Once upon a time

I don't remember exactly but thirty-some years ago there was a severe water shortage in California that threatened those in the cleaning industry who used large amounts of water. Californians called and wrote asking for a system that used recycled water. In response I hired Tom Schubert, a water treatment engineer, to design two water recycling systems.

The first was a complete plan for a mini-treatment plant that could be constructed at the office of a cleaning firm. It used proven technology and all the necessary components were locally available. Designed for a one-truck operation, it could be expanded to handle several trucks. These plans were made available free of charge to Bane-Clene® operators.

Tom also designed a portable recycling system that could be mounted in a service van. The technology was quite simple. Indianapolis has a plentiful water supply and we never planned to use it in our own operation but we built a prototype and installed it in a company van to show that it was indeed workable.

A grand introduction was planned for our convention that year. Guess what happened a few weeks before the big promotion? California had a deluge, reservoirs were full and water was plentiful again. Guess how many portable recycling units we sold? I don't think anyone even built a recycling plant with those "free" plans that cost our company a substantial sum.

But here's something that happened as a result. Have you heard of “unintended consequences??” A large franchise (Hint: initials are SS) heard about the new recycling system and used the information to sell against us. We were told on numerous occasions that people with the franchise would tell prospects, "Bane-Clene uses dirty water to clean your carpets."

Recently I read an article in a Dalton publication about the eleven steps in Green Carpet Care. Step number seven was, "Select carpet extractors that recycle water/cleaning solution to use water and chemical more efficiently." Naturally, it was written by a person who sells that type of cleaning equipment. I hope they have better luck selling them than we did.

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They're still at it

The stock market loved it when 195,000 new jobs were created in June. The Federal Reserve pumped $85 billion into the economy (they do it every month) to buy worthless bonds and mortgages that no one else will touch. Meanwhile, first-time unemployment compensation claims averaged 345,500 every week in June.

Some kind of new math must account for all of this euphoric exuberance. In the good old days, the math would have told us there were 345, 500 x 4 = 1,382,000 newly unemployed people in June and only 195,000 (mostly part time) jobs were added in what was a rotten month.

Better keep those printing presses rolling Mr. Bernanke. Wall Street bankers and brokers who get those big bonuses won't love you if you don't CTA. By the way, those are some of the same banks that are so stingy with loans to small business.

How do politicians feel? The $85 billion (That’s BILLION with a B) donation to Wall Street has been described by some Washington insiders as "Chump Change."

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Mea Culpa

There's always the excuse that today everything is exaggerated. But the simple truth is that I made a typographical error. On the front page of the July Clene Times® I wrote an article titled Defining our new market. In it I said, "In fact, many politicians claim that an annual income of $150,000,000 is now going to be considered “rich.”

Wow! Adding that many zeros is a mistake only government is allowed to make. The right number should have been $150,000. One Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars is now considered "rich." It has been corrected on the Clene Times copy on our web site, but the 40,000 hard copies we mailed are gonzo. Sorry if I shook anyone up with that typo.

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You Owe It to Your Client

Customers traditionally do not know much about carpet. A customer who is contemplating the purchase of new carpet often asks their professional cleaner about the best fiber or the best brand. This puts us on the spot, especially if we suggest a lesser quality product. We need to be able to make a recommendation strictly in the best interest of our client.

The best method of learning how to consult about carpet choice is not by reading the brochures distributed by carpet manufacturers or sales organizations. Instead, keep a notebook and every time you see a marked difference (either good or bad) on the job, write it down. Look for unusual appearance and especially for ease in cleaning.

If possible, ask customers for details such as brand name, type of fiber and even the official color. Look for crushing, pilling, watermarking, resilience, color retention and list your observations. Make a master chart in your office and keep score on fiber producers and carpet manufacturers. Above all, be honest in your assessment.

List the styles, colors and performance experience of as many as you can. In a year or two, you will have a database of information that can help you make a meaningful recommendation to the person for whom you work. This is another "value added" reason for them to do business with you in the future.

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Ideas feed on each other

All of the baseball promos encouraging fans to vote up to 35 times for their favorite team and players for the All Star game remind me that we'll soon be in an election cycle again. I wonder if the baseball brass got their idea of voting so many times from our illustrious politicians. Now I heard that politicians are looking at the All Star game promotions and thinking seriously about voting being allowed from smart phones.

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A new scam?

In monitoring consumer complaint sites, I saw a report in which a company allegedly misrepresented themselves to be Stanley Steemer® by redirecting internet phone traffic. When a customer Googled carpet cleaning, Stanley Steemer showed up on the first page. According to the complaining consumer, the phone number associated with Stanley Steemer on the Google map was somehow replaced by the phone number of the imposter.

When called, the company answered, "Carpet Cleaning." When asked the name of the company they said "where did you see our ad?" The consumer said, "under Stanley Steemer on the internet." The bogus operator then said they were "Stanley Steemer" and made the appointment. Redirecting traffic by hijacking Google search phone numbers and replacing them with counterfeit numbers is not nice. Who's responsible? If this story is true, I'd like to know and I'm sure Stanley Steemer would like to know.

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The power of education

“A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.”
Theodore Roosevelt

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Special holiday tomorrow

Many of us will take a long weekend to celebrate the 4th of July. Please don't forget the reason we celebrate and especially let's remember all of those who died for our freedom to do it.

Our founding fathers opposed big, oppressive government and the worst of their fears has come to pass in recent years. Reality check: Fraud, corruption and crony capitalism are rampant.

As politicians continue to disregard the ingeniously crafted Constitution, pray that we soon find a way to return to the Christian/Judeo roots of our independence.

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"Happy days are here again"

The feds pompously announced a $113 billion budget surplus and said the deficit had shrunk to "only" $642 billion. Revenue is up 16% and spending is down 1%. I have two questions. What budget? The Senate hasn't passed a budget for five years. And how can federal department heads be so precise with numbers and percentages? They can't even answer simple questions when they appear before a congressional committee.

Meanwhile federal spending was frantic at the end of the fiscal year with department heads trying to get all they can get for next year's so-called budget. The only good news out of all this is that federal spending is expected to boost the economy. The jury is still out on that one.

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How to succeed

Be different! Think of your own experiences in nearly everything you buy and likely they are not too good in one respect or another. The appointment with someone coming to your home to perform a service is a good example. Chances are they will be late.

An appointment with the doctor will likely keep you waiting from fifteen minutes to an hour before you are seen. The visit to a mechanic leaves a greasy fingerprint or worse inside your car. A dozen check-outs at the supermarket and only two are working leaving you stand in line.

In these hard economic times there are a dozen excuses for every malfunction. The successful service business will not make excuses but will get the job done and at a reasonable price.

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Selling service

The consumer is interested in solutions to their problems, not hearing about yours. When presenting your service to a prospect, have answers ready for the normal objections that people will use as bargaining chips in negotiating a price.

Always remember that the consumer buys for their own reasons, not to help you. Explore the possibilities of why they should buy from you and hit their "hot button." Listen to them and they will usually tell you early in the conversation what that hot button may be.

When quoting a commercial job, offer alternatives in the maintenance plan. Don't even suggest that it is chiseled in stone and inflexible. Offer to increase or decrease frequency as the situation dictates. Most of all. . . don't forget to ask for the order!

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Green, green

Years ago the Christie Minstrels made this song popular: "Green, green, it's green they say, on the far side of the hill. Green, green, I'm goin' away to where the grass is greener still."

They could never have dreamed of the number of people who would jump on the "green" wagon as a way to the other side of the financial hill. Windmills, electric cars, solar panels and exorbitant tax incentives are all the rage right now. Green is in. Anything with the name green attached to it is presumed to be an instant winner.

I guess recycling is good, but not long ago I watched a trash compactor truck pull up to a customer location. There were two dumpsters, one marked with the recycling logo and the other was plain. The driver dumped them both into the same bin. Sadly, the owner of the business is paying extra to have the recycled material picked up separately.

In the cleaning industry, endless products attach the word 'green' to their juice or equipment. Ads in trade magazines tout the importance of going "green." One equipment manufacturer has even painted their little machine green and named it the "Big Green Carpet Cleaning Machine." Their ad says, "Cleans better*, dries faster." Better and faster than what?

In fine print barely visible is this disclaimer: *Cleaning results compared to the leading rental machine based upon measurements of color reflectance and brightness of carpet fibers. Since their machine cleans better and dries faster than their rental counterpart, will they apply for and be awarded the CRI Platinum Seal of Approval, too? Stay tuned!

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Service

According to the BBB, nothing leads to a customer service meltdown quicker than using phrases such as “That’s our policy” or "Our policy won't allow that." Here's another sentence that should never leak from the lips of your customer service team, “There’s Nothing I Can Do about that” or one that's even worse, "That's not my job."

A response that is bound to get a customer's ire up is, "You'll have to speak with my supervisor before I can do that." In a good service company, operators are trained and given the responsibility of adapting to changing scenarios and fixing problems.

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Latest statistics

An article in the Indianapolis Star said the poverty rate in Indy has doubled since the year 2000 and that the national poverty average in large cities is 22%. LBJ's war on poverty has obviously been lost since nearly 50 million are on food stamps. Another 20 million are on disability and there are 40 million retired folks, 65 and older, on social security.

Unemployment is high with millions drawing on it for 99 weeks. Productivity is low with everyone busy on their smart phones and very little getting done. The overall economy is barely moving and resembles the massive traffic snarls nationwide which more or less confirms the situation. Acts of terrorism and natural disasters lead the news nearly every day.

The Supreme Court will rule this year on Christian clergy taking part in opening prayers at anything that's government related. Movies, television, the theater and even TV commercials try to out-do one another in being gross, lewd and lascivious. For the past century, we have witnessed a systematic coarsening of American culture led by the entertainment industry.

Larry Cramer sent me this quote attributed to Jay Leno which sums it up in one sentence:

"With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"

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News flash from Dalton

"The Carpet and Rug Institute's Seal of Approval testing and certification program now stands at 374 solutions, 427 vacuums, 94 deep‑cleaning extractors and 104 systems for a total 999."

For more than ten years, CRI™ has been trying to recruit professional cleaners to their Certified Service Provider program. Today there are a little over 800 of those, down from more than 1,000 two years ago. With more than 40,000 carpet cleaning firms, 60,000 janitorial services and a million rental machines out there working on carpet, it's strange that more have not signed on. Since it only costs $25 a year to be certified, you'd think there would be 30,000 taking advantage of the benefits of such a program.

CRI has convinced some carpet mills to tie their warranties to the Seal of Approval testing and certification program. Does anyone in Dalton have any idea about what the real world is about?

This boondoggle will only lead to further loss of consumer confidence in carpet and to another decline in carpet sales. There are many in the cleaning industry crying, "Pity the poor consumer." It's much closer to home than that. If those in the Dalton cocoon don't get their heads out in the fresh air they're going to hurt the entire carpet cleaning industry.

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Attitude

Modern slang has defined the word "attitude" as being "obnoxious, in a bad mood or in a particularly foul frame of mind." It is common to hear someone say, "George has an attitude," meaning that George is a person with whom it is not easy to get along. This is similar to those who define "quality" as meaning "good." Neither definition is right.

In the world of real communications, a person can have a good attitude or a bad attitude, depending on another's perspective. Be careful to mean what you say and say what you mean . Be sure the words you use are grammatically correct. The winners in business in the years ahead will be easily understood and will definitely have a "good" attitude.

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Tax fairness?

There's been a lot of talk lately about paying our fair share in taxes. Corporate welfare is not limited to big companies and banks that feed at the taxpayer's trough. It's alive and well in nearly every state and city of any size that is doling out tax money to companies that promise to come to town and hire people.

Forget Solindra and the hundreds of crooked cases of crony capitalism we've seen in the past four years. I'm talking about one state competing with another or one city luring a company away from another city. They offer tax abatement and pay for training new workers. Tax abatement simply means the rest of the taxpayers pick up the tab.

Good examples are Kansas and Missouri. One lured a trucking company away from the other at a cost of 24 million dollars. Meanwhile, two companies went the other way at a cost of 40 million. Who pays for this? We do, the taxpayers and their competitors who are actually paying to bring their competition to town.

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Customers need to know

We must be able to explain why our price may seem higher than that of a competitor. If we can't explain our prices, we shouldn't be charging them. There are certain costs which must be figured into our price. Account for each and every one! And know how much competitors are charging for similar services, especially if they are bait and switch type operations.

Customers are barraged with price ads. If we haven't justified our price, our prospective customers may try one of the low-price merchants. A competitor who embellishes the truth has a chance to gain those prospects one time. But the company that "tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" all the time will win in the long haul.

Segments of Bane Clene® Institute's curriculum are devoted to profitable pricing of services and how to advertise to specific markets. If pricing or advertising is a problem for you, try to make it to our school in Indianapolis when it's convenient.

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Theoretically

If everyone in the carpet cleaning business used exactly the same equipment, exactly the same chemicals and had exactly the same training, then every job result would be exactly the same. Theoretically speaking, that's correct.

But there are other factors that come into play. Some of the most important things on consumers' minds today are honesty, integrity and execution! No matter the amount of training, performance is not standard and must be worked on constantly to ensure customer satisfaction.

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Wicking

Spot removal is sometimes more difficult than it initially appears. The immediate disappearance of a spot in some cases may be only temporary. Later the spot may reappear through the wicking process. Moisture in a carpet needs air to dry. Air causes moisture to move to the surface. As moisture evaporates into the air, even clean water will leave a trace of any mineral or chemical it contains when the last drop dries. Most times these are not visible, but sometimes show up weeks later and cause a complaint.

Brown Out® is an inexpensive solution to eliminate this problem, saving you a potential call back which can be very costly. Brown Out should also be used on furniture and rugs that are wet cleaned and all carpets made of natural fibers. It's great on fringes, too.

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Time to get smart

We've gone through twenty years of abusing carpet. I don't mean physically, I mean abusing it in the minds of consumers. Most problems with carpet are not in the quality of the product but are in the eyes and ears of the consumer. Vacuum cleaner hucksters on television show dust from carpet fouling the very air we breathe. Half hour long Infomercials by a cheap little rental machine embellish the amount of dirt and germs found in carpet.

Even our scientists are guilty. Dr. Michael Berry, one of the most quoted persons of science in our industry said, "Carpet is a sink." Just hearing this graphic analogy could cause a prospective buyer to choose another floor covering. "Clean that sink" and "Clean carpet for health's sake" have become the mantra of certain teachers and the information they teach is passed along to consumers by their students in the form of very negative advertising.

When the news business is slow, reporters revisit Kawasaki syndrome, formaldehyde and the 120 neuro-toxic chemicals found in carpet by "Green Nest." Do you remember Dr. Roselyn Anderson and the costly fraud she perpetrated on our industry with her claim that carpet off-gassing killed her lab mice? No wonder there has been a downturn in consumer confidence and carpet sales. Could it be time for a change in strategy?

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Treating Customers Right

Customers are turned off, not by the price of a service, but by apathy, carelessness and a lack of courtesy from service personnel. No business, be it a bank, restaurant, department store, supermarket, gas station or carpet cleaning service, is immune from the creeping paralysis of “don't care ism” that infects personnel dealing with the public.

Facing intense competition, greater emphasis must be placed on developing responsive employee attitudes. Lackluster results on balance sheets are matched by indifferent attitudes of people who come in contact with customers. The sourpuss syndrome among service employees is far too pervasive to be explained away as random incidents.

Service businesses that succeed in attracting customers and repeat business are noted for informed and helpful personnel. To develop this spirit, management must be willing to devote the time and money necessary to training that instills the knowledge, confidence and friendly, caring attitude indispensable to good customer service.

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Credit

Credit standards for small businesses are easing. How do I know that? Talking heads on television told me so. The Federal Reserve says loan officers are tightening credit while another report says credit is easing. Who knows the truth? Loan volume has been rising but certainly not for very small businesses, only for companies that have strong credit ratings.

Another report says bankers are desperate for loan growth. If you don’t qualify for bank credit today, sit down with a loan officer and ask them what has to change. They should be able to tell you how much your basic financial numbers need to change in order to qualify for a loan. Even if you don't need credit, it's a good idea to establish a line with your bank.

Besides a financial report that your CPA prepares, have a talk with a banker at least once a year. Companies large and small benefit from advance planning for credit. Opportunities can arise that can be lost if not grasped quickly.

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Heads up

Marketing on the internet is cheap, but tricky. Watch for a new rash of e-mails that appear to be from legitimate ad agencies. Be careful of scams that offer to place ads on popular web sites, then bang your credit card and the ads never appear. They target small business.

Although the social media is probably the wave of the future, I'm still not sold on going exclusively in that direction. Keep your ad program in place and experiment before committing major dollars to the social media.

"Pay per click" is still a big problem with hackers that can run up the numbers. And remember, most seniors, a large part of the market for our services, still do not follow the social media like the youngsters. Be careful not to shut them out.

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Going bananas

The expression "going bananas" is from the effects of bananas on the brain. Bananas contain three natural sugars, sucrose, fructose and glucose, combined with fiber. A banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy and can help us keep fit. Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6 and B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

A banana is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around. Bananas might be the reason monkeys are so happy all the time!

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E mails about CRI

There has been a flurry of e-mails lately about the CRI and especially their testing program. I don't know what prompted it but I 've been saving some of them to publish at the same time. Here are a few of them:

"The franchises would not have anything to do with the original Seal Of Approval program but they sure have jumped on the new SOA and totally dominate it. Look at the Service Provider list. It is Stanley Steemer®, Millicare®, ChemDry®, Cintas®, Duraclean®, Rainbow, etc, etc, etc. I wonder why ServiceMaster® and SERVPRO® are not supporting it. But that list has fallen from just over a thousand to about 800 in the past two years. They can't handle warranty work without the help of thousands of professional independent cleaning contractors."

"Someone could win a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Journalism if they were to dig deep into the pile of $#&$ at CRI and the conflicts in interest of some of its associates."

"As a distributor I want to point out that centrifugal vacuum motors lose air velocity after minimal usage. Rental machines, even though they may have passed CRI tests, wouldn't pass those same tests after 40 or 50 hours of use. We use big # 45 Roots vacuum blowers in our truck mounts and they get stronger as they get broken in. CRI testing is a farce."

"All you have to do is follow the money. CRI is hurting for money and even had to move out of their fancy building. The mills want to dump the rent, staff and light bill at their new rented headquarters on carpet cleaners. You can tell how successful the SOA program is by the numbers. It took almost 10 years to get 1,000 certified service providers. That number has dropped now to about 800 and they are mostly franchises. That ought to tell independent cleaners something if we're smart enough to see it."

"CRI teamed up with IICRC and attendance at trade shows dropped. Connections is history and a new show called Experience is replacing it. I was in Clearwater and nearly all of the people were selling something. There are a couple of new international associations trying to get off the ground. RIA® attendance is at an all time high at their conventions. Do you think there is a message in here someplace?"

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When is a discount not a discount?

J. C. Penney has been in the news for flubbing their new marketing program. They stopped offering sales and discounts and tried "everyday low prices." The new CEO, Ron Johnson, lost his job over it, their stock plummeted and now they have "apology" commercials running on TV. Old James Cash Penney must be rollin' over.

Marketing is changing. The other day I tried to make an on-line purchase from a company that sent me a 10% off coupon. I had purchased an item from them earlier at $49.95 and with the coupon I expected to pay about $45. At check out it was $52.95 after "discount" plus shipping. So I hit the X button and got out of there.

They must know when I do this because the next day I got a notice that the item was on sale at 20% off. I ignored that e-mail and the very next day I got a coupon that offered the item at 30% off. I went to their site and now the retail price was $79.95. I blocked any future e-mails from that company.

Is the consuming public really stupid enough to fall for the old "mark 'em up so you can mark 'em down" game? The majority of retailers must think so and are doing it ad nauseam. The sad tale of J. C. Penney confirms it. As a marketer I'd like to hear what you think about this subject and how it will affect our businesses.

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E-mail about cheap labor

Dear Bill,

Government tells us that Americans don't want low paying jobs. They say "cheap labor" by "II" (illegal immigrants) is the answer. There's no such thing as "cheap labor." For example, an illegal alien with a wife and five children takes a job for $5.00 an hour usually paid under the table. "II" pays no income tax, yet at the end of the year, if he files an Income Tax Return, he gets an "earned income credit" of up to $3,200 and "II" qualifies for:

• Section 8 housing, subsidized rent and food stamps.
• Free (no deductible, no co pay) health care.
• Children get free breakfasts and lunches at school.
• They require bilingual teachers and books.
• "II" qualifies for relief from high energy bills.
• If "II" become, aged, blind or disabled, they qualify for Social Security.
• Once in SS, they qualify for Medicare. All of this is at taxpayer's expense.
• No worry about car insurance, life insurance or homeowners insurance.
• Taxpayers provide Spanish language signs, bulletins and printed material.
• "II" and family receive the equivalent of $20.00 to $30.00/hour in benefits.

Your old friend,
Jack O'Brian

Cheap labor? RIGHT! ...thanks Jack. But don't worry. Congress is on the case and will soon have a new law that will fix the problem.

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More signs the carpet industry is heading up

Daniel K. Frierson, chairman and chief executive officer of Dixie Industries said, "The first quarter typically is the slowest and most difficult quarter for our business. However, Dixie had a year over year sales improvement of 20% with sales growth in all areas of the business. Our sales growth in the residential business was 21% higher than the same period in the prior year with notable growth in our mass merchant area. We believe that the residential market, in contrast, grew in the low single digits. Our commercial business increased 13% with particularly strong growth in our modular carpet tile area. This increase was in comparison, we believe, to low single digit growth in the commercial market.”

This information substantiates an article Dan Willis sent to me in March. His thoughts are that carpet sales are picking up and he gives several reasons. This will be the lead article on the front page of the June Clene-Times®. Be sure to read it.

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Congratulations RIA

Floor Daily News and Interviews reported, "The attendance at the Restoration Industry Association's (RIA) recent Leadership Summit and Industry Expo topped out at just about 900 attendees, which is the highest number to ever attend an RIA convention, according to RIA leadership in a release in the C&R Weekly. The sold out trade show provided exhibitors with a large audience to test drive the latest tools and services for the industry."

In this new era in which people are avoiding travel and limiting attendance at educational functions, this is an outstanding attendance. In the heyday of conventions during the boom years of the '80s, Bane-Clene's 1986 meeting enjoyed an attendance of just over 700 which we believed to be a record for our industry at the time. RIA is the oldest and best organized trade association in our business and deserves kudos for this accomplishment.

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Resilient carpet cleaning industry

It's no secret that carpet has been losing market share for the past ten years. But, from a carpet cleaner's perspective, the market for our services is good because the carpet industry has been pumping out billions of square feet of product every year during those years. The average life of carpet is eight years and many residential carpets we work on are twice that age.

Meanwhile, residential area rugs and the commercial markets are continuing to grow. There are hundreds of millions of square feet of carpet out there just waiting to be cleaned. Our ace in the hole is the fact that we can clean hard floors, rugs, wall coverings and furniture too! The future of the cleaning industry is bright for those who are flexible and stay informed.

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Recognizing opportunities

The recent flooding in the Midwest must have been what prompted this e-mail from a customer who does water restoration work:

A man lived in a house on the river and after a week of storms the waters started to rise. The neighbors evacuated to higher ground and a rescue truck came by for the man, but he refused to leave. "I believe in God. He will save me and my house," said the man.

The next day, the river had come into his home and into the first floor. As he moved up to the second floor, rescue workers came by in a boat and pleaded with the man to leave with them. "I trust in God," he said. "God will save me. I have no need for your help."

Then the waters rose past his windows on the second floor and he sat on the roof as the rain continued. A rescue helicopter came and begged the man to leave. "God will save me," he said. Finally, the waters rose over his roof and he drowned.

At the pearly gates he said to Saint Peter, "I was a devout man, living my life for God. Why did He let me die?" Saint Peter replied, “What are you talking about? He sent you a truck, a boat and a helicopter. What more did you need?"

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E Mail from Indy BBB

Dear Mr. Bane:

A local business has informed the Central Indiana Better Business Bureau that US Telecom based in Ontario, CA is soliciting in our area. US Telecom is sending correspondence to businesses for telecom maintenance agreements covering all telecom system equipment including telephone instruments, switches, and cabling. This correspondence appears to be an invoice, but is actually a solicitation for business. Click here for an example of the solicitation.

Similarly, back in March, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) temporarily stopped a foreign operation that was scamming small businesses and non profit organizations into paying for a bogus online directory. The FTC filed a complaint against Construct Data Publishers, a Slovakia based company. The FTC is seeking to permanently halt the alleged scam and require the defendants to refund the fees. Click here for an example of the solicitation.

The BBB encourages you to share this notice with your Accounts Payable personnel, colleagues, and other business contacts you may have. If you have been a victim of this or a similar scam you can file a complaint at either bbb.org or ftc.gov.

Regards,
Wendy Dych
wdych@indybbb.org
(317) 488 2221 ext 133

And here's one from last week... another bad one to watch out for:

Secure Message

he security of your personal information is of the utmost importance to American Express, so we have sent the attached as a secure electronic file. Note: The attached file contains encrypted data. If you have any questions, please call us at 800 973 0032, option 0. Representatives are available to assist you Monday through Thursday between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. ET and Friday between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. ET. The information contained in this message may be privileged, confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited.

Thank you,
American Express
2012 American Express Company. All rights reserved.

Don't open the attachment if you get one that looks like this.

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An interesting e-mail

This is a little longer than I like to post here, but do any of the things happening today sound like they might have a connection to this plan?

Most Americans never heard of Cloward and Piven. New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani attempted to expose them in the late 1990s. As his welfare reform gained momentum, Giuliani accused them by name, citing their 1966 manifesto as evidence that they engaged in economic sabotage. Giuliani charged in a 1997 speech that their policies and programs were designed to get the maximum number of people on welfare.

Columbia University's Richard Cloward and Frances Piven published a plan to bring down capitalism by overloading government bureaucracy with fraud and a flood of impossible demands. They cited Saul Alinsky as their inspiration. His teachings were right out of the Marxist handbook which says the ruling class uses welfare to buy the poor and douse the fire of rebellion which is the core of the Communist agenda.

"Poor people can advance only when the rest of society is afraid of them," Cloward told a New York Times reporter. Rather than placating the poor with government hand outs, activists should work to sabotage and collapse the welfare state which would ignite a political and financial crisis to rock the nation when the poor rise up in revolt. A financial and political crisis is needed to unleash powerful forces for economic reform.

Cloward and Pivin called for aggressive organizers to demonstrate with threats of violence. When local politicians appeal for federal help and friendly journalists promote income redistribution, the poor can overwhelm agencies with demands. This flood would break the budget, jam bureaucratic gears into gridlock and bring the system crashing down. Fear, turmoil, violence and economic collapse would foster radical political change.

A "voting rights movement," led by Project Vote, Human Serve and ACORN, lobbied for the Motor Voter law which President Clinton signed in 1993. The Motor Voter bill swamped voter rolls with invalid registrations signed in the name of deceased, ineligible or non-existent people. Mickey Mouse even signed up to vote. This opened the door to unprecedented levels of voter fraud and disenfranchisement lawsuits which clogged the court system.

Cloward and Piven devotees seek to overwhelm the nation's understaffed and poorly policed electoral system and caused the Florida recount crisis of 2000. Both the Living Wage and Voting Rights movements depend heavily on financial support from George Soros’ Open Society Institute and his Shadow Party. Soros's support of the Cloward and Piven strategy continues to provide a blueprint for some of his most ambitious campaigns.

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Noise, energy dependence and pollution

Some folks are excited about the green movement and it may have some merit. But there are those who take it beyond the realm of probability and profit. We should sell our prospects, especially those who are environmentalists, on the fact that we operate an energy efficient system that is the safest and quietest in the cleaning industry. We're environmentally friendly. Bane-Clene system owners don't use fossil fuels to power our cleaning systems. This puts us out front in the fight against air pollution and dependence on foreign oil from governments that hate us.

Promoting the fight against noise pollution is another front in which we excel. A constant noise level of 85 decibels (most truck mounts exceed that) can damage hearing. We operate the quietest system in the cleaning world. Don't destroy that image by having a blaring radio in the truck or a boom box on the porch or patio of a home in which we are working. We shouldn't carry these noisemakers into commercial jobs either or wear headphones while we work. Headphones show a total lack of respect and attention to the job.

Remember, the green movement can be our friend if we tell folks about all the good things we have to offer that are environmentally friendly.

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More phony e-mails

I've gotten similar ones under dozens of bank names and those of major companies. Be careful if you get any like these. Don't open or click on any part of them. Delete! Also this time of year there is a rash of fake IRS scams.

You have received a secure message.
Read your secure message by opening the attachment, SECUREDOC. You will be prompted to open (view) the file or save (download) it to your computer. For best results, save the file first, then open it.
If you have concerns about the validity of this message, please contact the sender directly. For questions about Key's e mail encryption service, please contact technical support at 888.764.7941.
First time users will need to register after opening the attachment.
Help https://mailsafe.keybank.com/websafe/help?topic=RegEnvelope
About IronPort Encryption https://mailsafe.keybank.com/websafe/about
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attn: Chief Accountant
Herewith we are notifying you, that your latest Direct Deposit transaction (Int. No.460590232341) was rejected, because of your current Direct Deposit software being out of date. Please use the link below to enter the secure section of our web site and see the details::
Click here for more information
Please refer to your financial institution for updates of the Direct Deposit software.
Sincerely yours
ACH Network Rules Department
NACHA The Electronic Payments Association
12154 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 559
Herndon, VA 20181
Phone: 703 561 0584 Fax: 703 787 9206
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FedEx
Tracking ID: 7151 44360368
Dear Client,
Your parcel has arrived. Courier was unable to deliver the parcel to you.
To receive your parcel, please, print this receipt and go to the nearest office.
Print Receipt
Best Regards, The FedEx Team.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You have received a secure message

Read your secure message by opening the attachment, message_zdm. You will be prompted to open (view) the file or save (download) it to your computer. For best results, save the file first, then open it with Internet Explorer. If you have concerns about the validity of this message, please contact the sender directly. For questions please contact the HSBC Secure Mail Help Desk. First time users will need to register after opening the attachment.
About Email Encryption http://www.hsbc.com/secureemail

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When you need a lift

A famous speaker at a Bane-Clene® convention said this:

"You can think your way to failure or you can think your way to success. Belief is a form of thought. You can disbelieve yourself into a frustrated existence or you can believe yourself into a successful business and life.

"We do not half realize the power of thought either to destroy or to create. Thoughts are forces. You can't see them but thoughts are dynamic powers. Think negative thoughts and you activate negative forces, drawing back to yourself negative results. Like attracts like. Send out hate and you get back hate. Send out fear and you get back fear. "Send out defeat and you draw defeat to yourself.

Conversely, send out positive thoughts and positive results will come back. You gain victories by the thoughts you think. All creative, powerful living originates in thought. Get a good thought, build it up, develop it and let it take over. Make a giant of it, and it will make a giant of you."

Norman Vincent Peale

P.S. Happy anniversary to a very special and "positive thinking" lady.

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Less may be better

The president is calling for the minimum wage to be raised again. I've talked with several people in the cleaning business and asked how this would affect them. In nearly every case the answer was the same. "I just won't hire entry-level people to train for the work."

One man said he had helpers on his five truck operation and was going to lay them off and increase the percentage he pays the lead technicians to work alone. Another said he worked on the truck himself and was just going to work with out a helper.

They all agreed that working a little harder and longer would be much more profitable and not expose them to minimum wage laws and the new healthcare fiasco. I believe this is going to be the reaction among most business owners in other industries, too.

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Bureaucrats at work

Watching news commentators talk about California's current money problems, costly fees and high taxes on businesses brought back some memories of earlier bureaucratic malfeasance in that state. In June of 1984, the California legislature passed a law that required licensing of on location carpet cleaners who used the dry process for cleaning furniture and draperies.

The law also required that equipment be inspected by the State Board of Fabricare. Professional cleaners had to be licensed via a test based on a hurriedly published 228 page instruction book. The problem was that in their bureaucratic frenzy to get this proposal into law they forgot that no official test sites existed around the huge state.

Colleen Rhodes, a Bane-Clene® operator from Nevada City, spearheaded a letter writing campaign to the Governor and State Legislators. I asked Bob Quinn, my wife’s brother and a three term mayor of Pacific Grove, for his help in repealing the bill. Bob used his political influence to lobby against this power grab by a few greedy cleaners.

The concerted effort worked and the giant boondoggle ended quietly and mercifully. Governor George Deukmejian signed a bill introduced by Assemblyman Wally Herger that simply eliminated funding for the Fabricare Board. It's a shame simple solutions like this can't be found today to solve some of our economic problems and rid us of some bureaucracy.

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Real numbers

• The official unemployment number is 12.3 million.
• The true number is probably twice that amount.
• In 2009, 32 million were on food stamps.
• Today, 48 million are on food stamps.
• In 2009, 5.5 million were on Social security disability.
• Today, 11 million are on Social Security Disability.
• In 2009, there were 139,143,000 jobs in the US.
• Today, there are 132,705,000 workers a drop of 6.4 million jobs.

For the past few months the feds have been worrying about how to cut 2% from their annual budget, which incidentally, they don't even have a budget. One hasn't been passed for four years.

Does anyone care?

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And the beat goes on

A television station in Louisville, Kentucky reported the arrest of three men who work for a carpet cleaning firm. The customer's mother had missed some rings as the men were getting ready to leave. The customer, her mother and a friend detained the cleaners until police arrived and arrested them with $3,000.00 worth of the missing jewelry in their possession. The owner, who was not on the job, said he has been in business for 33 years and cleans carpets in homes and businesses around Louisville and in southern Indiana.

One of the employees had a police record which means a police background check should have been made before allowing the employee to go into a customer's home. When training new people, they should not be out of a supervisor's sight until they have been with the company long enough to earn the trust of management. With today's technology and equipment, anyone can learn to clean a carpet in a short time. The ability to smile, say please and thank you is readily evident in a recruit, but honesty and integrity take time to prove.

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Mail programs

Make adjustments in your mailing program. Don't include extra zip codes when sending out brochures to increase the radius of a campaign. For example, it's better and more effective to target the same 5,000 households on a bi-monthly schedule than to blow an entire budget sending 60,000 brochures to households in a much larger area once a year.

If your operation is profitable in your primary target area, expansion is fine. To establish a new target area, follow the money. Select well-to-do neighborhoods and establish the total number of residents. Now reduce that radius by 50% and send out the brochures every other month to your new mailing list. Assume no more than a 1/2% response on a mailing.

Sadly, you can spend 100% of your ad budget and have no idea how effective it is. It's important that advertising efforts be measured. Always have an expiration date on special offers and coupons. When a prospect calls for a quote be sure to ask, "How did you choose to call us for service?" The most important part is to keep a record of their response.

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Abandoning traditional advertising?

Social networking is the rage right now. Be careful not to get caught up in the idea that it will replace a well-planned advertising program. I've had e-mails from several of our associates around the country who abandoned their ad programs for social networking. Besides a loss in sales, some of them reported collateral damage among their friends.

No matter how large your circle of friends, it may pay you in friendship to go against the social networking trend that is so popular today. Don't openly try to interest your friends in doing business with you. If they do it on their own that's wonderful, but otherwise you may just give them a reason to avoid you.

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Advice on carpet cleaning

An Indianapolis television station, WTHR, did a program on low prices being too good to be true. They didn't call it bait and switch, but the story featured Angie Hicks of Angie's List® and a local carpet cleaner. An Angie's List patron had filed a report that said she regretted it when the carpet cleaner showed up at her door. Here's an excerpt from her report:

   "Good price. I needed the bedrooms done and four rooms, so I just bought it." "It was awful. You know, he told me that because my carpets were so dirty they would need to do a deep cleaning and that would be extra."

Angie said, "As always, it's important to do your homework on the company you're thinking about hiring. Check out online reviews and know that a good company will return to clean spots that re appear within a short period of time." There were some other good tips on selecting a service company. Overall the advice on the program was pretty good until they got to the carpet cleaner's comments. He said:

   "You want to try to move as much as possible in the areas that you want clean. If there are any couches or sofas or magazines, everything you can do to help it move faster when they come to clean your carpets."

This statement goes against the teachings at Bane-Clene Institute. We teach that the customer is not a servant, we are. Expecting a customer to move a sofa is wrong and indicating that the quicker they get in and out the cheaper it will be is equally wrong. That statement by the cleaner indicates that speed is of the essence and this represents a serious flaw in our industry.

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Heart-warming e-mail

Dear Mr. Bane,

It is hard for me to write this. You are an avowed conservative and I was raised in a very liberal household in Maryland. I first started reading your blog 3 years ago for some of the good business advice it offered even though I was sure you were a right-wing zealot. Everything you wrote about politics was like a page out of the Tea Party handbook. If you had to talk about politics, I wondered why you did not talk about social issues that affect all of us. But some of the things you said made sense and made me take a hard look at my party.

Some of the things you did NOT talk about encouraged me vote for Mitt Romney. I am a Catholic and was offended by my party's positions on religion and the spread of Islam and the threat of Sharia law. The new health care law and the cover-up on the Libyan Ambassador's murder also turned me against Obama. I had been interpreting everything you wrote about from a liberal point of view including the debt this administration is running up. I think you should have gone a lot further, especially on the social issues. Thank you for speaking your mind.

A converted liberal,

Joanne Cramer

Thanks Joanne, your e-mail is very much appreciated. I don't write about social or religious issues because this is essentially a business related site. When politics infringe in a negative way on business I feel obligated to talk about it even though it isn't always popular or best for our company's customer relations. Social issues would get me into even more trouble.

One of the best things about America is that we can differ in opinion, have open discussions and still do it legally. Without sounding like a "right-wing zealot," I hope that doesn't change. The constant attacks on our Constitution and Bill of Rights are troubling.

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More hokum?

Today there are people who aren't even cleaners telling professionals how to clean and what to use to do the job. Consumer Reports® tested carpet cleaning equipment and chemicals and the CRI™ came up with their vaunted SOA testing program. Now a company has announced a new way of measuring exactly when a carpet needs cleaning and how clean the job is when it's finished. The new program assesses and measures the cleanliness of a carpet's surface.

This is nothing new. Back in the '70s, Ed York was pushing the sale of a "Dirt Gauge" invented by Keith Williams so an operator could tell scientifically how much dirt was in a carpet. Pretty soon the whole industry will be walking around with little hand-held devices to tell us where and when to clean and what to use. Then after we're finished, we can walk around and stare at our little monitor and see how good we did our job. I'm glad I'm old!

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Axminster™ Carpets

The company was founded in the English village of Axminster in 1755. Early Axminsters were like tapestries formed by creating hand made knots of wool. I visited their American cousin, U.S. Axminster in Mississippi, a few years ago. They made beautiful carpets.

Axminster Carpets is fighting for its life now. The company has called in administrators (the English version of bankruptcy proceedings), blaming a tough economy and resulting financial problems. Carpet sales in England have fallen 24% in the past few years.

Up to 400 jobs will be lost if the company goes defunct but they have pledged that they are "committed to working to achieve the best possible outcome for all concerned and most importantly for the staff and suppliers." Time will tell.

The UK has been suffering through a deep recession and a sluggish recovery in recent years along with on-going problems of social unrest. The pound lost 10 cents against the US dollar in just a few weeks recently and Moody's downgraded their credit from AAA to AA1.

Back in the prosperous 1980s, Maggie Thatcher said, "The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." That day may have arrived in England. Mrs. Thatcher was one smart lady. Do you think there's a lesson to be learned here?

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Appropriate for this date

Kevin Stark sent this to me the other day and I thought it was fitting to publish it on April 1 for obvious reasons. It's interesting that a bank has a sponsoring ad. But it shows us how they feel about cleaning carpets. No one in the cleaning business should bank with them.

It reminds me a little bit of the 1970s when nearly all carpet retailers were telling people not to clean carpets because it would cause them to re soil faster. Some of them are still putting out that bogus advice. Click on this link for an enlightening bit of advice:

Keep Your Carpet Clean for Less Savings Experiment DailyFinance

PS ... Okinawa .... Marines landed ... 1 April 1945.... This was no joke!

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Soliciting business from friends

Social networking is the rage right now. Be careful not to get caught up in the idea that it can replace your advertising program. No matter how large your circle of friends, go against the trend and don't openly try to interest them in doing business with you. If they do it on their own that's wonderful, but otherwise you'll only give them a reason to avoid you.

Establish a regular mailing program. Don't include extra zip codes when sending out brochures to increase the radius of a campaign. For example, it's better to target the same 5,000 households in select zip codes on a regular monthly schedule than to blow an entire budget on a one-time mailing to 60,000 households in a much larger area.

Assume no more than a 1/2 % response on a mailing. It will probably be less than that the first time. After you're profitable in your primary target area, expansion is fine. Sadly, you can spend 100% of your ad budget and have no idea how effective it is. It's important that advertising efforts be measured. Always have an expiration date on special offers and coupons.

Be sure to ask when a prospect calls for a quote, "How did you choose to call us for service?" Most important, keep a record of their response.

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One nation under God!

An e-mail was sent to me by a customer who said this prayer was written by 93 year old Billy Graham. He added this note:

"With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation so we once again can be called One nation under God!"

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that is exactly what we have done.
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and call it building self esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and call it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time honored values of our forefathers and call it enlightenment.
Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; Cleanse us from sin and set us free.
Amen!

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I get this eerie feeling

History shows war is a good way out of depression, recession or virtually any other political mess. Woodrow Wilson ran as a strong anti-war candidate and jumped right into WWI (The war to end all wars). Franklin Delano Roosevelt solved the great depression with WWII. Harry Truman, avoiding a post-war economic down-turn, gave us the Korean War. John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson opened with the Cuban missile crisis and orchestrated the Viet Nam War.

In some ways 2012 reminds me of 1936. The country had gone through four years of hard economic times and a liberal president was re-elected. As soon as the '36 elections were over we started getting ready for war even though the country was overwhelmingly isolationist. It took a third term for FDR to get us into World War II, the worst war in history.

Like '36, the 2012 election followed four tough years and a "very" liberal "anti-war" president has been re-elected. A Russian nuclear sub has been spotted off our coast, China has built a new war plane suspiciously like ours and North Korea is rattling sabers. The crazies in Iran are building a nuke and the whole Middle East is a tinderbox of Muslim fanaticism.

The guy in the White House is supposed to be anti-war like Wilson. Just like Roosevelt, he's been re-elected after four hard years and he has something else in common with our other war-time presidents. He's a Democrat with a big mess on his hands. This may be over-simplifying it a bit, but there are other similarities, too.

Bankers are sitting on cash they'd rather lend to warring nations than to small businesses. During the Vietnam War, the Rockefellers, who control Chase Bank, owned a metal processing plant in North Vietnam. They supplied the Russians with weapons and the North Vietnamese got most of their weapons from Russia. And they weren't the only bank making money off that war.

The 22nd amendment was passed to prevent a repetition of the Roosevelt travesty of being president for life. Jose Serrano, D NY, has introduced a bill in the house to repeal it. I have this eerie feeling that a real war may not be far away. The next one could really be the "war to end all wars" and, coincidentally, all of us. Pray for peace.

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More on ICS's 50th

There have been quite a few e-mails from customers, and even from some who are not, about the 50th anniversary issue of ICS magazine. Thank you for the many congratulations on being nominated as the industry's most influential person of the past fifty years. Evan Kessler, the publisher of ICS, had some nice things to say that were appreciated, too.

ICS mentioned the "Great Steam Controversy" and one of the e-mails asked, "Why did you fight so hard for the use of the word "steam" and you don't even use it?" So many in the business today never even heard of that era in our industry's history. For the complete story on "steam" click on the "History" link on our home page and scroll down.

It's true that competitors like Deep Steam, Steamex, SteamMatic®, Stanley Steemer®, Steam Services and Steamway benefited from our winning that battle. I'm glad we were able to help because in the free market system no one, not even competitors, should be harassed with threats by the BBB® and FTC when the charges were so inappropriate.

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News from the carpet industry

David Kolb is retiring and has notified the company he will not serve another term on Mohawk Carpet's board of directors. Mr. Kolb did us the honor of stopping at our booth at Surfaces in 1996. I'll never forget it and how we talked for more than an hour. He was president at the time and later became board chairman before retiring in 2004. All of us throughout the Bane-Clene system extend our best wishes for a happy retirement to this friend and fine gentleman.

In 1983, J&J Industries became the first carpet mill to endorse the Bane-Clene system. J&J has just named Bill Crosley as corporate vice president of sales. His responsibilities will include selling efforts and the oversight of the commercial carpet brand, J+J Invision. Congratulations to Mr. Crosley who has been with J&J for more than 35 years.

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Attracting new business

A bulletin from an advertising advisory group on how to attract new customers suggested the creation of an eye catching, effective business card. They said the design should be based on the nature of the business and should use bright colors to attract attention. An unusual shape to make the card stand out was also part of their plan. That's good advice.

They get paid for it, too. As I read the more than 700 words on the subject, I realized that we've been using a card like this for more than 35 years. It's available for our Bane-Clene customers to use and it's very inexpensive considering that it's die-cut. As we get back to basics in these troubled political and financial times, sometimes we don't see the forest for the trees.

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Jimmie sez: "Happy St. Patrick's day!"

We're often asked about the origin of our leprechaun as the company logo. In 1969, my wife and I were in Florida and sent a St. Patrick's Day card featuring a leprechaun to her folks in Philadelphia. When we arrived in Indianapolis, the exact card was in our mailbox. At first we thought her folks had sent the card that we had sent to them. The identical card was addressed, signed and postmarked the very same day we had mailed their card from Florida.

We had been looking for a cartoon type character for our logo and this seemed to be a good omen. A commercial artist sketched a leprechaun for us; we liked it and named him "Jimmie" after Elizabeth's father. Jimmie's been mighty good to us all these years.

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Carpet's wild ride

This was sent to me by Dan Willis, manager of our service company in Indy. It's another view of what has caused carpet to drop in popularity. Dan is optimistic about carpet's comeback and here are his reasons:

Reading Floor Covering News recently brought back memories of my youth. In 1969 my dad worked for West-Point Pepperell as a Mill Rep in Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois and later for Cabin Craft, Galaxy and Patcraft. Our family car was a station wagon filled with carpet samples. People were covering hard floors as fast as carpet could be produced and sales were thriving thanks to new housing construction.

Why were people covering up those hard floors? Simply because wood and tile were slippery, cold and loud. Carpet was inexpensive compared to hard floors and shag carpet became popular because it was soft, fuzzy and warm. Have you noticed that the new word in the carpet industry this year is "soft?" And have you looked at the price of hard floors? These are signs that carpet is coming back. People are tiring of dust bunnies, scratches and noise.

The Baby-Boom generation wanted change from their parents’ carpeted homes so they bought hard floors. Now they're caught up in nostalgia and are looking for things that remind them of their childhood. As they age, they don't want to be shuffling around on noisy, hard, slick floors. And the Boomer's children want to break away from the hard floors of their parents' homes and are starting to seek the warm, quiet environment that belongs exclusively to carpet.

As an industry we've been putting a lot of time and effort into learning how to maintain all of the popular hard floors on the market. That's a good thing, but don't forget where we came from. We're carpet cleaners first and foremost and don't let our customers ever forget it. The tide is turning and we'll have more carpet to clean than hard floors at some point in the near future. Everything happens in cycles or trends.

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E-mail about bait and switch

Bill,

Just read the monthly newsletter and unfortunately in Nashville we have yet another of these fraudulent cleaners. It seems this person came into some money some time ago and can afford to keep buying new equipment, advertising, etc. to keep new customers coming in, but as is obvious, cannot get repeat customers.

After being found with numerous addresses for his business over the years, one would think the state would step in, but so far he is still feeding the same lies of "being sorry, and making things better," to the public. I cannot understand how he keeps IICRC certification after so many complaints. (This is just another reason most don't lend credibility to the IICRC).

Here are the links to local TV news special reports on this scam company.

www.wsmv.com/video?clipId=8466854&topVideoCatNo=213562&autoStart=true

www.newschannel5.com/story/21311778/bbb issues warning about carpet cleaning company

Maybe one day all these frauds can be weeded out and let the honest, hard working people do their jobs without unnecessary problems to battle such as these.

Roy Adams, Nashville, Tennessee

Thanks Roy. Every week I get stuff like this. It won't get better until the following list of MIA organizations make a concerted effort to get rid of BS. The list of scofflaws are ICS, CF, FCN, FCW, CRI, RIA, CFI, CCINW, NEIRC, NYRC, MSPCA, MCRA, LMCCA, CCII, TRSCA, SCRT, PACR, FIO, CRA, PACR and probably a few others I missed.

I call this mess of alphabet soup the DNPA. (Do Nothing Publishers and Associations.) Everyone making a living from carpet should put their shoulder to the wheel. BS causes carpet sales to slump and the carpet mills won't even try to help. Go figure!

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De - selecting* carpet

Thinking about the Charles E. Young School project the other day reminded me that many schools are going back to hard floors. But what really caused carpet to topple in popularity is another question. The carpet industry has some old problems that are hard to live down. I believe they're paying for them now.

Bad business practices have finally caught up with them. Shoddy installation is the worst offender. **Failure to power stretch caused seams to peak. In our service company in Indy we've seen bad installation jobs that have puckering ridges an inch high and up to eight inches wide running down the middle of a room. Some of these were caused by poor underlayment and its installation. They not only look bad, they can cause trip and fall accidents.

Both CRI installation standards and CFI's educational programs can't seem to find a cure for laziness and dishonesty. A few years ago, I paid full price at a local store for a big name brand and had new carpet put all through my home. The carpet looked nice, but I wasn't there when they put it down and within two years, every seam had peaked. They just kicked it in. When I went to complain, the retailer was out of business, so I had no recourse.

On the sales side, delivery schedules gone awry and warranty papers not being delivered have caused consumer discontent with carpet retailers. Product substitution, a variation of bait and switch, offends carpet buyers and should be a crime. But the worst culprit is the retailer who takes a deposit after filing bankruptcy and does not deliver the carpet. That really makes people angry and there have been many of these cases during this protracted recession.

Mills that produced fiber blends for economy rather than performance have left many ugly memories for the consumer. And they don't forget or forgive readily. Carpet makers' greedy preoccupation with the CRI's SOA program has attempted to profit from the sale of equipment and chemicals. Consumer complaints don't involve equipment, chemicals or methods used by professional cleaners. This fact causes me to doubt the validity of their testing program.

In cleaning and maintenance, bait and switch advertisers have caused more ill feelings toward carpet than any other cleaning related complaint. Consumers will stop "De - selecting" carpet when the whole industry starts treating them right and when cleaning industry associations finally tackle bait and switch advertisers.

* A term coined by CRI to explain the fall in carpet sales.

** Complaints found and researched in one year: Installation - 314, Sales - 253, Cleaning - 131. Professional cleaners' complaints were about bait and switch advertisers. Not one that I found mentioned a cleaning chemical, cleaning machine or cleaning method.

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Schools again

Dan Willis, manager of our service company, called me about a trade magazine Q&A on the cost of maintaining carpet in schools. Apparently none of those asking the questions were around in the late '90s when CRI took on a project of carpeting and maintaining the Charles E. Young School in Washington DC. Carpet, installation and maintenance for a year were donated.

If you still have the fall, 1999 issue of our Cleaning Digest® there is a story about Bane-Clene's participation in the project. It has the complete cost analysis of maintenance labor and material for the full year along with eye-opening comments by Ron Rhine, who did the work.

This issue is not on line. I'll try to get it posted soon on the Digest site. But the Winter issue of 2005, also has an article about cleaning carpets in schools and the Charles E. Young School project is mentioned, even though not in great detail. It is on line at:

www.baneclene.com/cleaning-digest/Winter2005.pdf

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In Memoriam

Jim Roden, of ProChem® fame, passed away in February after a battle with cancer. Jim was one of the pioneers of gasoline-powered truck-mounted carpet cleaning systems. I had the privilege of meeting him on several occasions and always thought of him as a fine gentleman.

Jim was in Philadelphia in 1977 at the SCCA meeting that ended the great steam controversy and that was the last time I remember seeing him. Our condolences to Jim's family and to all of the folks at ProChem. Our industry has lost a gentleman and an innovator.

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RIA® sues industry supplier

The Restoration Industry Association (formerly ASCR) has filed a federal suit in the state of Washington against Thermapure® to invalidate patents which have been used to sue RIA® members and other industry companies via "patent trolling," according to an RIA press release.

RIA says these suits are without merit because the patents involved assert claims that have been known industry standards for years. RIA has developed a strategy to stop the patent trolling. They claim it has a detrimental effect on RIA members and the entire restoration industry.

I hadn't heard about these suits until recently and am reminded of others like the "glide" litigation of a few years ago. In these trying times it might seem that the last thing we need in the industry is an outburst of legal gymnastics. On the other hand, GO RIA!

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