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"What’s more, to maintain its relationship with employees as independent contractors, the company can’t train them or provide much in the way of material assist
by richsinn 12y ago
"What’s more, to maintain its relationship with employees as independent contractors, the company can’t train them or provide much in the way of material assistance."
My wife and I have been using Homejoy for the past several months now, and I'm never satisfied with the results. After every cleaning, I tell myself that I'm going to look for a real cleaning service company next time. But then the low prices keep me coming back to Homejoy.
I've found the quality of service from the Homejoy cleaners to be insufficient. Every time it's always a different problem (I try to schedule cleanings when I'm home). One cleaner spent a disproportionate amount of time cleaning the toilet, and then didn't have time to clean the bathtub (I ended up scrubbing the bathtub myself after the cleaner left). Another time, the cleaners forget to dust off the TV stand, and I had to do it myself. I've had to clean or re-clean something myself about 80% of the time I've used Homejoy.
My complaints may sound insensitive, and fall under the category of "first-world problems", but when both my spouse and I are working long hours, hiring cleaning services can become very helpful (it's a common anecdote that hiring a housekeeper can save your marriage).
As the article states, my suspicion is that in this "independent contractor" model, Homejoy does not adequately train its contractors in cleaning, nor are the contractors they hire experienced in the cleaning industry. I remember reading that Homejoy used to put their contractors through an orientation/training program, but it's obviously not enough.
I've used other housekeeping services from real cleaning companies before, and they've always done an amazing job, especially compared to Homejoy. They're just usually two to three times more expensive. But maybe next time I'll really switch back to a real cleaning service (or at least try to find a city-single independent on craigslist).
- osi 12y agoalternate experience: I've been a Homejoy customer for over a year. My wife and I have had the same cleaner for nearly all the appointments. We are very happy with the work she does. For me, the killer application of Homejoy is in the scheduling and billing. Other local cleaning companies that had staff did not have the same web-based scheduling and payment tools.
- richsinn 12y agoYes, I agree that Homejoy's scheduling and billing experience is very nice. I've been using different cleaners every time because of my experiences. But maybe next time, I should try sticking with just one. That way, the cleaner and I can start to build a relationship and they can get to know our apartment better. Then, maybe we can have a better overall experience.
- krschultz 12y agoThe interesting thing is that Homejoy built that software, but instead of selling it to all of the local cleaning companies, they started a business to replace all of the local cleaning companies. We'll see long term which of those two areas is more important (i.e. running a cleaning service, vs writing software for a cleaning service).
- untog 12y agoIf anything, your story backs up the OP's one - your experience depends entirely on the quality of your cleaner, which is something that Homejoy do not control.
- esMazer 12y agoSince you already now this person for more than a year, why keep using Homejoy? You could make a deal with her that benefits both parties (she'd get 100% of the profits and you'd pay less since Homejoy is not in the middle) - just curious how Homejoy manage to keep clients coming back to them.
- dragonwriter 12y agoI would expect that, the same way staffing services do (staffing services also offer an out for this, with a fee to the employer in the contract), their agreement with both the customer and the contractor/employee prohibits either from contracting with the other outside of Homejoy once they've been matched through Homejoy. Not sure how they enforce it, though.
- osi 12y agohomejoy handles all billing and scheduling. i'm satisfied with the price and benefits
- fletchowns 12y agoOut of curiosity, what's the sq. footage of your living space?
- richsinn 12y agoIt's a 2BR 2BA at about 1000 sq ft.
- rjanoch 12y agoI had a very similar experience. I love the cleaning lady I found through a more traditional route: word of mouth. But when I heard about Homejoy I had to give it a try, it is a little cheaper. But the cleaner they sent did a significantly worse job than my regular cleaner. Cleaning isn't something that everyone knows how to do, in fact most people don't really know how to clean. Without training, I don't see how Homejoy can offer any guarantee of quality, which is why I won't be using them in the future. Booking online is nice, but if the quality isn't there, it isn't worth it. I do pay my cleaner significantly more than $10/hour, but I feel fine about it. Since I have met her and see her pretty regularly, I would feel guilty if I felt like I wasn't paying her enough to live off of, and $10/hour in the Bay Area isn't enough to live off of. It might not be as convenient as online booking, but all the money goes directly to her, and I feel good about that.
- lxmorj 12y agoJust do it. We pay $65 a week to have our place cleaned by a Polish woman and she does a great job. She's super nice, does a great job, and is reliable. We have a 2-bed 2-bath, and it takes her round about two hours. So HomeJoy is diappointing you at $25 per hour. Go to Care.com, write a bullet point list of what you want done each week (we have some every other week stuff like inside the fridge, etc). Wait til you have 10 or so answers, respond to 2-3 that seem good, and go buy them coffee. Pick one. Never worry about it again.
- judk 12y agoBookmark this post for the next debate about the "programmer shortage" and engineer salaries.