I have been getting too many callbacks just recently for reappearing stains.
I am using OP and what I thought was not too much water... using enough to loosen the stains and get them to move. I usually make one pass with a regular sprayer from Agway set on fine spray. When sprayed on a solid surface as a test, it just makes a thin and incomplete covering of moisture. Also I use a couple of spritzes of spotter and a scrub brush before the OP.
Just had a customer call me after a month saying the stains were starting to reappear (the carpet was almost dry when I left at the time of cleaning).
What gives? Is this par for the course? I am going back to remove wickback with no questions asked, but its unnerving.
My business has picked up, cleaning more rugs. Maybe this explains the pickup in wickback also?
Maybe your "just one pass" is insufficient to remove whatever the spot or stain in composed of. You may need to do multiple passes in such situations. I have continued to experiment with the FiberPlus pad as a pre-scrubber in situations where spotting is significant. I may pre-scrub 2 or 3 rooms in succession, allowing some so-called "dwell time" to occur, them go back through these rooms with absorbent pads. This double process can take longer than the single-pass approach, but I can't remember the last time I had a callback.
Multiple passes, dwell time, scrubbers. OK, thanks. I will try it.
The callbacks were all associated with "poured-thru" spills. I just visited two of them since posting this question. They were not really bad, and I was surprised that the customers called me back once I saw them.
It's also possible that I just had a series of customers with unrealistic expections - that carpet cleaners can make all carpets look like brand new. I hope that's it.
Also, if I suspect trouble, I tell the customers, "Don't hesitate to call me if you have a problem."
I think I will rephrase that so that its a "fallback plan" rather than a cordial invitation.
I did have a callback a while ago where I left a set of stairs in "freshly installed" condition. Upon revisiting, I was amazed at how well a job I did. I did tell the customer that I couldn't see any dirt whatsoever, or even any signs of wear. I took all my restraint not to tell this customer that they were having hallucinations.
Hah! I have more to report on this, and I think that its important that I do.
So I revisited all 4 of the callbacks that I had this month. One was for tile so it doesn't apply here.
Two of them were actual wickback to a very small degree, and I was not ashamed of the jobs when I saw them. The customers were pretty picky, and the wickback was minute considering the large spills.
On the fourth one, the call was about a permanent stain that I could not remove either originally, or on the callback. This stain was so light that you could only see it in full sunlight when looking from one direction only.
In conclusion, the Challenger OP method is not at fault here. I had a run of bad luck and picky customers. And since I do encourage customers to pick up the phone if they have any concerns, they did call me.
