Ocean Air Care cold-called me; offered to replace the bulbs in my UV germicidal air cleaners for $55 each; and offered to clean my air ducts and filters for free.
When the men ("Tom" and an assistant) arrived at my house, they disavowed all knowledge of the prices quoted to me over the phone. They told me the bulbs would cost $75 each (not $55) and the duct and filter cleaning would cost $160 (not free). They also told me my ducts were heavily damaged by rats and needed to be replaced to the tune of about $3000.
When I explained that the prices they were quoting were quite different from those quoted over the phone a few days earlier, they demanded to know the name of the person I had spoken with. As I had been cold-called, and had no recollection of the person ever giving his name, I of course was unable to provide a name.
After a while, when it was clear they did not intend to perform any work unless I agreed to their upselling efforts, I asked them to leave.
The next day, I was called by "Ronnie" (a woman) who claimed to be following-up on my service call "to make sure everything was done to my satisfaction." I assume that Ronnie knew full-well that no work whatsoever had been done and she was just calling to get a second bite at the apple.
I explained what had happened. She actually admitted that, yes, I had been quoted $55 for the bulbs and duct and filter cleaning for free and said that Tom had quoted me the wrong prices because of an "oversight" on the paperwork. She was quite insistent that I allow them back in the house to complete the work at the original prices, but, obviously, at this point I wanted nothing further to do with them and I asked them to take me off their customer list.
Belatedly, I checked out Ocean Air Care Inc. On the Better Business Bureau website and was completely unsurprised to find that the company has an "F" rating. The internet is rife with reviews from unhappy customers who have been subjected to their "bait-and-switch" tactics, many of whom were talked into spending thousands of dollars for unnecessary work.
BTW, I never respond to cold calls. However, Ocean Air Care claimed to have taken over from an AC company that I had done business with previously (American Air Care). Ocean Air Care knew the units that American Air Care had installed for me previously, so I actually thought I was dealing with the same company but just with a different name. I would never have let them in my house without reviewing their business records first, had I not thought they were the same company.
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