Cardinal Chem-Dry

WAY TOO EXPENSIVE!!! was told there was a deal for $ 250 for 1000 sq ft. That was presented to me as $ 350.00. Plus $ 150 for the stairs + 150.00 for spot treatment + 250.00 for this and another $ 150 for that. When all was said and done it was a grand total of $ 1500.00!!! For one small living room, set of stairs, and three bedrooms. They did not offer to move any furniture so the carpets are only partially clean. AND, they broke a mirror! The man was very informative and had lots of reason WHY I needed all the things her did but $ 1500!!! JEEZ WHAT A RIP OFF!!! I feel stupid for saying yes! NEVER AGAIN!

Job was adequate at best. Coupon for $ 99 and they nickel and dime for everything else. I don’t think they should consider themselves a carpet cleaning company, they are good for spot cleaning as the methods they use are designed for that. They boast of being lower than the average but they do not do the job that the guys who charge a higher price are doing. This company might not be what you are looking for. Two stars at best.

I made mistake of not familiarize myself with how they clean carpets. It isn’t the steam method that I anticipated. They lightly spray chemical and use a buffer of sorts for the 69 livings social special. If want more there is an up sell.

I thought I’d give them the benefit of the doubt since most reviews were well over a year old, don’t waste your time. I hired them to clean our carpets and home after moving out of a rental. The cleaning job was ok, but not great and not what I would expect from a move out cleaning. Baseboards weren’t completely dusted and neither were other areas. When it came time to the carpet cleaning, they were extremely pushy and flat out tried to bully me into purchasing a more expensive service by telling me they’d document that I didn’t want them deep cleaning the rugs on my receipt so my property manager would know. Completely unprofessional. The work was not great. I could have done better had I rented a Rug Doctor and done it myself. I also asked 3 times for a cleaning receipt and 2 times for a carpet cleaning receipt. Still no receipts. Save yourself the time and hassle, hire another company or do it yourself.

WHAT A TOTAL RIP-​OFF!!! So let me start by saying that although the voucher states up to 750sq the guy comes and tell you that is more «the areas covered’ and not up to the 750 sq. my areas were much smaller than that and he stated that he could not covered them all. So then he goes on to try to upsale the services for about 20 minutes and at that point my husband said «look man just provide us with the services listed in the voucher.
I’m bit kidding when I tell you that he did the basement in exactly 8 minutes… What??? How is that even possible??? I went to see the final product and the carpet look exactly the same just wet. I mean what type of services is he in??? How can a person charge $ 69 for 8 minutes of services??? Needless to say that I contacted specialicious and asked for a refund for the second voucher which obviously after seeing this decided not to use. I usually look at the reviews but fail to do that for this one!!! Then I noticed everyone else had the same complaint… What a scam!!!

Purchased Living Social deal for $ 70, but when they arrive they tell me it will be another $ 100 to clean the «spots and heavily walked on areas». Seriously? Isn’t that what «carpet cleaning» is? No, he says. I.e. It only covers areas that AREN’T dirty.
Then he asks if he can park his truck in my driveway. «Fine,» I say. «The parking is free, but where the wheels touch are $ 25 each.»
Like everyone else says, the Living Social deal was just a scam to find a way to charge the full price anyway. Unfortunately the intended purpose of Living Social is to create repeat customers… a concept they clearly don’t understand.
Save yourself and don’t hire them even once.

The living social coupons are essentially worthless. $ 70 for 750 square feet or three areas. Not rooms … areas. So theoretically, you can have one room but have it deemed to contain more than one area (e.g. well, this area on this side of the room is a dining area, while this area on this side of the room is more a living room kind of area). I have about 600 or 650 square feet of carpet in a one-​bedroom apartment which contained at least 7 areas (3 closets, hallway between main room and bedroom, bedroom, main room subdivided into living area and dining area). Unfortunately, I did not realize this distinction until after purchasing but stuck with it due to an inability to cut my losses.
Unfortunately, Cardinal does not provide a price list on its website, so I have no way to gauge how they determined the additional fees for cleaning. Some of their competitors (e.g. Chemdry of Arlington) do provide a per-​square-​foot pricelist. Considering how round the quoted numbers were, I assume that they were just being arbitrarily assigned.
Then came the hard sell for upgraded service such as a eraser cleaning and protective coating.
So the final price came to $ 200 for the upgraded service and that’s post-​coupon. I had already essentially lost ½ a day of work to meet the Chemdry staff and didn’t want to do this all over again with another vendor, so I bit. Plus, I was already in it for the $ 70 coupon. I agreed to the upgrades and only have myself to blame for that … but let’s just say that there is a lot of buyer’s remorse. A lot.
Based upon the cost charged for such a relatively small space, I think I am better served buying a high-​end steam cleaner from Home Depot (their top Hoover model runs about $ 240) and just doing it myself. I know that Chemdry does the whole song and dance about the dangers of steam (e.g. trapped moisture and mold) but after this instance I’d rather go my own way.

Like many of you, I purchased a Specialicious deal for carpet cleaning ($ 69 for 3 rooms/​750 square feet). I wish I had read these reviews before buying it. The representative was nice enough and explained the job beforehand, but we feel cheated. If I hadn’t already invested $ 69 into the voucher, I would have asked the rep to leave.
My husband and I measured out the rooms beforehand, but the rep was firm and indicated that the ‘room’ that I wanted cleaned classified as ‘multiple’ rooms. He wound up cleaning our family room (266 sq ft) and two sections of carpet that would maybe be the size of a large rug.
The rep was heavy on the upsell; his explanation of their services took more time than the actual cleaning (granted — by the time he cleaned the tiny bits of carpet, I’m not surprised). I was expecting to use only my voucher, but he said that only ‘heavy-​duty’ cleaning would get the stains out. I was really surprised b/​c the staining didn’t look that bad to me. So, their heavy-​duty solution costs $ 75. Then, he said that the product won’t last unless I put a protectant to ‘seal’ the product in. There goes another $ 100.
The bottom line is that if you’re expecting to pay $ 69 to get your carpets cleaned, you’re sorely mistaken. It’s really more like $ 252 — which is what I paid (voucher + those extras). It’s really not a deal at all. Had I known their true bottom line (that their normal solution doesn’t really get out any type of stain at all and that their product is worthless without a sealant), I never would have purchased the deal and dealt with this company.

Just redeemed Living Social coupon to «let Cardinal Chem-​Dry come to the rescue with a carpet cleaning for three areas — up to 750 feet». They just left. WOW. They spent more time trying to upsell me than they did cleaning carpet. The actual area they cleaned was abot 150sq feet. They said the area cleaned was 3 areas; a landing that leads to 3 bedrooms. They cleaned this and poked the machine into two bedrooms and that was it, three «areas» and done.
I have to admit the the carpet technician was very nice, informative and knowledgeable. He was honest about the limitations of the service and the results I could expect.

Looks like everyone on here disliked their Living Social deal, including me. So that didn’t work out too well for them for long term business prospects.
Everyone else spelled it out but the bottom line is they try to up-​sell you on an «eraszor» chemical clean ($ 70) then a $ 80 protectant treatment. Those may be great but if you stick with the basic package you simply get what appeared to be a buffer machine run over your carpet which utilized cold water and in no way seemed to clean anything — it doesn’t suck anything up and out… our carpet looks exactly the same.
We went on a walk once they had everything set up and after a ~6 minute trip around the neighborhood they were already packed up and leaving (I’m not exaggerating). Waste of money.

Pro
The phone call for my business was received well and they were quick to set an appointment and even called as promised before they arrived. The tech was nice and detailed in his explanations of what his products do and what he recommends.
Cons
The tech that spoke English wanted to see the place and discuss the options after looking around. I got off to a quick start of asking them what they planned on charging me and for what services they intended to perform. Right off the bat there were upsells and even the agreed 99.00 special rate was argued to no avail along with other valid offers I mentioned in my call and printed out.
I admit my carpets were in bad shape to begin with and I had hoped there would be a way to improve them but this was certainly not it.
Pay attention to the fact they use the word AREA vs room and things like that!
They wanted to upsell several options even after basically admitting my carpets were hopeless. They were over priced and I just about cancelled right on the spot.
I moved my own furniture and they basically spent seconds on any one area.
Put a dry mop head on a floor waxer — spray some chemicals — that don’t seem to do much «cleaning» «sanitizing» or even smell good and go over the carpets for less then 30 minutes and ask for 150. 200 … 300 bucks and you’ll be working for Cardinal Chem-​Dry.
My advise. Call around and get a real estimate not some bs promo to get a foot in the door.
Your better off going to Target and buying your own Bissell at these prices. At least that way you can actually get some of the dirt of your carpets.

This was a waste of $ 69 and the time we spent moving furniture in preparation for the cleaning. I would be very upset if we’d paid more. They spent no more than 15 minutes cleaning and all of the stains in our carpet still look exactly the same.

Tried to use Living Social Deal. They (Cardinal) make up too many rules and leave out too many details. For example, it’s not an appointment it’s a window of time. They don’t tell you this until you call to see if you have been forgotten– this is very important when you have other obligations. They also insist on having the deal printed out though the deal and Living Social no less than twice say display on phone OR print. Hope they enjoy my $ 59 last money they will ever get from me. Go out a business already.

I, too, purchased the Specialicious Deal for «$ 69 for Carpet Cleaning for Three Areas (Up to 750-​Square-​Feet) from Cardinal Chem Dry ($ 322 Value).» I would be VERY upset if I had paid over $ 69 for this service. Making the appt was fine. I asked about stairs and was told they would be $ 3 a piece, that was fine. i also had scheduled far enough in advance to get an 8am appt, first one of the day, however, the guys didn’t show up until after 10:30 once I had already called the office wondering where they were.
They did not introduce themselves, tried to up-​sell the pet stain treatment for an additional $ 200 and then add in an extra stair for and extra $ 3. I was told a chemical needed to be put down and soak for 4 days and then they would come back to clean it next week. This was after he told me the carpet looked good and wouldn’t be too hard to clean.
They refused to show me the BLACKLIGHT as advertised on the website and just laughed anytime I asked about anything I had seen advertised.
Luckily, I can, multiply and didn’t have to pay for the extra «ghost stair» and did not have my hopes up too high.
The attempt to up-​sell took longer than the cleaning. They used a buffer (like used for wood floors) to put chemicals on the carpet and now it will take 4 hours to dry.
I am going to go over the areas with a steam cleaner to remove any residue before my dog and son play in the areas.
I got what I paid for and will never use ChemDry again.
Lesson learned, do some research before buying what seems to be a decent deal.

This is the ABSOLUTE WORST COMPANY. I purchased a living social deal for «Cleaning up to 750sq feet» I fully read through the entire deal and it says nothing about stairs not being included. The only carpet in my house is two flights of stairs, that don’t even equal 750 sq ft. so they are in fact making more money off me! They do not even deserve the one star I was forced to give them!
I called the first time and attempted to make an appointment. The man on the phone was very rude and told me I would have to pay $ 3 for each stair! I explained about the voucher. he said it was their policy and I was wrong. He asked if he could call me back, and he never did.
I called again this AM and spoke to Rody Rogers, one of the owners. Again, I explained to him the poor service I had received on the phone. He did NOT care one bit. said the same thing the other man had said. Rody explained again that I was wrong and that I would have to pay. When I told him that they failed to explain their limitations in the deal with LS, he said that was untrue and that EVERYONE knows that stairs are not included! WHAT! Rody refused to budge and honor the voucher for which I paid. He said he needed to make money and doing stairs for ‘free” would not be good for his business!!!
ARE YOU KIDDING ME! Rody and this company clearly do not know that you need customers to make money! I will NEVER use this company, I will make sure that non of my friends or family ever use them. and I warn every person who reads this, NOT TO USE THEM!!!
I have also submitted a claim with the BBB against them for their customer service and also the misleading and un-​factual information provided in their service claims.
*** NOTE: Living Social is wonderful and gave me full refund for this deal.

Just had my carpets cleaned; I got the Living Social deal, $ 69 for up to 750 sq ft.
They came on time. The guy that came to the door was friendly, introduced himself and his partner, and then did an inspection of the areas to be cleaned. Introduced me to some of the products they offer but no hard sales pitch. He was honest with me as far as expectations go, that the areas were pretty soiled and that they would do their best to be as thorough as possible. One room looks good while the other looks cleaned, but not great.
Was a little put off by a couple of things: when I made the appointment, the guy I talked to told me the cleaners would move the furniture; however, when the guys arrived, there were a number of things they’re «not allowed» to move. For example, TV’s are off-​limits, as well as litterboxes (ours is stored in a wood box to keep the dogs out, so it’s too heavy for me to move). I do feel like I should have been told to just move everything except the couches when I made the appointment. Also, they do not vacuum before cleaning the carpets, so the guy had to borrow mine. He didn’t mind doing it, but had I known I would have before they got there.

I also purchased a Living Social Coupon and had what ended up being a positive experience. I knew the limit was 3 spaces of up to 750 square feet. I called beforehand to inquire about the cost of doing stairs and what constituted a space. I was told that if the space is smaller, they will often include an attached hallway as part of a space. When the team arrived, much like with Angel, there was a lot of upselling by a fast-​talker! I opted for part of what they recommended due to the high-​traffic area where they were cleaning. They told me the third space would add to my bill so I declined and let them go with what they suggested. It was quick and my carpets looked great. They told me the high-​traffic area would continue to lighten as it dried.
After they left, I started thinking about the space and looked at my bill. They had included my «foyer» as the third space. The foyer and hall are all the same space, lust a little L-​shaped and take up all of 50 square feet. Add that to the 15×15 room they had done and we were nowhere near the 3 spaces at 750 sq. ft.
I left a message and Omar, the owner, called me back. After some discussion, Omar agreed to send the guys back to clean the third space at no charge to me. We talked about the fact that this is not profitable for him, but he wanted to ensure I was satisfied as a customer. I really appreciated that as many of the coupon deals end up being, you get what you paid for.

While the results are satisfactory the experience was not. The workers showed up and immediately pushed extra chemicals that would cost additional money, more than the cost of the original cleaning. I felt bullied. Then, when they were «finished» they hadn’t moved any simple furniture to clean underneath it. I understand not moving an entire entertainment center but a couch and end table? Cmon guys…
After calling the company and getting some brush off from the manager (acted like I didn’t know what I was talking about) he finally apologized and said he would talk to his guys. He then asked what he could do for me, but as a manager you should offer something. I felt enough like a pain calling to complain and shouldn’t have to ask for him to make it right.

This company has some pretty bad reviews on Unilocal but my experience was not a bad one. I purchased a Living Social deal for $ 69, which included 3 rooms up to 700 square feet total. I knew what I was buying so there was no confusion when the team arrived. Yes, they did attempt an upsell for special services but I declined.
The service was very quick (15 mins max), and their cleaning methods did not get the padding wet so the carpet dried in a few hours. I like speed and convenience. While the carpet was drying it was difficult to determine if it would make a difference. But now a couple of weeks have passed and I have since vaccumed twice and the carpet looks awesome! I’ve had the carpets cleaned professionally before b/​c of a heavy duty pet stain. The last company worked diligently to remove the stain but my carpet is very light and the stain would just not lift. However, the stain seems to be gone after this last treatment and I just stuck to the basic treatment (no extra pet stain removers).
Two things I do want to mention. Their machine has a mop type buffer. I do sorta wonder how many houses that buffer has been used in. The other thing is that on the Living Social deal it was mentioned that the normal cost for the service I received is $ 300+ but I would never pay that much for 700 sq ft of space. But, all in all, they did a good job.

Save your money! I had a HORRIBLE experience with this company!
They duped me into paying $ 500 for a stain removal guarantee service, which in the end they NEVER finished, leaving several applications worth of chemical ON my carpet (Note: they carelessly tracked this chemical allll through my house, across my new cherry wood flooring too, which was nice to clean up every time they came by.). When I called Omar to beg him to (at the very least) get all the chemicals off of my carpet for the sake of my baby, he basically explained that their guarantee, really wasn’t a guarantee at all, and that he would only come clean up all the chemicals AFTER I shelled out yet ANOTHER $ 50! When I asked for Ms. Vargas’s (the owner) contact info, Omar refused.
BUYER BEWARE!!!
Don’t be fooled like I was. I was convinced I was saving money because they had told me upfront «they would come back until the job was done,» which was NOT the case at all. I ended up having to hire a carpet company to come out and install new padding so that my baby wouldn’t have to play on chemical infused carpet. I will NEVER use this company again!
Terrible company, no ethics, awful customer service!
Sadly I found out they received an F rating with the BBB, AFTER I wasted my money.
Read up before you write those checks people! Or you’ll only end up spending more to have someone ELSE FIX (and possibly replace) what these people leave behind.
BBB Link and co info:
Customer Complaint History
Rating of F
Reasons for this rating include:
Failure to respond to complaints filed against business