I was grossly overcharged for carpet cleaning work done in my home. On Thursday, December 3, 2015, Greg Langkand of Carpet Dave's Carpet Cleaning (formerly Gregory's Carpet & Upholstery) cleaned the carpet in our home. The work was done satisfactorily; the issue is the price charged. He was here 3 1/2 hours cleaning 8 rooms, a closet, one hallway and 32 steps. He charged me $1,612.50 ($460.71/hour). The square footage, excluding the steps was 1,702 (1,782 including the steps). We have used them for cleaning dating back to the early 1990's, and have always been satisfied with the quality of the work and the pricing. We strive to support small business owners. In 2012 we had the carpet cleaned by another firm because Greg's mother had serious health problems and they could not get our house done. I paid A-1 Cleaners $562 to clean the same areas. The last time Greg cleaned our carpets in 2009, they charged $529.30. Carpet Dave's has currently an ad on groupon.com advertising cleaning of 7 rooms and a hallway for $250 before the coupon, $99 with the coupon. I have seen numerous sites on the internet advertising to clean rooms for $30-35/room. I have conducted a telephone survey of other cleaners to assess the current market pricing for carpet cleaning. I have received prices ranging between $425 and $580. Charges well in excess of $125/room seem to me to constitute a fraudulent pricing practice. Greg did indicate before he started the work that their prices have gone up. I expected that. I did not ask for, and he did not volunteer an estimate of the cost for the work. Based on our 25+ year experience history, and the fact they were always fairly priced, I naively assumed he would be honest in his current pricing. He also told me that they charge extra for berber carpet, and that all our carpet was berber. I subsequently confirmed with Town & Country Carpet & Floor carpeting that none of our carpeting is berber, it is nylon plush and frieze carpeting. Just prior to writing out the invoice, he talked at length about his mother, who has level 4 cancer, is in the hospital, has fluid in her lungs, and is not expected to live another six months. Given our history and trust we had in him, and perhaps being influenced by the tragedy his mother is undergoing, when he indicated $1500. ($1,612.50 incl. tax) I did not challenge the charge. At that time, I had not done any research on pricing, had not looked up our prior charges by him, did not know he was lying about the carpet being berber, and didn’t know what current market prices were. I probably should have been suspicious when he told me to make the check payable to him personally, even though the invoice was Carpet Dave’s Carpet Cleaning Given his statement that their prices had gone up before he started cleaning, given his misrepresenting that all the carpet was berber for which they charge extra, given the groupon ad which implies the cost of cleaning 7 rooms and a hallway for $250 before the coupon, $99 with the coupon, and then charging me $1,612.50 lead me to believe he intended to perpetrate a fraud on me even before he entered my home.
