Bait & Switch Carpet Cleaning – Be Warned!

Bait and switch carpet cleaning is a marketing tactic used by less than honest carpet cleaners. It is where a low price is advertised, but key carpet cleaning processes are left out of that price and are offered as add ons or upsells. The price you really pay is much more than is advertised.

We’ve all seen “too good to be true carpet cleaning coupons” in various publications. With offers like…

• Two rooms and a hall steam cleaned $49.00.
• Five rooms steam cleaned $89.00.
• Eight rooms steam cleaned $149.00.
• Whole house special $79.00.

It gets even better. Have you seen the carpet cleaning offers at stop signs and red lights for $6.95 per room? OK, the picture below is for $9.95 per room. But while the prices offered may vary slightly, the sad story of deception remains the same.

Classic Bait and Switch Carpet Cleaning Ad

The ad below may be old ($4.95 per room), but the same tactics are still being used all the time by carpet cleaners who want to pull the wool over your eyes.

It Only Looks Like Low Priced Carpet Cleaning

Many carpet cleaners obvious marketing strategy is to compete on price. If you pay attention to coupons like I do, you’ll notice that there is a constant game of changing prices by $5-$10 and adjusting the number of rooms cleaned, trying to beat out the other guys that are advertising in the same coupon pack. One company may be $5.00 cheaper for the same number of rooms, or another may include another room.

Have you read the fine print at the bottom of these coupons?

• Extended areas count as more than one area.
• Closets count as an area.
• Additional charges may apply.
• A waste disposal fee may apply.
• Pre-existing conditions are not included.
• Restrictions may apply.
• Steam cleaned.
• Shampooed and steam cleaned.

Carpet Cleaning Pricing Confusion?

Are you beginning to ask questions? You should be. My favorite was a company that advertised “2 rooms and a hall steam cleaned for $49.00”. When you looked at the backside of the coupon you found another offer for “2 rooms and a hall steam cleaned for $89.00”. That offer added six loaded words: heavily soiled, shampooed and steam cleaned.

Did you catch the difference?

The front side didn’t mention “heavily soiled”, nor did it include the word “shampooed”. The price difference? Heavily soiled, shampooed and steam cleaned upped the price to $89.00.

$49 to $89…Big Difference…

Let’s think about this whole competing on price for a minute. Can these cleaners do the job right at these prices and still be profitable? Can they pay for the labor, vehicle and machine depreciation, other equipment, and supplies? That’s not even covering marketing and overhead. To make any money on these jobs, what gets sacrificed? The work.

Quality work is NOT their priority

The old saying, you get what you pay for is so true in bait and switch advertising in carpet cleaning. They have to fly through the job to not lose big money. Quality work is NOT their priority.

So why do they do it? They depend on selling you more than you ordered. You think you are going to spend the advertised cost you saw in their ad, and they are counting on selling you at a minimum 5 times the cost they advertised. If they can sell you a lot more than that, they will.

Bait and Switch Carpet Cleaning from The Other Guys

We call that bait and switch carpet cleaning. Advertise one low price, get your foot in the door, upsell and collect a LOT more than you advertised. I’ve seen companies walk away with more than ten times the advertised price the customer expected.

Sonrise Carpet Care is Different!

At Sonrise Carpet Care we never use bait and switch tactics. First of all we run a free estimate for you up front. There are no gimmicks, no tricks. You know exactly what your price will be up front, and you will know the processes we will use to get your carpet clean. You get top quality carpet cleaning with our No Compromise Carpet Cleaning process. You win and we win.

I always like win/win situations.

Give Sonrise Carpet Care a call today for your free carpet cleaning estimate. 937.550.4049