As a small business owner, these people make me sick and should be jailed (again).

As another small business owner, I couldn't agree more with Patrick. These guys give small businesses a bad name!!!

the better business bureau?? really?? the same bureau that was caught in as scam by brian ross from abc giving good ratings only to those who paid their fees, without even checking or making sure it was a legit business?? if that's the people you count on, you guys have big big problems. sorry to say but you are all alone in this.

Here's why duct cleaning is a scam no matter which company does it. Would you breathe air that moved over the dirty ground outside on a city street? Would you breathe the air that moves over the dirty ground in an open field? The answer is YES, everyone does this every day, and I don't see people putting on masks to breathe this outdoor air. In the same way, a few particles stuck to the inside of the duct are completely harmless, and in fact will always be much "cleaner" than air moving against the ground outdoors.

This is what I want journalists doing.

The single best way to avoid being scammed by air duct cleaning companies is to check with SEVERAL of your local area's heating and air companies and/or fire/water/disaster restoration services to find out who these professionals use and recommend. Its likely that one or two companies will stand out!

Thorough cleaning takes time and if their advertised price sounds to good to be true - it probably is! Get at least 2 written estimates and don't accept any that won't give you a guaranteed final price in writing prior to the start of any work. At a minimum, their quoted price should include thorough cleaning of ALL branch supply and return ducts from the vent opening (vent covers should be removed and cleaned) to the main ducts and ALL of the main supply and return ducts. Avoid costly add-ons such as sanitizing and sealing - thorough cleaning should remove all of the dirt and contaminants from your system!

Your heating and air system if a very expensive part of your home. The company you choose and the techs they send must have a thorough working knowledge of it as well as the materials your ducts are made of. These include sheet metal, aluminum, fiberglass duct board, internally insulated metal duct work and flexible ductwork. Each is different and the last three can be easily damaged if they don't know the difference!

Beware of glorified shop vacs or other questionable cleaning methods! In my opinion, the best vacuums are either portable electric HEPA filtered (used indoors), gasoline or diesel powered portables (used outdoors) or a truck-mounted vacuum. Portables should produce a minimum of 4000 to 5000cfm of negative (vacuum) pressure), while a truck mounted vacuum will produce 8000 to 15,000cfm. All cleaning must be done in conjuncton with the vacuum running and some form of agitation used to dislodge the dirt. I prefer pneumatic cleaning tools consisting of whips, brushes and air sweeps to dislodge the dirt over a powered brush system, but both will work if the tech using them takes the time to do the job right! We also clean with live video which eliminates guessing when each duct is clean!

My rule of thumb is that if you hire us to do the job then you have the right to watch and ask a reasonable amount of questions. If the company you hire doesn't agree, show them the door!

If you have been a victim (or know someone who has) of poor quality workmanship, bait and switch pricing, or high pressure sales tactics, contact your state attorney general's office and file a complaint!

i note that on the right side of this article about this duct cleaning scam ads advertising a 'work at home, make big bucks' scam.

I am a self-employed carpet cleaner, and the same scams happen in my business. There is no way someone can advertise whole house for $59.95. It's only a way to get their foot in the door, then watch out. I once had a customer who told me he fell for the scam and ended up paying almost $300.00 dollars. These scam artists love to pray on the elderly, and I despise them.

Years ago, I worked for a company called ARS. The not only did the air duct cscam, but also did the buyers insurance scam. People who bought a home, that also included a year or two of that insurance that covered appliances and a/c systems, would call when there was a problem. They told the guys to make sure that nothing was covered by the insurance.

When i learned that, I quit, and reported them. Come to find out, the company has been doing it across the country. I was surprised to see a van of theirs recently. I can't believe they are still in business.

Dateline needs to look at the oil change thieves next. One such scumbag company in Reston, Virginia charged me more than $150 to 'flush' my transmission line, only to have them put some type of fluid right in on top of the existing fluid in the line.

It cost me $350 to have a reputable company repair the damage.

The only thing that got 'flushed' was my bank account.

Here is what we do:

Keep you home clean with a great hepa vac. Change the vac filters like Felix Unger would. In winter, use a steam humidifier (attached to the furnace, not a room humidifier) to temper the air and keep winter dust settled in the ducts. Tear out all carpet and dump the rugs. Install hardwood floors. Buy furnace intake filters in bulk. Change the every few weeks.

IMO it is virtually impossible to effectively clean ducts in an existing home. You can clean the main lines and trunks but most of the laterals are flex etc and some homes have exposed fiberglass hard board (lined with foil or plastic) that can be damaged by invasive brushing and vacs.

Your best defense is to keep the dust out to begin with and then not to stir it up. This whole business of duct cleaning is bogus in theory IMO even before the price gouging and drama. I have done my share of renovating for decades and have never seen mold in duct work without a moisture source. If you have mold then cleaning is not an option. You must tear out the duct work, replace it, and eliminate the moisture source.

Amazing! Caught red handed and lied so smoothly; this tech should consider politics!

Years ago we had our ducts cleaned ( I think anyway. Not too sure after watching this) and our pediatrician had a fit. Said it does nothing but stir up all kinds of mold and junk into the air.

Sorry but it is a ripoff. Unless you are running your system without a filter in it then all of the supplied air is filtered. These companies show you pictures of the return ductwork which is likely to have dirt, dust, etc. in it but once that air moves through the filter and into the furnace it is cleaned by the filter.

If you have mold in your ducts, or anywhere in your house, cleaning isn't enough. You have to determine why the mold formed in the first place, and eliminate the cause before you can even consider cleaning. Otherwise you're just wasting your time and money.

I’ve been an HVAC tradesman for 18 years. I’ve been a licensed HVAC contractor for 9 of those years. Any form of duct cleaning is a waste of money the overwhelming majority of the time.

That’s not just my opinion. There is scientific evidence:
-The National Association of Duct Cleaners co-sponsored a pilot study with the EPA back in the nineties. The air was on average 9% dirtier following their service. They have not sponsored any more studies.
-The EPA and CMHC both state that there is no evidence to support duct cleaning related health claims.
-A study by Kolari, Luoma, Ikaheimo and Pasanen of duct cleaning performed on 15 office buildings showed that “Duct cleaning had no measurable effect on supply air quality.”
-A study published in the Annals of Allergy in 1993 is sometimes used to “prove” duct cleaning’s efficacy. The study was of what they called “HVAC sanitation”, not duct cleaning alone. Included in the multiple steps performed was the installation of an upgraded air filter. Quite naturally the air was cleaner because of the upgraded filter.

Obviously some dust collects in the ducts. After many decades it may be a lot. The visual evidence is compelling. However, if we leave the anecdotes aside and focus on science there is only one conclusion: Ordinary dust in and of itself is doing quite literally nothing. You need something else to create a problem, most commonly a moisture issue. Excess moisture is a BIG deal. Ordinary dust stuck in your ducts is not.

Cleaning dust off a duct benefits the air the same way cleaning dust off a table does. The table didn’t make the dust. The table doesn’t alter the dust. The table just collects small amounts of it. Cleaning the table doesn't help the air. It temporarily makes it worse. The same is true of cleaning ducts.

On the initial phone call with Green Pro Cleaning from Deer Park Long Island, I was quoted an amount of $325 for the a/c system and heating systems in my home. I had mentioned I smelled an odor coming from a couple of the a/c vents which was the main reason for the call. You figured they would mention that it may cost more if there were any other problems.

During the cleaning I asked some questions on how the procedure was done.

1. While vacuuming the forced hot air system, the technician dumped the vacuum hose into the furnace without any seal around it. I asked him if he was going to seal it and he said it was ok the way it was and would work fine.

2. He used an air pressure wand about 5 feet long that he stuck into each vent to loosen the dust and debris. I asked him if that would reach the entire length of the duct and he said something along the lines of, "Its a 225 lb air pressure hose. It has enough pressure to blow out the whole line." After having a second company come to inspect Green Pro's work, they told me they use a wand with air whips on the end to physically loosen the stuck dust and debris as well as a wand that can be extended with extra pieces to reach down the entire line.

3. While vacuuming the central air conditioning system, the technician attached the vacuum to one of the supply vents, which I thought was somewhat odd but still gave him the benefit of the doubt. Only later, after having a second company come in to check his work did I find out that I was right and it should have been hooked up to the main return.

4. After his inspection of the a/c unit, he mentioned to me that there was mold growing inside of the unit on the condenser floor. It was recommended that he clean the blower motor ($125), the a/c coil ($125), spray an anti-microbial fungistat ($385), replace 2 filters because mine were not electrostatic and his would do a better job at preventing mold ($120 x 2), and adding a UV light ($499)… for a total of $1,694 + tax ($1,369 over the original estimate!). After going over "other costs" with him, I decided it was a health concern if I did not have it cleaned. I decided to skip on the UV light and new filters for now. I also told him the cost was a lot more than i was expecting, which in turn he called his boss and easily dropped the price by $180, for a total of $785 + tax. I figured they had to be making a pretty penny if they could drop it that much so easily. After seeing the mold (which he did actually bring me into the attic to see. I also have a picture of.), I felt like he was trying to scare me into buying what ever it would take to never have mold grow again. Of course, being concerned about my family's health, I figured I couldn't really wait on getting it cleaned.

5. He went back and decontaminated the ducts for the extra 1/2 hour. He showed me the return duct to the furnace and the mold in the air handler that he cleaned. It looked good from what he showed me so I expected the rest was the left in the same condition. I signed the contract and I paid him.

After the cleaning, I decided to check up on some things.

1. I remembered that he was trying to get me to buy electrostatic filters and wanted to take a look at what type of filter I already had. The filter in the return line to the furnace was never cleaned or even looked at. The dust and debris from the return line was blown down the duct and accumulated behind this filter. There was a pile of dust and debris built up behind the filter which was never removed. He would have also noticed (if he had even checked the filter) that it was already an electrostatic filter. It said it right on the side of the frame. This made me concerned as to what I actually just had done. He was trying to get me to buy 2- $120 filters.

2. After I felt like I was possibly being scammed, I looked again online to see what procedures should have been done with a normal air duct cleaning, something I should have spent much more time on apparently. I mean how am I supposed to know exactly what needs to be done, that why I hired the "experts". The interior of the furnace also needs to be cleaned to ensure proper functionality of the unit. This was never cleaned. I vacuumed the unit myself figuring these were the only things he may have missed.

3. Also, the entire cleaning process for 2 systems (a/c and forced hot air) was done by 1 person and only took 1 1/2 hours to clean and another 1/2 hour to decontaminate the ducts, for a total of 2 hours. I learned that it should take a 2 man team between 3 and 5 hours to complete a job like that. Obviously something wasn't right here.

4. At this point i figured nothing was done right and I should call in another air duct service to inspect the previous work.

Inspection using a second company

1. I mentioned to the other company how the vacuum hose was hooked up to the furnace and was told that Green Pro hooked it up incorrectly. The second company said that by hooking it up to the furnace and not sealing it, it may have cleaned the return line but not the supply line. They showed me where it should have been hooked up and drilled 3 small holes in order to view the main supply duct with a camera. They showed me what was left in the duct. I saw a ball of dust caked up in the corner as well as dust and debris throughout the 3 areas that they showed me. I was charged $25 per main trunk line to be cleaned and these obviously were not clean!

2. Filters are one of the main things to check when cleaning a system. After showing them the pictures of the filter and telling them about how he left it, the 3 techs that came for the inspection looked at each other with disbelief. How could someone leave that so dirty. The second company also found a secondary filter in the attic on the a/c return line that looked like it was 20 years old. It had a little mold on the edge but they said it didn't look like there was mold on the filter itself. Green Pro never checked or mentioned that I had another filter in that location of the duct work and I would hope would have told me to replace it considering its condition, had they even checked it in the first place.

3. The second company read over the writeup from Green Pro. They saw that the anti-microbial 'Benefect' was the fungistat that was used on my duct work. The other company informed me that Benefect only works on rigid aluminum duct work (non-porous ducts) and not the flex pipe ducts which are porous. They wanted me to see it for my self and brought a bottle of Benefect in from their truck. The instructions say, "Suitable for disinfecting hard, non-porous surfaces". They said that the smell of the fungistat would possibly last a few weeks but then the odor would probably come back if mold actually existed in the flex lines. I was told the flex lines really need to be replaced if they had mold. After checking a couple of the supply lines, it was found that mold does exists in the lines. Had I not called the second company to come in and check Green Pro's work I could have had mold blowing through our system for who knows how much longer than it already has been. And I know the second company isnt trying to make money off of installing new duct work because they told me to buy it from Home Depot!

4. I also mentioned that the vacuum was hooked up to one of the supply vents instead of the main for the a/c unit while it was being cleaned. They told me there was no possible way, with the equipment he used, that he could clean all of the other vents and mains that way. The vacuum needs to be extended into the attic where the main line is. The small portable vacuum that Green Pro had could not reach more than 8 feet I would say. I guess thats why he just attached it to the one supply vents.

Phone call complaint with the Owner Mike

1. I mentioned to him all of the problems that both I can the other company had found. He demanded that I tell him what the name of the other company was. I told him I didnt think that mattered but after he had asked me 5 times I gave in and figured it wouldnt hurt. After telling him the name of the company he mentioned to me that the company nit-picks and finds stuff to make other companies look bad. They have a reputation for that. But if the work was done properly, they shouldn't have anything to find.

I responded that I had found 2 of the problems myself initially and only called them in after I felt like insufficient work was done.

He said I should have called them immediately as it says on the receipt.

My response was that if i mentioned to him that the filter and furnace weren't cleaned, that they would probably come back and only redo the cleaning of the furnace. If it wasn't done properly the first time how am I to trust that everything else was done properly. I figured the best thing to do was to have another inspection done.

Mike's answer to that was that anyone else would have immediately called the company as stated on the work form.

I think I was smarter than that and wanted to have another inspection done to make sure all of the other work was done correctly. Something I should have had done before I hired Green Pro.

Note: On the initial call I was only quoted an amount over the phone even though I had asked them to come and look at my systems to give me a quote. He told me its based on how many vents you have and it would cost approx $325.

I mentioned to him the findings of the other company, one of which was applying Benefect, a fungistat, to the entire a/c system to prevent mold and airborne infestation. I was told by the technician on the day of service that this should be done every 2 years in order to keep their warranty going (something that the EPA recommends not having done a scheduled basis.) I mentioned to Mike that the other company found some mold buildup in the flex lines in the a/c system. (Something his company failed to check).

The other company also told me that Benefect could not be used on flex lines with insulation because they are porous materials. Mike told me that the flex lines are non-porous and it was fine. After looking into it, I found a statement on the EPA website that states:

"Once fiberglass duct liner is contaminated with mold, cleaning is not sufficient to prevent re-growth and there are no EPA-registered biocides for the treatment of porous duct materials. EPA, NADCA, and NAIMA all recommend the replacement of wet or moldy fiber glass duct material."

I was never even made aware that those other lines were dirty or contaminated, yet another part of the service that wasnt carried out. I was only told about the mold in the air handler unit it self. If the technician had checked the lines he also would have realized that they are lined with fiberglass and the fungistat would not be sufficient to clean them.

Mike told me repeatedly (at least 5 times) that I should have called immediately and that I initialed and signed the receipt form in multiple spots. He told me that this indicated I agreed all of the work was done correctly and that is why it states to call them immediately on the form. I did call him within the seven days of service which the form also states.

I asked him how i was supposed to know if the blower motor and a/c coil were cleaned since I dont know where they are or even what they actually do. Mike told me, "You take my technicians word for it!"

To which I responded, "Exactly! I took your technicians word for it saying everything was done!" I told Mike that the technician took before and after pictures of the one return line that was easily accessible and visible as well as the air handler in the attic where he had found some mold. Both pictures showed that those areas were cleaned. So I took the technicians word that everything else would be cleaned the same way. I signed it for that reason.

After the technician left I realized that he was trying to sell me a filter I may not have needed and decided to check the filter downstairs at the bottom of the return that was visibly cleaned in the 'after' picture. Well all of the dust and debris flowed down the return and accumulated behind the filter. This was never cleaned! So if I took the techs word for it that the rest of the system was cleaned, and yet the one return that he showed me to be cleaned actually was just pushed further down the duct line, how am i supposed to trust that anything was done right. There was no easy way to check the main trunk of the heating system so I had no choice but to take his word for it.

Mike apologized for his technicians service and told me that "he may have had an off day. maybe he had a fight with his girlfriend", as if that were a reason for bad service. Which by the way, the tech actually seemed in a good mood.

Later I learned that NADCA says a job should take 2 technicians between 3-5 hours to complete a job. It says right on the form that it will take approximately 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours to complete. Plus they only send 1 technician. How is it that the entire system can be cleaned in such a small amount of time. Its not just the technician trying to cut the job short if its stated on your form!

I was also told, as a comparison check between the 2 companies, that Green Pro does hundreds of jobs a week where the other only does a couple dozen, meaning they have more experience. Actually, that means you can get more jobs done because you only have 1 technician come instead of 2, which means you can get 2 jobs done in the same amount of time. As for completing a job in 1 1/2 hours instead of 3 hours, that doesn't mean you do a better job, it means you have a better chance of missing things by trying to squeeze in as many jobs as you can to make more money.

He told me that my other option, besides having him come in to remedy the situation, was to call my credit card company and if I did that, the outcome would not be a good one.

After mentioning to him that I had photos to prove some of these findings, he told me that the photos could have been taken anywhere and did not prove anything. Most photos were taken with my iphone which uses GPS to embed location data into the images, proving they were taken at my house and NOT elsewhere! What kind of store owner says this to their customer!

After reporting to the credit card company

I was told by my credit card company that since I signed a contract that the work was indeed ok, I have no chance of getting my money back.

They also told me that after they contacted the owner Mike, that he told them he had sent a technician as well as a cleanup guy for a total of 4 hours! Um, I don't think so! He sent 1 technician for 2 hours, of which 30 minutes was spent going over the contract!