Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:04/21/2025

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On Wednesday, April 16th, ***** from HandiMaids cleaned my house, missed vacuuming my bathroom, didn't change sheets, But I was still charged the full price. While in my home ***** stole my cannabis gummies, 3 packs at $40 each, ate them in my home, so that when I enter my house well after the promised time of completion, she was disoriented and mov9ng very slowly. She apparently hadn't answered her phone in hours, so the manager had to come looking for her at my house. No refund was offered. No reimbursement was offered. No apology was even offered.

  Business Response

  Date: 04/23/2025

  Subject: Response to BBB Case #******** ******** ****** / Hand-I-Maids Inc
  To: Better Business Bureau Richmond Office
  From: **** *******, Hand-I-Maids Inc
  Case Reference: #********
  
  To whom it may concern,
  Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the recent complaint filed by Ms. ******** ******. At Hand-I-Maids, we are committed to providing a high standard of service, and when a customer feels disappointed or unheard, it matters deeply to us.  This is the first time in decades that our company has had to respond to a complaint in this matter.  Wed like to offer a respectful and transparent summary of the situation, as we understand it, along with the actions weve taken to address Ms. ****** concerns and work toward a resolution.
  
  Summary of the Events:
  On April 16, 2025, one of our team members completed a regularly scheduled cleaning at Ms. ****** home.  Earlier in the afternoon, Ms. ****** texted our office requesting that we let our Cleaning Technician know that a lady would be there doing laundry.  She also instructed us to "not do her beds" during today's service.  We monitor our Technicians' locations and time stamps for all service visits and occasionally due to lack of signal, this technology doesn't work.  When we called the Technician, "*****" she didn't answer her phone.  Sometimes this is normal because they leave their phones on silent while on a job.  As a routing precaution, our Operations Manager made a visit to check that the Technician was onsite and that everything was going well with the job and that ***** received the message that there would be other individuals in the house.  When our manager, ******** arrived - ***** was vacuuming and ******** waived and said "Hello" to another individual that was in the home folding laundry. ********** visit lasted 3 minutes and she did not leave the foyer because she did not have foot coverings with her.  The client requested that we wear foot coverings in the home at all times.  ******* cleaning time were consistent with our service plan, and all seemed to be well so ******** left.   Later in the afternoon we were shocked to receive several angry text messages from the client accusing our manager of yelling and screaming and having an altercation.  This was a friendly visit, both ***** and ******** have shared their accounts of this interaction in a statement separately and their accounts are identical.  Ms. ****** belligerent messages and aggression was shocking because that is not the interaction that had been reported to us.  We thought, maybe ********** tone was misinterpreted when she waived and said "hello".  We attempted to clarify this by answering Ms. ****** messages via text.  We were concerned and wanted to find out where the miscommunication had happened.  There were other people in the home, we were eager to speak to Ms. ****** and figure out what had happened.  Ms. ****** wouldn't share details and we were only told that Ms. ****** other "employee"  - the person there folding laundry, reported this and that she wanted to cancel her service and wanted a refund. This made it very difficult to try to address concerns, which we are still very eager to do.
  After the appointment, Ms. ****** left an angry voicemail that certain areas in her home were not completed to her satisfaction, including vacuuming and sheet changes. She also expressed concern about missing drugs and reported that our employee was under the influence.  Ms. ****** reported that "***** stole "her marijuana gummies", and ate them before she started cleaning, and was "F'd up".  We take accusations of missing property and drug use by employees extremely serious and we take every precaution to screen and hold our team accountable so that these things do not happen.  ********** Manager left 2 voicemails for Ms. ****** and when they finally spoke, and tried to gain more information as to what led her to believe that our employee stole her drugs and that she thought she was under the influence, there was no explanation or details.  Even so, our Office Manager offered to follow our process to investigate this with authorities, but Ms. ****** has not cooperated when we have tried to obtain basic information.   Our process is to take a full statement of the event, investigate internally on our end, and encourage the client to report it to the authorities to be fully investigate - in which we would fully cooperate.  We take the trust that our clients give us to access their home very seriously and selected ***** for Ms. ****** because of her long tenure and excellent performance history with us.  Even so, we are more than willing to get to the truth of the matter, even if that means that Ms. ****** accusations were founded.   
  Additionally, there were some questions about sheets not being changed which is covered in our "client terms of service' that Ms. ****** received and agreed to.  If sheets are left out for us to change linens, we change the linens unless other instructions are on our work order.  Ms. ****** contacted us tellings us "no beds today".  That's why they weren't completed.  There was also a mention of some rugs that weren't vacuumed.  We offer a 100% guarantee (please reference client terms of service).  We expressed to Ms. ****** that we were more than happy to return to take care of these things, although she specifically asked us not to but she declined and stated that she was going to "blow us up", meaning our reputation on social platforms, and the BBB - then hung up on our Office Manager.
  After our Office attempts to communicate with Ms. ****** failed, I as the owner reached out directly via phone and left a voicemail expressing sincere regret and a willingness to speak with Ms. ****** to better understand the situation and try to discuss the events. To date, we have not received a return call, but the offer for a direct conversation remains open.
  
  Actions We Have Taken:
  Reviewed all communication related to this visit, including scheduling records and staff logs. 
  Reached out to Ms. ****** several time to try to obtain the details of her concerns and come to a resolution
  Offered to cooperate with a police investigation including a drug testing of our employee.
  Taken reports of the incident from all employees involved.  We have no evidence confirming or disproving the claim, but we treat all customer concerns seriously.
  Addressed the service quality concern, acknowledging the customers experience and the perception that tasks were missed. Offered to reclean the areas at no charge
  
  Removed the customer from our service schedule per her request and discontinued all future cleanings.
  Our Values & Moving Forward:
  Our customers invite us into their homes with trust, and we do not take that responsibility lightly. Being in this business for over 4 decades, we know communication and perception are what matter most.  While its always disappointing when expectations arent met, we appreciate honest feedback and use it to improve.  To help bring closure to this situation, we are still prepared to:  Honor a full refund of $171 for the cleaning visit as a gesture of good faith.  We also would like to offer copies of all text messages, voicemail recordings, and time records to aid in resolution. 
  
  We genuinely hope Ms. ****** knows her concerns were heard and taken seriously. While direct communication has been limited, our door remains open for continued conversation and resolution.  Thank you for allowing us to respond, and for supporting fair and respectful business practices in our community.
  Sincerely,
  **** *******
  Hand-I-Maids Inc, Owner
  *****************************************************
  *************