Pacifica Cleaning Group

THE WORST!!!
Booked them to clean the house on July 25 for my birthday party Nobody showed!!!
Paid in advance. Today (Aug 6) I called them to get my money back as they never process my refund and then they wrote my wife a nasty email claiming I told them the wrong payment method. ALL THEY TAKE IS PAYPAL!!! how difficult is that. A bunch of crooks
From: A Melkoni [mailto:firstchoicemaids@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 6, 2014 3:09 PM
To: J
Subject: RE: Case Grande: Cancellation
we are not going to argue with you and entertain you with a response to the majority of this email. Suffice it to say that the refund will issue thru PayPal. We just discovered you utilized PayPal, contrary to Mr. H stating a different credit method. Please allow 3 to 5 delays for us to contact PayPal and reverse the charge.

DONT USE THIS SERVICE Very unprofessional, terrible job– actually the short list I had for her to do in my small place was not even done. Clean bathrooms thoroughly (2) master bedroom –tub, shower doors, floors walls, ors MAIN focus. Floors dining room/​kitchen/​microwave/​toaster oven, sink, counter top cleaned. Sliding glass doors clean. She wreaked of cigarettes! They also go by First Choice Maids and are in OC and San Francisco– also have HORRIBLE reviews on Unilocal which I should have checked before hiring them!
We look forward to a 100% service satisfaction guaranteed is their motto-​this alone is false advertising. If he sent someone ELSE in to do the job that had professional products and had experience that would be fine but the owner wanted to give me a discount to have someone come back to do the job that was never
1.I DID NOT CHECK ANYTHING UNTIL SHE LEFT (IM not a babysitter), I figured she was here for 3 hours so I didnt need to check on anything prior to her leaving. I even gave her a 20.00 tip thinking she did twork she wasI hired her to do. But when I walked in the kitchen barefoot– there were crumbs on the bottom of my feet, so I looked in the corners all the dirt was still there also dirt still in the corner of the dining room (I have a small dining/​kitchen area it should have been spotless). I am not sure if she lightly broomed or if she washed the floors which is what was needed.
2. Bathroom shower doors not cleaned =she confided she gets inexpensive products at Target rather then PROFESSIONAL CLEANING products because the owner wont pay for the he is too cheap. Wall inside tub not clean-​silver rim around tub not clean, inside toilet not cleaned
3. She never went into the second bathroom–
4. Kitchen sink she cleaned ½ the sink — she never even picked up the rubber mat on the other side which was the dirty side
6. She cleaned the glass part of the toaster oven but not the dirty part which was inside– and on the side and crumbs still under toaster-​so nothing was moved!
I think a class action suit should be on this business from stealing from the public we all should get our money back for wasted time and refunds !

Worst customer service. The cleaning was outrageous. I had more cleaning to do once they left. They broke my oven and wont respond to my complaints via email;. Noone answers the phone and wont return calls when you leave a message. Need to find their insurance and bonding information. Unless you want to flush hundreds of dollars down the toilet don’t use this company. Although the flushing of your money will clean the toilet better than they will.

This company has stolen hundreds of dollars from my family and my wife has now made a dispute through her bank and also recently put in a complaint with the FTC. This company is completely fraudulent. My wife and are asking that anyone who would like to join us in getting Mel and his unfair business practices exposed to call the Turko files @ 858−571−3453 and make sure innocent people don’t continue to get taken advantage of. Hopefully Turko will hear us!

This is the worst cleaning company I have ever dealt with. I decided to try them because they had a Groupon-​type offer. I had forgotten to use up the offer before it expired but at least it still retained the value that I paid for. When I scheduled the cleaning service, the manager, Mel, and I agreed on a price for the cleaning and he agreed to reduce the cost by the amount I had paid for the coupon.
The list of events below should demonstrate clearly how badly they treat their customers:
1. They did not show up at the scheduled time. After I called them, they show up 2 hours later.
2. They charged my credit card $ 50 more for the cost of the service and they did not apply the coupon. The total charge was over $ 100 from what I thought it would be.
3. They never gave me a receipt even though they said they would email me one.
4. I called 3 times trying to get them to reverse the charge and did not get a single call back. One time, Mel had answered the phone but told me he had to go to lunch and would call me back in 1 hour. He never did.
5. He only called me back only after I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (BBB)
6. I got my refund only after I filed a dispute with my credit card company. The credit card company gave me the credit right away while they handled the dispute with the merchant.
7. After I got my refund, I emailed Mel several times to get my receipt. He claimed that he cannot give me my receipt until the refund from credit card was processed. This was over a month after I got my refund. 2 months after the dispute, I called my credit card company and got the specific date that the refund was processed. I emailed this info. to Mel so that I can get my receipt. My email was completely ignored.
Lesson learned:
1. Check BBB and Unilocal for complaints and reviews before any purchase decision.
2. When you are not getting satisfactory result in a dispute, file a BBB complaint instead of wasting more time.
3. Use your credit card if you can. The credit card companies are very good about giving you a refund first while they, not you, settle the dispute with the merchant.
I am just shocked that any company with this level of customer service can stay in business. Especially when there are plenty of cleaning companies to choose from. I am writing this review in hope that it will save some of you from the unfortunate mistake of using this cleaning service.

I can’t believe I let this company cheat me of $ 80
I bought the deal for 3 hours of cleaning last November. When I tried to book a cleaning, the website wanted to charge me an additional $ 139, so I emailed the company, no response. I called, answering machine. I tried again when I wanted a booking in February, again no response. Finally in May I decided, lets try to book using pay when they get here, except they don’t tell u how much u will need to pay! So I cancelled within minutes of booking, knowing I will probably still have to pay the extra $ 139.
I sent one last email, and I got a response the DAY my coupon EXPIRED. The email said my coupon expired because I cancelled my booking. UM SERIOUSLY? I explained thoroughly the issue and the reason I cancelled within minutes of booking. I am glad I didn’t pay a cent extra to work with this company.

Terrible company… So glad I came here to share among 90% of disappointed people.. After no one even doing anything in the house — and I taking them to task on it Mel, the head cheese responds with, he is taking me to collections for disputing it on my Credit Card. Please everyone with bad experiences take this to the BBB

So I bought this Google deal as a gift for my wife as she returned to work after giving birth to our DD. My wife was home when the individuals arrived at the house. They showed up on time with very few supplies, not enough for the both of them, and began working. One would be using a broom in one area and the other would ask to use it in the other room because they only had one. The one would wait while the other finished her current task. Like others that have reviewed we stated in the reservation request that they would need to bring supplies.
During the two hours they used multiple paper towels to clean the house, once they were done they left them in the trash cans which they never emptied, I now need to go back and empty my trash. In addition, like others the Google Deal states that they will clean the refrigerator. It was not touched. In the bathroom sinks there were still toothpaste spots on the faucet when they were done. They didn’t even touch the faucet, it wasn’t like they didn’t use enough elbow grease.
Overall, I am really disappointed in the quality of work, we have a 715 sq ft, condo and we had cleaned much of it up all ready. There is no reason why they shouldn’t have been able to get to the refrigerator and do a much better job cleaning bathrooms. I looked forward to a clean smelling home when I got home after work and I was quite disappointed, barely smelled like Windex.
I will not use this company again.

Well it looks like a lot of people have had terrible experiences here, it seems like I might have gotten lucky. Overall, the service wasn’t amazing, but was pretty good. I got a deal online for $ 70 for 3 hours worth of cleaning, which is about what it was worth. After the original appointment scheduling, they moved the appointment back a half hour, which was fine because I was emailed about it days beforehand. Although, when the maid arrived she apparently waited outside my apartment complex for another half hour, even though I notified the company that she would need to call when she got there so I could let her in. Obviously the manager didn’t let her know, and he called me to tell me she was waiting like it was my fault.
Anyway, the maid was really nice, and spoke english perfectly. She didn’t bring cleaning supplies because she said she was in a rush, even though I specified when making the appointment that she should. Again, it seems like she wasn’t told this. Thank god I had enough supplies myself! I have a small apartment, and she did take her time cleaning it, but did a pretty good job, better than I would have done. She didn’t clean the fridge, which was supposed to be included, but she did stay an extra half hour to finish without charging extra. She also had to work harder cleaning the floor cause I don’t have a mop, and a crappy vacuum. So, overall pretty good job, I probably would only get it if I had a deal again, but I’m happy with the value and result.

DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE! Absolutely the worst cleaning service I have ever used. The girl came to our house and spend 2 hours on one bathroom. I filled out a survery they sent me and I never received a response. I just spoke with a man named Mel who gave me the WORST service experience ever. Literally did not listen to anything I said and kept cutting me off. So rude. There are so many other great companies out there.
I am honestly telling you this is a waste of money!!!

STOP sending me little appointment reminder notices with smiley faces on them, Mel you creeeper!
Unilocal doesn’t lie. Terrible all around. Poorly run business by a dishonest man in San Diego. $ 90 for 2.5 hours and they were only able to clean the kitchen and bathroom of my 1 bd apartment. The manager, Mel, agreed that this is unacceptable and to make it right he offered to bring the cleaner back to finish the job. He said he would only charge me for an extra hour or ($ 19.99). I just checked my credit card statement and he has charged me an extra $ 113. Of course now he denies this agreement. LIKE I WOULD’VE PURPOSELY LET you charge me twice for an incomplete service? HELLO?!
Prior to understanding that I was being scammed, he offered me to buy discounted services for the future. I was ONE step to making another purchase from this scammer. Ugh, glad I have Unilocal.
Don’t take calls from this unprofessional man. Make sure you ONLY communicate with him via email (if you somehow decide to take a chance on their unacceptable excuse of a cleaning company) as you will need to document all of his false promises.

Like the others, I dealt with Mel and as soon a I let him know how bad his reviews on Unilocal were (2 days ago) a new good review comes up. When I said he had bad reviews after he changed the pricing on me twice, he just said «ok» and then today I received some random email with 34 percent off. Awful customer service. He said he was driving when we talked but then a few seconds later said he had just booked my maids in his iPad (while driving?). Everything just seemed fishy and off.
He emailed and said that Unilocal reviewers aren’t the best but sent me a Kudzu site with reviews. Does anyone know what Kudzu is? I found them on Angie’s list as well and they received a lot of negativity. I never even tried this company and I won’t. Mainly because of the reviews and mainly because of the attitude. I am not some young kid writing a review, which Mel happily stated most Unilocal reviewers are «young, immature and frivolous». If I google Pacifica Cleaning Group (which, by the way is weird, since they’re supposedly called First Choice Maids), you automatically pull up the most recent reviews.
Anyway, to pay $ 75.00 for only 2 hours of service and then $ 20.00 hour on top of that for a company that has awful reviews on every site I visited? I’ll take my chances on someone else. Mel said he relies on good old fashioned word of mouth. Well with today’s technology and social websites, that kind of IS good old word of mouth, no?

*******STAY AWAY!!!******** FIRST CHOICE MAIDS, a division of PCG, L.L.C
STAY AWAY
STAY AWAY!
In my experience, Pacifica Cleaning Group’s First Choice Maids has AWFUL service (if that’s what you want to call it) and AWFUL customer service. Happy to go into greater depth for anyone who would like, please message me. I will be following up this post by filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
I got the deal through Living Social and feel I was lied to and cheated from. After scheduling the time to meet, I was called either the day before or day of the scheduled appointment and was told that due to unusual circumstances the maid (s) would not be able to come out as scheduled, but they would come out asap the next day. That did not work for me as I work all day and had to take time off of work to meet the team at my house in order to oversee their «work». I scheduled them to come out the following week.
I got multiple calls on Sunday (the day before they were supposed to come) requesting that the maids come out earlier in the day. When I did not respond to the messages that were left, the team emailed me saying they would be coming earlier (at a time more convenient for them). When I expressed that this was unacceptable we exchanged a couple emails and finally they agreed to come out a half hour earlier than my original requested time.
The two maids came out on time and I told them what I wanted done with the house. They warned me that they didn’t have a lot of time but would do their best. Well, their best was JUNK! They ended and showed themselves out early (10 min) after doing what I could have done myself in 1 hour.
I filled out the survey that was sent to me after the visit and expressed my lack of satisfaction. I said I’d like the maids to come back out free of charge in order to do the job. I received a message from Mel Konians giving excuses for the sub par work. Check this out!:
” Also with the promotions, sometimes the crews are a bit overwhelmed and there is only so much we can do in the time frame indicated.”
I understand there is only so much they can do in the time frame indicated, but ‘a bit overwhelmed’ b/​c of the promotional offer??? Is that my fault? How is this an excuse?
Mel offered 1 hr free service on my ‘next selection’ which I said was not enough. I said I would not make another purchase because I was dissatisfied with the first ‘job’ they did. I requested they come back out and redo the job free of charge. I did not want to have to post a poor review on a company if they were just having an off day or if it was a fluke that I had received 2 bad maids… I did not want to hurt the company’s reputation, but after what comes next, it’s clear that this was no fluke and as much honest info. people can share on the company as possible the better!
Mel replied to my email with the following:
Sir,
We’ve tried to work with you and you are being rather DIFFICULT. We do not Profess to clean your entire home. The promotion has a TIME LIMIT, and we clean as much as humanly possible (each human being different from the next), within the time allowed.
Please know that your intention to attempt negative reviews as articulated herewith, is precisely the transgression you may NOT commit. By expressing your specific intent to potentially extort us or slander and/​libel our company if free service is not provided, you have created a legal issue…(IP Address Recorded). You have provided us with a mandatory legal response (our Corp. Attorney and Executive Office are copied herewith).
Dissatisfaction, DOES NOT permit you to slander our company. Civil Tort Violations are taken quite seriously these days, and WE WILL NOT tolerate your action.
Please know we monitor all reviews daily, and advise you to GOVERN your actions according to law.
I then went on line and read MANY other similar complaints by customers. I even read that Mel called people back with a blocked number after their complaints. Guess what? I received 2 missed calls from a blocked number just shortly after my complaint! I also have read that Mel requests people remove their reviews and tries to bull and scare them with additional legal action.
I’m anticipating hearing back from him, but hope he knows to leave me alone unless it is to apologize and offer me a full refund.
STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!!!

Wish I could’ve left 0 stars. This company is AWFUL and I will never ever go back. Making reservations was easy enough We informed the regional manager (Mel) that we were moving into a new home and we wanted the entire house cleaned before we moved all of our furniture and boxes in. Our expectation was that a TEAM of cleaners would show up since we wanted the entire 2600 sq-​ft house cleaned. Instead ONE cleaner showed up: she was surly and reeked of cigarette smoke. On top of that, we had to pay an up-​charge of $ 40 since we were moving into a new house, and apparently this is the industry standard (which doesn’t make sense to me: if the house is empty, there’s less to clean).
Because there was only 1 cleaner, we decided to have her stay an additional 90 min to continue cleaning and, hopefully, get most of the house done. (4.5 hours seems like plenty of time, in my opinion). Well, it wasn’t. At the end of 4.5 hours of cleaning, she had managed to only clean half of our kitchen and 1 toilet. She claims she cleaned the shower, but it didn’t look any cleaner than when we first walked through the house 7 months prior!
We ended up hiring a relative to come in and clean the house, and she accomplished a stellar job in HALF the time the previous cleaner spent.
When I brought all of this to the regional manager’s attention, he blatantly refused to cooperate. He offered to refund the additional 90 min we had paid, but that was it. I told him the quality of the work performed was below poor, but he maintained she (the cleaner) did a good job (based off of before and after pictures she took with an old cell phone, no less).
Save your time, money and frustration: do the work yourself or get a recommendation from a friend. AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS!
And, yes, this was a LivingSocial promotion we had purchased.

My boyfriend bought me a LIving Social special for this company — both of us remember the ad indicating that a cleaning «team» would be coming to clean for three hours. I used to use a maid «team» of two cleaners and they cleaned my house top to bottom in three hours, so I thought that was a good dea. l Also, I have used a professional cleaning crew before and was very excited about having a team come with their professional equipment and clean my 1050 sq ft condo.
One woman arrived. She was on time, polite and spoke English. I thought I just had been mistaken about the «team» so I didn’t comment at the time.
As I was wanting a deep cleaning of my house — including vacuuming the corners I don’t always get, I expected the COMPANY to be sure that the cleaners had a good vacuum machine. I asked if she had a hepa filter on her vacuum and she said «a hepa what?» She said that the hose attachment on her vacuum was broken and she needed to get a new vacuum but that it worked ok. I was shocked that THE COMPANY I hired did not make sure that their representative had a good vacuum cleaner. I told her to just use mine.
She cleaned two and ½ of the 5 rooms in the condo. I believe that she worked well and cleaned pretty thoroughly for the time she had. I have NO problem with HER– I have a problem with the COMPANY. We argued with the owner of First Choice Maids about the lack of professional equipment and the misrepresentation of the number of maids that make up a «team,» and of course got nowhere.
I would be sure you discuss with the owner what exactly you are going to be getting for your money. We got gypped.

First Choice Maids is the same company as Pacifica Cleaning Group. I left a more complete review on that page:
Essentially, they quoted me one price initially, and ended up charging almost twice that.
They did a fairly good job with the cleaning, but afterwords, harassed me for leaving a negative review, threatening «legal action» for my «libelous» post.
They contract with local cleaners, and I’m sure you could get a better deal — not to mention avoid harassment — by going directly to a local cleaner.

So, I have to admit there are a few things in the house I hate to do. I would vacuum every so often, wipe down the counters, maybe even squirt some cleaner in the toilet bowl and brush that around. But there is so much motivation to clean three bathtubs all by myself. And quite frankly, I never figured out how does mopping work. So when I saw a deal on Living Social for 3 hours of maid service, I jumped on it, figure it would cover all these work.
The maid that came was very thorough and nice. Relatively on-​time, given the condo parking situation is not the easiest. Left at maybe 2.75 hours, but whatevs. She kept this place from being a 1 star.
The real PITA is the reservation. When I saw online reservation, I was pretty excited. Yay, finally, no more on hold and trying to find a time that works. I booked in early Oct for a Dec appointment, figuring that’s when school’s out and I may have guests over. (and I did.) Midway through October I was hoping to make it to a 1PM freebie concert at the SD Symphony (btw you should go if you haven’t) so I needed to move it to 9AM instead of 10. That’s when the pain began. Weekly emails and phone calls with no response. A couple times I did reach someone on the phone (I believe it was the same person — likely the owner?) and he told me they will get to their emails soon and confirm. Finally, TWO days before December (i.e. 5 – 6 weeks of emails/​calls) I got on the phone and he sent me a confirmation at 9AM. Happy ending right? HAA! Friday night, i.e. 17 hours before the maid shows up, as I’m at dinner, I got a voicemail confirming my appointment Saturday at 8AM! EIGHT. On a Saturday. AFTER OVER A MONTH OF EMAILING AND CALLING. WITH A CONFIRMATION EMAIL THAT SAID 9AM 1 DAY BEFORE. Highly unprofessional. I hate places that blame unprofessionalism on the promotions they run. 1) the idea is to impress clients that they want to use your service again. 2) you have complete power to limit how many deals you sell.
Meh. I would not trust my house to a place that can’t figure itself out.

We both work full time plus I go to school, so the house is neat but hadn’t had the good deep cleaning in awhile. We were having an event and wanted the place to shine.
Hired Pacifica aka First Choice Maids for a deep spring cleaning, even paid for an additional hour just in case. Looked at their website and was glad to see the items I was most concerned about, window sills, baseboards, refrig, oven would all be addressed.
The woman who arrived was the SLOWEST person on the planet. She spent an incredible amount of time and didn’t seem to accomplish much. I pointed out many of the items she failed to address with a normal cleaning, to say the least a «Spring Cleaning». She kind of shrugged and said I would need to talk to her boss.
I spoke to Ara Melkonian’s who assured me they would take care of the numerous huge issues. He stated a supervisor would call me at 4:30 and be over to correct the issues.
At 9:15 I get a call on my cell, the only number they have, with a lame excuse that I had not answered the phone and he hoped to hear from me to start regurlar service. Does he really think I am that stupid that I can’t read a call log and know no one has called.
There are lot better out there.

So I’m incredibly busy at work, and when you add a DIY move to the mix it leaves me without a second to breathe. I needed my house scrubbed in order to get my deposit back, but I totally didn’t have the time or energy to get it done myself. Enter Pacifica.
The reservation system was kinda sketchy. You call the number and they take ALL your information, right down to the credit card security code, on the spot. That made me enormously uncomfortable: I seriously half-​expected the maid to never show up and my bank account to be drained. Donna showed up right on time, though, and was a total sweetheart. The house was cleaned, I didn’t waste any of my own time, and I got my full deposit back.
They’re a little pricey, but they apparently do same day appointments, and they get the job done. I’d recommend them.

I wish I could put ZERO stars. Same thing happened to me as Colleen S., had a move-​out clean for tenants and didn’t check back for a few days… many, many items were left undone. Contacted the company and they couldn’t have cared less and were actually quite rude. They will only come back within 48 hours because «otherwise how do they know who made it dirty?» Ok, I get it for a house someone is living in but this place is VACANT, people. Let’s show some flexibility in your policy. No? Ok then, one star for you!
Plus they rescheduled a million times, the price was more expensive than other services I’ve used, the chick showed up late AND I had to pay someone else to finshed what they left. Do NOT recommend.
Interesting how all their positive reviews are orangeheads, huh? Shady. I should have checked Unilocal first!