Beware of fraudsters!

Rug dealers have a bad reputation.

Beware of fraudsters: Dizzying discounts and endless closing-down sales have damaged the trade's standing. Plenty of dubious sellers try to win customers over with aggressive advertising and unrealistic prices.

We try to offer a counterweight to that. We run no closing-down events, no dubious sales, and we invent no discounts. What you get from us instead are fair, reasonable prices, all year round.

A relatively new field of activity for the fraudsters in our trade is rug cleaning and rug repair.

Here's how it works:

The supposed experts, with decades of experience in the third generation, rent a shop unit of about 20 m² in size with a back room, put a desk inside, lay out a handful of rugs, and they're ready to go.

Then the business is given a fine-sounding name, something like Düsseldorfer Teppichhaus, Teppichklinik or – borrowed from our own name – Teppichgalerie. The point of such names is to hide the fact that nobody is personally accountable.

Next come large, colourful adverts in daily papers or their supplements. They quote cleaning prices “from 6,90 € per m²” or a special discount this week of 50 % off all prices for the first five callers. On top of that there is, of course, a voucher worth 50 or 100 €.

Often, though, the fraudsters don't wait for a call at all: they ring potential victims out of the blue and stop at nothing!

Sadly, our own good name is exploited in the process more often than you'd think.

More and more of our customers tell us, sadly, that they've had a call from a son, brother or cousin of our Zomorrodi family, or from one of our staff.

Then an absurd story is spun, often one in which our father has fallen seriously ill and money is urgently needed for his treatment.

Because we have known some of you, our dear customers, for many decades and enjoy an extremely good relationship with you, it happens again and again that kind-hearted, trusting customers genuinely want to help – and fall victim to the fraudsters.

These devious stories exploit the good relationship we have with our customers, do serious damage to our reputation and that of the entire trade, and not seldom leave losses running into the high four figures.

At this point, one very important note:

We would never simply call you out of the blue unless it has been expressly agreed, for example in connection with an order!

If you are unsure, play it safe and call us back yourself to make certain you really are speaking to us and not to a fraudster posing as part of our company.

Our telephone number is: 0211 82 82 882

Here is how a possible scenario unfolds in detail:

The workers then turn up at your home, always at least two of them, and take away the rug to be cleaned or repaired. Naturally there is no written order confirmation with binding prices, details of the work or the company's name and address, and cash is the only form of payment accepted.

When the cleaned or restored rug is brought back, the nasty surprise follows, because now it is time to pay up. 3.000 € or considerably more is no exception, supposedly because the rugs were so dirty and additional work was needed. Unnecessary and never-agreed moth-hole repairs, waxing the rug, a lustre wash or moth-proofing are also routinely given as flimsy justifications for these astronomical prices.

People selling hand-made rugs whose value they do not reliably know also very often fall into the hands of fraudsters.

A classic example is an inheritance that includes hand-made rugs. As a rule you are no rug expert, but years ago you either paid a lot of money for them yourself or were told over and over how valuable they were supposed to be.

Unfortunately, prices for hand-knotted and hand-woven rugs have fallen dramatically. Decades-old certificates and invoices therefore carry virtually no weight today, yet they are a gift to the fraudsters.

Because that is precisely the nerve the fraudsters strike, exploiting the wishful thinking that the rugs are still, or now more than ever, worth a small fortune.

Self-styled experts attach completely fanciful prices to the rugs. The prediction then follows that each piece will go under the hammer at the firm's in-house auction with a starting bid of 25.000€. But a hammer price three to four times higher is said to be expected.

First, of course, the rugs have to be cleaned and reconditioned – at utterly disproportionate prices, needless to say!

Given the high sale-price forecast, still a supposedly good deal...

In most cases you never see the rugs or the supposed rug experts again. Or, contrary to all the promises, the rugs still cannot be sold years later and you are left with the wildly inflated costs.

Fortunately, the media are now covering this phenomenon more and more.

We have put together a selection of reports on the subject here:

How do you tell a reputable rug dealer or provider of rug cleaning and rug repair from the rest?

Not everyone out there is a bad apple, of course. We have listed a number of criteria that make it easy for you to spot the reputable providers on the market.

A business known locally for many years
Clear fixed prices in line with the market on every order confirmation and invoice
Never pay in advance
Rely on recommendations from friends and family wherever you can
No heavy-handed groups of several men collecting or delivering the goods
No enquiries about gold, jewellery, fur coats or the like
Don't let anyone talk you into paying cash; pay by bank transfer and ask for a receipt
Never hand over rugs on consignment