Carpet Cleaning Scams
So many businesses play games with their customers by inflating their prices- only to offer a great sale. A nationwide franchise comes to mind with this one. They have been offering “30% off” the whole year and just recently they started advertising “40% off” now that we’re going into the slow season. The consumer needs to ask themselves if this is a percentage off an inflated price, or truly a discount off of their regular price.
In my mind, if it’s been “30 % off” all year, then that’s probably their regular price at 30% off. The local franchise of this same company had offered one of my new clients a “buy one get one for a penny” for carpet and upholstery cleaning in the past. I asked if she had the reciept and she showed it to me. Shure enough, they charged DOUBLE to clean an upholstered chair and cleaned the other one for a penny.
But wait- it gets even worse for the carpet. They measured the larger room and gave the smaller room for a penny. Seems fair on the surface, but what they did was they DOUBLED the cost per square foot on the larger room and a penny for the other. So in reality she paid for two large rooms at regular cost but only had one and a half rooms cleaned. In this case she ended up paying MORE than the regular price because of the deception!
Carpet Cleaning Scams Cont...
This is why we are not big on outrageous coupons or discounts and at times only offer small discounts during a slow period. Because if we do, it is truly a discount! We want to treat our customers the way we would like to be treated and not play games with deceptive pricing. We offer a great service for a fair price!
Others that come to mind: 5 areas for $99. What are considered areas? A tiny landing. A tiny closet. A tiny hallway. Some of these areas we don’t even charge for at times or even bother to measure because they are so small. But let’s face it for only $99 these companies have to make up for their cheap quote somewhere in order to stay in business.
How about a very low price per room phone quote and then they want to charge you 20-30 cents more to pre-treat or (deep scrub) your carpet once they get to your home? I would RUN from a company that would offer that. Typically these operators hire people right off the street and rent portable equipment to them at outrageous prices with no training and they have to go out and browbeat the poor customers into buying all kinds of services at crazy prices in order to make any money. There is no ethics or quality from an operator like this. Don’t walk- run!
Our Reviews
Steve at SK Carpet did a wonderful job cleaning the carpet at my home. After years of wear from my sons and dog, Steve was still able to get the severe pet stains out. The carpet now looks like new!
I would not hesitate to recommend Steve of SK Carpet. His work is extremely professional and of the highest quality.
-Heidi Kaiser in Aurora
SK Carpet Cleaning has been doing carpet cleaning for me on a fairly regular basis for about 10 years. They’ve done residential properties, retail space and even a church for me. Whether they’re spot cleaning or doing an entire facility, they’ve always been timely, professional and economical. They’ve even cleaned and sealed hardwood floors for me! Steve and his crew do well by me!
-Richard Krause in Chagrin Falls
I haven’t even been moved in to my new house with white carpet a full week before my 4-year-old daughter broke a blue ball point pen in her room. She managed to get both feet covered and walk around up stairs. The point where the ink pen broke was so big and dark and directly in the middle of her room. Moving is overwhelming enough, I thought I was going to cry with this unfortunate accident. My friend had mentioned she was getting her carpets professionally cleaned this week so I called her to get a referral. Thanks to the good Lord’s timing the guys from SK Carpet were still at her house and agreed to come over right away. They were able to remove all the ink!!! Too bad I couldn’t have them treat my daughter’s stained feet! I will be calling SK again when the next incident happens, it isn’t a matter of if but when. Thanks!
-Jesse Prentiss in Stow
SK Carpet has been cleaning my carpet for years. We have had numerous spots like tar, red kool-aid , pet stains and a bad black spot that always appears under my husband’s recliner. They’re always able to get the stains out. I would certainly recommend SK Carpet to anyone looking for quality workmanship. They are true professionals!
-Barb Allison in Aurora/ Reminderville
Carpet Cleaning Half Truths
The last one isn’t so much a scam but misinformation and half truths, and it’s an inferior and easier way to clean a residential home and the advertising is meant to scare you away from the traditional “steam cleaning” method that is recommended by the EPA and knowlegable indoor air quality specialists. Steam cleaning is only harmful if the technician doesn’t know what he’s doing or is cleaning with poor or faulty equipment.
Some companies try to capitalize on this and offer services such as: low moisture, encapsulation, dry chemical or cleaning, carbonated water, etc. Some of these methods are only supposed to be used in commercial carpet cleaning and are not meant for residential carpets. They have their place, but not in your home! Others just barely do a surface cleaning, which may be ok if you don’t see much soiling to begin with. Some also leave chemicals and polymers that flake off in the carpet. That’s not something I would want my kids or pets to lay or crawl on and I don’t want that for my customers either!
Low Moisture vs Steam Cleaning
Let me ask you- if a pet poops, pees or vomits on your carpet, which would you think would be cleaner: Someone that sprays a chemical on it and rubs it in and leaves or someone that pre-sprays a detergent on it and then flushes it out with pure hot water and a rinsing agent? Yeah, I’d take the pure hot water every time too!
In fact, that’s the ONLY way I’ve ever cleaned my own carpets and I do them every 6 months (and protect them with our EPA approved green carpet protectant once a year too). Thirteen years later and they still look great, there’s never any bad odor or mold and they’re nice and soft. How’s that possible? According to those other ads they should smell and be moldy or be ruined. It’s because we know what we’re doing! They’re typically dry in 2-6 hrs for a regular maintanence cleaning so there’s never any issue. You need to know and trust who’s cleaning your carpets!