Carrie L.

I used the Angi site to find housecleaners to do a one time deep cleaning of my house. While I was waiting for quotes from the cleaning services listed, HomeAdvisor called to set up it up for me. They never asked if I wanted them to be the go-between, so I thought I must have somehow selected that option by mistake, but I figured I'd go ahead and try it this way to keep things easy. I had wanted a deep cleaning with rug shampoo and windows, for a 4 bed, 4 bath house that hasn't been professionally cleaned in a long time. HomeAdvisors said it would cost $144. This the Boston metro area and I am used to paying $200 for a *regular* weekly housecleaning. But I went ahead and booked it because I didn't want to put more time into the whole thing that day: I figured the cleaners would do what they could for that pay, and I'd get the deep cleaning another time.

The 2 women showed up right on time, but had no instructions from HomeAdvisor on what I actually wanted done... and they were going to be paid $54 total for the job. I know the companies that arrange things between customers and service workers get part of what the customer pays--that's fair enough. But they were going to take almost two-thirds.

I find this appalling. I went to Angi because I wanted to find real professionals who would do a great job for me, and i was willing to pay for it. But these women were going to be terribly underpaid, AND they were being set up to fail since I wouldn't get the service I wanted (if I hadn't known, I might have just left a bad review that would hurt them going forward). And, I feel manipulated myself, because I never requested or really wanted the service HomeAdvisors provided. There was never even an email from HomeAdvisors putting in writing what I was going to be charged or what their policies were, just a message telling me the job was scheduled--very shady.

The only good news is that that when I called Home Advisors I was able to cancel the whole thing. But I will be checking my credit card statements carefully. I would warn workers not to get their jobs through this company, and definitely won't be going back to either HomeAdvisor or Angi's list.