Carpet Cleaning Jacksonville
Any whole house of carpet cleaned $49.99… How does it work? Why would you call them?
This is an article about bait & switch carpet cleaning in Jacksonville. Before I get into the details of bait & switch, let me make a rarely made point. Consumers are responsible for bait and switch working. If consumers simply thought about these advertising scams, they would never ask these people to come into their homes. So, without willing consumers greedily thinking they could get something for next to nothing, these plans would vanish from the popular “shopper” magazines.
My company does not “bait and switch”.
Having said that, here is how bait & switch carpet cleaning works…
You see the ad for $49.99 for any whole house. You call and the appointment is scheduled.
The person who will show up to do the job is hired by the cleaning company using a want ad that requires they have their “own transportation”. This person will be expected to carry the gear to your house and clean your carpet with the gear provided. They will often have to buy their own chemicals. This person works on straight commission.
Typically, the financial deal between the man and the company (or house) is that the amount on the original job ticket (the $49.99) is all house money. The man’s income is derived as a percentage of additional sales he makes in your home.
Here is where it gets juicy. The “technician” hauls in a dime store grade portable cleaning machine that resembles what you might rent at a grocery store. He will clean a part of the carpet with this machine and shake his head and inform you, that your carpet is so dirty, it needs to be pre-scrubbed. Do you feel the switch coming? He will then bring in a floor scrubber and go over a small section and remarkably, it is cleaner. You are then told this additional service is $.30 a square foot extra. If you say to go ahead, he adds this to the ticket, starts the job and sizes you up for what he is going to sell you next. Fabric protector, deodorizer, even the rinse used in the extraction machine can be leveraged to increase the commission ticket. He needs to take the ticket from $49.99 to $300-$700. They do that every day. It is how it works for them.
Once in Palm Beach county Florida, there were a couple of guys that sold so much to an elderly woman, they eventually poured a massive amount of water on the floor and charged her for a water damage. Her $49.99 special became a $4,999 water damage. The lady’s niece was a police officer that had set the whole thing up, and they were hauled to jail. But you get the point.
And by the way, the worst thing you can do is stick to your guns and demand the “special”. This will get often net you a carpet that is wetter than you can imagine.
Check the BBB listings, ask your friends for references, or call the people that sold you the carpet to begin with and ask them who to use. But don’t expect to pay $49.99 to get your whole house cleaned.
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