well so that they are not able to take out any more money since they have proven that they will take out HOWever much they want, WHENever they want.

From now on, I will not give debit info over the phone to any company that I don't already deal with on a regular basis. I think that's called learning the hard way.

Do not trust this company with any of your financial information as they will tell you one thing and do another. They have deceived me in two ways: 1) not only did they take the money out 6 days before they promised; but 2) they took out an extra $120. Oh, by the way, during one of the last phone calls, the guy finally told me "oh, well, when we "pre-approve", we do take out an extra percentage. Nobody told you that?" NO! Thanks for telling me ahead of time, buddy!

Lastly, these offices are individual franchises and this franchise is NOT a member of the Better Business Bureau so I'm not sure it would do any good to report them there.

Beth

Atlanta, Georgia

U.S.A.