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Homejoy says goodbye

blog.homejoy.com

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Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#271

Post by akshatpradhan »

fweespeech wrote: post #259
akshatpradhan wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>1. The cleaners were not professionals. It felt like they were just recruiting anyone who wanted a job. You could really feel this with the lack of passion from the cleaners and the severe lack of quality cleaning. Most of the people complained and were quite rude sometimes. Cleaning is very much a skill as much as it is manual labor. For me personally, it felt they had little training of how to clean. Things like d…

> This. Very much. There was one guy that came into my apartment, and he was in the valuables room. Not much of a peep had gone by in 30 mins, so I checked in and I heard a drop of the jewelry box. He said he was just cleaning around and that an earring was missing and he was looking for it. I didn't say much because I was thinking in my mind what's he doing with an earring in the first place. I walk out the room and…

Basic security measures were taken in the valuables room. The jewels out-of-site and in the box were all fake. Whether the jewels were fake or real or whether anything was taken or not doesn't matter right now.

It was the experience of that interaction that mattered and I didn't feel that Homejoy lived up to that promise.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#272

Post by dnissley »

curun1r wrote: post #224
markonthewall wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the lack of passion from the cleaners I doubt cleaning other people's shit is anyone's passion.

You'd be surprised. My Parents use AirBnb to rent out an in-law apartment they have at one of their houses (they each had a house prior to getting together). They're retired and they now treat it like their job, despite it only bringing in around $30k/year. I've recommended that they find a local cleaning person since I think they can find someone good who's willing to do it for the cleaning fee they charge ($50), bu…

You're missing the point. The apartment is their property, even if the mess isn't.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#273

Post by pbreit »

jclune wrote: post #268

I run a company similar to HomeJoy in Japan, and I disagree with most comments here. 1. Those who claim cleaning is not a "skilled job" should get off their keyboard, spend a day cleaning their moms house, and get back to me when they learn they are 3X slower than a pro and destroyed something with bleach-based spray. 2. It feels like nobody here actually read Adora Cheung's quotes about multiple lawsuits coinciding…

1. Totally agree.

2. I think that's just a convenient excuse for what was more likely a poorly run business.

3. It definitely seems like a match-making business to me. Perhaps things are different in Japan. I could perhaps see wanting a few different providers for diversification.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#274

Post by ryandrake »

When I first heard of this company, I thought, "Too small a niche to grow--they'll never survive". This is a service for a very limited market--rich people who don't already have a housekeeper and can't manage to keep their houses clean. Nobody I know socially would actually pay someone to clean their house for them.

Yet, so many customer testimonials here on HN. Are there really that many people so busy/well-off that they can't take a few minutes once a day or so to pick up after themselves and rather pay someone more than their mobile phone bill to do something so trivial? I guess I was wrong about the market size but damn...

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#275

Post by brianmcconnell »

pjhile wrote: post #247
brianmcconnell wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the case of using the "independent contractor" loophole to avoid paying UI, social sec tax, minimum wage, etc, it's an issue of making sure everyone plays by the same rules. Operators who abide by these rules should not be punished for doing so.

Are you implying that taxes/regulations are punitive?

No I am implying that companies that avoid paying them are getting an unfair advantage versus the companies that treat their workers as employees.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#276

Post by Nadya »

jclune wrote: post #268

I run a company similar to HomeJoy in Japan, and I disagree with most comments here. 1. Those who claim cleaning is not a "skilled job" should get off their keyboard, spend a day cleaning their moms house, and get back to me when they learn they are 3X slower than a pro and destroyed something with bleach-based spray. 2. It feels like nobody here actually read Adora Cheung's quotes about multiple lawsuits coinciding…

Not sure if the offer is rhetoric or not. No contact email, no business name. Is it related to #1 as a joke-of-sorts?

日本語を知っている必要がありますか？

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#277

Post by zaidf »

jclune wrote: post #268

I run a company similar to HomeJoy in Japan, and I disagree with most comments here. 1. Those who claim cleaning is not a "skilled job" should get off their keyboard, spend a day cleaning their moms house, and get back to me when they learn they are 3X slower than a pro and destroyed something with bleach-based spray. 2. It feels like nobody here actually read Adora Cheung's quotes about multiple lawsuits coinciding…

1. Those who claim cleaning is not a "skilled job" should get off their keyboard, spend a day cleaning their moms house, and get back to me when they learn they are 3X slower than a pro and destroyed something with bleach-based spray.

x100. There is a lot more variance between two cleaners than say two Uber drivers.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#278

Post by throwaway239842 »

zaidf wrote: post #277
jclune wrote: post #268

I run a company similar to HomeJoy in Japan, and I disagree with most comments here. 1. Those who claim cleaning is not a "skilled job" should get off their keyboard, spend a day cleaning their moms house, and get back to me when they learn they are 3X slower than a pro and destroyed something with bleach-based spray. 2. It feels like nobody here actually read Adora Cheung's quotes about multiple lawsuits coinciding…

1. Those who claim cleaning is not a "skilled job" should get off their keyboard, spend a day cleaning their moms house, and get back to me when they learn they are 3X slower than a pro and destroyed something with bleach-based spray. x100. There is a lot more variance between two cleaners than say two Uber drivers.

Until your Uber driver kills you, then the difference is infinity.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#279

Post by storgendibal »

pbreit wrote: post #273
jclune wrote: post #268

I run a company similar to HomeJoy in Japan, and I disagree with most comments here. 1. Those who claim cleaning is not a "skilled job" should get off their keyboard, spend a day cleaning their moms house, and get back to me when they learn they are 3X slower than a pro and destroyed something with bleach-based spray. 2. It feels like nobody here actually read Adora Cheung's quotes about multiple lawsuits coinciding…

1. Totally agree. 2. I think that's just a convenient excuse for what was more likely a poorly run business. 3. It definitely seems like a match-making business to me. Perhaps things are different in Japan. I could perhaps see wanting a few different providers for diversification.

Agree with all three of your points, especially #2. I still can't get over the fact that it took me 4 tries to be to sign up with HJ. Eventually I had to do it on my laptop because the web app on the phone was so buggy. And if the sign up flow is so badly done, I wonder what else is not executed well.
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