Rob Wolchek is on the trail of an air duct cleaning company that goes by many names - but might as well be mud, after customers say they were overcharged with no work being done.
@@ABossIsTalking right? That has never worked in the history of youtube. Every one I see, the woman ignores them. Can't really blame them either. Or the woman will say "thanks", the guy says "you're welcome" or something like that & that's it. Wtf is the point??
Dennis looked me in the eye in my living room and asked me "Am i getting a Tip for all this man?" when i asked him how it went from $89 to $1800, then lowered it to $1600. Use a reputable company!!
@@giantgrowth4204 Right, that's the real question! I would've kindly asked him to leave, they proceeded to kick his a** if he refused! $89 and a good a**whooping is what he would've gotten from me! These ppl are disgusting!
Most "reputable" company use all this subcontracting BS, it's just more smooth, better marketing, "trusted" corporate and insurance partners, and loopholed (complete w/ lawyers) legality.
I was trained to sprinkle salt on the furnace filter and show it to the home owner and tell them it was dust mites, i never did that myself and end up quitting because i realized the company was run by the mob.
Tn here. I know one good plumber that does top notch work (he bills out at 150-200/hour). But other than that... Scammers, hacks, pathetic tweaker losers, even 16 year olds with daddys money that have used a hammer approximately twice. You can always tell a shit plumber by brand milwaukee/dewalt new tools... Or if they use ryobi😂
Even if ya get the job done right by a good reputable company, you're still getting waxed, thats how they got so big, ripping people off, it's best to learn how do things yourself, or Kno ppl haha. I mean just the profits these companies make off of equipment and systems is CRAZY.! Labor? Making even More. Just for a good big company to come out is gonna cost ya. My mom worked for one of the biggest HAVC/Plumbing companies on our area for many years. every person there helps each other n their families out without going through the company because prices are ridiculously hi, even for them lol. More than 50% of any $ you give them is straight going in the owners pocket, at least.
Plumbers think they are worth gold. Specially when the have a license. You are just a certified poop cleaner that paid a lot of money. So they think they are above everyone.
I will never understand why people would rather do bad business and have to worry about all the strife and problems, than to just do the job right and gain way more money and repeat customers.
I have to do a good job otherwise I have to go back and redo it properly. We only charge 273. We've got way more than a shop vac. We've been a around for over 30 years. I get along with the customers better then with my boss. I always tell him I don't work for you. I worm for the customer. They have to be satisfied not him.
Years ago, I got a job at one of these duct cleaning company's, I didn't stay long. It cost well over a thousand dollars for the average home. We hooked up a huge vacuum at the furnace and ran a snake auger down each vent through out the home. Two of us would be there for hours. Even after all of that, when you looked in the vents with a camera, they would still be very dirty. Just change your filter and save your money.
I can tell you weren't there for long. Changing your filter doesn't do shit. That build up is from the fan. Lol. The vacuum doesn't connecte qt the furnace. It connects at the actual vent entrance so you can vacuum out what is knocked down by the snake
@@jeffeternal_hairston181 That is not how they did it. A huge vacuum on wheels was brought down stairs or to where ever the air exchanger/furnace was located. We then cut a hole in the ductwork and attached the vacuum there. Changing your filter doesn't do shit? If you do not change your filter often, it gets plugged up (whether you have your ducts cleaned or not) and over time will burn out your fan motor. I became a Hvac tech after leaving the duct cleaning company and replaced many fan motors because of this. If you want more proof of what the filter does, the intake ducts are always the dirtest ones in a house.
@@jdmjdm2094 yeah you weren't at a good company then. I've never cut any duck work EVER that ideal actually sounds crazy to us. Lol. The snakes have brushes and we use different brushes depending on the duct work wether it's metal or flexible. Yall didn't have the right tools. 😪 You disassemble the fan and hosing and clean the fan. Then you go outside and clean the ac unit with color cleaner and clean the filter. The reason there's still dust in the vent after yall run the camera is because yall didn't have suction at the vents. After we did there was never any dust or dirt left.
@@jeffeternal_hairston181 I'm sure things have changed since I worked at that company, which was 20 years ago. We also used a snake with brushes. So, do you run the snake down each duct and then run a vacuum down after? I assume if your disassembling the fan blade from the motor and cleaning the vents as you described, you're at the home for a fair amount of time. How long are you on the avg job? I will also say, if the filter is changed like it should be, you'll never have to clean the fan blade. The only air that goes through that motor, should come directly through a filter. I worked on thousands of furnaces over the years, and rarely did the blower motor need to be cleaned, unless the filter was neglected.
@@jdmjdm2094 The attachment for the vacuum opening is about half the size of the vent. While one guy runs the snake the other guy holds the vacuum. So the snake and the vacuum are both in the vent. And we did that to EVERY vent. Yes it took all day for most jobs because we were removing the fan and housing to clean. But the minimum was 500. We cleaned the fan blade regardless of buildup level. Most were dirty. Especially at smokers house. What I want people to know is if you see a vent job for 89.00 or they don't clean the ac unit outside. They're not the real guys. You have to for a whole day's for 2 people. And we cleaned the actually vent covers. I've worked for 2 places who did it the exact same way. Always took 7 to 8 hours a house.
I had a mold smell in my house and found a company through angies list to clean out my ducts. Started out at $100 and they ended up with a quote of over $2000. Needless to say I kicked them out of my house.
Duct Cleaning typically cost between $400 to $1000 depending on the number of units. You decided to go for the cheapest one possible. Either you didn't know or you were asking for it. Also, if your unit had mold, you needed to contact a mold remediation company prior to the cleaning.
I found it infuriating that somehow these crooks can get customers easily while the honest and hardworking contractors are struggling to find customers.
This always blows me away too with these videos. It's tough to get a business off the ground- just imagine how many customers these scammers could have if they ran their business legitimately.
It's because they use all of their budget on marketing and spamming hundreds of fake companies everywhere. Reputable contractors don't have much of a budget since they charge fair prices and they use expensive equipment and sometimes pay employees to help them and they also only have 1 company name.
I have no answers. Women I've SLEPT with will counter work I'v e done for FREE with the "advice" of some dumpster diver or back yard mechanic who tell them what they want to hear: that I did it WRONG and here THEIR bill , huge.
NEVER trust a company with all 5 star reviews. there will always be disgruntled customers for even the best companies. I'd rather see a few bad reviews than NO bad reviews. that is the real world. i could give you $10,000 and tell you that you never have to pay for fuel ever again and you will still give me 4.5 review because there was a stain on my shirt!!
I've been cleaning furnaces for 5 years. The business has been around for over 30 years, we have one rate and we only charge extra if it's out of town or if you more then one furnace. Doesn't matter how many vents and cold air returns you have, it's still the same price. It's 273 tax included. We use a hydra-vac mounted in our van. We use 200 pounds of pressure. We've go a whip, a skipper, octopus fingers. We use a vacuum, but that's just for a pre-cleaning. We close all the vent's prior to create the best suction. We have matts that we put over the cold air returns to create suction, we take off each cold air returns and vacuum them first. We also clean the inside of the furnace and the blower fan. We make about 10 inch holes that we connect our hose to. We have 12 inch plates that we cover them up with. I also use foil tape if the seal isn't very good. We have half inch black plugs to cover the holes we used for the octopus fingers or whip. We go to each vent with the skipper and push it down the branch line, until it meets the trunk line, where we are connected with our van. Damn thing sucked up my touque and gloves. When we cleaned out the top, they were torn to shreds. Usually takes about 2 hours. We will also take video before and after if the customer asks. I personally would like to do more, but we'd have to charge way more and would take way longer. I get paid 60 per job and pay someone to help me. It's a pretty good job. I wish I had my own van though.
I worked for a company that did the same type of cleaning years ago. What I found was if you looked down the vents after with a snake cam, they weren't that clean. It seemed like a complete rip off.
People get suckered by the initial low prices and that’s part of the reason why they don’t go with reputable companies. People have a feeling it’s a bait and switch when it’s low priced, yet they do it anyway.
Right even reputable companies rip you off. That's why the people that work at those places do each other's jobs under the table, not threw the company. Because even they know it's ridiculous. Successful HVAC/ plumbing companies is good business, huge profits, just off equipment. Even more off labor.
It amazes me that they actually paid the money. If they quoted me a higher price I'd have said "hold on let me get my "accountant" aka the police on the phone". 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
i worked for a duct cleaning company coming out of high school the boss promoted scamming. He had pictures of mold he would show every customer. Then ask them do they have kids or anyone with asthma. I quit that shit after the 1st week. I couldn't believe it what he was teaching me
I did a duct cleaning years ago by using a valpack coupon for $89. Two guys came, one guy used an old dirty shop vac to vacuum one of the vent in the house. They claimed their shop vac is so powerful that it would suck all the dust out of the house. The other guy was trying to sell me the expensive additional services and equipment that cost over $1k, I told them NO NO and NO because I was not happy for their $89 service and felt it was a scam. They only vacuumed one duct for about 10 minutes, left a little dust on the floor outside of that vent to show me that they did the work, but I saw that duct was not any cleaner than before the service.
I’m a hvac tech, uv lights work and are very effective. Hospitals use them to sanitize instruments, ie the little cabinet with a black light looking thing in it. In hvac they prevent bacteria buildup on evaporators. They’re good
I had an air duct cleaning business for years, and guys like these are the fly by night crooks I had to compete with. They advertise cheap prices to lure people in, then rip them off, doing crappy work. I usually spent most of the day cleaning ducts in a house and it was rare the price was over $1000...most of the time less than half that. I never had one unsatisfied customer! Most were so happy with what I was doing, they'd be calling their friends to get me to do their ducts, before I even left the job. Old ladies would hug me and thank me for treating them fairly. That was so rewarding and worth more than a wad of cash. How people like these crooks can sleep at night is beyond me!
Evidently the justice department doesn't give them enough punishment because they pop up like roaches all over the place they should never ever be allowed to have a licence again and should have been give a 5 year prison. If they get caught again a 10 year prison sentence
When they start with shaking their head NO and walking away and then they switch up their language, you know their full of it. Scumbag living the life. Tax free. Rent free. Just living the good life.
Duct cleaning has always been a rip off business to begin with. Keep you house well vacuumed every few days and change the air filters for your HVAC systems frequently and you should never have a dust problem in your vents. Also be a wise consumer, when a home service/repair business suddenly gives you a bill way over the quoted price, call the police, it's obviously a scam. If you have been the victim of a scam, contact your state's Attorney General's Office. Lots of people get scammed every day because they don't think things through.
You don't know how a furnace works. Go take your cold air return off and tell me it's perfectly cleaned lol. Even in brand new houses they have lots of dry wall dust. I clean furnaces prior to a house being sold. It's a brand new furnace and you still have to get it cleaned.
Even reputable duct cleaning companies are scammers rarely do homeowners need it, possibly only some commercial properties. Never had it done except for replacing ducts when they were sweating out condensation ruining my ceiling and those were decades old.
Yeah even good companies rip you off. Make loads of profit off of equipment and even more on labor. Just to come to your house is about $100 before they even do anything. Then they try selling you shyt you don't need. Junk equipment they get for 1/5th the price they selling it for. It's old people and lazy people with money just throwing it at them.
All the "reviewers" have one to three reviews. That's all you need to see to know it's fake. A real company with real reviews has multiple local guides and people with Google profiles, to show its real people reviewing their experiences
Problem is....most companies with ALL THOSE GREAT REVIEWS...pay a service for those reviews......I have worked for companies that do exactly that....it's all a scam......best way....referrals from trusted friends and family.
As I tell my customers check all reviews, if it sounds too good to be true, It most certainly is. I also tell my customers if their is no writing on the van/service vehicle RED flag #1. No business card or a business card with no contact info on it Red flag #2 send them packing if they ask for a service fee, you can pay or not pay your choice, but expect a blow out of threats. While I do not do duct cleaning myself I do offer a refence to a reputable service I have worked with. I only recommend the duct cleaning service that meets my level of positive reputation qualifications. Thank you for another Walk of shame story.
I was also a victim ...Jason Toltin from Green Pro Duct Cleaning in Fort Lauderdale and another guy (whom he claimed was his brother) used the same tactics in my apartment complex knocking door to door..10 minutes and not all vents were removed....no ladder just a business card and a shop vac. Bait and switch claiming i needed chemicals for mold. I have no mold. Ducts were newly installed BEWARE
They still have their site up. Use a GPS app to change your GPS location on your phone so when you leave a review, it'll approve it since the GPS is showing you're in that location. YELP won't let you leave a review if it shows your phone was never in that area. They're still making fake reviews. Newest one was not even an hour ago
Not long ago, a reporter for the local paper here wrote some pretty damning but justifiable stories about a real sleazy county commissioner. The reporter, RIP, was "allegedly" stalked and stabbed to death at his home by the commissioner.
In my opinion, ducts really can’t be cleaned out because they are hard to access. It really depends on what you’re working with. But with my house that was built in the 1970s, I removed most of the ducting and replaced it with the expandable/collapsible circular duct. The insides of the old duct had black crap all inside it. It was best to just replace it. Had a guy come out that wanted $15k to replace the duct work. I did it myself for like $1k. Replaced the entire AC unit and air return box too, but that was much more expensive and I had a company install the AC unit. AC work is a terrible job. I know a guy that died from asbestos. Wearing a respirator is a must. Also: If you are reading this and have a AC company come out and install a new AC system for you, please check their work yourself. Go up to the attic or wherever it is installed and check ghat it was installed correctly. The AC guys that installed my system left a gap at the bottom where the AC unit connects to the return box, so it would also suck in and return dirty fiberglass filled air from the attic into the home below. I found that gap and went crazy. Can you imagine the health hazard?! Had them come back and close it, it was a 6 inch by 24inch gap. I think they left it open on purpose. So, please check their work!
I had it done last year. It really did make a difference. They make new holes in the duct work, which they plug afterwards, as well as going in to the vents. The company I used had a vacuum truck: the truck had a huge vacuum motor on it. They fed long hoses from the street to my furnace. I thought it was expensive, but compared to these rates, it was not - $500, and they cleaned the dryer vent, too. My home was build around 1911. Furnace, which I replaced shortly after the cleaning, (I did not replace the duct work) was estimated to be 60 years old. It no longer smells musty when I turn it on after not running it for months.
BASICALLY YA CAN'T TRUST ANYONE ANYMORE. every business large or small is corrupt and criminal in their concept. Watch youtube videos and do it yerself.
@@jazzridez Yes, watch youtube videos and DIY (do it yourself)! That's what I do!! Definitely can't trust people anymore. Either they are lazy or crooks or don't care because it is not their home.
@@IamFreeRu If it's a corporation it's corrupt. If it's any business of any description it's operated by a money grubbing criminal that is a liar, cheater and a thief that just plain old doesn't give a sheet about anyone but himself. Look at any business and do a comprehensive investigation will show corruption and poor business and felonious business practices, uses poor quality materials and the cheapest labor that covers up proper and common sense operations. I don't care what the business is. At least if you do it yourself you have no one but yourself to complain about. You may have to do it twice but you will learn and get more out of it in the end.
As a business owner I have had a few problems, but every single time we ended up with laughs smiles and everyone was happy. So I just wanna say, if the owner is ducking and not wanting to deal with any problem immediately then you knkw kts shady. If there's a problem we deal with it fast. With the top priority being making sure everyone is happy. This guys whole demeanor tells you everything.
If you don't have morals, scruples, ethics, etc., one can make tons of money in this world. A few years ago, we had a local HVAC co. out to clean our ducts. It was $200. I noticed the hose they were using was connected to his vacuum unit in his van using a simple bike hanger that one would screw into a rafter to hand a bike from, and air was being sucked in like crazy there. Also the tubing had tons of holes in it with some being wrapped in duct tape. Air was being sucked in from like 20 places. I told him to get the hell off my property with his snake oil equipment. Sad to think that a lot of people don't even question these clowns. A proper gasket based connection and 20 foot of new hose is like $100 or the cost of 1/2 of the phony duct cleaning jobs they're selling to people.
We have a hvac business; you should be told the straight price online or by phone. No good company will say 89$ for duct cleaning. That is a scam. Duct cleaning takes 4-6 hours and will require big equipment and a minimum of two technicians . All vents must be cleaned with negative air pressure. Please, people, do your homework.
I used to work for a company calling people trying to set up appointments to do that and it was owned by the brother of a local newscaster that worked for the local news and they were some scammers too that's why I quit after 1 week because I heard a bunch of bad s*** about them too!
Gee, I feel good about myself. Cleaning air ducts is the easiest way to do nothing and say that you did a lot. So I never hired one. Also, NEVER believe customer rating reports. It is fake b.s.
I work for a company that does air duct cleaning. I always make sure to set the parameters on what to expect as far as the actual cleaning. Depending on the material used to make the trunk line (main line) and actual duct lines, cleaning may not be as thorough as hoped. We have three different systems in place so account for different materials used and access to both unit and ducts. Whipping, is the act of connecting essentially a giant vacuum to your truck line, then use compressed air to blow any loose sitting dust, dirt, and lint through your ducts to the vacuum line connected to the truck line. Back whipping is essentially the same act, except you are pushing said dirt back towards the opening of the register with a vacuum line held under each register. Roto-brushing is only used for metal lines, essentially a giant brush and vacuum line in one. However, roto-brushing is ONLY used for metal lines, due to most duct lines being made of flex (plastic and thin metal). The truck line cleaning is also very dependent on what material it is made of. Fiber board is ideal and allows for the easiest entry into the trunk line using a "pumpkin" cut. Metal can also be opened and patched back up although a little more difficult. However if the truck line is made of flex material, then there is nothing that can be done as far as actual cleaning. I will not be able to cut into the flex line and be able to patch it back up adequately. However we would spray/fog a chemical called duct sealant, which over time as it dries with become sticky and cause remaining dirt/dust to stick the walls of the air duct system. If someone is not fully prepared to explain the full system of what needs to be done, why it needs to be done, and does not give an honest answer of how often it should be performed (every 4-5 years or so), then more than likely they are not going to the job you were hoping/expecting.
UV lights are legit for your units lol no matter how old they are. We install them all the time with our units if they ask us for it. Helps with pet hair and dust.
That’s the thing with these scammers. So predatory. They hide behind reputable companies/institutions or make themselves look local to get your trust and money.
Side note.....if you REALLY BELIEVE a company is going to send an employee in a van to your home to perform a service for $89.......well you deserve what happens
Hey ROB, I once walked out on this wacky la femme during the second course. Stiffed the restaurant on the bill. Not sure she had the funds to cover both dinners. I'd love to have you come on by and put me in the hall of shame. It'd be an honor. Happy Holidays Y'all.
I've never had ducts cleaned in any home I've lived in. It's a waste of money unless you have breathing issues. You're better off cleaning your own vents. I do.
Companies should be forced to have insurance to pay judgements against them, a bond of $100,000.00, posted in plain sight, in a frame along side a city permit to do whatever your business is. Inspection of business every six months.
WE HAVE A GROUP OF CON ARTISTS - named "Norris Air" operating out of Mesa, AZ. They quoted $10,000 - $12,000 for them to start work Monday if we would just sign today..telling us the coils were all bad, new condenser, new capacitor, better to just install a new system. I cleaned out the coils and the heat pump cabinet, and waited for someone more reputable to show up. They told me I did a good job cleaning it, replenished the refrigerant, made some adjustments, took differential measurements at the HVAC outlets in the house. Everything then was working fine. We spent $500.
Whenever I need a service, I look for detailed negative reviews given by potential perfectionist so that I can make a good assessment of the quality of service.
Every single one of those so-called customer victims chose to write out a check or pay somebody fraudulently, all they had to do was write out a check to the name and address that they supposedly contracted under it's that simple
Google is partially responsible for this. Google will not show a website for a customer who is looking for your company if it has an address outside of your customers town. For instance , my business has an address in another state than our customer base. We are located 4 miles from the border however I had to use an address of an employee to get any type of views from the city we do all of our work in. When I advertised in Yellowbook, we had the same issue. While the algorithm probably works in most cases, it doesn't for all.
My ex-husband worked for coit, nice big company, he told me the biggest scam they ever pulled was duct cleaning, and they still do, the whole thing is nothing but a big scam don't waste your time or money
What IS important to remember is that such duct cleaning is essentially WORTHLESS. Your furnace system has a Air filter, replace that and get a high quality one if you want better filtration, vacuum your returns and vents and that is it.
Shes an 8th grade teacher and pays $2100 to a company she didnt hardly research for a service that isnt needed and only makes your home dirtier. Glad our youth is in good hands
