My wife arranged to use a coupon from one of those multi-coupon mailer things that came from these folks. It promised $99.99 for three rooms and $59.99 for a couch cleaning (another part of the coupon offers $129 for five rooms). However, the fine print on their ad says "$70.00 minimum on all services." It also says "250 sq ft and over are 2 or more rooms." Additionally, they charge $10 for each loose item for couches with "loose back cushions or pillows." My wife arranged an appointment based upon the prices of the two coupon items above, but by the time they completed their 'estimate, ' she was going to be charged over $600!
Worst of all, these chiseling weasels were going to nickel-and-dime my wife for extra cleaning solution for stained carpet areas. We all know cleaning stained carpets is something a company should charge extra for, of course, since people regularly call carpet-cleaning companies to clean unstained carpets. / sarc
My wife went through at least three estimates at these jerks' inflated prices ($400, $432, and $616, and I can substantiate that with the ridiculous receipt) before she called me in tears, and I told her to send them packing. But since they had already started on the couch, she ended up paying $216 for that—you know, the couch with multiple cushions that was SOOO much tougher to clean than a one-cushion couch, they were forced to charge $150 over the coupon price.
I might add that their mailer notes specifically that they clean pet urine, and they put a pic of a couple of puppies on the advertisment. But what they DON'T say is that they will charge extra for urine stains (fine print, don't you know), and ANY stain is used to excuse their extra charges for "spot cleaner." Because you never know when that "powerful effervescent carbonating cleaning solution" they advertise is so effective just won't do, and they'll have to trot out the fifty dollar spot cleaner.
I called their number to complain about the 'deals, ' and the answers I got were the typical responses from a company that abuses its customers. The phone handler that I spoke to didn't care that the company was ripping people off, and it shone through her terse responses to my questions:
Don't most people have stains on their carpet when they call you?
Don't most couches have more than one cushion?
Wouldn't most people who have more than one room under your rules want to just use a larger coupon?
All her answers were yes, in that tired, bored, way that companies who don't care what customers think train their employees to adopt. She didn't concern herself with what was right, with their bait-and-switch ads that promise cheap cleaning and deliver ripoff prices. She just knew that she could wait me out if she kept repeating the fine print. But she and ChemDry can't wait out a bad review, or that their unconscionable charges are what has resulted in them getting negative reviews from others on the Citysearch pages. Of course, they have recent reviews that are positive that speak specifically to others' earlier complaints, which crowd out those earlier complaints. I'm sure that's just a coincidence, though.
Don't be fooled by these weasels. You can get a whole house cleaned by other legitimate businesses for what we paid for a single couch. They should be embarrassed for ripping people off, and their franchise operation complaints are obviously accurate.
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