Hello there, fellow BD Hivers! I hope everything is going well for you. I've been so busy with life lately that I haven't been able to write every other day, but I'm back with another life experience. I'm sharing this because I want people to understand the pros and cons of Bangladeshi pack and shift services, including cleaning services. I recently relocated from Dakshinkhan Urban Area to Uttara Residential Area; the post-move feeling is fantastic because the new place is so much better. But I had to spend a significant amount of money without receiving any fruitful results.
I contacted various moving companies and deep cleaning corporate services throughout the city. I chose Handy Mama because I saw they had good ratings online, and people were saying good things about them. I scheduled two services for deep cleaning (6,500 takas, including kitchen hood servicing) and the other for pack and shift (16,000 takas for pack & shift as per quote). I was hoping to see professionals in charge, but I think I expected a little too much! If I could, I would even call them scammers based on my experience! Let me explain why!
First of all, as I stated before, I was expecting professional service from these people, but that was a total letdown. Everyone should value their and others' time, but I realized no one gives a bat shit about time. They would always come up with excuses, and when the money is out of your pocket, the value of you and your word would be there no more. The quote was for 10 AM, but they were late. The cleaning team came in at 1 PM. As I quoted to clean my new home, there was no furniture besides some wall cabinets in different rooms and the kitchen hood (which badly needed attention). I took a look at this cleaning crew; no formal attire, no manners when speaking. It almost appeared as if they were hired by local cleaning crews from low-income areas. After all, I wasn't entirely off the mark with my prediction! They lacked coordination and had no idea how to clean anything. I stood there and supervised every bit of cleaning by myself, and their face already expressed how irritated they were. Surprisingly only 2 of them were professional people from Handymama; most of the others in the group of 6 were hired locals; Well, any place that I didn't supervise was totally unclean. They took till 10 PM to clean a 1600 Sqft Apartment, but the best part is so many things were untouched and dirty. They told us to give a final verdict, and it was a disaster. We had to yell at their management at the end, and they provided their cleaning crew 2 additional days to get everything cleaned. Wow, I am paying the bill here; I wasn't supposed to be at the spot looking at every corner to find dirty areas in an empty apartment; A whole damn day wasted with some good chunk of money. Corporate service is supposed to be trustworthy. Rating 0/10.
The interesting story is that their staff acknowledged that they hire local people on a contract basis around areas to provide on-demand service, and QC is shit during rush hour. And they have little to no training from their office whatsoever!
They didn't meet my expectations with their cleaning service, so I almost braced myself for a bigger disaster... In addition, my family packed 60 boxes to make moving easier for us. We packed everything ahead of time with different tags on each box, such as glass material and electronics (handle with care, etc.). I had to make sure they weren't going to be late this time; surprisingly, they weren't. But, once again, I had to deal with unprofessional locals hired by corporates to provide service. There was no formal attire, and the guys came in lungis; I was speechless, and I had to do every bit of manual calculation because I couldn't trust their way of doing things. They wouldn't even listen to me, so I had to complain right away. We had to shift things three times because the truck was so small, and the process took all day. My furniture suffered minor damage; thankfully, nothing was broken. So much for packing and shifting. They were so hurried that they even fitted my cabinet glasses incorrectly. I seriously doubt they'd know how to do it in the first place.
A simple sentence. Avoid HandyMama; 1/10, they are just another corporate cash-grabbing company you can't rely on.
