How Carpet Cleaning Companies Take Advantage of You!
1. Most companies that charge by the square foot or by the room will charge you for the space under the furniture, even if they don't move any. In other words, if your room is 12' x 12', they will charge you for 144 square feet. If there happens to be furniture in the room, you could be paying 10% to 30% more than you should be.
2. The chances of getting a novice, inexperienced carpet cleaning technician are fairly high, especially if you are dealing with a larger company. Novice technicians have an improper wand stroke, meaning they leave areas of the carpet that have either not been cleaned or that are too wet.
3. Improper knowledge of chemicals is very common, even with experienced carpet cleaners. Many technicians will just try one chemical after another, until they find something that works. This is very bad because the wrong chemical will set the stain instead of removing it. This will result in permanent damage of your carpet, in which you will foot the bill for when you have to replace it.
4. One thing you should never do is leave a carpet cleaning technician in your home by his/herself. This gives them every opportunity to take shortcuts and save time, so they can fit more jobs in per day, resulting in getting paid more money. This will also be at your expense! Unless you have had a long personal relationship with one particular cleaner, I wouldn't do it!
5. Many times you will get a quoted price for carpet cleaning, but when the cleaners arrive, you will find that the price has suddenly changed due to conditions that weren't expected. This is an attempt for them to take more of your hard earned money than they should. Make sure you find out what the service includes before you agree to the cleaning.
6. More times than not, carpet cleaners use pre-sprays that void the carpet's warranty. Most will tell you that the chemicals are safe, but really are not. They use what cleans the carpet faster and saves them time. Of course, if they void the warranty using chemicals that have ph levels that are too high, you will not be able to replace the carpet, unless you pay out of pocket. This applies to nylon or polyester carpet, not olefin. (berber)
7.Dry cleaning companies that vacuum, then pre-spray, and then use a bonnet with a buffer (floor machine) to clean the carpet, only cleans the surface. So how do they get the rest of the chemicals out of the carpet after they are done? They don't! It stays in the carpet and sometimes yellows or browns the carpet because of the high ph level in the pre-spray. It will also dirty the carpet faster. Steam cleaning (aka. Hot Water Extraction) is the most recommended form of carpet cleaning and is also the most effective.