We called Chicago's Finest Carept Cleaning to clean our duct work. We saw an ad in the newspaper and a coupon for $5.99 per vent. A technician came out on 5/20/08, looked around and gave us an estimate.
He said we had spiders, dust mites, and pet hair. It was recommended that we also sanitize and seal the ducts and returns as well. We agreed because we have a 6 month old, a three year old, and myself who wake up every morning with congestion, sneezing, and sore throats. I have been tested for allergies and definately have an allergy to dust mites, which our ducts were loaded with.
Our house is 60 years old and we do not believe this has ever been done. When all was said and done that $5.99 per vent ended up ringing up to $654.64. (we have 12 vents). Because we wanted to improve the air quality in our house we said ok. He also told us at that time that if they had to cut any duct work there would be no charge.
The technician spent approximately three hours (30-40 minutes of which he had left to go to the hardware store to get the needed materials to cut the duct work.) I sigend the papers, he said the company prefered credit card to personal check (now I know why). I gave him my card he called it in to the company using our house phone. He said he didn't like to read out numbers over a cell phone. I appreciated that.
When my husband came home he looked at the duct work and was very upset with the repair job they had done. There were big gaps in the sheet metal patch and the existing duct, they had used actual duct tape (which dries out and is not used in the industry anymore according to my father-in-law who worked in ductwork for thirty years.) and he had not screwed it into to ductwork properly either.
My husband called the comapny and was told by the customer representative that their company does not cut duct work. He told her that this technician had.
The next day my husband was repairing the duct work they proper way when he decided to put the camera in the duct and take a picture of what had been done. Thankfully he had done that because it looked like the "before" picture in their ad except they had already come out to do the work.
My husband again called the company and they insisted they send another technician out. My husband said he didn't want anyone else from that company in his house and that he had already vacuumed that duct out with his shop-vac and had gotten a cleaner duct than what the company had left. They kept insisting and so my husband agreed but said not to send the same technician because he obviously didn't know what he was doing.
On may 23rd the company sent out THE SAME technician to again clean out our ducts. My husband showed him the picture of our duct work and he said "well that's why we say it only gets 95% clean" (He NEVER said that to myself or my husband.) and the picture was clearly not 95% clean anyway! So my husband was furious and told him to go. That he no longer trusted him to do the job.
He called the company back and told the customer service rep. That he wanted to speak to a manager. He told the manager what was going on and about how unhappy he was with the service. He also said he had specifically asked that they not send the same technician out. He told my husband that he never said that. (I was in the room when he was on the phone with them and said it.) Then my husband went on to explain why he was unhappy with the duct work repairs. The manager old him that it was perfectly acceptable to use duct tape. He said it's spelled D-U-C-T, what else do you use it for? My husband replied that his father had been in the ductwork industry for thirty years and he says that they don't use it anymore because it dries out. The manager told my husband that was a lie! My husband was too upset that anyone would speak to a customer this way and said he was through talking with him and that he would be contacting the Better Business Bureau.
Why is it ok for him to come in here and do a bad job at repairing our property? How can you spray sanitizer and a SEALANT on something covered in dust?
I understand it is partially our fault for not researching the company better before hiring them, but when did it become ok for people in business to do shotty work and then talk to you like you are an idiot? Whatever happened to -the customer is always right? We are writing this to alert other people about this company. Do not do business with them. Look them up on the BBB website. They have had 83 complaints in the last 36 months - of which only 8 have been resolved satifactorily to the consumer.
All we really would like is our money back so we can hire another company to do the job right. Meanwhile, I have a 6month old, a three year old, and myself who still wake up with congestion, sneezing, and sore throats and we're just out almost $700.00. We no longer trust that the company would do a good job. We feel like we'd have to have another company here to supervise them if we were to let them back in here. Yet all we want is to be able to sleep in our house and not feel sick the next morning.
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