that's a 1st, ugh!

Did a rental today. Walk in, its black; not the carpet color...you know.
Glad I threw my RV in the van.
A couple of 3x5 areas were black.
Spray, dwell, Rv the hell out of it; repeated 3 times. Looked good:) except of the tar blobs. Size of a pea. About 30 . I tried to scap them..nope. Tried the jet it like gum method... Nope.
Going back tomorrow cut those b"#"#&$& out.
So my educated guess of the problem...? Pot heads. I don't know, they do something to get oil out of it and who knows what with it.
I usually don't verbally swear; but there were afew of those said on the job.

You just described the classic pot head carpet. I used to run into them at the apartment complex quite a bit. They will clean up, but you have to scrub the jiggers out of them....especially on polyester.

I am actually glad that I don't clean apartments like that any more. It was steady business, but not worth it.

It must be absolutely hell in the States that legalized it. I vote against those efforts if for no better reason than I don't want to clean those places 4x per week.

Doing this cleaning job. Sometimes you have to deal with the worst.

Went back today and cut/trimmed 30-40 tar blobs.
Also, going back after 24 hrs, carpet was ever so lightly damp; as in cool. I did hose it down good, so I'm not suprised.
Everyone in the PM office didn't think it would come that clean.
PS: this is the PM that fired me last fall. Cuz, the maids have a rug doctor, and the bookkeepers boyfriend is new in the CC biz. SO it look like I'll still he the crappy ones. Oh well, I charge more for those.
This one was 3 rooms, hall...$165. The dining room was mainly the real nasty(half black). Like some one spilled a bucket of mud and it splattered across half the room.

This morning had a rental. Thought 3 rooms or so. Nope, 7 large, 2 halls, stairs. The entry in living room was dejvu, like the other rental mentioned above thread.
Spray, rv- 3x. See where I'm going...
Later in the day, the PM sends me a pic, of my wand, on the floor, in the kitchen. (Homer Simpson) dough!
Headed out to get it, half way there she replys "if I was thinking, I'd take it to my home". ?????
I'm cleaning at here house tomorrow. LOL
Won't need it at her place; but I'll need my RV.

Oh, I asked her to rate the look of the living room.? She said "10". Whoa! I thought maybe 6 or 7.

Funny that you mention that, mine were always the worst in the living room as well. Burns in the carpet found in the bedrooms, but the heavy pot residue was always in the living room. I guess from entertaining?

You are a nice guy cleaning for a PM that fired you over a new upstart. I am not sure if I would have done it....probably would because I am a putz, but I would like to say that I wouldn't.

I would have raised their rates at least 50%.

People who don't keep up with minimal yearly cleanings, get put in the "inactive" status of my QuickBooks. Anyone there gets charged higher prices. Anyone who isn't loyal to me, isn't going to get the best pricing.

And why should they? You are after all, the expert that gets the carpets clean, when the other guy can't. He isn't knowledgeable enough to get it done right.

I've done work for him since 1995. He's been understanding when trash carpet is so-so.
The rental market has been turned upside down. 2 PMs have closed. The small 1000-1400sf homes are being sold. And that was a big part of the market. He's doing more in house stuff; like CC. $150 vs. $75(by staff). A business decision. It would be like me buying from another supplier that can take care of me and I can save some money.
I'll still take what he gives me.

And new star ups are 50/50 on making it past 2 years in biz. When he sees that he needs some volume to make money, and he didn't have the volume; turn the lights off and close the door.
There is 1 new CC start up in last 10 years; still in business. And they are top notch.

Volume is important.....wishing I had it right now myself. Another dead day on the schedule.

My carpet cleaning schedule is like scoring a bowling tournament. As long as you don't have many open frames, you will still keep a good average. It is open frames / empty days that hurt the most.

Talking about a first, here's what happened yesterday :
Was cleaning for a repeat customer of mine, he's a chef at Maestro ( the best steak house in Beverly Hills ), when I was cleaning his sectional, I had to answer a call, this lady threw red flags all over and even though I apologized a few times to her for somethings I shouldn't even be apologizing for, she still acted hostile ( calm but just being a b!tch ), not realizing that my customer over heard the whole conversations, after I hang up the phone with her, he ( my customer ) came out and told me, please don't do the job for her, if you do, you will end up paying her after you're done, I just chuckled, I told him that I actually have openings tomorrow but I told her that my next availability is 2 weeks away, and that didn't scare her, when she asked for drying time, I told her around 12 hours, she was scared by that drying time, I was like "phew" really dodge that one out, lol.

The old "12 hour" drying time trick....a classic.

Oh, I got to put that one in the back of my memory. Only I'd go to "12-24hr dry time"

I agreed, I should've inflated that even more, I even regretted that I said the earliest availability is 2 weeks out, I should've said 2 years out, lol.

If she calls you back DP just tell you retired yesterday

Retired? Send her an obituary.