[Matt Seymour]

Just had a full on stand up row with a bloke from Enterprise Cleaning.

Got home from a job this afternoon and saw one of their vans parked in a neighbour's drive. Old lady on her own (surprise surprise).

She was one of their telesales victims; promised the £8.99 for two rooms etc. Unfortunately, by the time I got there he was already nearly finished. You will no doubt be unsurprised to learn that, in her case, £8.99 had become £150.

Not only had he used their bait and switch, the way he was cleaning the capets was unbelievable. He had sprayed down Trafficlean and was then "rinsing it" (his words) with a solution tank containing huge amounts of Prochem Woolsafe, a deodoriser AND Extraction Plus. He also claimed that he was sanitising the carpet, but I had a quick look in the back of his van and he didn't even have a sanitiser in there. In fact, he had next to nothing in there.

I swear the foam in his solution tank (not waste tank) was about 3 inches thick!

He claimed his machine had a heater (which it didn't) and when I asked him what he uses to remove red wine stains, he said "trafficlean."

Just been back over to the woman's house and her carpets are absolutely full of detergent.

As for the Watchdog programme, he claimed that the BBC are paying Enterprise compensation over the comments made by the lawyer on the show. If you believe that you'll believe anything.

He also said the nipper on Watchdog was just a "bad apple" and has been sacked. He even said that it isn't company policy to upsell.

[slioch]

Awful story Matt.  It makes me angry.

Can you advise the lady to contact trading standards?

[Matt Seymour]

I did tell her to let them know, but they already have a pretty hefty file on them anyway by all accounts.

I swear I have never seen so much foam in a solution tank.

She hadn't seen Watchdog, but I have emailed her a link to it.

[Jamie Lindsay]

bad news.. but why didn't she use you ?

[Matt Seymour]

Had no intention of getting her carpets cleaned, but fell for the £8.99 offer.

That's how the scam works.

[Jamie Lindsay]

poor woman... thats mugging in my book

[Neil Williams]

I'm seriously giving some consideration to either a local newspaper advert/leaflet drop name dropping this crowd of sharks.

[Matt Seymour]

Go for it Neil!

I've just emailed the BBC and let them know about his claims that they are paying Enterprise compensation.

If that is the line they are trotting out and it isn't true they could find themselves in even more trouble.

[Len Gribble]

Personally I wouldn’t have poked my nose in. I hate stand up rows some always tops up having a lay down row

[Matt Seymour]

The woman in question was a neighbour. I wasn't just going to stand by and see her get shafted without making her aware of who she had allowed into her home.

[Paul Heath]

1) If they are operating illegal then why have we not seen them brought to justice yet??
2) Why did nobody from a carpet assc appear on the programme ??
3) There are a lot of old people out there and they will continue to rip them off and give us all a bad name unless a public body brings them to justice.
It really makes my blood boil that they are still trading and even worse expanding, it just makes a complete mockery of Rogue Traders, Trading Standards etc....they have seen it as free advertising and laughing at us all...
It seems no consumer body etc has any clout

[Carpet Dawg]

Would be good to know who the kingpin at Enterprise is! He must surely have been a carpet cleaner at somepoint in his life.... Maybe some one on here or a lurker

[Adam P]

2) Why did nobody from a carpet assc appear on the programme ??

if he was telling the truth, the trainer at Prochem called Adam did the behind the scenes talking bit but they decided to use the lawyer instead some odd reason. 

[Matt Seymour]

Would be good to know who the kingpin at Enterprise is! He must surely have been a carpet cleaner at somepoint in his life.... Maybe some one on here or a lurker

The man at the top of Enterprise is called Andrew Briars apparently.

Anyone know him?

[Helen]

Would be good to know who the kingpin at Enterprise is! He must surely have been a carpet cleaner at somepoint in his life.... Maybe some one on here or a lurker

The man at the top of Enterprise is called Andrew Briars apparently.

Anyone know him?

No or I would offer to go and clean his carpets for him!!!

Doesn't necessarily follow that he would once have been a CC'er. Probably a chancer (rich one at that) who sees an opportunity to make money (not worried how) and goes for it....remember this sort of thing does not only happen in our industry. He probably will have loads of differing industry businesses.

[Neil Williams]

And another came to my attention today.
I'm keeping this very short.
My wifes hairdressers mother fell for the £8.99 scam. The low life wanted £139 to do the job properly (loose use of words there) and it had to be CASH
She dug her heels in for the £17.98 clean (loung diner) and all she got was wet carpets.
Have told her to report to trading standards etc particulary as they are demanding cash. Perhaps this will get the f-ckers closed down if it get's reported onto Inland Revenue etc

[wynne jones]

I have always worked on the idea of repeats and referrals. Obviously this lot will never get either yet they are getting plenty of work. Maybe I ought to stop giving a poo. 

[Neil Williams]

Maybe I ought to stop giving a poo. 

I've had those thoughts too. The one I've just mentioned is/was one of my previous customers who thought she was getting a bargin compared to the 'mates rates' of £60 I charged her previously for doing it correctly.
I would guess there are 35,000 domestic properties around here. With the best will in the world if I enterprised ripped off  4 customers a day I would never manage to get through all the potential customers in my lifetime.
Does make you wonder who are the mugs really?

[Bob Allen]

Did the old lady pay the £150?

[wynne jones]

Neil you can sleep sound at night though, and that's important to me too.