The purpose of this blog is to bring awareness to a situation that we have seen occurring for years, where consumers have been taken advantage of. These practices are unscrupulous and have no place in our service industry. Our local "competitor" won't be mentioned by company name as this is for informational purposes only. The company will be referred to as xyz. Our clients name will be changed to Jane to protect her identity.

 If you saw the picture above you would believe that these ducts have never been cleaned, or its been a long time since they were cleaned. What if I told you that Jane paid company xyz, over $1,300 dollars at her small ranch home about 3 months ago to clean her ducts? The story starts with Jane finding a coupon for what she thought was a very reasonable rate. She calls xyz, books an appointment and waits 1 month for her appointment. The day of the service, a person pulls up to her driveway in an unmarked mini van, an un uniformed man informing Jane that he was the air duct cleaner. Jane shows the xyz serviceman around the home. He later sets up a shop vac style machine with hose on it and starts cleaning. Later he returns and he tells Jane he has bad news. The cleaning would need an entire page of add-ons not covered by the coupon, and they were urgent. Her family and children would not be safe without the extra items not covered by the coupon as they are "major health deterrents" he tells her. Not knowing any better, not understanding the add-ons, and without time to hire another company Jane gives the go ahead on about $950 worth of  additional services.

Now its time for the cleaning. The serviceman turns on his vacuum and sends a small hose down the vents, blows air into the returns with the covers still on, blowing dirt and dust all over Jane's home. Jane recalls the man going room to room repeating this, then goes to the basement. 10 minutes after being in the basement he say "ok all done"! Wow after only one and a half hours he is done. When Jane questions if he was really done the man answers " well yea it is a very small house after all".  Jane had her doubts but paid and the man left. When her husband arrived, he pulled apart various vent and return covers which showed not much of anything had been accomplished. All the ducts were still dirty and the picture above is of the plenum located in the basement (taken by Specialty Air Ducts). They immediately called back xyz who sent another serviceman 3 weeks later. He "recleaned" everything. Another inspection revealed not much had changed. Jane called xyz again, this time demanding a refund. Management at xyz became very angry and unprofessional, claiming Jane was trying to rip them off! They stated they couldn't possibly refund her money due to many excuses, but they would do a partial refund and avoid the courtroom. At the end of it all, Jane paid to have no results and had to pay again to have it done right.

Jane then called Specialty Air Ducts and we were able to get the ducts cleaned properly the first time. Unfortunately we run into this scenario various times a year. We hope that putting a spotlight on this issue will help consumers make a more informed decision when choosing an air duct cleaning provider. A few tips to choosing the duct cleaner are:

1. A legitimate company will invest in professional and well identified service trucks.
2. Is the company licensed and insured?
3. Service providers who care about image will have uniformed technicians.
4. The technician should be able to explain the exact process to be performed before work is started.
5. Cleaning process. During the cleaning process all vents, returns, and plenums should be cleaned by sending agitation tools through the entire duct while the duct is under negative pressure vacuum pull. No dirt or debris should be visible during a visual inspection of the duct.
6. Equipment capable of properly cleaning air ducts.  No a shop vac hose shoved down a duct will not clean it.  No blowing air into the cover of a duct will not clean it. No you can not clean the plenum/ trunk lines by running a hose into the vents or returns. Yes an improper cleaning can cause more harm than not cleaning the ducts at all. Systems using a vacuum hose with a brush on the front can not possibly make it through all the bends in a duct system, and can cause major problems with certain duct systems.
7. Does the cleaning take 2 hours or less? If so, its is likely the service may not have been performed properly.
8. Does the duct cleaner offer a guarantee on the provided service?
9. Are they using scare tactics when proposing extra work?
10. Does the duct cleaner purposely use prices below the national average to get in the door, then raise the price exponentially?
11. Review in detail the reviews of the company your are considering hiring. Many times reviews will reveal issues with the service that you may otherwise not have know.

Remember, if a company shows up and you are not comfortable with what you see or hear, you are not obligated to continue. Sometimes spotting red flags and stopping this process at the door can be the best way to avoid "getting hosed".

For more information about our air duct cleaning processes and procedures, visit our faq page.