Du$ty Robbert$ can kiss my ass!

[John Watson]

Master Barry on Mikeys, Whew, whats this place acoming to!!!!

Sure enjoyed meeting and hearing you talk of rugs at Theas a few years back.

Granddaughter Ana was also happy to meet and says Hi.

 

[J Scott W]

I never got the email, bummer.

Scott, will you be running the class again in the future?

Hopefully, yes. There is a long list of scheduled Wednesday night training programs, so it may be a few months down the road.

 

[Guest]

Hey John,
Great to bump into you here. Please extend my best wishes to Anna. I was really touched that you two made a pretty long drive to hear my lecture. It really meant a lot to me. You came south and Randy Hyde came up from Oregon. It was a great night for me. I love sharing my passion for rugs and to get some real sharp folks together was fun. Seattle is one of my favorite places to visit. Thea is so sweat too.
Best wishes,
Barry

 

[The Great Oz]

Where does Barry fit in?

He's a legitimate rug nut. He isn't a rug cleaner, he's a guy that loves Oriental rugs, the places they're made, and the people that make them... and other people that are maybe sort of connected to the passion by their care in cleaning Oriental rugs.

I got to stand in the back and listen to him talk to a group of of rug nuts (and some just nuts) at Emmanuel's in Seattle and loved the way he handled the discussion. Showing that level of knowledge while maintaining his level of humor and humility is pretty fun.

Barry, I was the tall guy in the back keeping Thea's beau company. He had the beer.

 

[randy]

This industry is owned by owner ops.
Owner Ops who can make far more money with some skills on how to identify what can be safely cleaned in the home rather than trying to set up a half a$$ed garage plant to wash a rug or two a week.

Smartest thing I have read on any board in a long time.

There are a TON of synthetic and and tied and especially TUFTED WOOL rugs that the owners LOVE to have cleaned in their homes. Low costs, ready to use the next day and in most case will LOOK just fine.




Du$ty has some nerve poking the MB firer considering his history of lying to clients about his methods and the way he ****** over Ron Kohler.[/quote]
Question how did he screw over Kohler ? Obviously Dusty will say just about anything to sell his EXTRAORDINARILY over priced equipment.

John G. has been showing people how to successfully OP rugs in the home for years, this is not a new concept.
If I walked into one of the Embassies we service and attempted to carry out a few million dollars in rugs some guy with a UZI would waste me in a second. Those rugs have been cleaned on site from day one.
[
The dumbest thing the average carpet cleaner can do is build a plant for rug cleaning. Ten years from now off site will pretty much be a thing of the past. Younger folks aren't buying these fine area rugs like grandma did. The disposable "junk rugs" are looking better all the time. The days of buying a bunch of rugs while stationed over seas and getting "free shipping" courtesy of your military transfer allowance is also a thing of the past. You get to pay more of the freight yourself now a days so it isn't happening as much. THE BULLSHIT promoted by the rug cleaning seminar industry that rugs are being cleaned routinely for $6-7 a square foot is just that, total bullshit. Here in your Nation's Capital the average is more like $3.50 a square.There are plants so starved for work that they are running 50% off coupons, so $1.75 a square is quite common. We clean them in house for $1.00 a square.

 

[Guest]

Hi Great Oz,
I wish I realized that we had met. I did a 7 month project for a client on Shillshole Ave in Ballard (Seattle, Wa). I flew out and got around by bike and bus. I often passed by the DA Burns plant, I should have stopped in.
Later on when the question of putting you folks on the Best Cleaner List Thea was one of your references. To me it is very cool that two companies cleaning rugs in the same town can be so professional. Thea gave me an unqualified “their very good, they belong on the list”. I liked Seattle. Just for fun I worked Saturdays at Emmanuel’s. I bet I am one of the few people in the world who would work in a rug plant for free just for the fun of it.
Best wishes,
Barry O’Connell
www.SpongoBongo.com

 

[Guest]

Hi Randy,
I surprised we haven’t met at least that I can remember. You made some interesting comments about prices in Washington DC. I worked for a while at Keshishian’s and we charged $3 per square foot which always struck me as lower than they could have gotten. I saw Mike Hadeed three weeks ago when I stopped to see him. I am doing a video education series called Rugs 101 at Herat Oriental’s warehouse which is near Hadeed’s.
Anyway Hadeed’s are getting about $3.50 a foot. Rumor has it that they are doing a million dollars a month. My source is pretty good so I suspect that is pretty close. A million a month in rugs is not too shabby.
So DC prices are low. Does that mean Dusty is blowing smoke? I know people around the country who are at $4.50 plus extras. Even simple stuff that anybody can learn to do can edge those prices up to 7 a square. DC is a funny market. I wear button down shirts with heavy starch for work most days. In Williamsport Pa I pay $2.50 a shirt but in DC I can get a better job for $1.10 to $1.25 a shirt. I suspect that the better the market and the greater the volume and competition keeps prices lower. I think Rug cleaning in DC is competitive enough that they charge less and make it up on volume.
Now if you can cut a healthy chunk out of the market a buck a square then I salute you. Are you just surface cleaning or are you dusting them for a buck. If so how do you dust a rug in the home (or embassy).
Best wishes,
Barry O’Connell
www.SpongoBongo.com

 

[rhyde]

Barry, Guys here aren’t willing (particularly in this economy) to leave money on the table if they can help it. There’s also a convenience and factor for the cleaner and consumer in price and not having the rug gone for a week or two. I’ve had this play out in my own business. I referred a customer to a member here who shall remain anonymous (Steve Frasier) latter this customer called Steve wanted him to Tm a large oriental in home a 13x18 zollinvari luribaft . Steve called me concerned he was stealing my job I told him to take it if he wanted. The owner of rug has been to the plant many times and knows the difference it boils down to not wanting to pay the price.

Very few cleaner make it to the big money level most that do are not 1st generation. There are plenty of small guys like mikey that have been sold on “big money in rug cleaning” only to find out it takes time and money to clean rugs properly and the money is not so big. Many here have figured out that those talking loudest about the big profits are those with something to sell.

As for dusty he has never expressed any remorse or apologized to Ron with what happened or to me for getting me involved in his F’d up dysfunctional centrifuge fiasco ! Ron’s situation wasn’t an unfortunate misstep or slight trip this thing played out for 3 years and he manipulated it the whole time!

 

[Guest]

Hi Randy,
Can you clean a run in-home? Sure. Can you do an OK job? Sure. I am not trying to be an ignorant, arrogant greed rug snob when I ask about dusting a rug in the home. I just don’t see how you can get better than OK without dusting. Does that mean I look down on guys doing OK work? No way! I would crawl naked through broken glass to feed my family if that was my only option. So TMing a rug in the home beats the glass by a mile. These guys work damn hard and I RESPECT THEM. Am I going to recommend that my readers have their rugs TMed? Nope. But I have to maintain my credentials as an ignorant, arrogant greed rug snob.

Very shortly I will be launching a new set of lists. THE BEST CARPET CLEANERS IN THE COUNTRY. Like the other lists it is vetted and references are checked. It will start slow but over time I want to identify the best guys and help them make a few more bucks. Randy you know the drill I list you and we both hope that you get a few good customers. As all ways the list is free to be listed. One big difference is that if someone has a cert from iicrc, arc, ascr, etc… I will let them in with one reference.

Randy I haven’t seen you since Seattle and we don’t talk much. I hope you and the family are well and that you continue to prosper. If that nice woman from Pa. still works for you tell her I said Hi.
Best wishes,
Barry

 

[rhyde]

Barry,

All is well here and I hope the same is true for you and your family. Jahanava was let go in 2009 and has since moved to back to Massachusetts, I believe she is sharing a space for restoration with her mother.

 

[Art Kelley]

Hi Randy,
Very shortly I will be launching a new set of lists. THE BEST CARPET CLEANERS IN THE COUNTRY. Like the other lists it is vetted and references are checked. It will start slow but over time I want to identify the best guys and help them make a few more bucks. Randy you know the drill I list you and we both hope that you get a few good customers. As all ways the list is free to be listed. One big difference is that if someone has a cert from iicrc, arc, ascr, etc… I will let them in with one reference.

Best wishes,
Barry

Sorry Barry, that list has already been made by Waldo.

 

[Guest]

No Problem Art,
I am still going to do it. I am up to 108 web sites and 250,000 readers a month. The more content I add the better I do over all. One more list can’t hurt and we generally rank well in Google so I think I can make it a popular list in time.

The nice part of being a content rich network of sites with tens of thousands of pages is that we can achive more authority in Google than most sites. For instance according to Google webnaster the word “Carpet” occurs 63,068 on www.SpongoBongo.com. With that density when I start adding thousands of links to the carpet cleaners list Google ranks it higher because of the key word relevance on the referring site (spongobongo). What this means is that as the list grows we should be able to push business to the guys we list. Some guys do much better on our lists than others but we try to be fair to everybody.

We are nothing special. Other big sites like this one; Mikey’s board is probably every lucrative for Mikey. In a world where we need to make money it is nice to make money by being nice to hard working people.
Best wishes,
Barry O’Connell
www.SpongoBongo.com

 

[Ron K]

Cleaning a rug can be defined as running a Vacuum over it. That being said, a truly clean rug is something else and very few Rug cleaners meet that definition. Barry I too was in Seattle and you were also in my shop and saw the condition of my Centrifuge and floor.

 

[Guest]

Hi Ron,
It was great to see you at Thea’s. That was a good night for me. That was the first time we met. I really enjoyed the trip over to see you. Coming into the dock on the ferry was beautiful. I also remember the centrifuge. Damn shame it worked out so bad. Over all I am glad to have you on the rug washers list. You are an unusual case in that you are fairly secluded being the only rug washer on your side of the water. Your closest competition cannot be very convenient for your target market. Maybe if I get back in the area we can get together again and catch up.
Best wishes,
Barry O’Connell
www.SpongoBongo.com

 

[foureyes]

Among the strategic by-products of washing rugs are the amazing personalities associated with this industry. These personalities are reflected by and are recognized in their shops, their web sites, their methods, their employees, their message boards,... Mr. Mosher says, "The way I do something is the way I do everything."

I have been most fortunate to have known most all the people referenced in this thread, to have been in their shops, and to have come away a better cleaner and a better person.

Thankfully, it is the market which determines which "huckster's" equipment and/or cleaning agents best reflects the content of his or her character. Acorns just fall that way.