[John_McGavin]

Customer called me up at the weekend and said she wanted to hire a carpet cleaning machine for the weekend.  

Explained I never done this and advised customer to try a local hire shop.

Does anyone actually do this as part off their business? Got me thinking it could be an additional service I could offer.

Cheers

John

[Big_Fish]

Hi,

Prochem sell hire machines for this purpose:
www.prochem.co.uk

BFN

[Phil Marlor]

I wouldnt do it,

I can see it now, customer makes a right mess of her carpets, trips over the hose, gets an electric shock, falls over the machine, floods her kitchen.

Who will she blame and take to court - YOU!!

Also John Bolton made a good point a while ago, if you offer DIY carpet cleaning dose that not de-grade your proffession.

In other words anyone un-trained person can do it!

Plus they will expect you to deliver, pick up the equipment and demonstrate, and how long before the vacs are full of foam due to a carpet full of supermarket stain removers. dont think they will have de-foam under the sink.

I would imagine the machine would need servicing every month.

On the positive side, erm, I cant think of one.

Have I put you off yet? I could go on.

Phil

[woodman]

Hi John

There's a lot to think about before going down this route.Fisrt and foremost why would you want to be in competition with yourself?  why on earth would you encourage someone to hire the machinery to DIY clean the carpet when you could do a professional clean for them.

That aside, there's alot of baggage that goes with hiring out equipment for DIY use.

For a start you have to train them how to use it before you set them loose on the carpet, it can break down on site, you would have to go out and finish the half cleaned carpet, they could damage the equipment AND themselves.

Just imagine if they ruined,shrunk or dye bled the carpet or furniture, who do you think will get the blame?

Insurance would be enormous and of course theres the problem of theft of equipment.

I say all this because many years ago long before the recent deluge of new safety ligislation came in, a friend of mine decided as an add on, to start hiring out equipment (Hydromists)

After his third theft, several claims for new carpets (they always insist the equipment is faulty) his biggest customer hiring his equipment to clean there own office carpets, (after all he'd trained them and they quickly realised how much money they could save by doing it themselves), he decided enough was enough and gave it all up.

Give it some serious thought and then kick it into touch

[Martin S]

Hi John,

Whilst this may be a bit of a moneyspinner and earn you a bit of extra cash.  Do you not think that you are inadvertantly telling the customer that they can clean their own Carpets for a fraction of the price that you would charge, and then cut you out?

If they do this and then wreck their own Carpets they'll thank you for it.  

I would prefer to tell them, that if they want their carpets cleaned properly, they can either invest in a complete collection of professional CC equipment and training.  Or use me!!  

[Martin S]

Phil/Trevor,

You obviously type a lot faster than me.  

Regards.

Martin S

[John_McGavin]

Points taken folks. This is why I asked if anyone had ever done this.

To be honest I couldnt understand why the customer called me in the first place. Would she call a window cleaner and ask to hire his ladder & buckets for the day??

John

PS Martin, I did suggest to the customer that I would do a professional clean at a reasonable rate, however she wasnt interested in the slightest.

[Mike Halliday]

What  a load of crap has  been answered so far

why do Rug doctor have hire machines in nearly every DIY superstore, why do most dry cleaners hire out hagerty machines.

hiring out machines can be a lucrative sideline.
With a properly written hire agreement & normal security screening there's not much can go wrong with the hiring of machines.

lets hope someone who knows what thier talking about jumps in with an answer.

Mike

ps sorry Bigfish your answer was'nt crap

[woodman]

Oh Dear

Not much can go wrong?

I thought I'd given a good example of what can go wrong :

As for Rug Doctor hardly and equal comparison, I could give chapter and verse about when joe public gets hold of their machines as I've seen enough it over the years, in fact it's provided me with a lot of additonal work that they've paid for. So you could say that I DO know what I am talking about when it comes to hire machines and the associated problems more than I could ever put on here.

As for terms & conditions security etc these count for nothing when some one walks off with your kit having provided some moody paper work too prove who they are or who they are not as the case may be : I seem to recall that you bought a machine that wasn't someones to sell, easily done isn't it.

Rug Doctor can take these hits on chin as they have huge insurance and a back up system for claims and disputes that no one can match in this country.

John can not and thats the whole point, simple I would have thought.

[Mike Halliday]

sorry woodman but you are talking crap,

For a start you have to train them how to use it before you set them loose on the carpet, it can break down on site, you would have to go out and finish the half cleaned carpet, they could damage the equipment AND themselves.

crap,  when do the Hire centres ever train you to use machines or ever go out and clean an unfinished carpet and they hire out loads of machines

Just imagine if they ruined,shrunk or dye bled the carpet or furniture, who do you think will get the blame?

more crap, with a properly written hire agreement    they would get the blame

I think rug doctor are a good example, if i was thinking of starting a machine hire company I would copy their hire procedure.

Mike

[Big_Fish]

Hi,

Never really given it much thought, just know about the Prochem machines from doing some training there.

Just out of interest, does anyone own a machine/s for hire?

I suppose they are used by the people who want a whole house of carpets cleaned for forty quid!

BFN

[Doug Holloway]

Hi ,

One of the major disadvantages of diy hire is are you going to deliver or get them to collect.

If deliver you've got to drive there,hope their in.

Pick up evening or next morning clean it ,drive to next hire and all this for a few quid.

If they are collecting thats ok if youve got someone there but what if you hav'ent do you wait in ,they're late OH DEAR what now ,let down your customer at £50+ per hour or forget the hire.What if they hired it yesterday and are late bringing it back?
Not worth all the hassle

My local cleaning supplies shop gave up hiring because of all the hassle but I noticed the other day they've got one of the new little Prochems for hire -Oh what short memories!

Cheers,

Doug

[Phil Marlor]

Mike, its only people's opinions you dont have to get aggressive.

I have never hired machines out so Iam just guessing what problems may occur.

All I can see is that it wouldnt be worth all the hassle involved for one machine.

Maybe Iam wrong, but I still believe you are de-valuing your own profession by saying anyone with no training can do this.

Phil

[Dynafoam]

Do brain surgeons hire out scalpels?

Would you trust one who did?

[Mike Halliday]

we'll put that down as the daftest reply so far :

we're now comparing ourselves to brain surgeons.

so what we are say is we should'nt allow customers to try and do something that we do because it harms our proffessional image

so we should'nt sell spotters because the customer is'nt trained in stain removal

some people will want to hire machines so who better to offer this service than a carpet cleaning company who can give proffesional advise & help or is it better to let them get a machine from a hire shop who knows nothing about our trade.

Mike

[Derek]

Mike

Sorry mate...but I think this is a clear case of the pot calling the kettle..... or it may well be one of your wonderful wind-ups!

I have cleaned/rectified quite a few carpets in my time on the instructions of shops who have hired out carpet cleaning machines to members of the public...

agreements/instructions..... they never read 'em.

Retailers will pay out just to shut the customers up....do you really want to go down that route with all the hassle that goes with it?

Derek

[Mike Halliday]

why a wind-up?

I just feel my bullsh@t detector is more finely tuned than some peoples on this site

we all know that some people hire machines and damage their carpets but what i object to is the insuation that the hirer would be liable.

OK they won't read the instructions but that is'nt  the hirers fault.

Mike

[John_McGavin]

Cheers lads, didnt mean to start an argument there. TOTM is it Mike?  

Got it all worked out now .... hire out a machine, customer makes a mess of their carpets (their fault not mine) then has to call me out to correct it. Result - I get paid twice!!  

Seriously though thanks for the feedback. Will keep it on the back burner just now and see how things go. If the hire shops and supermarkets are doing this there must be a market for it.

Cheers

John

[Dynafoam]

we'll put that down as the daftest reply so far :

we're now comparing ourselves to brain surgeons.

so what we are say is we should'nt allow customers to try and do something that we do because it harms our proffessional image

so we should'nt sell spotters because the customer is'nt trained in stain removal

<CLIPPED>
Mike

Mike the example was deliberately extreme, to provoke thought.

For a supermarket or shoe repairer to suggest that by hiring a machine from them, Joe Public can clean carpets "Just like a pro" is one thing, but for a cleaning professional to do the same puts an entirely different slant on the matter.

The subject of selling spotters has been aired here in the past and opinions on that subject vary greatly - some have modified their views with the advent of non-detergent alternatives

Regards,

John.

[John_McGavin]

This is getting quite interesting now.

If I was going to hire out equipment I obviously wouldnt advertise it with my professional cleaning services .... im not that thick   I'd set up a different company name and maybe get the other half to run it.

Lets face it were living in a DIY culture. More & more people are prepared to have a go themselves to save a few quid. You just need to  go down to B&Q where you can buy paint, electrical supplies, wood, plumbing eqt etc. Customers realise this doesnt make them a painter, sparky, joiner or plumber does it? So what would be the difference if they hired a carpet cleaning machine. Were not talking about hiring out truckmounts here are we  

Come on guys are you trying to tell me that if you showed a customer how to set up the machine and how to use it, they couldnt do a half decent job. Fair enough it wont be as good as what we'd all do, but I bet they'd be happy with it. After all what does it take to be classed as a professional carpet cleaner - A 2 day training course Hardly rocket science is it compared to a 4 or 5 year apprentiship to be a plumber?

John