Coupon carpet cleaners? You get what you pay for! ©

Author: Vartan Khazadian, owner of CleenCarpet®
5/10/2007

All of us have seen those ads in the classified ad section of the newspaper; the ones that advertise $9.99/room carpet cleaning, right? We’re so tempted to give them a call and have our home’s carpets look showroom fresh again for $50 bucks, right? For those poor souls that fall victim to those ads, we are truly sorry. For the rest of us, we should heed the mistakes of others, and learn what to beware of and why the expression, “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is,” rings true time and again.

For those that are not aware of what we are speaking of, well, here it goes. The “bait & switch” techniques that unscrupulous carpet cleaning companies use have been around since the dawn of man. This is what to be aware of:

  • Cheap carpet cleaning pricing/coupons (i.e. $14.99 per room)
  • Catchy phrases, such as “fast” or “money back guarantee”
  • Fine print advertising

Why should you beware of these carpet cleaning companies? Because they promise something that they never deliver on. Simply speaking, when you contact them, they will promise the world, and when they arrive at your home they will claim that the advertisement/coupon only quotes room sizes of smaller dimensions or that the service does not include the cleaning solvent (only the hot water steam)! Believe it or not, this goes on. And you were none the wiser, because nobody reads the fine print! And this is where the bait and switch happens, because you have already left work early for this appointment (or set aside time in the morning) and you would rather just get the job done. These carpet cleaning companies don’t overcharge, they simply lie to you to get the business. And believe it or not, this practice works most of the time. This is just not good business. And by the way, nobody will give you carpet cleaning for free. It is a labor intensive service, and should you not be satisfied, any good carpet cleaning company will not leave until the job and carpet look good, and you are satisfied!

Folks, not to sound too preachy, but if you have a home, you are probably a hard working American who understands that “you get what you pay for,” because quality is not cheap. A well respected carpet cleaning company in your community is not going to lie to get business, but rather is interested in building relationships for the long term. In addition, it is simply not feasible to clean a home’s carpets for $50 or $75 dollars. Labor, material, taxes, vehicle, equipment, and other expenses simply prevent that pricing from being financially feasible.

So now we now how the scam works. So next time, we won’t even bother to call those guys, right? We will let them build their business by good old fashioned hard work and let their reputations do the talking.