[MAX Carpets]

Hi Guys

Just had a call from a customer whos elderly Mother lives in Bournemouth. Same old story, she had a call offering to clean the whole house for £45.......................the price went up to £400!!!!!!

Luckily, they rang me and I spoke to the "technician" I told hime that I was calling trading standards and sending them to the address NOW!

He agreed to charge £120 (still a bit high) and leave.

They now trade as COMBINE CLEANING SERVICES (BOURNEMOUTH)

I think Rogue traders should be told!!

I'm Fuming!

Cheers

Justin

[wynne jones]

I would also tell Groupon as this is how they are getting their foot in the door and doing a switcheroo on them.

[Fran84]

£120 for a whole house is still a bit steep??? can't agree with that!!

Combined Cleaning Services Ltd ARE NOT Enterprise. The guy who started Combined worked for Enterprise for a period and decided he could just copy them. It is however definitely BAIT & SWITCH.

I wouldn't bother telling trading services as it seems they are powerless to stop this happening. How do you think they have been going for 2-3 years and getting away with it?

As for Groupon I haven't seen them on there for a long time. Looks to me like Groupon are now dealing in LM cleaning as I had a customer call me last week to tell me she seen a deal on there offering DEEP CLEANING but when you read the deal through it says LM.

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Just recently went to view a complaint on a job carried out by combined cleaning services.

They baited the client with a £49.99 for 3 rooms deal, then ended up charging £385 !

They actually cleaned 2 rooms and a flight of stairs and left serious Browning on the bottom 3 steps and the entrance to the lounge.

This was for a well to do couple who weren't daft but were clearly taken in.

[clive ware]

Yep, theyve just this week conned a poor old boy in Selsey out of £200. they wanted £500 to include his lounge as well.
Scum.

[MAX Carpets]

It was a 2 bed house.

This Lady used to be legal secetary and could not believe she had been taken in!

[Mark Weedon]

Fran

I thought that from the rogue traders programme, that the way the bait and switch is done with the water and detergent was illegal, from a trading standard point of view. I seem to remember that if advertised for a carpet clean at say £40 quid the client is to expect a carpet clean good bad or indifferent.Obviously no detergent cannot be classified as a clean. So if this new outfit is pulling the same stunt why can't they do something???
 Correct me if I'm wrong


Mark

[Fran84]

Mark,

Bait & Switch is illegal full stop.

These guy do actually clean carpets, albeit not very well as they are not trained. They receive training from there own technicians who received training from the technicians before them etc.

As far as I'm aware no-one in the company has any proper training.

The way their bait & switch works is when they arrive at the property they will put some detergent in the machine and do a sq ft.
Then they will do a pre-spray, agitate and rinse. Obviously the second one looks better, so they then try to sell the second, more thorough clean. So although it is bait & switch, they will actually clean a carpet with an in tank detergent if the client absolutely insists.

This is how they manage to get away with it. As far as trading standards are concerned if they are willing to clean for the agreed price then they would be very hard pushed to get any kind of conviction.

Fran.

[Mark Weedon]

Yeah I understand that, but you said that the trading standards can't do anything.

But if price is advertised as x for a clean then when they turn up do the water test and pre spray test then say the pre spray is y amount then it's bait and switch, so why can't ts do anything about it??

Sorry if I'm being thick!!

Mark

[Fran84]

Mark,

You're not being thick. It is quite confusing.

It's not a 'water trick'. They do the test patch with an in-tank detergent, so effectively it is still cleaning.

The reason trading standards can't do much is because they really don't have much authority!!

[SteveAllan]

I can't believe people are so stupid to fall for it in the first place.

[Fran84]

It's all down to sales Steve.

We are all upsold to constantly and the majority of the public aren't actually aware of how much carpet cleaning cost so if you come across someone who has never had their carpets cleaned before it should be a fairly easy sale.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

My Mrs is always up selling to me shall we go to Disney Land?
Me "too expensive"
HRH "Dubai"
Me "still too expensive"
HRH "Australia"
Me "stop being silly"
HRH "I'm just going to book something anyway"
Me "no you are not!"
HRH "what about France"
Me "ok then" thinking I've got away with murder but she got what she wanted.

Shaun

[Mark Weedon]

Ok fran

I see they have detergent in tank, got you!! That's why it's a problem as technically speaking its a clean.

Just been on trading standards website, bait and switch is definitely an offence that they can investigate and fine and cease trading in, problem is I suppose if company is not incorporated and trades as!

Shaun makes a good point I wonder how many areas of our day to day stuff baits and switches us.

I do remember hiring a car from web at Dublin airport for £130 for long weekend, then when collect it it was actually £260-70 I forget the cock and bull why, something about insurance or something like that. This was with a famous rental company. B......s.

And very funny my wife must have same DNA as yours Shaun she baits and switches me all the time!!!! Lol who can I report her too!!

[Craigp]

I have came across this company too.

But theres something worrying that I've noticed other companies using the same trick, ie. they have low price on their website but then offer a 'pre treat' as an optional extra "for a deeper clean" which is the same as Enterprise were doing.

Obviously they are arriving at the customers house then offering the 'pre treat'

Don't spose theres much we can do about it though.

[wynne jones]

There's a huge distinction between what these guys do (which is criminal) and someone advertising a headline price and walking away from the job with a lot  more cash in their pocket.

Basically they refuse to offer what was advertised and bully the customer into buying something else (which is a poor job anyway) at a dramatically over inflated price.

An honest company could do a survey, suggest other things that can be cleaned and in different ways, offer protector where it would be a good idea and if the custy says no I want the original deal then that is provided and is probably a better job than the high priced cowboys anyay. 

[Craigp]

Wynne, no its exactly the same.

The 'pre treat' is pre spray!

They turn up and say, thats price was just for a basic clean, or we can pre treat (pre spray) for £x extra, then they do a demo side by side.

Its the same scam as Enterprise only they advertise the low price rather than cold call.

[Craigp]

I understand your point, up selling is fine, protector ect.

But pre spray should not be an extra.