Several years of plummeting sales caused big carpet mills to look for someone to blame. (It couldn't be their fault could it?) So the CRI* decided to blame carpet cleaners, who made an easy target. Undocumented and bogus surveys claimed that consumers were unhappy with carpet cleaning, which justified CRI launching the new SOA program under the guise of consumer satisfaction. But it is really designed to extort money from professional cleaners and suppliers.
Carpet makers have gone one up on each other for years. First it was one year, then two, five, ten and now lifetime warranties. These are coming home to roost and mills need a way to bail out. Manufacturers can't do it without calling attention to some of the ridiculous claims they've made, so the "non-profit" CRI was chosen as a willing accomplice to save them.
I believe the purpose of SOA is to create a smoke screen for manufacturers to circumvent or void warranties altogether. The most ingenious** aspect of SOA is that carpet cleaners and suppliers get blamed for consumer dissatisfaction (not true) while having to pay for the CRI program that accuses them (true). Reminds you of Washington politics doesn't it?
* CRI is run by carpet mills
** Maybe insidious would be a better word!
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