Aylesbury Stains

An interesting day out dealing with some Aylesbury stains and proving that not all can be made perfect.

I was cleaning the carpets in a large house many years ago now.

Written quote all done and checked with customer such as what stains and other issues he was aware of, including a few blackish spots which I noticed on the kitchen carpet.

Just gravy spots which had gathered dirt, he said, they should just come out – and I agreed.

All went well, moreover the carpets were all spotted, cleaned, and dried with the blowers. A good job done. Except
for those spots in the kitchen – they would not even slightly “just come out”.

The bubbles and froth that issued from them however would have done justice to a whole bottle of Matey
bubble bath in a washing up bowl.

Time to get some information from the customer -:

“We used a ‘bit’ of (well known proprietary brand of instantaneous stain remover)”
“Neat?”
“Er, yes”

I also returned to attend to these spots several times during the course of the day.

The froth continued gushing, in spite of using a de-foam solution and the black of the stains as tenacious
as ever, even with the aid of various degreasers, solvents and other stain removers.

The end of day arrived, hence forth I explained I really had done all I could with the kitchen spots.

Was he sure there was nothing else that had been applied?

“Ah, well, actually we did put some washing up liquid (well known concentrated brand) on”.
“Neat?”
“Er, yes”

All this would explain the froth, but not the resistancy of the stains.

So, pack my gear away and likewise, I apologise profusely for not being able to get any further with the offending spots and also take the charge for cleaning the kitchen carpet off the invoice.

Awkward silence.

“Er, no. We’re not paying for any of your work, those spots were the reason we called you in to
clean the carpets.”

Now this is getting interesting, seeing as I pointed out the spots to him in the first place and he
wasn’t overly or particularly anxious about them at the start.

Curiosity nudges me into just one more attempt to glean a bit more information although somewhat
belatedly.

“Ah, yes, well actually we poured on some boiling water out of a kettle, and then dabbed it with
a hot iron.

We did use a towel also so it wouldn’t damage the pile” (True, the fibres weren’t
fused or burnt, just permanently discoloured).

The moral of the story?

1.You can never have too much information.

Get all you can, before you take even the vacuum cleaner out of the van.

2. Carpet cleaning is a ‘People’ business and people are people, as they
say.

Almost 100% of my customers had realistic expectations, there were very few who set out
to take advantage.

Learn to take the rough with the smooth, likewise try to shrug it off and onto the next
impossible stain.