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| - This service was a SCAM. This company turned out to be a classic example of fake duct cleaning company - no address on their website or their invoice, they are going under several different company names (They sold Groupons under the name It's Duct Time, itsducttime.com, but their invoice says Custom Air Specialists), they were in and out in less than an hour. They scammed me into being upsold into a "mold remediation". They showed us pictures of what was supposedly our HVAC system - pictures of dripping water and mold - which turned out to not even resemble any equipment we have at all. They said they were going to replace the "damaged" bearings on our system and didn't even turn the AC off, let alone the power, before going up into the attic to "fix" the furnace. There is no AC unit in the attic. They were in and out really fast and they attached some brushes to a vacuum along with some horribly nasty smelling chemicals or perfume. Upon further research, this does not sound like the correct equipment for a legit cleaning.
I feel really stupid, but I hope at least I can keep someone else from being scammed. I looked it up later and learned that being at the house for less than an hour instead of several hours and hard selling the customer on mold remediation is what fake air duct cleaners do. It's one of the top FRAUDS going on in the U.S. right now.
A legitimate duct cleaning should take 3-4 hours for most houses, they should tell you exactly what they are going to do, they will not tell you that the service has health benefits, they will not hard sell you on mold or any other suspicious sounding problems. A qualified professional should clean not only the ducts, but all components of your HVAC system, including the coils, drain pans, fans and humidifiers. If just one component of the system is left unchecked, and dirt or debris are left behind, that material will re-contaminate the entire system, negating any benefit from the cleaning. They won't just be using a vacuum cleaner.
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