£10 a carpet

« **on:** March 24, 2011, 03:51:17 pm »

The £10 a carpet lot up here have the legend on their website:
"Too many cleaning companies are charging inflated prices simply because they can get away with it. We wanted to offer a great clean at a very affordable price and make carpet and upholstery cleaning available to everyone."

Then go on to say "We only use top of the range professional cleaning equipment and products from Extracta Products based in Gateshead.

More information can be found here http://www.extracta.co.uk/exel.html

All of our technicians are equipped with the Extracta Excel cleaning machine which uses a hot water rinse extraction cleaning system."

Had a customer today who also uses an Extracta Exel who has now had 2 of his customers complain once they have seen his machine as he was setting up that he is charging too much and cancelled the jobs. Not a happy bunny and was heading off to Extracta to see what the hell was going on. Is even contemplating changing his machine.

« **Reply #1 on:** March 24, 2011, 04:43:06 pm »

Crikey John,

They are offering franchises at £ 11,000 !

I wonder how long it takes to get your money back at a tenner a pop?

« **Reply #2 on:** March 24, 2011, 04:52:15 pm »

Its minimum of 3 carpets plus so much for each stain. They book jobs in certain areas on certain days so they are doing all their work there with no additional travelling. So if a customer rings up to book they can only have it done on that specific day they dictate take it or leave it. Its clever marketing as the guys says the £10 is just a foot in the door. Personally I don't think its sustainable but they may prove me wrong.

« **Reply #3 on:** March 24, 2011, 05:01:11 pm »

I would advertise, "If you want a £10 job get a £10 man, if you want a really professional clean then call Tel "
You could go even further by putting "how much did that carpet cost? if it was the cheapest carpet in the shop then call the cheapest carpet cleaner, if it is your pride and joy then call Tel, professional cleaning doesn't have to be expensive it is infact affordable if done correctly WILL make your carpet look and feel like new again"

Shaun

« **Reply #4 on:** March 24, 2011, 05:02:21 pm »

True that john with the foot in the door.

Maybe its going to be some new marketing tool for most companys now in the future..

A hell of a lot of work even with 10 pound a carpet mind.

« **Reply #5 on:** March 24, 2011, 05:34:26 pm »

Let'em get on with it. We all know you can't build a successful busines either with super low prices or bait and switch tactics and I think the buying public are aware of all these gimmicks so the only people likely to go with them are people who don't want to pay proper prices for a professional job.

Simon

« **Reply #6 on:** March 24, 2011, 06:09:40 pm »

Sounds like a classic bait and switch operation.

« **Reply #7 on:** March 24, 2011, 06:26:07 pm »

Changing the subject a little, the Exel has 2 x 7.4" vac motors nowadays in portables are 5.7" wonder how much difference there is in vacuum power?

Shaun

« **Reply #8 on:** March 24, 2011, 06:38:36 pm »

They refuse to move furniture as well! Only traffic areas are cleaned.

« **Reply #9 on:** March 24, 2011, 07:07:09 pm »

Who are they?, are they something like enterprise cleaning and their £8.99 gimmick. Surprised Extracta would allow their name to be associated with that type of thing.

« **Reply #10 on:** March 24, 2011, 07:12:59 pm »

Blyth, Northumberland

« **Reply #11 on:** March 24, 2011, 07:20:33 pm »

Quote from: Fintan_Coll on March 24, 2011, 07:07:09 pm

Who are they?, are they something like enterprise cleaning and their £8.99 gimmick.

Welcome to our world

This sounds too much like enterprise but now with the backing of a manufacturer.

« **Reply #12 on:** March 24, 2011, 07:22:26 pm »

Quote from: Fintan_Coll on March 24, 2011, 07:07:09 pm

Who are they?, are they something like enterprise cleaning and their £8.99 gimmick. Surprised Extracta would allow their name to be associated with that type of thing.

I very much doubt John and Brian would allow there name to be associated with such an outfit....

« **Reply #13 on:** March 24, 2011, 07:25:26 pm »

Don't think they're too happy about it.

« **Reply #14 on:** March 24, 2011, 10:40:17 pm »

what can extracta do about it? the business is simply stating that this is the machine they use, wouldn't have thought they could stop that. besides it's not like it's going to harm extracta if one company uses their machine as it'll more likely be the service which put the customer off, and also no customer will buy a machine any way.

« **Reply #15 on:** March 24, 2011, 10:48:40 pm »

If you read my first post I said a local guy who uses an Extracta lost 2 jobs. This guy has been going 20 years and is fuming. He's always been Extracta but is now wanting to see other machines as he is so peed off. I don't think this is good for there business.

« **Reply #16 on:** March 24, 2011, 11:10:40 pm »

We've got an outfit up here in the West of Scotland charging £38 for three carpets and using a T/M.
They also operate in, or are associated to, another company doing the same thing in Sheffield

Their vans are new and wrapped so they've put out a fair amount to start up.

With such an outlay they will have to clean an awful lot of carpets just to pay their overhead.

« **Reply #17 on:** March 25, 2011, 12:50:22 am »

ah just re read it now and got it. don't sound like too good of customers though if they went because a cheaper company uses the same machine and claim it to be top of the range

« **Reply #18 on:** March 25, 2011, 07:37:12 am »

Quote from: John Kelly on March 24, 2011, 04:52:15 pm

Its minimum of 3 carpets plus so much for each stain. They book jobs in certain areas on certain days so they are doing all their work there with no additional travelling. So if a customer rings up to book they can only have it done on that specific day they dictate take it or leave it. Its clever marketing as the guys says the £10 is just a foot in the door. Personally I don't think its sustainable but they may prove me wrong.

In that case the two small carpets I looked at last night will cost £300 to clean

Regarding naming machine they are contracting that carpet cleaners in a lot of bait and switch warning leaflets say these companies use a vax etc

« **Reply #19 on:** March 25, 2011, 07:44:13 am »

Any decent customer knows your not going to get much for £10 and the ones that want £10 cleaning are not the customers we want,may have to start advertising my top of the range chemspec t/m

« **Reply #20 on:** March 25, 2011, 12:40:12 pm »

Quote from: Shaun_Ashmore on March 24, 2011, 05:01:11 pm

I would advertise, "If you want a £10 job get a £10 man, if you want a really professional clean then call Tel "
You could go even further by putting "how much did that carpet cost? if it was the cheapest carpet in the shop then call the cheapest carpet cleaner, if it is your pride and joy then call Tel, professional cleaning doesn't have to be expensive it is infact affordable if done correctly WILL make your carpet look and feel like new again"

Shaun

Well said!

« **Reply #21 on:** March 27, 2011, 07:56:06 am »

Passed them in their little white van yesterday, they looked like two cowboys.

« **Reply #22 on:** March 27, 2011, 07:01:15 pm »

Were they wearing big hats?

« **Reply #23 on:** April 02, 2011, 06:14:50 pm »

Hi Folks,

New to the forum and reading this post with interest as i too am in the north east , have an extracta machine and am starting out in the cleaning trade. I have recently completed the extracta course and more recently the NCCA course...I want to provide a quality service backed up with recognised qulaifications and run my operation the right way with very much a customer focused approach with a quality job.......without really advertising at present as i'm still finding my way i have managed to secure work at the right price using this approach as i'm sure the many professionals on here do to....i believe you get what you pay for and i doubt whether they retian their customer base from the hard sell dictatorship tactics they employ ...you lot as professionals will...and gain more through referrals....if extracta aren't happy they could always not sell them their machines ... or more importantly service them!...just a thought

« **Reply #24 on:** April 03, 2011, 12:38:10 am »

doubt extracta are in a position to turn away money from businesses like this. perhaps they are making lots of money but i'm sure there is so many £10.00 cleaners they'd be foolish to say no. plus it'd be impossible to stop as a lot of cleaners will buy a machine under their name as they are in early process so that's all they'd have to do to get around the problem.

http://www.greencleansolution.co.uk/

« **Reply #25 on:** April 03, 2011, 11:24:04 am »

gcs.. agree totally that they won't turn them away but i think the start of the post was indicating that they were going to lose a 20 yr old valued customer because of these £10 boys using and naming their machine and linking it back to their website....its extractas call and i agree with the 20 yr old chap that if he's losing business as hes using the same machine as the £10 boys...then he along with others will be looking elsewhere for their machines ...

« **Reply #26 on:** April 03, 2011, 11:34:23 am »

true, but i'd guess that the 20 year old customer doesn't buy many extracta once he's bought the first one. i do understand why they'd want to turn them away as quality carpet cleaners will be put off if the cheap ones are heavily advertising that that's the machine they use, but if they they turned them away they'd still end up selling to these people as they wouldn't know what each new buyer is planning to be like. i could order one now under just my name and they wouldn't know if i was planning to do the same, they may realise with one or 2 and lose some sales but it wont stop the issue.

the thing that confuses me is that the initial post suggests that these cheaper people are saying how they use the best machine available which is the extracta, so the customer leaves the guy who uses that machine.

« **Reply #27 on:** April 03, 2011, 01:57:27 pm »

The first guy comes along at £10 per carpet and makes a big issue out of the fact that he is using an Extracta machine. The next guy comes along and he is using an Extracta machine too so the customer expects the price to be the same. I think that is what happened.

« **Reply #28 on:** April 03, 2011, 02:40:31 pm »

Paul

You have to engage with customer and explain why your service is value for money at £25 a room

Then the £100 a room guys will have provlem

But they will bring out their !00K truckmounts card with trillions times more cleaning power.

Then the next Guy will bring in his Nassa cleaning power

« **Reply #29 on:** July 01, 2011, 08:32:23 am »

Looks like their £10 a carpet strategy is no more...

http://www.gleecompany.co.uk/

(Thank gord)!

« **Reply #30 on:** July 01, 2011, 08:51:05 am »

keep calm and carry on !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

« **Reply #31 on:** July 01, 2011, 08:58:25 am »

Actually they are 2 canny lads. They had this business idea and went for it. Fortunately they visited our premises a couple of weeks ago and I had a really good talk with them. It was actually a bit embarrassing as one of them wanted to kiss me

They had been waiting for someone to tell them they were doing it all wrong.

« **Reply #32 on:** July 01, 2011, 01:13:05 pm »

Quote from: gary hall on July 01, 2011, 08:51:05 am

keep calm and carry on !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eh?

« **Reply #33 on:** July 01, 2011, 06:25:27 pm »

The trouble with carpet cleaning is finding the customers that say 'Yes', if advertising such a low price at £10 everyone is going to say 'yes' but when cleaning a thru lounge you would have to say 'yes' ten times.

Shaun