Experience with Zoupon's Offer for Cleaning (Diamond Cleaning Group)

Craze on 24/12/2010 - 10:23
Last edited 24/12/2010 - 10:24

http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/35318

So, I'm just curious if anyone has had their houses cleaned using the Zoupon voucher? My house needed an urgent clean due to a couple of people moving out (share house) and I thought it was a good deal to get up to 4 rooms, 2 bathrooms, hallway, stairs, mirrors etc "professionally" cleaned for $49. There were some issues booking them in, but they finally came last week to clean the house- but it was a MAJOR disappointment, they managed to clean 3 rooms, 2 bathrooms, hallway and stairs in about 1 hour 15 minutes. It was a sloppy job overall, the shower cubicle wasn't cleaned thoroughly, mirrors weren't cleaned well, and it was pretty much basic vacuuming and dusting (didn't even wipe the tables!) for the rooms.

Shortly after that some rep from Diamond called me and asked if I had my house clean and how was the job- I expressed my disappointment but all she said was "oh well, thank you for your feedback".

I think they were flat out with bookings, but I don't think this is a good marketing campaign, if that's what they're aiming for. I'll definitely not engage them in the future, and I've seen a few more cleaning offers on Scoopon/Zoupon (can't find the deal anymore) which is ridiculous. Feel free to share if you had a good experience, but I know better now to steer clear from these sorts of offers from now on!

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  • janeymac on 24/12/2010 - 10:41

    Thanks for posting this. I was interested in something like this myself, as an option when we move house. Couldn't figure out how they could afford to offer such cheap deals because they pay about $16 per hour per cleaner.

    Now I know haha.
    Not to hijack ur thread, but there are carpet cleaning offers too, that I am also curious about.

  • neil on 24/12/2010 - 10:53

    Backstory,I grew up in the US where there was an abundance of immigrants who cleaned houses,cut lawns or whatever for cash.

    We had a cleaner come in about once a week and it was important to point out to them everywhere you wanted cleaned. If there were parts that they missed then you just tell them, hey you missed a spot or can you do that and they cleaned it. Next week they knew to clean that spot. I think it's one of those services where you need to monitor the work. Anyway, that's my experience of cleaners in general not so much the group buy factor.

    • Craze on 24/12/2010 - 10:57

      I agree with you, and we did actually point out a couple of spots where it wasn't cleaned properly. For instance they worked on the first bathroom and I told her the walls and shower screens weren't clean enough- shouldn't she already know how to clean the second bathroom the same way? Just because the second bathroom was much cleaner than the first she did a quick one and said it was all done. One of them said they had bookings up till 6pm that day (they came in at 11am), so I'm sure they just wanted to get everything done as soon as possible.

  • janeymac on 25/12/2010 - 10:08

    Yea cleaners have it tough. You get paid barely a living wage, travel at your own expense mostly, and get almost impossible schedules booked by your boss. Not to mention the boss charges the client $80 per hour, and expects you to do the work in fifteen minutes. Hard way to make a living.

    • samfisher5986 on 26/12/2010 - 00:39

      I thought cleaners got paid pretty well in Australia?

      • janeymac on 26/12/2010 - 11:10

        I have friends who are students and work as casual cleaners. They get paid about $16 per hour… but are expected to pay their own transport between jobs.

  • arcticmonkey on 25/12/2010 - 15:12

    Sad to hear about your experience. I am also having issues with them. I will keep you updated with my experience.

  • bluedufflecoat on 25/12/2010 - 20:13

    This is worrying …. I have one of their vouchers too.

    • Craze on 25/12/2010 - 22:53

      If you're not in a hurry maybe wait it out since it's one-year validity..hopefully they'll do a better job when they've finished all other zoupon vouchers.

      All I'm saying is that I was basically unhappy with the cleaning services provided…it was clearly stated on the voucher for up to 5 hours of cleaning, and seriously, finishing all those cleaning in less than 1 1/2 hours is clearly not enough!

      • Hintswen on 26/12/2010 - 00:30

        "up to" are 2 very magic words for marketing.

      • llama on 27/12/2010 - 08:48
        +1

        In the OP you said "but they finally came last week to clean the house- but it was a MAJOR disappointment, they managed to clean 3 rooms, 2 bathrooms, hallway and stairs in about 1 hour 15 minutes."

        So, if there was 2 people who came, that was 2.5 hours of cleaning. If there was 3 people, that was 3.75 hours, etc.

        That said… I think that these companies are idiots to spend all that time and effort on marketing, then leave disappointed customers. It harms them far more than they realise.

        • Craze on 27/12/2010 - 19:44

          Fair enough, but 2.5 hours to clean the areas listed doesn't quite reflect a good job done, does it? When I vacuum the carpets of my front entrance, hallway, hall and rumpus room it usually takes me a good 1 hour to make sure everything is cleaned thoroughly. I'm not saying lengthy times equals better job done, but the fact is they did everything hastily and didn't pay attention to detail- not something I'd expect coming from professional cleaners.

  • arcticmonkey on 29/01/2011 - 16:04

    Anyone got anymore experiences with this?

  • pravvy on 19/03/2011 - 13:43

    oh man, I wish i saw this thread before buying 5 of them on scoopon!!

    So many issues with booking! It has taken me a month to book the first one! and from what i'm hearing they ain't that great!!!

    Argh!

    • Craze on 19/03/2011 - 13:55

      How was your first time experience with them? I remember they had about 1 year validity, so maybe if you told them you bought 5 they might do a better job. Anyhow do let us know how it went for you.

  • Break on 03/05/2011 - 11:17
    +1

    Just making a note here in case people are mining this thread in future for Diamond offers.

    We purchased 10 of these from scoopon before reading the horror stories. Took about a month to get the first booking. Cleaners were pleasant but refused to perform the full service as advertised (insisted on 4 rooms rather a the promised 'typical 4 bedroom house'). Requested a recurring fortnightly service. They came back once more to clean then were seen no more. Made many calls to their main number - all taken by an answering service which could only 'email booking requests to Diamond'. Once got a direct mobile number of a (management) staff but refused to answer the phone and voicemail was rejected (full). Frequently called to re-check bookings to found they had been forgotten. After another 6 weeks of repeatedly making bookings, no one had turned up so we began dispute/refund proceedings with scoopon.

    Very disappointed with the organisation and the willingness of scoopon etc to purvey their offers.

    Future purchasers beware.

    • Craze on 06/05/2011 - 00:06

      Wow, you bought 10 coupons? Despite the poor customer service, how did you find their cleaning service overall?

      • Break on 06/05/2011 - 12:16
        +1

        The cleaning service was (marginally) acceptable for the $45 voucher price but nowhere near the promised $250 value. We purposely restricted the cleaning to the simpler rooms so that we would not have to reclean everything ourselves. The two cleaners themselves were polite but the delivered result was well short of other cleaning companies we have had in the past, who would have charged approx $70 for the same rooms.

        The offer title was
        "Just $45 for the ULTIMATE PROFESSIONAL HOME CLEAN! Includes up to 4 Bedrooms, 2 Bathrooms, Living Room, Stairs, Hallway and Mirrors! Impeccable service from the experts at Diamond Cleaning Group! Normally $250"
        and as I previously indicated, they flat out refused to honour that kind of service delivery.

        As an update, Scoopon have fully refunded us the 8 vouchers we were not able to use so I thank them for that much.

  • bluedufflecoat on 03/05/2011 - 13:41
    +1

    I've asked zoupon (now Deals) for a refund which they've approved and theoretically processed. :S Waiting for it to appear on my credit card statement. I'm refraining from saying good/bad things until the issue has been resolved.

  • voteoften on 03/05/2011 - 19:00

    Never buy a cleaning voucher or (probably) a car service voucher.

  • bluedufflecoat on 04/05/2011 - 23:22

    Final report:

    NOTE: If you can't be bothered reading the whole thing, just read the last point. :)

    1. Bought a voucher like everyone else here, well some of you anyway.
    2. Rang twice to try and book - it goes to an "answering service". The answering service can only pass on the message to Diamond Cleaning Group who are supposed to ring back to book an appointment.
    3. Never got a call back.
    4. Previously recommended this deal to a work friend… and they've called 5 times trying to organise an appointment. No call back either.
    5. Got a bit annoyed, so I rang Zoupon (now Deals) and said I wanted my money back. Was told to send an email, which I did. I also sent them a message, separately through their website.
    6. Received an answer from Deals Support, that said there was some confusion because of the name change from Zoupon to Deals… that they spoke to the General Manager, John… and provided a mobile number and said that he'd be happy to book me in.
    7. Replied and said that, that wasn't good enough. Quoted demon62's complaint on OzBargain and said I wasn't going to try to book, only to risk them not showing up (and my time off is really precious) and they relented and agreed to give me a refund.
    8. Waited a week and I didn't see the refund (I WAS CHECKING THE WRONG ACCOUNT!) and followed up, and they assured me that they had processed it.
    9. On the same day, someone else responded to my other email (sent via their website) with the same initial reply - change of name, General Manager, etc… and $10 Deals dollars for the inconvenience. I replied that I didn't need extra credit, just my money back.
    10. Bank statement arrived today which shows the credited amount (yay!!!) … so I would say that my experience dealing with Deals.com.au has been quite good and I would continue to use them. Having said that, I would still be cautious when purchasing group buy vouchers, in general.
    • Craze on 06/05/2011 - 00:09

      Good to hear that you've managed to get a refund- looks like they're probably still having difficulties coping with demand considering the long validity! I steer clear from all cleaning services now regardless of how good the deal is.

  • Calli on 10/05/2011 - 16:45
    +1

    Did you watch TODAY TONIGHT last night (9/5/2011)?

    The cleaners' keno bonanza??? I was getting ready to report this particular cleaner to Today Tonight before this happened.

    The story goes like this: A few months ago I bought the Scoopon "$45 ULTIMATE PROFESSIONAL HOME CLEAN! Includes up to 4 Bedrooms, 2 Bathrooms, Living Room, Stairs, Hallway and Mirrors! Impeccable service from the experts at Diamond Cleaning Group! Normally $250" from http://www.scoopon.com.au/deals/1740/just-45-for-the-ultimat…

    I organised a date for the cleaners to come last month. They came on time at 9.30am and, right behind them, a couple of neighbours were coming for a visit to pay their respects as my father had passed away the day before. As they were bringing in all their equipment from the car, I explained that it was a bad day and that, since I had booked it way in advance, I would appreciate if they cleaned while I made coffee for my neighbours.

    Five minutes later this lady (the KENO winner) came to tell me that they couldn't begin unless I paid a surcharge because I was outside the Metro area. I told her that this was not the agreement, that my area is within the Melbourne Metro area and that I was not told that I needed to pay this when I booked. She went away and made a phone call. A few minutes later she gave me her phone to speak to her boss to whom I said to tell her employees to leave my house immediately. I was in mourning and could not deal with it.

    The cleaner came back a few minutes later telling me that she would help me since I had just lost my dad. She also told me that they couldn't do more than 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a living room. I told her not to bother with the bedrooms, to clean the bathrooms and the kitchen/living room/dining room areas. Note that by this time (10-15 minutes after they had arrived) no work had been done.

    At 10am (15 minutes after they started work) my neighbours were ready to leave and I went towards the door to let them out. The cleaners were already packed, their vaccuum cleaners and other equipment was in the car, and they were waiting for me to give them my coupon. I gave it to them and they left. I was glad to see the back of them.

    I took a look around the house. They had vacuumed the living room carpet. I knew because they had left behind clusters of hair. They had wiped the mirrors in the bathrooms. I knew because they had left smudging and lines behind. They had wiped around my soap holders and makeup but not under. THAT WAS IT! No toilet bowls, no showers, no dusting, no cleaning!

    Gee, now she's won $3.6 million!!! Wow! Glad to see she doesn't need to work for a living again!

    • voteoften on 10/05/2011 - 16:58

      Looks like she wasn't working for a living previously.

  • gg86 on 16/05/2011 - 16:44

    at least most of you guys had SOME sort of cleaning! ive booked with them 3 times, and each time, theyve failed to show up.
    and now i cant even access their call centre - they seem to outsource it off shore anyway. AND their website doesnt work.
    glad to hear that Deals.com is refunding it, but it sounds like a lengthy process. what a shame that Zoupon / Deals.com dont operate a more reliable and credible service, checking the quality of the products and services they offer first… little do they know that this lack of professionalism reflects on them.
    I'll be boycotting Deals.com from here on.

    • bluedufflecoat on 17/05/2011 - 08:31
      +1

      I think boycotting Deals is a bit harsh, given that they have behaved (quite) responsibly with regards to refunds. They also have a phone number you can call… so it's still way better than Scoopon. I am afraid to go with Scoopon deals, based on all the poor feedback.

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