Service Policy

100% Satisfaction Guarantee: We do our best to meet or exceed your expectations. If you’re not satisfied with the job, we did, please notify us within 24 hours of service completion, and we’ll return and complete the job to your satisfaction.

Good Communication:  The best way to assure that you receive excellent service, is to let us know how you’d like us to improve or what you’d like done differently. Feel free to call or email us at any time, and we’ll make sure that your concerns and requests are taken care of.

Preparation for Your Appointment: We don’t require that you prepare for our visit by straightening beforehand. We’re glad to do the picking up for you. If you expect us to be doing much picking up, please let us know when you schedule service. Otherwise, it may reduce the time spent on other cleaning tasks.

Payment: Payment (by check, cash, or credit/debit card) is due in full at or before each service appointment. Please leave payment on the kitchen counter or table or send through the mail. If you forget one payment, please contact our office. Late payments may be assessed a 15% service charge. If you have an ongoing schedule with us, we encourage you to set up automatic payment through your bank, for your convenience. If you require an invoice, please contact our office.

Cancellations and Re-Scheduling: You’re welcome to cancel or re-schedule with at least 24 hours’ notice. We plan our schedule ahead of time, and our staff depends on the regular income of a full schedule. When you cancel on short notice, we still need to compensate our staff fairly. When we schedule your cleaning job, we reserve that time for you and you alone, and turn other business away.  We charge a $90.00 missed appointment fee for late cancellations or late re-schedules.

Estimated Arrival Time: We’ll give you an estimated window of arrival. Our staff will call to let you know if they’re significantly off schedule (more than a half hour early or late). While we schedule for travel time, we can’t control traffic conditions, and earlier clients’ appointments may take more or less time than scheduled or be cancelled.

You may request a “first appointment of the day”, and we’ll accommodate you if available (even with these, traffic sometimes trips us up!). We’ll also try to accommodate requests for “not before” or “not after” a specific time. You don’t have to be home to receive service, as long as you provide for entry.

Keys and Entry: We strongly encourage our ongoing clients to supply us with a key for entry. We keep keys in our office in a lockbox and give them out only on your cleaning day.  In the unlikely event that a key is lost, we’ll notify you immediately and pay for key replacement, and changing your locks if you request it. Providing us with a key adds convenience and helps to avoid unintended lockout fees. We charge a $90.00 fee if we’re unable to enter the premises for a scheduled appointment (lock-out).

Duration of Regularly Scheduled Appointments: The amount of time spent cleaning may vary somewhat from appointment to appointment. If we find that we’re spending less time on average than we had estimated, we’ll reduce your fee. If we find that we’re spending more time than anticipated, we may need to increase your fee.  In either case, we’ll contact you and come to a mutual agreement. Please contact our office if you’d like to add or remove cleaning tasks, so that we can adjust the time and fee accordingly. You’re always welcome to prioritize tasks for your cleaner(s).

Having the Same Team: We’ll assign you to a team leader who will come to know your specific needs and preferences. We’ll substitute when necessary, for illness, vacation, turnover, etc. We may need to substitute during busy holidays, although we try to avoid this. With all substitutions, we’ll do our best to send at least one person who already knows your home. Team assistants may change over time as we promote them to team leaders. If we need to change your schedule to a different team leader permanently, we’ll contact you.

Safety Precautions – Please do not ask our staff to: 

* Use ladders other than the small step ladder we provide or climb up on any furniture. Our staff carries extension poles to reach high areas.

* Lift or move heavy items.

* Clean up human or pet waste, blood or bodily fluids.

* Restrain or move an aggressive or barking dog. If your pet is aggressive or uncomfortable with strangers, please restrain her/him before our cleaner(s) arrive. Otherwise, we may not be able to provide service, and you may be charged a late cancellation fee.

Tipping: Tipping your cleaner(s) is optional and always welcome. Tips may be given directly to your cleaner(s) or added to your check. Regularly scheduled clients: Extra tips for vacation cancellations (this may leave a gap in your regular cleaner’s schedule) and end of year monetary gifts are common.

Breakage or Damage: We train our staff to take extra care with your belongings, however occasional accidents do happen. Our staff is instructed to report breakage or damage immediately to the office and to you if you’re available.  If you believe that something has been damaged or broken by us, we need to hear about it within 24 hours after your appointment. We do not take responsibility for damage not reported within this time frame.

Except for cases of intentional damage, Equinox Cleaning Services total liability for other property damage is limited to a refund of the amount paid for the cleaning service rendered on the date that the damage occurred. Equinox Cleaning Services, at its sole discretion, and without admitting liability, may offer to replace or repair the property, in lieu of a refund. Equinox  Cleaning Services will choose the method, manner, and person or persons to perform or supply such repair or replacement.

You are responsible for letting us know if there are valuable or irreplaceable items such as heirlooms, so that we can instruct our staff not to touch them. We cannot take responsibility for cleaning these items or for damage to them if they have not been pointed out to us.

We cannot take responsibility for damage to items that were broken because they were not properly attached or secured (for example, a hanging picture that was improperly attached to the wall), or items that had prior damage.

Suspected Theft: We screen our staff carefully upon hiring. Theft by household workers is rare, and usually items believed to be stolen are eventually found in the home. Most people are honest; however, we can’t guarantee that theft will never happen, and we want to assure you that we’ll cooperate in any way we can in the event that you suspect that our staff has taken something from your home. If you suspect a theft has taken place:

– Contact us immediately so that we can talk with our staff. They may have seen the item, or the conversation may give us additional useful information.

– Search your home carefully.

– If you conclude that the item has been stolen, we urge you to contact your local Police and request an investigation.

– We’re bonded, and our Janitorial Bond will cover stolen items if the person responsible is found and convicted.

We know that the police frequently do not follow up on this sort of report, so we strongly urge, as a precaution, that you keep your valuables out of sight and in a safe location.    

Holidays:  We don’t provide service on the following holidays. If you have a cleaning appointment scheduled on these days, please call to re-schedule.

Christmas Day (12/25)

New Years Day (1/01)

Memorial Day

Independence Day (7/04)

Labor Day

Thanksgiving Day