I have yet to see carpet cleaning coupons that actually benefit the customer.

Here is an example of what I mean:

I got a call from a client that had some pretty severe soiling in his living room, stairs and bedroom. It was so bad I told him I would need to probably do it twice. Clean, let dry and then come back and clean again. Two reasons for this. The first was time, I just did not have the time to stay there and work on the carpet and second, I feel a carpet can come much cleaner when it has a chance to dry and be cleaned again. Some will argue this and thats OK, I know what I know.

He told me the carpet was nearly new and could not understand why it had got so dirty, so quick. I asked if it had been cleaned before and it turned out it had, badly, six months before. What had happened was the client called on another cleaners coupon, one of the $99.00 deals for 3 rooms. He told his wife he had arranged it and she let them in on the day (he had to go out).

They told her the rooms were too large to allow for in the coupon. In addition, she was talked into having the basement done as well.

The coupon did not allow for pre-treatment of the carpet with a soil release pre-treatment.

The coupon did not allow for spot removal.

The coupon did not allow for deodorising.

Finally they gave her a laminated sheet telling her why she needed to have fabric protector applied to the carpet.
The $99.00 coupon ended up costing them over $600.00! Which was close to $400.00 for cleaning and the rest was fabric protection.

I performed a simple test on the carpet, I poured a tablespoon of water onto it, and looked at what happened. The water soaked right into the carpet. That indicates that the protection (if any) was not adequately applied.

The carpet was also suffering from rapid re-soiling, a condition that is caused by using too much detergent and little or no rinsing out of the detergent. This residue then attracts dirt at a phenomenal rate.

I got the carpet clean and even with two trips to the property, still charged less than my competitor and we re-booked to return in April for a freshen up cleaning.

Final Words:

If you want to purchase fabric protector or I think you might benefit from having it applied I can discuss it with you. I will not show you a laminated sales card, they are crafted to make you want it.

Applied correctly, good quality fabric protection will last 6-10 cleanings.

I recently found this article from the UK regarding “Bait and Switch”: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2010/11/enterprise_carpet_cleaning.html

This is happening in and around Red Deer in much the same way as this article explains.