Here at
Machado
Environmental
we see
ads
every
few
weeks
about
the
“newest”
offering
in
blow-‘n-go
duct
cleaning.
These
“low-ball”
duct
cleaners
are
nothing
new.
Scam
artist
have
been
around
forever.
What’s
going on
here?
The consumer is starting
to wise up, due in part to television,
newspapers and Internet reporting which
expose this latest consumer scam. Another
source of information regarding these low-ballers
is NADCA, the National Air Duct Cleaners
Association in Washington D.C.
The way these companies
operate will be familiar to anyone who has
had the misfortune of meeting up with a
slick operator at a used car lot, a “buy
now” stock opportunity, or even the barker
at a carnival.
These duct cleaning
companies charge a nominal fee for a claimed
whole-house duct cleaning. But are we
surprised they do a very poor job of it. The
adage, “You get what you pay for” surely
holds truth here.
Usually these duct
cleaners see the low-ball price to the
gullible consumer, send a serviceman to the
consumer’s house and leave in a short while,
claiming they’ve cleaned the whole system.
The same job, if done correctly, should take
at least 4-6 hours.
NADCA reported on an
investigation that took place in Florida,
where the investigative team set up a
scenario in a home, placing marbles in
strategic locations in all of the ducts.
When the duct cleaning company arrived with
its small portable vacuum cleaner and went
to work. After they were done (an hour
later), had been paid and left, the
investigative team checked and found that
the marble were in the exact place where
they had been left. The ducts had not
been cleaned at all!
In this report NADCA’s
phone number was given out to consumers to
call and receive names of legitimate,
certified members near them.
We believe that many
legitimate duct cleaners cringed when they
heard the negative reports about duct
cleaning. We sure did! Because every
time we get a call from a consumer who’s
seen one of these ads and they want to know
if they can get their ducts cleaned for the
nominal fee, we tell them that it costs more
to get it done right. People who can
understand the saying “You get what you pay
for” and really do want a well-done,
standard duct cleaning job will usually
schedule with us. But at times it can
be an uphill struggle.
We get many Customer
Satisfaction Surveys back week after week
from customers who are satisfied with the
service they received from us.
The moral of the story:
Be sure to question a deal that is “too good
to be true,” because it always is.
