I just had my carpets cleaned. Normally just the thought of having someone professionally clean anything of mine (ie: it ends up real clean and I don't have to do it) would give a major does of tinglesack.
But, it was not without disappointments.
First up, I booked a company I found over the internet. I went through their website and looked at the pricelist, then rang them up and booked it. Except I was therefore expecting around $75 max for the event, because I was only having a bedroom and the living room area rug done. (I have polished floorboards throughout the house, but the bedrooms are carpeted.) $30 for the bedroom, up to $45 for the rug. So when the handsome(ish) young cleaner dude got here he drops the bombshell that the minimum charge is $105. Oh-kay. No, they did not explain that to me, thank you for asking.
But here's the kicker. I hate embarassment and I possibly missed reading the fine print on the website, so while I'm going 105 DOLLARS, ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY! I totally poker faced it. OK, sure. It's the same behaviour that sees me apologising to the waiter when my food is wrong, or inedible. "Um hi, sorry, I didn't order the brains. I'm sure they're delicious, but..."
Anyhoo. So there was equipment and vaguely chemical-y smells and noise. After he did the front room, my old flatmate's bedroom, he asked me to come and have a look. Now, I should preface this with saying that my old flatmate left it in a REALLY BAD condition. Stained. Dirty. There were even drifts of leaves in there the day he moved out. Maybe my expectations were too high, and sure it is better, but it still looks like dirty carpet to me. Maybe it will look better when it dries?
So I said to the nice(ish) young man "Um hi, sorry, this area of darker carpet near the door and those stains over there, is that like as clean as it's possible to get?..." (Implying it is the carpet's fault I'm hoping, not the technician's.) Apparently he went over it 3 times as it's as good as he could get it. Ok, sure.
So then he did the area rug in the living room, and I have to say the results were better. Not as-new, but a serious improvement. Here's the kicker, when he asked me to take a look he said "Give me your opinion, because I don't want you complaining about it afterwards."
In my head I'm thinking YOU DON'T WANT ME COMPLAINING! YOU WANT COMPLAINING, SUNSHINE?! I'LL SHOW YOU COMPLAINING!!, but of course what comes out is Yeah, it's great. Much better!
8 comments:
"a major dose of tinglesack"
I am so gonna have to use that one.
You need Sandra to supervise -she takes tradies etc on if they don't meet expectations. She has this cold, head-nurse personna that you normally never see. Scarey stuff, but really useful sometimes.
Nothing worse than being unhappy with how you've been serviced.
Well, at least it's CLEAN, even if it doesn't look particularly so.
I've never hired carpet cleaners. I always rent the big honking machine from the hardware and do it myself. Often. ((Oh. Is that a metaphor?))
Sheesh...you sound like me, apologizing to people who screw you over.
I don't know what it is.
I wonder if one couldn't rent someone to come in and give the help a stern talking to.
I'd be interested in hearing who it was, if only by email. We've got white carpet in our new house (thanks, previous owners) and I'm eventually going to have to get someone in to do it. And I don't want to hire bad people!
Hope you never need to get you house flea treated when your cat doesn't have fleas. That 45minute treatment is going to set me back $220.
Yikes. Fortunately (in that regard) I don't have a cat. The other big horror story you hear about are bed bugs. Apparently they are very hard and expensive to get rid of.
When the carpets here were steam cleaned recently (first time in seven years - the previous owner had them done annually - ooopsie), the contractor had to go out to his van at least three times... to clear his hose of matted white Jack Russell terrier fur.
He wrote in the "Comments" section of the invoice: "Many hairs from the Jack".
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