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| - I found a coupon in the mail that offerred Air Duct cleaning for one low rate of $65. That should have been my first clue. The person I spoke with over the phone made my appointment and even allowed me to use the coupon after the expioration date, since I was calling before it expired. that was seet of her.
The Cleaning team arrived on time and were very friendly. They immediately began taking off the vent cover closest to the A/C unit. He asked me if I had an evaporative unit as well. I told him I did. He said, "ohhh..."
The man the proceeded to gently swab the inside of the duct. He withdrew the cotton swap and , of course, there was dirt on the end of it. They have not been cleaned in at least 3 years- I expected there to be some good ol Arizona dust in the ducts- hence the reason I wanted them cleaned.
"See this?", the man said, holding the dust covered Q-tip. "That's possibly mold. I will need to test it. If it is indeed mold we will need to treat it before we can clean the ducts. Sorry, that's company policy."
Why is he sorry? He then proceeded to insert the dirtied cotton swap into a thin cylinder about the size of a large ink pen. after the briefest of seconds he said, "Yep. See there? It's turning blue. That means there is mold present. Do you have any allergies?"
"Yes?" - I replied. Don't most people, I thought.
"That's the mold." said old wise one. "We will have to treat it first."
Just so happenned he had a "Package breakdown" of services, warranty limits and prices. How convenient. The packages started at $400 and went up from there in to the $900's.
"Which one would you like?" He smiled.
Uhhhhhhhh...yeah.
"None of them. Thank you for coming. No, don't worry about the dust on the floor I will take care of it . Thank you. Bye bye!"
What a scam! At least they were pleasant scammers.
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