How to avoid the carpet cleaning rip-offs!

Sadly, like any industry nowadays carpet cleaning has its fair share of cowboys and scam merchants, anyone who has fallen for their tricks would mean that they will not trust another carpet cleaner and will say to anyone contemplating getting their carpets cleaned "all carpet cleaners are the same, they rip you off". Well I can tell you they are not. If you choose your cleaner on price along and go for the lowest price you will receive the lowest service. There is a world of difference between good and bad carpet cleaners.

The most common of all comments we get when quoting us "but doesn't the carpet get dirty quickly once cleaned". The answer is "not if cleaned properly", but carpets cleaned with inferior products will leave soil attracting residue in the carpet, which is the cause of rapid re-soiling.

I hope the information I supply to you below will go some way to protecting and education you on avoiding scams and help you in choosing a professional, ethical service.

The two most 'popular' scams doing the rounds are Bait & Switch and Splash & Dash.

Bait and Switch

You get a cheaply made leaflet through the letterbox offering carpet and upholstery cleaning at incredibly low prices, for example, hall stairs and landing £15, through lounge £17, or 3 piece suite clean £25. This is the Bait.

You ring the up and book them in to do the above work, they cannot provide written quotes because they are only in the area for '2 weeks'. They arrive and start straight away; they do not inspect the carpets and do not pre-vacuum (the most important part of the cleaning process).

The Switch begins. They have to move furniture (extra charge), spot clean (extra charge), the hall carpet is dirtier than they expected (extra charge), the furniture has lots of cushions (big extra charge) and so it goes on.

When the job is furnished (badly) you are presented with your invoice with all the 'extra unforeseen charges'. Your £58 job is now £200-400 or whatever they get away with. Most people pay up just to get rid of them. Your carpets are poorly cleaning, your furniture is probably ruined, your problem, as far as they are concerned you will never see them again.

Splash and Dash

As the name suggests they move quickly, cheaply and splash a lot of water all over the place.

It works like this: Once again they are in 'the area' for the next 2 weeks and can do your carpets straight away. The cleaners are sub-contracted on low wages, there is no incentive for them to take care and attention with your carpets etc, as they need to get as many jobs done as quickly as possible to make their money up.

They rush in, soak the carpets with water Splash extract is out as quickly as possible, get the money from you and Dash off to the next job. You get left with soaking wet carpets which have no been cleaned properly and will take between 16-36 hours to dry, depending on the equipment they used. Your carpets may shrink due to wetting, they will definitely re-soil very quickly. Your furniture is probably water damaged, maybe beyond restoration, you will net get them back because there is no money in it for them to return.

A cheap clean - will result in a cheap job - which could result in major damage - that ultimately you will have to pay for!

Chapter 2: Five Costly Misconceptions