[wynne jones]

Will this help or hinder us? I just think we will all be tarred with the same brush. If in doubt do nothing. Merry Christmas Watchdog.

[Matt Seymour]

As this mob were in my area and taking a massive amount of work from other carpet cleaners this can only be a good thing as far as I am concerned.

Regardless of how it affects me, I just feel relieved for all the people who would have been scammed by this mob had something not been done. A lot of their victims were the elderly just as the idiot in Wimborne described.

[robert meldrum]

Wynne

Have you tried modern L/M cleaning like Texatherm to allow you make an informed opinion rather than slag it off as second rate, which it certainly is not.

T/M operators in Canada and the U S would not be abandoning their machines in favour of the latest O/P machines and chemicals if they failed to deliver a quality service to their clients, which it clearly does.

All builders and tradesmen as well as carpet cleaners have " rogue traders " in their ranks but they still get work.

[Geoff Jewkes]

hopefully it will be available in some download format or on youtube, then we can use it

Will be downloadable from BBCi player probably from tomorrow in a variety of file sizes

[Carpet Dawg]

All builders and tradesmen as well as carpet cleaners have " rogue traders " in their ranks but they still get work.

Most trades are necessary or "needs". Carpet and upholstery cleaning is more of a luxary service or a "want". For example, you wouldn't call a plumber cos you fancied getting your drains cleared or calling a builder to fix that hole in your roof cos it looks silly....

Carpet cleaning isn't necessary, you can easly replace them or live with the dirt. (lets be honest!)

So i dont think this type of publicity is a good thing.

Having said that, how many people actaully watch watchdog?? and how many people actaully remember what they ate yestarday?? lol chippy paper and all that jazz...

[Jamie Lindsay]

totally agree think this is bad press for carpet cleaning in general

[CATMAN]

I don't think its bad press.

The reason being is if you are one of those customers who believe you can have a carpet cleaned for £8.99 then more fool you. They are customers no-one wants, price shoppers, they are buying a service based purely on price.

Most people who you go out and quote to realise, that a good job will cost a reasonable amount of money, not £8.99.

Also people buy from people (they like).

[Joe H]

Looking at the positive. 
 
If any of "YOUR" customers saw the programme, what would THEY be thinking???

I would like to think mine would be saying "We are so glad that we have a good carpet cleaner in Joe, he charges what he said at the beginning, and does a brilliant job, he is clean, tidy, polite, on time, respectful of our home, yes, we are happy to have him  around anytime. And he gets the carpets clean and they are dry in no time.  MUST CALL HIM TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT"

I'm happy 

[robert meldrum]

Always look on the Bright Side as Joe says.................Use it in a mail shot to your customers and encourage them to look at the download.

Provided, of course you don't use similar tactics 

[Ian Gourlay]

While I do not condone Bait and Switch

I do wonder if the Customers was being charged an unfair price.

£4.99 a metre was quoted for a deep down clean  that is the price a lot of Carpet Cleaners Charge

My concern is customers will now think they are being robbed when we quote a genuine £4.99 metre.

What the Commercial Lawyer said was we should give room price.

Again makes it difficult as rouge customers with 40x20 leaflets will be phoning to say how much for a room of carpets.

Usually on such a programme watchdog has a trade expert watching, ie someone from NCCA who would point out what is wrong  and suggest a fair price for the job

Also some of us have 4 if not five different cleans

[Hilton]

The big concern for me watching that programme last night was that they had NO representation from the Carpet Cleaning Industry on the programme. the guy watching  under cover was a Lawyer  :

Surely they should have had a member from the body that is supposed to represent professional carpet cleaners ie NCCA.

In any other Watchdog 'sting' operation be it plumbers electricians mechanics the 'professional is from the body that is accredited to that organisation..

I believe this put Carpet Cleaning at a disadvantage,  were the NCCA not approached ? if so this only proves the point that a body that speaks for the profession are simply not recognised., this would have been a great opportunity to get a recognised body in front of a mass audience.

As for the programme its self, anybody that is up sold from £9 to £167.00 by a chav, who did not know how to operate to the wand by the way, must be simple in head.

Under questioning by Alwright I thought he handled himself very well , he was clearly from a pressure selling background such as Double Glazing and not carpet cleaning.

[clinton]

Think it must be on bbc podcast to have another look..

[Dennis]

On iplayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00vr84q/Watchdog_04_11_2010/

[wynne jones]

Wynne

Have you tried modern L/M cleaning like Texatherm to allow you make an informed opinion rather than slag it off as second rate, which it certainly is not.

T/M operators in Canada and the U S would not be abandoning their machines in favour of the latest O/P machines and chemicals if they failed to deliver a quality service to their clients, which it clearly does.

All builders and tradesmen as well as carpet cleaners have " rogue traders " in their ranks but they still get work.

It's OK Robert, I was being a little tongue in cheek. I use padding myself where appropriate especially commercial were I think you get better looking results and less potential problems. However with the wallys on watchdog they would be better all round if they padded soiled carpets at 8.99 rather than just wand at lightning speed.

[Hilton]

While I do not condone Bait and Switch

I do wonder if the Customers was being charged an unfair price.

£4.99 a metre was quoted for a deep down clean  that is the price a lot of Carpet Cleaners Charge

My concern is customers will now think they are being robbed when we quote a genuine £4.99 metre.

What the Commercial Lawyer said was we should give room price.

Again makes it difficult as rouge customers with 40x20 leaflets will be phoning to say how much for a room of carpets.

Usually on such a programme watchdog has a trade expert watching, ie someone from NCCA who would point out what is wrong  and suggest a fair price for the job

Also some of us have 4 if not five different cleans

I believe he quoted £4.99  A SQUARE FOOT not a metre.

 : Sorry I meant .49p a sq ft. PLUS the chemicals of course 
 

[Matt Seymour]

I'm pretty sure it was 49p a square foot.

Doesn't matter though as Enterprise have no pricing structure whatsoever. Their "technicians" can charge as much as they like, although the more the better obviously!

I wish they had dedicated more time to the standard of the cleaning and that includes the "deep clean" as they referred to it. This is where an indutry expert should have come into it.

[robert meldrum]

Wynne

Fair comment 

[coyote7]

Well guys I must say that was interesting to say the least and I am surprised no one mentioned the lady who went from having her 3 piece cleaned for £30 and in the end paying £500! I mean come on yes they are very tricky and put some pressure on but surely he didn't have her pinned up agains't the wall with a gun to her head :

On a lighter note I am off to give my son a bath and as times are hard I can't afford chemicals so instead of using a luxurious product such as Johnsons he will simply be getting a maintanence clean this evening

Onwards and upwards

[Matt Lindus]

How on earth does the owner administer such an opperation.
What I mean is, how does he know what operator has taken what? That chav that measured up and tried to take £167.00 from the old dear. He could have gone back to base and said "No sorry, she chucked me off the job without paying". He could have got her to make out the cheque into his name and banked it without them knowning.

Matt

[derek west]

i'm guessing she pays the company and the "technician" (rogue) gets paid at the end of the week.