

How Homejoy (YC S10) Launched in 30 Cities in 6 Months - zt
http://firstround.com/article/This-Startup-Launched-in-30-Cities-in-6-Months-Heres-How-They-Did-It#ixzz31nnQX8Q7

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LukeHoersten
We've had terrible service with Homejoy. I gave it a few tries and I'm too
nervous to try again. You can't see who will be cleaning your house until
you're locked in. There's no quality control.

It seems it may be a problem that's better distributed (ex: word of mouth in
your local area).

~~~
otisfunkmeyer
I've had the worst service with Homejoy of any startup/tech-related company in
the history of my life, and lord knows as an "early adopter" I tend to try
them all.

I super, duper, ooper, do _NOT_ recommend Homejoy. It is WELL worth your time
--at least at this point--to find a cleaning person on Craigslist or something
like that and have a short talk with them to determine competence.

Homejoy is sending out anyone with two legs to "clean" your place.

~~~
Homejoy_HQ
Hi Otis,

We are so sorry to hear you had such a poor experience using our platform and
we would really like the opportunity to turn that around.

Please look forward to an email from us soon.

Best, Team Homejoy

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mrpoptart
Homejoy has been the worst experience for me. I got credit for their company
as a perk from my job and I'm so happy we've moved on. I got 3 cleanings from
them -- never again. Every single cleaning I got from them required 2 phone
calls. Every phone call was 15 mins on hold. Every payment was wrong, every
credit was wrong.

Try Exec if you can. They seem to know what they're doing.

~~~
pmann
Homejoy has been really flaky for me too. We've had problems with billing and
inconsistent cleaning. I may try out Handybook now that Exec has folded into
them.

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bahman2000
tl;dr: I asked homejoy to take my money and they couldn't.

I first learned about Homejoy in October of 2013 and immediately signed up for
a recurring cleaning, automatic billing. Almost every time Homejoy called me
to reschedule. I only had the same cleaner twice, even though I picked 3
different "preferred" cleaners. Finally, after about 12 cleanings, they didn't
show for cleaning 13. Turns out that since October their recurring billing
system wasn't actually billing me. So they cancelled my appointment without
any notice. I was never told of an accruing balance, even though I spoke to
them frequently because they called to reschedule so many times.

~~~
Homejoy_HQ
Hi Bahman 2000,

We are so sorry to hear you were effected by our growing pains. We have
improved the process regarding our billing and sincerely apologize for any
inconveniences this issue caused for you and your family.

If there is anything we could assist you with, please feel free to reach our
support team 1-855-728-4569, 7 days a week, 5 am - 5 pm PST or
support@homejoy.com.

Best, Team Homejoy

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brackin
I've had a good experience with homejoy thus far, we usually get the same guy
and he does a good job. It's not cheap but worked out well for us in SF.

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iblaine
Pretty insightful article about growing fast. It's a shame that people are
overlooking the content of this article and instead using hackernews as their
personal version of Consumer Reports. Posting personal communications between
yourself and Homejoy on hackernews is taking being an assh*le to a new level.
It's also devaluing the purpose of 'hacker' news.

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vtbose
Would be interesting to see how well they can scale. Have used them three
times with quite a range of difference in the quality of cleanings. (A couple
more times the cleaner just didn't show up) Judging by their recent hourly
rate increase, they seem to be confident at where they are at...

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lawncheer
I just launched [https://www.lawncheer.com](https://www.lawncheer.com), I'll
be honest, I am modeling everything I do after homejoy. All of Adora's
articles/interviews etc, have been super beneficial and insightful, along with
bookmarked.

~~~
wmblaettler
You probably already know this, but your site is down.

~~~
rebel
Site loads for me. However I recall seeing your site many months ago, and I
think it's a great idea, but misspelling "guarantee" on the homepage really
gives it an illegitimate feel. Aside from that, best of luck. I think you've
got a good idea.

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primitivesuave
The great thing about Homejoy's business model is that consumers who are happy
with the service will provide a solid source of recurring revenue. Also, there
is no need to maintain a physical presence in a city aside from the city
operations manager, so overhead is remarkably low.

~~~
2pasc
On the other hand, once you have found somebody that you like there is very
little incentive to stay in their system.

~~~
lxmorj
Insurance maybe? I pay DogVacay 15% because they cover the crazy shit that
usually doesn't happen, and then I can relax. Dog sitter got in a car
accident? DogVacay sends someone to pick up the dogs and bring them to another
place. That sort of shit.

~~~
2pasc
Good point. On the other hand, what do we know about the insurance that
Homejoy provides its cleaners? There is a lot of grey areas for most of the
collaborative consumption startups.

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zenbowman
I've never used it, primarily because it is about twice the price of the local
maids we get.

Is there an advantage of using Homejoy over a local cleaner who you know and
trust?

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ipedrazas
being a 40% more expensive than others like hassle.com and with the comments I
see below, I wonder "how well" the business is going.

It's clear to me that the second point: "Reduce Friction At Every Turn"
doesn't apply to customers.

