[david@zap-clean]

I was in B&Q today  ...Anyway, I saw the Rug Doctor ad and asked the checkout staff if it was rented out much.
They said it was out every day!

Which shows there is a big market out there for DIY carpet cleaning.

[Kev Loomes]

That's because it's cheap and the public see it as 'all carpet cleaning is the same' so why get someone in and pay them when I can do it myself ('the only differences a bit of hard work - I can certainly do that').

We all know its not logical but I can never see their thought process changing unfortunately. But I guess these people will never be our custys, so no loss really.

[david@zap-clean]

Kev, well I guess it's our job to educate the public, but unfortunately I think many so called professionals are just not up to the job:

I went to a job this week, the home owner had originally contracted another (pro) cleaner in my area.  His HWE machine packed in during the job, so he had to walk away without extracting.  Well, I know this could happen to any of us... but you should have a back-up plan.  But the real no-no was that he didn't even vacuum before pre-spraying!
FFS.  He's been in this business a lot longer than me!

[garry22]

Kev, well I guess it's our job to educate the public, but unfortunately I think many so called professionals are just not up to the job:

This might sound controversial but I think that is a colossal waste of your time. You will be far better off looking for the people who are already educated.

This is why you get people moaning about tiny responses to leaflet drops.

They dump five thousand leaflets on an area where there may only be ten people even thinking about carpet cleaning. The other 4,990 don't give a toss. doesn't matter how good the leaflet is if it's sent to the wrong people.

[gwrightson]

Kev, well I guess it's our job to educate the public, but unfortunately I think many so called professionals are just not up to the job:

I went to a job this week, the home owner had originally contracted another (pro) cleaner in my area.  His HWE machine packed in during the job, so he had to walk away without extracting.  Well, I know this could happen to any of us... but you should have a back-up plan.  But the real no-no was that he didn't even vacuum before pre-spraying!
FFS.  He's been in this business a lot longer than me!

 I hold my hands up  ,
 I don't vacuum on around 75% of my jobs, most custy,s  tell me they just vacuumed all ready for me and if it looks like it has , I don't do it again.

Now tell me I,m cutting corners   im sure if the majority of c/c were honest they would admit the same .

Interesting response's  are awaited .

geoff

[John Kelly]

The majority of my local customers don't pre vac. Personally I believe if carried out properly it leads to an improved clean. For commercials its a must, especially if using low moisture.

[Paul Moss]

I very really Prevac these days.

[Neil Jones]

Always pre vac, sometimes people like it. I had a customer asking me where to get the sebo as he was that impressed with how the carpet looked after the pre vac. This was a nice house/we'll maintained as well.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I went to clean some carpets in a school today and the caretaker had a rd in his store room, I asked him if he used it and he said that it doesn't do a very good job on the amount of dirt that the school gets buts it's ok for the cleaners and staff to take home to clean their own carpets.

The reason people use rd is because of price high quality isn't on the agenda.

Shaun

[Simon Gerrard]

Why on earth would you pre-vac with something that has a fraction of the power of what you are just about to clean it with?
Some people can get really offended when you start vaccing their carpet, as if they are incapable of doing it themselves.
If there's debris on the carpet or it is visibly dusty then fine, but as a matter of course, no chance.

Simon

[peter maybury]

The majority of customers will not own a vacuum cleaner that is capable of doing a proper job anyway.
I have gone from sebos to Kirby's as I view them as a far superior machine and even on jobs that have been vacuumed before the difference is noticeable.
We do a lot of subcontracting for contract cleaning companies and if their cleaners are on site I always ask them to vacuum the carpets with their henry' s.
 I then go over it with the Kirby and on a large area you can actually see the increase in the debris that is in the bag after cleaning.
Many people wont be bothered to carry in the vacuum or will leave the agitation machine in the van but these thing just lead to a substandard job.
Ultimately it does not save any time  it just means that your filters, glides (if used) etc will block up quicker which puts more time and effort on the job not to mention the additional stress on your equipment.
The action of a vacuum with a beater bar is far more effective than a henry or a wand.
Peter

[Simon Gerrard]

Dave,
"I went to a job this week, the home owner had originally contracted another (pro) cleaner in my area.  His HWE machine packed in during the job, so he had to walk away without extracting.  Well, I know this could happen to any of us... but you should have a back-up plan.  But the real no-no was that he didn't even vacuum before pre-spraying"
I wouldn't gloat too much if I were you as in the fullness of time you'll end up in some equally embarrassing situations, despite your best efforts, good old Sod's law will take care of that.  It happens to us all

Simon

[ian harper]

The rub here is many of my customer say its was not worth renting.

[Paul Redden Countryfresh]

Forget RD use this guy instead

https://www.facebook.com/BurtonandSons2013

[gwrightson]

aaahhhhhh,
This is the guy who was travelling all the way to Hull from Doncaster for £15 if I remember correctly.

I posted a little while ago, I priced the job, then got hit with  " its ok a man frron Doncaster coming "

Geoff

[Neil Jones]

£17.50 it will take him about an hour. He probably actually thinks he's on £17.50 an hour. Take away his expenses, travel time etc etc he may as well go and work at McDonalds

[Carpet Dawg]

£65 for a full 3 bed house  £17.50 for a lounge. £35 for a 3 piece suite!

What an absolute dough ball!

People like that just make me angry!

It'll take longer than an hour Neil, with a numatic. Very much doubt he'll pre-spray, agitate or spot treat. He'll just scrub the hell out of the carpets with those horrible plastic wands you get with those type of machines.

What a dough ball.

[wayne zabel]

I love the remarks about stain removal being included but Green,Yellow,Red,Pink ect wont always come out.

In other words stain removal isn't included

[Deep Cleaning Solutions]

Their are loads and loads of these types of guys on Facebook, their is one that is even cheaper than that near me, they all have loads of likes or friends and they all get shed loads of work and they happy doing it, so why get angry! These types of customer will never pay the going rate anyway! They are probably over the moon making £70 a day, getting free brews and biscuits and the odd tip compared to some idiot of a manager standing over them in a factory job. They will have almost no overheads either if they just advertise FB, the work will come to them at those prices. Leave them to it I say    , they are happy and so is this type of customer!

[Carpet Dawg]

well actually a lot of those customers could have been ours. (Well not mine as its not my area). 1000+ people from facebook spreading the word for this douchbag.

People like that make it harder for us. Of course there are people out there willing to pay a good price, but there is a much larger part of the population that requires a bit of gentle selling. Numatic man makes that harder.

Customers just see the very cheap price and think "excellent". They might of said "yes" to us too if they thought they where getting value for money.