Absolutely do not hire New Century Maids to clean your home. My experience has been terrible, with two cleaners from the company misplacing items. They left my apartment in disarray, and severely breached my trust, as well as the safety and security of my home.
On the morning of Wednesday, June 4, 2014, two cleaners from New Century Maids arrived (10 minutes late) to my 450-square-foot condo apartment to clean for 2.5 hours. After showing them in, I left immediately after they arrived. When I returned six hours later, I found my apartment adequately cleaned (still with bits of dirt on the ground), but in disarray. There was a piece of garbage on my personal items, rags left in our cat litter bag, my indoor blanket was on the floor of the outside balcony, cleaning fluid was in my bedroom, and my garbage can and recycling box was not put in its proper place. The bed was also unmade although one of the cleaners explicitly told me that she would make it. I immediately notified New Century Maids and they explained that the cleaners were in a rush to get to another appointment and did not have time to put things away or make the bed, and left the blanket outside after cleaning it because it was still dirty. Although this left a poor taste in my mouth because I paid nearly $180.50 for a 2.5 hour cleaning of a small apartment, I accepted this explanation and let it go.
However, later that evening, my partner arrived and discovered that the mat underneath the kitty litter box was missing. He also saw that there were two $5 bills in my large change container and found that suspicious, as we do not keep bills there.
That Wednesday evening of June 4, I called New Century Maids again to tell them about the missing mat. I had repeated back and forth phone calls with the office workers (who were communicating with the cleaners) whose story change each time. I was alternately told the mat was "by the doors" and near the washer and dryer. Neither my partner nor myself could find the mat. I asked New Century Maids to follow up again the next day.
On the morning of Thursday, June 5, I received a voicemail from one of the office representatives stating that the cleaners did, in fact, take change in order to pay for their parking. The cleaners supposedly left the $5 dollar bills behind in order to cover the amount they took, but we did not receive any indication of how much change was taken. We have yet to receive an exact amount, to date.
Furthermore, in the days since the incident, we have found several more items missing. Approximately $30 worth of over-the-counter allergy medication was removed from our bedside table. We have been unable to determine where this medication has gone, and can only assume that it was taken along with the change.
Lastly, many items were stored inappropriately. We keep a large bag of cat litter next to our cat’s litterbox. As part of their cleaning efforts, the cleaners managed to change the cat litter, leaving the bag in it’s appropriate spot after doing so. Due to the bag’s weight and the apparent level of litter left in the bag, it seemed as though there was enough left for a final refill of the litter box. However, after a few days, while my partner was changing the cat litter, he discovered that the bag actually contained some used rags that had been buried in the small quantity of litter that remained. As a result, once the rags were removed, it was obvious that what was left of the litter was not enough for a full refill.
Even with the combined number of issues that we discovered, New Century Maids has yet to offer a sincere apology or provide some form of compensation. After days of requesting that they take responsibility for their poor services, the only action they took was to offer to fire their employees despite the fact that the fault lay in the company’s lack of adequate training programs provided to said employees. New Century Maids also said they would replace our missing mat, but they did not follow through, and we have yet to receive a replacement mat. They also offered to “schedule a drop off and exchange the bills left in return,” but that is pointless since there is no way we can confirm the amount of money the cleaners took.
By Friday, June 6th, we were still trying to receive some level of acknowledgement regarding the poor service that the company provided. However, despite being in contact with the company daily since Wednesday, June 4th, their representatives claimed via email that we had failed to report missing the missing coins and mat within a 48hr time frame. They made this claim despite our email record and recorded phone message that provided evidence to the contrary.
Because of their lack of professional service, their lack of ownership or responsibility for their shortcomings, and their blatant disregard for the truth, we have been forced to take action. We have filed a police report with the Toronto Police Department, reported New Century Maids to the Better Business Bureau, and will post this complaint through all relevant social media outlets.
Despite informing the company of the actions that we have decided to take, they have continued to remain belligerent and to deny any wrongdoing. As such, we encourage any other clients of New Century Maids to communicate any issues that you have experienced while contracting their services. We cannot allow companies so lacking in honesty, professionalism and a sense of responsibility to continue to operate.
