[Aquakleen Restoration Services]

Can you really blame an employee of this company? They are probably just ordinary Joe Smiths who know very little about the industry and at the end of the day just want a job! Its the guy at the top whose at fault for orchestrating such a dispicable business!

[from edge2edge]

Been told they now have  an office in Portsmouth and are recruiting in Cardiff too

[MAX Carpets]

un-stoppable force! But who is wrong, them that are making millions or us that are making a living?

[Matt Seymour]

Can you really blame an employee of this company? They are probably just ordinary Joe Smiths who know very little about the industry and at the end of the day just want a job! Its the guy at the top whose at fault for orchestrating such a dispicable business!

I don't know about that.

Could you as a decent human being bully an elderly person into paying £150 for something she is expecting you to do for £8.99?

I know of one elderly woman who had to cancel her husband's overnight cancer nurse to pay Enterprise Cleaning.

[robert meldrum]

If they are in your area and bother you, contact your local radio stations and offer to go in and do an interview.............likewise your local newspapers.

All media likes " scandal type stories " just make sure you have the facts available and remember. The public don't know about the term " bait and switch "

A number of " legitimate " carpet cleaners might have to re consider their own approach when condemning others.



 

[Matt Seymour]

Robert.

I was due to be interviewed for the BBC's "Inside Out" programme by BBC South, but the filming of the programme was cancelled after the Watchdog show went out.

There has already been a phone in about Enterprise Cleaning on a local BBC radio station as well.

It won't be long before word spreads and these sharks are put out of business.

[Neil Williams]

It won't be long before word spreads and these sharks are put out of business.

We live in hope but don't be surprised if they close down one day and start up the next from the same premises under a different name.....doing the same thing all over again.
That's just the way some people work, I should know having started out in this business for a business that did just this.
Granted they weren't anywhere near as scumbaggish as enterprise but they knew how to fleece everyone from the customer, to the staff, to the inland revenue and anyone who gave them credit for equipment and supplies.

[Matt Seymour]

I'm hoping that they are prosecuted for using what is clearly bait and switch, which is illegal.

I don't see how they can possibly avoid prosecution to be honest.

[AJB]

Neil were they based in Chichester by any
chance.

[MAX Carpets]

As long as they do not refuse to carry out the £8.99 clean they are doing nothing other than offering different levels of service. It is bait and switch but these people are clearly not mugs, I'm sure theu know the rules and are operating just within them.

[richy27]

let me just say one thing i dont agree with how it seemed they operated on the recent tv programme .

but whats the diff between what they are doing and what an awfull lot of cc do trying to get custys to sign up to cleaning programmes and the bronze silver gold packages. personally apart from the salesman routine i cant see the diff.

[Neil Williams]

Neil were they based in Chichester by any
chance.

Horsham, Egham, Aldershot, Twyford with the epicentre near Fulham.
No doubt there were many more across the south run by unfortunate franchisees who were being bled dry.

[Joe H]

Richard
I dont offer gold, silver, bronze thingys but I do see a difference in what they doing.

They bait you with 2 carpets for £8.99.
but when they turn up they admit they not doing a good clean at that price so they switch you to a "better" clean.

What I know of the gold/silver/bronze is that you agree with them when booking what they want ie gold silver or bronze. They are in control form the beginning.

Thats the difference.

OK, you may offer protection at the point of the job - but thats another service completely - not carpet cleaning

[wynne jones]

What's wrong with turning up explaining 3 levels of service and letting the customer choose which they want?

 I don't do this myself because I tell them what is best for them based on my professional opinion, but I can't see a problem unless the lower cost levels will not do the job or the customer is pressured into a high price option which is not in their best interests.

[Matt Seymour]

It's bait and switch plain and simple and the standard of work is awful.

Watchdog really missed a trick with the show. They completely failed to mention the fact that the technicians/sales people MUST make at least £250 a day from 3 or 4 appointments where the customer is expecting the £8.99 deal. If they don't hit that target they get sacked.

They have absolutely no intention of fulfilling the £8.99 deal that they advertise.

As for the work itself. The "deep clean" they bang on about is just Prochem Trafficlean, which they use on absolutely everything whether it be traffic marks or red wine stains. They carry no spotters or stain removers specific to different stains.

They are total cowboys running an unethical business and using a sales tactic which is illegal.

[wynne jones]

Not talking about that lot. I'm talking about a lot of cleaners, including quite a few on here who are held in high regard use the bronze silver gold/menu approach.

[Matt Seymour]

I don't see any problem with offering a tiered cleaning/pricing structure. As long as the customer is well aware of the differing standard of cleaning, what is the problem?

[Joe H]

IF, and I dont, but IF I was to offer Gold Silver Bronze, the actual standard of cleaning of the carpet would not differ.
Its what the customer wants to pay for that differs.

If they want to do nothing before I arrive, that would be Gold - I would vac and move furniture about.

If they want to vac and move furniture before I get there then that would be Silver

If they want me to just clean around furniture ie main walk areas etc, then that would be bronze.

But whichever of those, the carpet to be cleaned would get the same process.

Not like the bait and switch masters. And no I dont agree with those that may say "you cant blame those doing the work - they only doing there job".  That is not the sort of job where you taking extortionate amount of money from a pensioner for a rubbish job. My conscience would not allow me.
After all - Hitlers men at the gas chambers "were only doing there job".

[creighton foyle]

i'm with joe on this one, the only way to clean a carpet is "the right way" few customers have a vacuum like the sebo so the process should allways be the same including pre-vac and all the other steps needed to do a proper job, the only variation in price should come from not having to move furniture or protection which is the customers choice  but the job of cleaning can and should only be done the one way.

[derek west]

i agree with joe apart from his analagy. theres a bit of a difference between refusing to work and having to go on the dole and refusing to work so being shot