I admit it! I'm a horrible game player!
I’m NOT talking about games like Uno or checkers- I’m marginally okay at those; I’m talking about games played in business- specifically the carpet cleaning business. My wife tells me all the time that I’m too black and white about things. I understand that in the business world (and in politics) it sometimes standard operating procedure to hold back information, don’t lie but also don’t disclose the whole truth, to “play the game”. I have trouble doing that, thus my business sometimes suffers.
It seems there has always been this “game” in carpet cleaning of advertising low prices to get customers to call and schedule a cleaning and then when the technicians get to the job they find all sorts of reasons to up-charge the customer, resulting in a much higher bill than what was quoted over the phone. There have been several TV investigative undercover reports on this subject. You can see them anytime you want on Youtube. While these reports might have gotten rid of the companies caught in the report you can certainly find many other “bait and switcher” carpet cleaners still advertising today. The PennySaver is full of them; Craigslist is full of them too.
I’ve been in the carpet cleaning business for 17 years. I know what it takes, material wise and labor-time wise to do a good job cleaning carpets. When I see a carpet cleaning company advertising that they will clean your whole house for $50.00 or some other ridiculously low price I know beyond a shadow of a doubt 2 things are going to happen.
1. They intend to get to your house and find every reason in the book to raise the final bill up dramatically. It could be thru telling you that the price quoted was for basic cleaning and your carpet is too dirty for the basic cleaning to work. Or they might claim they need to put a pre-spotter on the carpet (which isn’t included in the basic cleaning price) to do a good job so they need to charge more. This is just 2 of many things they will try.
2. You can hold your ground and refuse to pay more. After they try to explain to you again (sometime bordering on intimidation) and if you still refuse, IF they actually agree to do it for the original quoted cost you will get a quick, barely worked upon, carpet cleaning job which you will NOT be happy with. What if you refuse to pay and you end up kicking them out of the house without cleaning? Well you wasted a day, probably moved furniture that you now have to move back, and raised your blood pressure several points! And you still have dirty carpets! How do I know all of this? I’ve talked to my customers who have experienced this very thing, along with talking to former carpet cleaners who worked for companies that followed this very procedure.
3.
4. The bottom line for those carpet cleaning techs is that if they don’t get customers to agree to the higher charges, those employees will eventually get fired.
If you own a 3,000 sq/ft house that has 2,000 sq/ft of carpet and you think you will get a decent job of carpet cleaning for $50.00 I have some swamp land to sell you in Florida.
So this is the part of the game I am lousy at. I am not the cheapest carpet cleaner. I’m also not the most expensive. After 17 years I price my carpet cleaning at a fair price for both the homeowner AND myself. I don’t advertise one price for “basic” cleaning and then also have a “deeper” cleaning at a higher price. I don’t get why anyone would even begin to deal with a company that says “we’ll charge you X amount to clean your carpets, but if you want a really good job done then we’ll charge you X+Y.” I’ve ALWAYS operated with the business mindset of trying to do the best job, with the best equipment I own, for the price I quoted, - at every job, every time. No bait and switch, no quoting low on the phone to get the job, no games.
Don't fall victim to the "game". Be realistic in that you get what you pay for. Your never going to get the new 2011 Mercedes Benz automobile for the 1999 Volkswagen price!
Hemet California -Quick Dry Carpet Cleaning Customer Testimonial
Another happy carpet cleaning customer from Hemet California
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