J.L. Carpet and Upholstery — Local services in New York

I had 4 Moroccan rugs and 1 wool pile rug picked up and cleaned and I have mixed feels:

Pros: Communication was great, scheduling was easy. When I had an issue, they were quick and to fix it with an explanation. Everyone I interacted with was lovely. Prices were reasonable and weren’t much higher than cheaper option.

Cons: I’m not actually sure my rugs were cleaned after two rounds of picks ups and drop offs. I had them picked up, cleaned, and delivered once. Upon unwrapping them the first time I noticed none of them had been cleaned - still extremely dusty and even had an easily removed sticker attached from my movers. It looked like they were tagged, rolled up, and put in plastic bags without being touched by even a vacuum. I complained and they apologized and scheduled a second round of pick ups for cleaning for free (great!). I just got the rugs back again and I can’t actually tell if they were cleaned. They have less dust on them but my vaccum is still picking up a lot. They don’t really smell like anything which I guess is good but the pile rug still has some staining on the edges that I thought would be easy to get out by professional. Not enough to deal with the whole process of pick up and drop off again.

Everyone was super nice so I feel guilty about my somewhat negative experience but I went with JL because they seemed professional and legit over a cheaper option and now I’m not sure if that was the correct choice and don’t want to pay another $1k to find out....

JL Carpet and Upholstery ruined a very expensive chair and will accept zero responsibility (see picture below). Please do not let this happen to you. Be wary of the previous positive reviews. I wish I had been. JL carpet came to clean and try to remove a small 1.5 inch stain on the arm of one of my very expensive chairs. The first technician created stripes all over the chair so the owner, Jarred, came back to fix the “mistake” as he called it. Jarred’s attempt to “fix the mistake” turned my beautifully dark grey viscose velvet chair to silver with line marks all over that do not come out. It is completely ruined. It is one of two chairs- so I have the other chair to compare it to. The untouched chair remains dark grey just as I purchased it. And the “cleaned” chair is now bright silver with line marks all over it. I now need to have the chair completely reupholstered and Jarred will accept zero liability. Whatever work Jarred’s company did on my chair irrefutably and irreversibly ruined the fabric. Don’t let this...

I ordered a beautiful yet shockingly stinky rug on Etsy. Hoping it could be salvaged, I called around to a few local rug cleaners at noon on a Saturday to get a quote. Not only did Jarred answer my call, he came to my apartment that same afternoon. With only a moment’s inspection he was able to tell me the rug’s entire history (hand-repaired fringe, sun-fade, rose over-dye, etc.) Then, in order to diagnose the smell, he buried his whole face in the rug and inhaled it like it was a spring bouquet (I gagged, but he was totally composed). He did a good job managing my expectations as to what a cleaning would and wouldn’t change (for example, it wouldn’t make the rug more ivory, and it may not get out 100% of the “funk”.) Finally, he sent me a PDF quote within 24 hours. All this was FREE. I didn’t ultimately use his services because I sent the rug back, but I will be Jarred’s loyal...