Saying Goodbye to Your Beloved Rug

Today, we made our last rug sales of 2010. A customer brought a 2 x 8 runner for us to clean. Her aunt who recently passed away had given her the rug a while back. Unfortunately, the rug was too dirty and stained to be worth cleaning. She ended up buying a higher quality brand new rug to replace the old one. We gave her a very good deal since she was our last customer of 2010. She told us to put her old rug outside for a homeless to take, but before we did that she asked us if she could talk to the rug. She told her aunt through the rug how appreciative she was of having the rug and being able to use it. She continued for couple of minutes and talked to the rug about other things. I found it very interesting that someone cared so much about a rug that she was having a hard time letting go.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085

Some of These Rug Customers!!!

We have a rug liquidation sale until September 14, 2009 with 50% 0ff on all rugs that we have in our store. One customer who finally bought a rug from us yesterday was insisting to get more discount! After I said that is impossible and by having 50% off we are losing money, she wanted to pay cash and get a 3% discount as we would not have to pay the fee to the merchant account provider and the credit card company. I also did not accept this. She paid cash and left. I was wondering why some customers are always asking for more discounts.

Khosrow Sobhe
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.rugidea.com
310-770-9085

Rug Buying and Selling in Los Angeles

Rug selling has become strange these days! Yesterday a couple came in and looked for a 5 x 8 black area rug. I showed them several pieces. The wife liked one medium quality, medium priced one and the husband liked a high quality area rug. They had discussions off and on. The lady mentioned that this rug was to be used for the entrance, therefore should not be expensive. The husband believed that the higher quality rug would look much nicer and would not curl and would not be mis-shaped after a while. Luckily, the husband was the winner. In most of the cases, wives would like to pay higher prices and spend more, but the husbands resist and give excuses. This case was different. They also bought a rug pad since their floor was tile and they should use the padding to keep the rug in its place. I gave them two doormats free of charge and as a gift so they do not wary about their expensive area rug getting dirty. They paid by credit card and the gentleman wanted to carry the rug. I said I would do it myself and put the rug in their brand new black Cadillac Scolade.

We have racks for 5 x 8 rugs. All of our rugs are labeled and tagged with price and specification. So our customers can trust us and make sure that we do not give them prices from the top of our heads by throwing something!

Yesterday, a lady called me in the morning regarding a runner she had for cleaning. It was water damaged by a pipe breaking in their house. I said we could take care of it. Do you want us to pick it up or you will bring it in? She said her husband would bring it to our rug gallery later during the day. The husband brought the runner around 5:00 pm. It was a completely wet hand knotted Chinese runner. The gentleman was a school principal in West Los Angeles. We became friends in minutes. He sat down for half an hour and we talked about everything, from politics to inflation and housing, and of course kids and parents. He complained about how some parents spoil their kids by paying too much attention to them and giving them expensive gifts they should not receive such as expensive cars!

We were relatively busy yesterday by receiving few rugs for cleaning from different customers who dropped off their rugs. One of the rugs was a hand knotted 9 x 12 feet Nepalese rug which belonged to a movie production company. The rug was very dirty with many stains on it. They use this rug for filming on the stage. If the stains do not come out by washing, we have to do expert stain removal by a repairman we have on site. I went home around 7:15 pm

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Hand Knotted Persian Gabbeh Rug, Area Rugs, Los Angeles Getting Cold

Usually I come to work around 8:00 to 8:15 am every day. On my store and on the Internet, I have posted 9:00 am as the start of my work, but I get to my work earlier. Today, a gentleman stopped by right after I opened my rug gallery and bought a 4 x 6 hand knotted Persian Gabbeh rug made with hand spun wool and natural dye.

During the past couple of days, we also sold one Afshar kilim, a flat weave with no pile and few area rugs. We also picked up and delivered few rugs for cleaning and repair. We have a repairman on site who does the repair and stain removal. We also do water damage and color run and color bleeding restoration. I work with three other repairmen when we are busy with more work load.

It has been cold in Los Angeles these days and it rained last night. You fell the spring, but should have a jacket and sweater with you not to get cold.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Rug Blog Helping you Buy a Rug

Yesterday, three different customers walked in to our rug gallery in different times. They all had one thing in common. They did not know the size of rug they needed. Customers and rug buyers should do their homework in regards with measurement. I have a 2-page rug buying tips. here is what I have written in this Oriental, Persian, and area rug buying tips when it comes to selecting the right size:

Choosing the right size is very important. Make sure to measure your room correctly before referring to any rug store. Get the maximum and minimum sizes you may want to cover to have a better choice by considering several rugs of different size ranges. Try to get standard size rug compared with odd sizes. The usual standard sizes in foot are: 3 x 5, 5 x 8, 6 x 9, 8 x 10, 9 x 12, 10 x 14, and 12 x 15. The standard width for runners of any length is 2' 6", although there are other widths as well.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Mothball Dispute, Area Rug Sale, Rug Cleaning and Repair, Tapestries

During the past couple of days, we were busy with selling area rugs, getting some Oriental carpets for cleaning and repair, and selling two tapestries. A customer had given us 13 rugs for cleaning and repair from Malibu, a very beautiful city close to Los Angeles. When the gentleman and his wife came in to pick up their rugs, they looked at few of them from the back and touched the face of the couple of the rugs. They liked the cleanness and softness of the rugs. I also showed them how we had fixed the fringes and had secured them in a way that the knots would not come off. They liked the way the fringes were secured. They said that they would like to store few of these rugs and do not want to use them for a while. I mentioned that we could do this and gave them a one page rug storage tips we had. They agreed that we do the packing. We did few hours of work yesterday, vacuumed each rug, took its digital high resolution photos and put mothballs inside each rug. We Rolled each rug and secured it with rope. Then we used special type of heavy duty paper since plastics of any kind is not good for the rug storage. We taped each rug and then printed the photo with the size and taped it to the rug with the care instructions. They could not believe how professional this job was done. We only charged them $20 for each piece. A couple of the pieces were big, but we charged them $20 per rug regardless of the size. It took us a full half day. I did not mind doing a first class job to please my customers.

The husband called me this morning around 8:30 complaining about the smell of the mothballs and said that I had promised to use undetectable mothballs without any odor. I did not have such a mothball and I had not promised to use something that I did not have. I told all this very nicely to the husband who seemed very angry over the phone. I was very nice to him and did not lose my temper at all. I believe it is my job to be nice to people and my customers. He said he would talk to his wife and would call me back. He called me back later and said he wanted me to take the mothballs out and I said I would be back in my store after 11:00 am. and toled him bring the rugs to our store.

The wife and the husband brought the rugs and I helped them bring the rugs inside our rug gallery. I said when do you want them back because I have to spend few more hours to open each package and unwrap it, open the ropes, spread the rug on the floor, vacuum the rug and take the mothballs out. Then wrap it and do the whole process again. I would have to charge you $100 for all seven pieces. The man got angry and shouted at me:"who do you think you are? You think you are from East LA (East Los Angeles)? I will make you do this for free. I have an attorney who is very expensive and he will make you do this and you will have to pay for that very expensive attorney. I told him nicely, politely and calmly that I have done my job once. To do the whole job all over again, I will need few hours of my time and a helper and materials and charging $100 for all this would not be a lot of money. He shouted at me again and talked about how his professional attorney would make me this job free of charge. I said OK sir, if this is what you think you should do, then I do not stop you. I helped him took the rugs inside his car and in the trunk and he and his wife left!! The man was so angry. I hope he gets home safely. Here I post the photos of the rugs in the packings with the photos and the instructions. I thought I did my job right, and did not promise something I could not deliver. I also tried to treat them nicely regardless of the nasty language and behavior of the husband.

KhosrowSobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085