A few weeks ago, I got a press release from the people who handle the PR for Rug Doctor, so I got in touch and asked if they had any review opportunities available. When we moved into this house our landlord, who was in full possession of the facts that:
a) We have a dog
b) We have a pre-school child
c) The ONLY means of entry to the garden is through the French doors in the lounge…
…took this information and installed a BEIGE carpet. I know, right?
Anyway, In terms of review opps, Rug Doctor couldn’t have been better suited to us (other than, say, a Mediterranean cruise that allows you to bring children, dogs and hamsters with you), so I was thrilled when they said yes and we received our voucher a few days ago. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect because we bought a new sofa last week and it’s being delivered today, so we got rid of our old ones yesterday and had 24 hours in which to clean the carpets before the new furniture arrived.
Simple, yeah? Er….no.
First thing yesterday morning, I collected our Rug Doctor carpet cleaner and 1l of cleaning solution from a local shop called ‘Exclusiv Cleaners’, brought it home, followed the instructions, fired it up, cleaned two strips of carpet and then: nothing. The machine (which, incidentally, was still full of dirty water and had a filter so thick with filth that I had to spend half an hour cleaning it before we could use it) stopped working. No spray coming out at all. We checked the troubleshooting sheet that came with the machine and didn’t find a solution, so we rang the hire shop who said we could bring it back for a replacement.
We took the first machine back and got a second one, which looked far newer and cleaner, much to our delight. We got it home, re-read the instructions and started to fill the machine. As I was pouring in the solution, Husband said “Be careful, you’re sploshing it”. I could see from the angle I was at that I hadn’t spilt any, so I stopped pouring and noticed that water was just pouring out of the machine. Two minutes later, and our kitchen floor had about 4 litres of water sloshing around it. Husband took the machine outside to look at it, while I mopped up and he saw that the plate on the bottom of it was loose, leaving a gap for the water to come out of.
A third phone call to Exclusiv and the very apologetic lady said we could have our voucher back and go elsewhere. Still, we’d used two lots of our bottle of cleaner, which was now wasted, and she wouldn’t replace that. Our next move was to phone B&Q, our other local retailer, to see if they had any machines free to rent. They do, they said, but they don’t have any solution in and don’t know when they’ll be getting any in.
So, this morning will consist of taking the faulty machine back, collecting a THIRD machine and hoping that a) it works and b) we’ve got enough solution left to finish cleaning the carpet.
While I love getting a freebie for a review, I dread to think how much all of this to-ing and fro-ing has cost me in time, effort and petrol. Providing the next machine works, I’ll be back with a review of the actual performance of Rug Doctor over the weekend.
Wish me luck!
(Disclaimer: For the purposes of this review, we were given a 24hr rental voucher for a Rug Doctor carpet cleaner and a 1l bottle of cleaning solution. All opinions are my own and in no way influenced by receipt of goods)
Sounds like a complete nightmare!