Dubai-based smart and green maintenance specialist Hitches & Glitches (H&G), part of the Farnek Group, has signed an agreement with Amazon.ae to offer a range of home maintenance and cleaning services, as well as installing smart home devices, via Amazon Home Services.

Launched earlier last year in the UAE, Amazon Home Services is a marketplace for on-demand professional services. In just a few clicks, customers can browse, purchase and schedule over 70 professional services directly on Amazon.ae from the comfort and safety of their own home. The curated list of on-demand services now includes on-demand services offered by Hitches & Glitches including installing smart home devices, cleaning, pest control, handyman support, painting, plumbing, AC maintenance, electrical services and home sanitisation, for homeowners and tenants, across the UAE.

“This new way of supporting customers’ needs will provide peace of mind to them as they shop on Amazon.ae, where H&G will provide the home services with its highly skilled technical teams. We form part of a list of handpicked providers curated by Amazon for the invite-only Amazon Home Services marketplace, carefully selected and vetted to ensure we have the applicable insurance and licenses in place while operating to the highest of standards,” said by Kelvin Vargheese Director-H&G.

The process for customers is very straightforward. Homeowners or tenants that have a maintenance, assembly or installation request, can simply log on to Amazon.ae through the Amazon app via mobile or visit the website on their desktop browser, click through ‘Home Services’ where they can scroll down a list to add services right to their cart.

Once they have found the service that they want, they can pick a date and time for a technician to visit and stipulate how many hours they need the service for, based on their schedule. Then they simply pay for the number of hours required online in advance after viewing the pre-defined scope of work and upfront pricing. No fuss and no hidden fees, and if there is any clarification required, the customer can contact the technician directly.

“An obvious benefit of this new way of servicing customers is through the product attached services where we can provide support for customers shopping on Amazon.ae when they are buying smart home products such as the Ring security camera, TVs and treadmills. If they want assistance assembling or installing these products, they can simply book that service when they confirm their purchase, so that delivery and installation are coordinated,” added Vargheese.

Vargheese went on to explain why smart and traditional home maintenance services were proving to be evermore popular. “The new strain of COVID-19 is proving to be far more contagious than the original strains and as such we have noticed a marked increase in the number of calls especially for AC maintenance and deep cleaning.”

“Of course, the situation is compounded by the amount of time families are spending indoors, whether it’s children home schooling or adults working from home,” said Vargheese.

“And notwithstanding COVID-19, we must also try to protect families against more common ailments such as asthma, skin irritations, and itchy eyes, nose and throat,” he added.

Although preventing the spread of airborne germs is of paramount importance to our health, there are also costs attached. A poorly maintained AC unit can lose 5% of its overall efficiency, annually, whereas an efficient AC system can cut monthly energy costs by up to 25%.

“Regular deep cleaning is also very important when it comes to hygiene,” said Vargheese. “Kitchen surfaces, floors and furniture can harbour all sorts of germs, especially if the family has a cat or a dog. All manner of unwanted guests can turn up such as dust mites, fleas and lice,” he added.