[Peter White]

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

[Matt Seymour]

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.

[calmore]

...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...

[Bob Allen]

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!!!

[mallie]

Now working in cardiff

[Matt Seymour]

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.