Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Paul Simpson on September 18, 2010, 04:26:52 pm
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:o :o :o :o :o
Yes thats right. Two rooms for £8.99
Just had a call........."Was due to have my carpets cleaned by professional ::) carpet cleaners about 1pm and they haven't turned up and can't get hold of them"
She'd cleared the rooms and was asking how long before I could get there.
They told her it was a maintenance clean and wouldn't remove any staining ???
Explained the system we use and the price.......needless to say she didn't take up my services because of the price.
She did mention the companies name so I Google'd them and the autofill feature on Google completed the rest of the company name with the word "scam" at the end of it.
Suprise, Suprise!!! ;D
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SUPRISE SUPRISE NO ENTERPRISE ;D
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Yep, you had them too Steve ;D
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The head office is 400m from my house , I do well out of them , peple instantly know I am not a chav with tracky bottoms and trainers .
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Unfortunately I have this shower of sh*te right on my doorstep.
When is someone going to do something about these rip off merchants? It's shameless bait and switch at its worst.
Their technicians are given 3 to 4 appointments a day (customer expecting 2 rooms for £8.99 of course) and told to earn a minimum of £250. If they fail to earn that they are shown the door. 4 appointments at £8.99 doesn't quite amount to £250.
I've known this crowd to charge £100 to Scotchguard one room!
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Matt,
the scotchguard is water by the way, they dont use chemicals >:(
Last two prices i have heard about was 2 bedroomed terraced house, 85yr old girl = £675.00 and disabled old bloke 2 bed flat £700.00. :o :o
The sooner Mat Allright pays a visit the better
Regards
Daryl
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Matt,
the scotchguard is water by the way, they dont use chemicals >:(
Last two prices i have heard about was 2 bedroomed terraced house, 85yr old girl = £675.00 and disabled old bloke 2 bed flat £700.00. :o :o
The sooner Mat Allright pays a visit the better
Regards
Daryl
They are a disgrace.
I know that a lot of their technicians water down the "scotchguard" or "Teflon" as they call it.
Something needs to be done about them. A few days undercover with this mob by Mr. Alwright and his crew would put them out of business.
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Although I totally agree that these sort of set ups are a pain & do us no favours - for those calling for the likes of Matt Allwright to publicise these going ons nationally will do us even less favours
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Call the boss man , Dean Grant on 0773 5489676
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What's wrong with Chavs? ;D
Shaun
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Although I totally agree that these sort of set ups are a pain & do us no favours - for those calling for the likes of Matt Allwright to publicise these going ons nationally will do us even less favours
I dont see how showing the general public the likes of these cowboys wont do us any favours, when it could do us some good if it is pointed out that they use company's that are trained/ qualified and members of carpet cleaning association's, which can then be checked and verified.
Regards
Daryl
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Damn it undercut me by £1.01p :o
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Although I totally agree that these sort of set ups are a pain & do us no favours - for those calling for the likes of Matt Allwright to publicise these going ons nationally will do us even less favours
I think publicising these sharks and showing them up for the con artists they are would do the industry a massive favour.
They get a lot of elderly clients and think absolutely nothing of bullying them into paying hundreds of pounds for something they neither need nor want. I don't know how they sleep at night.
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:o :o :o :o :o
...............Explained the system we use and the price.......needless to say she didn't take up my services because of the price.
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Suprise, Suprise!!! ;D
Look at the extract above from Matt's initial post. Do you seriously want to compete in that market. If someone goes for an £8.99 two room offer & refuses anything above because they are let down - and that bothers you - then surely you are desperate or should be looking to get yourself into another industry.
These type of operators exist across the country & 95% of the population don't come across them or if they did would not consider their offer as a viable proposition.
Highlighting this sort of company on a national TV programme just makes the general public far more wary of the whole industry in general & more reluctant to take a genuine operator at face value
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The problem with programmes like rogue traders and watchdog is that they use lazy journalism tactics.
So while it would be easy for them to expose this company and their underhand practises, it would be counter-productive to all carpet cleaners unless they were to explain exactly what a customer should expect from a professional, trained, insured and competent business.
But of course that's not going to happen, all they want is the shock value of the rogue trader.
For every scumbag out there, there are thousands of reputable tradesmen who never get a mention - hence every builder, for example, is tarred with the same brush.
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The way I see it is, if people are so greedy and dumb to believe someone will clean their carpets for this price, they have themslves to blame too!
Lets face it, we don't like price shoppers and these are the ones that are falling foul of the con....
Like they say... If something sounds too good to be true.... it usually is!!!
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The problem with programmes like rogue traders and watchdog is that they use lazy journalism tactics.
So while it would be easy for them to expose this company and their underhand practises, it would be counter-productive to all carpet cleaners unless they were to explain exactly what a customer should expect from a professional, trained, insured and competent business.
But of course that's not going to happen, all they want is the shock value of the rogue trader.
For every scumbag out there, there are thousands of reputable tradesmen who never get a mention - hence every builder, for example, is tarred with the same brush.
I'm not so sure about that.
Usually on shows like Watchdog or Rogue Traders they will have one or two industry experts present to explain to the public what they should expect from a professional in that industry and what they should steer clear of.
Unfortunately, Enterprise Cleaning ARE making a lot money and being very successful by ripping off a lot of vulnerable people. I can't stress enough how many elderly people get shafted by this shower of sh*te. Sometimes you have to put common decency before your own interests and, in this case, that means getting this crowd closed down so they don't con anymore people out of their hard earned money.
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why would it put people off carpet cleaning, theres builders exposed, plumbers exposed etc..... doesn't put people off using builders and plumbers. why would it be different for our profession. all it would do is make people aware of dodgy low prices, good for me, expose em i say
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author=Paul Simpson link=topic=108539.msg924756#msg924756 date=1284823612]
:o :o :o :o :o
...............Explained the system we use and the price.......needless to say she didn't take up my services because of the price.
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Suprise, Suprise!!! ;D
Look at the extract above from Matt's initial post. Do you seriously want to compete in that market. If someone goes for an £8.99 two room offer & refuses anything above because they are let down - and that bothers you - then surely you are desperate or should be looking to get yourself into another industry.
Paul actually, not Matt ;D
No don't want to compete in that market and it doesn't bother me just found it unbelievable how low the price was, seen some low prices recently, £15-20 per room, but 2 rooms for under a tenner I thought was worth mentioning. ::)
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Morning Paul As a rule i find it to be the case that peoples carpets i clean for very little have dirtier carpets than those i clean for very good money and if you advertise too low you will get lots of work but by golly you will graft for it as it really is the lower end of cleaning in my opinion.Its been said many times on here before but aim higher and you get better clients and cleaner carpets.I would even go as far as to say you are likely to meet more interesting people at expensive jobs too as i have found since working in Oxford which makes this profession of ours more enjoyable day to day.Regards Alan(swindon)
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Think there always will be these companys around and prob always have..We have one in our area and they do a free suite clean with any carpet cleaned and have been going for a long time.. ::)
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This one is different , very well financed , with 70 vans built up in just 18 months
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This one is different , very well financed , with 70 vans built up in just 18 months
By all accounts, it is a very succesful business by the sounds of it...
But I can see that it is really just another way of mugging people or being some kind of loan shark. Some people will do anything to line their own pockets with other people's cash. Carpet cleaning is simply being used as a vehicle in this instance and there's sod all WE can do about it.
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Alan is right about the kind of people you can meet when you get out of the very cheap cleaning race! mostly they can string 2 words together or when you are speaking to them they DO actually listen with interest.
I have knowledge of the cheap end as I started there and I prefer the middle end where I am, I do a few top end but mainly deal with the house keeper and they're no fun as they leave you to it and with no cuppa neither.
I much prefer a light hearted chat with Mrs.Smith about their Susan and her lumbago (contrived for an example)
Shaun
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The problem with this industry is there is no point of reference for a fair price.
Even from legitimate operators a 3 piece suite could be £200 or £45.
Yes you can pre qualify customers with appointment letters etc
Newspaper articles consumer affairs program's do not usually put up a price.
How Clean as your House gives no cost ideas to the public for the work involved.
NCCA and other trade web sites do not give guide price when talking about the benifits of carpet cleaning.
Very few of us put price in our adverts.
So it could be reasonable to expect to get a room cleaned for £8.99 after all I can vacuum a room quickly and cleaners in the public mind only get paid £6 an hour.
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I've just had an interesting conversation with a lady who asked how much I charged for an average L/Room....
I said £50 as this was my minimum charge and her reply was "That's cheap!"
But on the other hand some people would gasp and say "Christ, that's expensive!"
So Ian's post makes complete sense..
We have had the "Average" polls on here in the past and it throws up so many different results, even I am confused as to how much I "should" really be charging, and I often get it wrong... (Not in my favour either :()
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The problem with this industry is there is no point of reference for a fair price.
Even from legitimate operators a 3 piece suite could be £200 or £45.
Yes you can pre qualify customers with appointment letters etc
Newspaper articles consumer affairs program's do not usually put up a price.
How Clean as your House gives no cost ideas to the public for the work involved.
NCCA and other trade web sites do not give guide price when talking about the benifits of carpet cleaning.
Very few of us put price in our adverts.
So it could be reasonable to expect to get a room cleaned for £8.99 after all I can vacuum a room quickly and cleaners in the public mind only get paid £6 an hour.
well said
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According to someone on another forum, trading standards already have a somewhat hefty file on Enterprise Cleaning and they will be receiving a knock on the door in the not too distant future.
Not before time.
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Wonder if they can do anything about them then ???
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They've been leafleting and telephone canvassing Andover heavily the last month. Jasonl came up with the idea of offering to put right any shoddy work they did for free, which I thought was a good idea but not one I am sure if I would carry through. Half the time they don't turn up, especially on the small jobs but then telephone offering to do more work at a higher price (still prices I wouldn't match).
I did a couple of cheapy area rugs on Friday afternoon after Enterprise hadn't turned up and the customer was over the moon with the result, so next time they need their carpets doing I would hope to get the work plus any recommendations from their friends.
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If CLEAN were about I would offer to be thier spokesman , and give a proffesional opinion to the media when the bubble busrts , which it will in the next 6 months.
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I think Enterprise are living on borrowed time to be honest.
Word is spreading and typing "Enterprise cleaning scam" into google makes interesting reading.
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Are their vans signwritten?
Just so i can prewarn my mother-in-law and her friends/neighbours in Andover.
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White with "enterprise cleaning" in silver lettering
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Does this company have a website as i been trying to find it with no joy
Paul
www.pncarpetcleaning.co.uk
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Guys i have just typed enterprise cleaning portsmouth and they are offering £600 ote per week to new employees so thats a hell of alot of rooms at £8.99 me tinks.Regards Alan(swindon)
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I just rang them on 02392354303 and asked them how they can clean so cheap at £8.99 for two rooms, they said its a special offer on at the mo and would i like to make an appointment for a tech to call, they also stated that the offer is for a maintence clean only which should be done every 12 months? they said the tech will also clean a little patch in living room to show me what it can look like with a deep clean, so they said i can then decide what clean i want. Very crafty me thinks, so i would have a clean patch in living room and i would have to use their deep clean to have the carpet the same all over.
Paul
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No, they don't have a website. There is another company called Enterprise Cleaning that do have a website, but it's not the same one. I just hope all this negative publicity for the bait and switch merchants isn't impacting on this other company with the same name.
It is a con to get a technician/salesperson through front doors plain and simple.
Their technicians are told to make a MINIMUM of £250 a day from 3 or 4 appointments where the customer is expecting 2 rooms cleaned for £8.99.
It doesn't take Carol Vorderman to work out that 4 appointments at £8.99 a go doesn't work out at £250.
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Well, well, well, all the negative comments about this lot being a bunch of bait and switch scammers have disappeared from upmystreet.
How can that be right? You're either allowed to post comments or you're not.
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upmystreet are just as bad.
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I think publicising these sharks and showing them up for the con artists they are would do the industry a massive favour.
They get a lot of elderly clients and think absolutely nothing of bullying them into paying hundreds of pounds for something they neither need nor want. I don't know how they sleep at night.
So true, heard so many stories of these sharks' intimidating behaviour when they arrive after quoting £20 and leave with £100
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Someone said they were going to report them to the NCCA. Don't know if they did or not.
As far as I know Trading Standards already have a fairly substantial file on them as well.
It's a bait and switch scam plain and simple.
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...while it would be easy for them to expose this company and their underhand practises, it would be counter-productive to all carpet cleaners unless they were to explain exactly what a customer should expect from a professional, trained, insured and competent business...
Problem there is that not everyone uses the same technique!
I have come across numerous different ways of cleaning carpets, all of which are valid techniques and depend on carpet type, condition and operator preference.
Your average "Joe Public" will listen to Watchdog's "Expert" and decide that his way is the ONLY way to clean a carpet properly.
If you go into a custy's house and try using a different technique, you'll get met with the attitude "That's not how they did it on Watchdog!".
I agree that something needs to be done about the shysters in the business but give "Joe Public" a little bit of knowledge...
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had another customer who had been foolish enough to ring this company, when told her lounge was going to cost well over £100 instead of the suggested £8.99 she asked them to leave.
The operator became very aggressive and kept on suggesting she had it done to eliminate dust mites and carpet beatles (which she never had), seems they are using scare tactics and bullying tactics especially with the elderly............something should be done about the cowboys!!!
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Now working in cardiff
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had another customer who had been foolish enough to ring this company, when told her lounge was going to cost well over £100 instead of the suggested £8.99 she asked them to leave.
The operator became very aggressive and kept on suggesting she had it done to eliminate dust mites and carpet beatles (which she never had), seems they are using scare tactics and bullying tactics especially with the elderly............something should be done about the cowboys!!!
Yes, it is generally the elderly who fall foul of this crowd. As you can imagine, the fact that they use daytime telesales to lure their customers or "victims" they end up with a lot of elderly customers purely because they are the most likely to be in during the day.
The elderly also like a bargain and £8.99 for two rooms IS a bargain if only it were true!
I know of one instance when an elderly lady cancelled her husband's cancer nurse for the night in order to pay the inflated price of cleaning the carpet. The poor old dear spent the night on the sofa to keep an eye on her husband overnight.