How can CHEM-WHY legally slam us on commercials??

[Moser Bros.]

Type in Chem Dry on you tube, and you'll see an ad with a leaky wand with 3 large vertically place jet soaking a carpet, and the ad says " steam cleaning is just soak and suck, and can leave behind moisture and dirt and can turn your home into a breading ground for MOLD"

Warren Buffet can kiss my #@* , he owns the nylon #6 fiber, Home Depot and Chem-Dry, we are getting #@*%$& in every opening. Why are we putting up with this? Chem-Dry doesn't even want us to have glides, the rich get richer, the middle class works it self to death and is to lazy and busy to make educated decisions, when there education comes from misleading brainwashing called commercial advertising.

The richest snake oil salesman wins!

 

[Ron Werner]

make our own YouTube Video and target Chemdry ads.
The thing is, they are not really false advertising because unfortunately there are carpet cleaners with HWE that do leave a carpet that wet.

 

[B&BGaryC]

Two words:

Blanket Party. He'll never know what hit him.

 

[Dolly Llama]

as Ron mentioned, they can do it because there ARE "wet for three days" outfits on the streets.

sleezy marketing??
I think so.

there's plenty examples of sleezy marketing in the HWE crowd too.

Some of the "gReEn cLeEners" cross the line by using scare tactics and try to convice Ms Phiff that all the other outfits are POISONING her and her family

here's other sleezy marketing too.

They're just not as big as Chem-Lie

..L.T.A.

 

[Mike Draper]

Robert Harris the "inventor" of Chem Dry lives in my valley. He has long since sold the business, but someone in his family took over his Chem-dry for our valley. They always run advertising like this too.

 

[John LaBarbera]

For the last 2 years I've been involved in this glide lawsuit, I have observed many of your comments on slam advertising. My father always told me that when you slam the competition it always results boosting them. I think that it's better to have a positive campaign to show your clients your skill and expertise. Let's face it, there is more combined talent here (on this board) than any single franchise could ever assemble. Why don't you guys get organized. Hire the couple that do these web sites (which are outstanding) and have them put a concise advertising program together that has the same look for all of you. Video for web pages and TV, copy for newspaper ads. Put a local face on it so people recognize your face or truck or whatever. Car manf. do this all the time with their ads. Share your wealth of knowledge with an extensive "How To" book and uniform your quality. I think that you would be unbeatable. The individual companies, being independently owned, gives you the desire to do the best job. That is almost impossible to compete with. I think you will beat with their own game!

John

 

[Ron Lippold]

Imagine that

great idea john

 

[rhyde]

LOL…. come on…it’s Chemdry. Yes, they can get away with it because some cleaners do leave the carpet wet for days. This is where your ability to educate consumers in an easy to understand way comes into play. Point out that ….Chem-DRY…isn’t DRY their marketing is deceptive they are putting “mold causing “ water on carpets.

I don’t shy away from my use of water, I tell the client I’m going to put a lot more water on your carpet than chemdry and for that matter most other extraction cleaners but it’s going to be dryer when I leave because of fans, and high vacuum recovery In the end the work speaks for itself.

By the way, I’ve had a few clients complain about residue from chemdry cleaning what ever they’re doing it’s not getting the carpet clean.

 

[Moser Bros.]

I'm a word of mouth owner opperator, I can't afford a t.v. ad, I've never even broke even on the Joe Polish yellow page ad I had years ago, or even on flliers and doorhangers.

I refuse to send out "bait and switch" ads, and they work, I've worked for a company that sent out $59 two and hall coupons in ValPak. I asked him why he didn't raise his prices, he told me "all people care about it price, I can stay busy off one truck, but I have 4 truck I have to book" He thought I was crazy using soap-free products, thinks I won't get repet business if I don't leave resoiling residue.

It's not easy being a honest carpet cleaner, the general public falls, for misleading ads, I've even had first time customers ask me why I'm so expensive while there holding a "$100 four and a hall, no extra charges" coupon.

 

[Steve in Omaha]

It's not easy being a honest carpet cleaner, the general public falls, for misleading ads, I've even had first time customers ask me why I'm so expensive while there holding a "$100 four and a hall, no extra charges" coupon.

First, pat yourself on the back for being honest. Secondly, nothing in this world worth having is easy.

Ron Lippold turned us all onto a book title last year, "Integrity selling for the 21 Century". I suggest you get a copy and live and breathe it. Got a used copy from Amazon.com for like 12 bucks including delivery to my front door.

 

[John Buxton]

I've talked with several O/O's in Indy about doing an ad like that. Its complicated. Who answers the calls? How do you split up the jobs? How do you collect? Can you trust someone to be honest about how much they made on every job? How about repeat business when they call the other cleaner direct? What about liability? What happens if an owner or employee of one of your coop organization sexually harrasses a custy and they sue all of the owners?

Chem-Dry can do it because they have deep pockets. It takes a couple years of repeat ads to gain the peoples trust.

The IICRC should have been doing this years ago. One of the reasons I gave them up.

 

[Guest]

The IICRC should have been doing this years ago.

I agree. Why don't they? I was told by an instructor that they didn't have the money.

 

[John LaBarbera]

Hi John Buxton,

My thought was that the ad would have a common look highlighting the Quality and Expertize of the Co-op. (all could share in the one time production cost) At the end of the promotion would be a space to personalize it for the local operator. It could be 15-30 second ad for TV or website that sells your services. A related copy ad for news paper and radio could also be made. The local operator can budget as he sees fit for his market.

This is kind of like McDonalds. Same look thus you expect the same food. Cost for production is shared so it would be minimal per operator. As the population moves they will relate to the common ads (look) and all benefit. I think this will take the level of professionalism up a notch. Maybe a uniform look or an identifying patch, something like that so people can trust the quality service and training you have. There could even be a library of Ads that can overcome objection or misconceptions.

This campaign would have nothing to do with booking jobs for others. However, just as jobs now are forwarded to someone in that area that could continue but ones in the co-op would get first consideration.

Just an idea that may have merit.

John

 

[John Buxton]

OK John I see your point. The way you see it is one company per advertising area. That may work! If several of us nationally went in on production, editing, duplication, etc, and shared the cost we could have a national ad campaign for a percentage of the cost. To make an ad I would think 10K would be a killer ad, divided by? I'm in as long as I can afford it.

I was thinking locally, you were thinking nationally. (I never could think big).

Josh, I doubt that the IICRC is broke, I think they look out for themselves, not us.

 

[steve frasier]

go ahead and try to sue them and you will find out what other already know

the IICRC thing isn't even worth talking about

hope you have years to wait and millions to spend because that is what it will take and then nothing will come of it

for all the people that say chem dry can't clean then I don't know how they even stay in business, thye must be doing something right

I had a repeat customer last November need their carpet cleaned but I was out of town, I cleaned it 6 months later and thet said they were unhappy with the chem dry cleaning because it felt sticky so go figure

as I pick up new customers I find that most of them are unhappy with previous steam cleaners, I ask them who cleaned their carpets and if it was a steam cleaner then most of the time I just rinse out the crap they leave behind

live and learn

 

[truckmount girl]

The reason CD can place advertisements like that is our industry is too fractured and small to do anything about it in a cohesive manner. HOWEWVER if enough got together to form a class action lawsuit for false and misleading advertising something COULD be done.

In addition an approach like John mentions is beneficial as well.

Take care,
Lisa

 

[Moser Bros.]

If you're really serious about doing a commercial, my Uncle is a professional videographer and If everyone can agree on a universal message, I can talk him into making a commercial that looks as professional as the Stanley Steemer and Chem-Dry spots. Now for this to work, I'd have to lease they commercials to you with 1 person per market. We'd just paste your phone # or website for you. The biggest problem is airtime is very expensive, unless you advertise on cable t.v.

The other idea I have is to lease a website that has information on IAQ, carpet, tile, air duct, new stories on video, testomines from your customers, etc.. I would be a template that would be affordable to duplicate, I have a great web designer who could do it.

 

[KevinL]

I've been asking you guys for months if we could put our heads together and come up with a flier that outlines to customers the how and why they should use an independant professional carpet cleaner. I think the CRI should be putting out the marketing materials since they are behind the soa program. We could do fliers, tv and website that all ties together and insert our own company names in our area.

Chem lie sucks here too.

 

[John LaBarbera]

You Guys are brain-storming now. Keep it up. You can beat them at their own game if you try. I would check with Andrechelle and her husband and see what ideas they have and get an idea of cost. Even if you start out slow and caution, don't over spend, you can get a program started and build on it in time. Years ago I bought TV time and an afternoon soap opera slot was pretty inexpensive. Two 15 second ads might be better than one 30 second ad. Newspaper articles work too. Some local TV may have morning news shows that may entertain this video for free as a public service. I hope these ideas help. I think this could be a big step toward educating the market. Forget about those other associations, they will never do it for you. But you don't need them. Working together ou guys can do it. As the expression goes, "together you're better".

John

 

[KevinL]

Come on people. Don't let this die. We have an opportunity to join forces to fight the chem lies of the world. Who can write a brocure that tells consumers why they want to hire a pro rather than a hack or doing it themselves? Health benefits, warranty requirements, properly applied protectants, prolonged life, environmental benefits, we could go on and on.

 

[rhyde]

I had a repeat customer last November need their carpet cleaned but I was out of town, I cleaned it 6 months later and thet said they were unhappy with the chem dry cleaning because it felt sticky so go figure

it must be the carbonation residue :roll:


they are better at is advertising than cleaning

 

[steve r]

ill come back and read the replys later but i just gained another customer thanks to the local chem dry.it seems he talks too much and wont return for the spots that come back as soon as he leaves .i believe hes out of business now too.i gained quite a few of his customers so far and i hear the same thing from everyone.the first thing i tell them is if a spot returns call me.it happens sometimes and sometimes it takes a couple times to get rid of it for good.
this seems to put them at ease.

 

[Greenie]

I had a repeat customer last November need their carpet cleaned but I was out of town, I cleaned it 6 months later and thet said they were unhappy with the chem dry cleaning because it felt sticky so go figure

it must be the carbonation residue :roll:
they are better at is advertising than cleaning

This might be neither here or there, But I figured we might as well be as accurate as possible with what is going on out there with franchisees.
I honestly do not think it's the Carbonated solution, I think it's just untrained techs, and frustrated owners who are forced to use harsher high pH traffic lane cleaners in a desperate attempt to clean better, and rinsing that chemistry with low flow, low pressure extraction is futile at best. I won't even mention the bonnet cleaners attempting to do the same...it happens every day.

 

[Dolly]

Greenie, that is the absolute truth..........

I believe that Chem-Dry is only about selling franchises and not about cleaning, if so, they
would not make the franchise owners clean the way they do.........

The carbonated solution will leave residue and the low pressure of putting down the
solution and poor vacuum power in my opinion is not the best way to really clean
carpet.

We learned that one a long time ago................

Boy I am so glad I don't have to clean the Chem-Dry way anymore.........

 

[joeynbgky]

bump

 

[alazo1]

Chem-Dry sucks AAAAASSSSS


YEAH BABY!!

 

[randy]

This whole thread is really funny. First off a company or individual can say just about anything about the competition and be perfectly within their 1st Amendment Right to free speech in expressing their opinion. Yes a corporation can have an opinion. There is no such thing as slander, libel or defamation of a business.

A class action suit would have to come from "defrauded" customers not pissed off competitors in order to have standing.
Even in that situation I believe the effort would fail.

Whether the typical hwe cleaner wants to admit it or not ChemDRY found a great marketing angle and made something very scalable in a small mom & pop industry. That only worked because they satisfied lots of customers.

That's really the answer to this issue: Satisfy lots of customers and you will be just fine. Targeting Chemdry with constant disdain will never make up for your inability or refusal to master marketing & sales.

Carpet cleaning is all about cleaning. Making a living in carpet cleaning is all about marketing and sales.

 

[Ron Werner]

They target a process, not an individual company.
We can make all the vids we want targeting their process without mentioning their name, ie a bonnet cleaning system that uses carbonated solution on carpets, leaves a sticky residue and only makes the carpet look clean for a few weeks.

What I find ironic is that they went from bonnet to steam cleaning and then they had to find a way to separate themselves from the HWE crowd they've bashed for so long. The only reason they get away with that is because of an ill informed market place.

What would be a good youtube vid is to take their video of their RX, and run it side by side with an RX20 being used.

 

[sweendogg]

This post has been deleted by user who was two ignorant and tired to realize that it was two years old.. Don't Drink and Derive! E= MC^4..?? no no no its E= mE^2.. yes I've seeing double!... :mrgreen:

 

[joeynbgky]

I wander if you could put Lisa's Chemwho, sticking it to the little guy logo in your ads?


I woul dlike to have a magnet like that to put on my van, and take it off when im in a good mood