Carpet Cleaning in Tampa

Taking Action: Testing local carpet cleaners and oil change advertisements

    By: Jackie Callaway By: Jackie Callaway

TAMPA - 
North Tampa's Chris Yaeger agreed to let us use her home for our carpet cleaning test.  She hired Horizon Cleaning Services to clean 4 rooms using their coupon for $6.95 a room.

A 3 bedroom Brandon home served as part two of our carpet cleaning project.

We wired rooms in both homes with undercover cameras.  In Brandon we made an appt with Pro Carpet and asked for their $59.95 three-room special.  The floors came out visibly cleaner and we paid the quoted price plus a $3 trip charge disclosed in the ad. 

But be warned -- carpet cleaning can turn into an all-day affair.  Pro Carpet actually showed up at 4pm well past their quoted arrival window of noon to three.

Horizon's technician showed up at Yaeger’s house 45 minutes past the stated arrival time but Chris says that wasn't the worst part.

We listened from another room and heard the technician suggest 5 times that Yaeger upgrade to the deep scrub method which would have hiked her $30 job to $125.

During the sales pitch, the technician demonstrated the deep scrub method in all 4 bedrooms leaving an uneven spot in every room. Yaeger says she could tell no difference in how the carpets looked before and after the cleaning

I left two messages for the owner of Horizon Cleaning Services before paying the business a visit. Bart Janssen declined to answer our questions on camera but he did respond in writing. 

In an email he stated, "It is not common practice to continue to ask the customer to upgrade their services. The deep scrub demonstration ... helps to determine if there are any unforeseen conditions that may be buried in the carpet or hidden by dirt ... Perhaps the customer did not see a difference in the carpet before and after because she needed more than just the basic steam cleaning."

There's so much more to a good deal than the price.  If you want the service done correctly and in a timely fashion then take the time to find out what other people are saying about this company.

There are several places you can call including Hillsborough County Consumer Protection at 813-903-3430, Pinellas County Consumer Protection at 727-464-6200, The Better Business Bureau at bbb.org and Florida’s Department of Ag and Consumer Services at 800helpfla.com.

Read more:
http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/money/consumer/taking_action_for_you/taking-action-testing-local-carpet-cleaners-and-oil-change-advertisements