Five scams,
and how to spot them.

It is the textbook definition of bait and switch, which is illegal under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. The advertised number is not a price — it is the cost of getting a salesperson into your living room, where the actual selling happens after you have moved furniture and taken time off work.

No. Most of these products are fragranced and sticky by design and are applied at the end of the job with nothing to remove them. Sticky residue attracts and holds soil — and it makes sand stick to the wear surface of the fiber, which is where it does the most damage. The FTC has cited carpet companies for misrepresenting free goods and services going back to the 1970s.

With us, up to 15 by 15 feet, and a staircase counts as one room. Elsewhere the definition is the most common place a quote quietly grows — consumer reporting documents linen closets, hallways and foyers each being billed as separate rooms.

Because the low advertised price was designed to get them there. Consumer reporting consistently finds final bills at several times the advertised figure, and the practice is disproportionately aimed at elderly homeowners who feel pressured by someone already inside the house.

There are only three places the money can come from. They dilute the pre-spray so it is too weak to release oils. They skip the acid rinse, leaving the carpet alkaline and sticky so it resoils within weeks. Or they skip protector entirely. Usually all three. The chemistry for a whole house costs more than the advertised price by itself.