Still not sure what happened.

I received a call at 1 pm Saturday from a guy who wanted help. He told me that he was having an open house Sunday and that the carpet cleaner that was just there "screwed" everything up and left stains. He needed help same day.

It was an hour away, but I decided to accept it. He wasn't kidding, the carpet looked like hell. It was interesting how there wasn't a single tool mark nor indications of a carpet groomer...just ugly carpet and some foot prints....it was a "franchise" cleaner known for driving vans with windows....you know the one.

Anyway, they were really concerned about a few stains that remained after the cleaning. Two were made by the chemical reaction of rubber mats beneath exercise equipment (browned) and one looked like bleach. I asked about the bleach stain and the owner told me that the carpet cleaners tried bleach to remove an ink stain by the sofa.

There was no point in trying to remove those stains which is all they wanted at this point and since they had a roll of extra carpet (white poly) I referred them to my carpet repair guy instead, but that wasn't the best part.

As I was explaining the problem to the owners, I could see a water stain forming on the ceiling in their kitchen. They had a flooring company install new linoleum in the bathroom and had to remove the toilet to do it. When I went up to look at it, the shut-off valve was cracked and dumping water behind the wall. We shut off the water main and he called the flooring company who said they would be out on Monday to look at it.

I ended up going to the hardware store and replaced the shut off valve for them as they had no idea how to do such repairs.

So, I didn't even get to clean....yet, but I did repair his plumbing for $140. The stairs in the basement were wicking up stains as well, so I expect to be over there again before long. The added plus is that it is located near my commercial work next week so it will be easy to fit it in.

Wow, I think only you have stories like these Bob, only you that pay attention to crazy messed up things being left behind by other companies, if I'm your competitor, I would file restraining order against you to stay at least 250 feet away from all of my customers

Go out as a cleaner return as a plumber. I bet the love you and hopefully you'll get some more worknfeom them

dp1 wrote:Wow, I think only you have stories like these Bob, only you that pay attention to crazy messed up things being left behind by other companies, if I'm your competitor, I would file restraining order against you to stay at least 250 feet away from all of my customers

You might be right....should change my name to "Stalking Cleaners"

your a hero to them. they will never forget you.

Wrong kind of hero though, I want to the kind that is rich and wears a costume at night. Instead, I am the kind that smells like cat urine and lives in a van down by the river.

If your going to do a costume; NO cape!
Watch the movie 'incedibles'. Capes can be your down fall:)