I ordered the “air duct clean package 15 vent including the dryer vent w/ furn&ac coil inspection” from this company on December 3rd from Groupon.
After placing the order on Groupon I called the InLine Home Services to redeem and schedule the vent cleaning. If you are in a rush to get your vents cleaned you are out of luck. The earliest appointment they had was at the end of February. Almost three months later.
The cleaning work is done by vacuuming each vent and they drill some holes into your duct to blow in air and then vacuum out the duct. If your basement is finished like mine, and the duct is covered up they cannot blow any air in. Instead they just vacuum the vents and blow air in near the furnace. I had a few ceiling vents and return vents that are screwed on. These were not removed.
When the tech arrived they were nice and friendly but were very persistent in upselling items. They said my furnace and air-condition need a tune up and cleaning and that would be $150 each. They also said that my duct had a lot of dust in them because of a recent construction project and required being brushed clean for an additional $100. I refused all these.
They whole process lasted only 30 minutes but it will take us several days to clean the house from all the dust.
When I called the company to complain about this they were very rude and said that the dust was caused because I didn’t agree to have the furnace and duct cleaned. I asked why they hadn’t mentioned that my house would be filled up with dust before the work started. They mentioned that the inspection was done after they started and really didn’t give a good answer.
To make a long story short don’t use this company or let them in your house to clean the vents.
1. Very unprofessional. They asked if they need to take their shoes off. If it is snowing outside a professional company would have come with plastic covers for their shoes.
2. Very pushy to upsell.
3. Did not mention that my house would be completely full of dust. If I had known I would have not let them do any work.
Don’t do what I did, read up on the company first and go with one that is more reputable. Please read this link. It will explain the benefits of a finding a proper company that does an inspection first and not leave your house full of dust:
http://www.thestar.com/business/personal_finance/2013/03/31/is_duct_cleaning_worth_it.html
- Approximate cost of services:
- $120.00
- Company Response
Hi There,
I apologize for the wait on having your ducts cleaned, however we are very busy all year round when booking appointments. Due to our Groupon promotion we had a large amount of sales which led us to be over-booked with up-coming busy months of scheduled services. To address your concerns, I completely understand your frustration and I am very sorry to hear that you had a unpleasant experience with us. Please try to understand the procedures and protocols of this situation. One of which is the air-intake vent covers that are located on the walls of the home, these are not to be removed as it is difficult to remove and will cause damage to the wall and paint, for this reason we take it as a protocol to not damage a persons home and treat it with care. I can assure you that we have respected hired professionals including our technicians and representatives who are all hard-working, well mannered and dedicated individuals. Respect is always given to our staff, customers, and their homes. As for the dust in your home, the reason why you have experienced dust residue is due to that there was presently a large amount of dust and dirt build-up in the furnace and A/C unit. Our technicians explained to you the inspection and how important it was to have it cleaned, it was highly recommended to you but you had declined. As you can imagine to leave behind a large amount of built up dust and dirt in the furnace and A/C unit will result to a less efficient cleaning as well as excessive dust left over. Please understand that the furnace and A/C units are the main units that control the ventilation through out the home therefore it is very important that the maintenance of those units are regularly kept up to date with cleaning and tune-ups to ensure a more effective cleaning. There are many benefits of cleaning your furnace and A/C unit including a more healthier and breathable home, cleaner vents, the furnace and A/C will perform more powerfully and efficiently, etc. Our company always treats our customers and their homes with diligence and we only want the best for our customers. Thank you for your feedback and concerns, we will be addressing these to improve our practices. Once again, sorry for the inconvenience and have a pleasant day!