Avoid Scams
Often you will see newspaper and Internet adds, promising you a complete air duct cleaning for an unreasonably low price. Can this be real? Are those deals too good to be true. As you will find out, in most cases it is.
Most scam operators take advantage of customer’s misunderstanding of the power requirements to clean a house. Scammers will come to your house with nothing but a portable vacuum cleaner with a single bag. Such machines are too weak to remove any dirt from your ducts.
Using such vacuum cleaners, the scammers will clean only the areas surrounding your vents to create the visibility of cleanliness, while leaving most of the ventilation system filthy. Do not allow this to happen!
If you want to know more about Air Quality and Health or how to Avoid Scams please check our resources page.
Other scammers use scare tactics to persuade customers to pay for services you do not need. They will make you think that your house is mold-contaminated, and will charge you thousands of dollars to clean up an nonexistent threat. Just watch this video to see how such scammers operate.
- Ask how long has the provider been in the HVAC system cleaning business.
- Ask if the service provider is bonded and has General Liability Insurance coverage.
- Ask the provider to supply you with at least 3 recent customer references.
- Make sure that a service provider conducts a thorough inspection of your system and alerts you to any problems PRIOR to performing any work
- Ask if the provider is giving you a guaranteed price before the inspection. This will protect you from extra costs. Finding mould in the system, damaged fibreglass insulation, cleaning or treating cooling coils may become add-on costs.
- Ask the contractor to provide you with a means to conduct a visual inspection at any time during the cleaning, such as mirror and flashlight, camera or other remote visual systems.
- Ask the provider if they will be cleaning the complete system, including coils and fans?
- Ask if the actual provider will do all the work. Some companies subcontract the work to independent contractors. If so, you will want to apply all of the guidelines above for the subcontractors as well.
