Call Kurtis Investigates: Air Duct Cleaning's Dirty Tactics

The company called Elite Aircare floods mailboxes with offers to clean your air ducts for $49, and they'll throw in a free dryer vent cleaning. Roseville's Theresa Rodriques hired them for a low-priced cleaning.

"That coupon was just their entry way into my door," she said.

She says her cleaning quickly turned into high-pressure tactics to spend $400 cleaning the black dots seen in a photo they took near her unit in the attic. She says the worker claimed it was dangerous mold.

"He proceeded to badger me, telling me how I was making my family sick and making me feel I was a bad person for not doing it," she said.

Refusing to pay more, she climbed up into the attic herself and says those black dots were dust bunnies.

"I think they were preying on me because I was a woman," she said.

The Better Business Bureau has received dozens of complaints about Elite Aircare. One person complained, "They told me that I needed $400 worth of work in less than 10 minutes".

Another customer asks "how it went from $45 to $1,010?" Another said their bill grew to $3,600. Some customers paid it later realizing they shouldn't have.

So we set up a sting. With one of their coupons, our producer set up an appointment inside an Elk Grove room. We had professional air duct cleaner Randy Kienast inspect the system first. He says it would typically be a $300 job and would take hours to clean the ducts. Elite Aircare's ad says they'll do it for $49.

Two workers show up for the job. Our producer was wearing a hidden camera when worker Nathan says the entire job will be finished in 20 minutes, "maybe a half hour".

They attach a giant hose to a downstairs vent and we watch another worker take a portable vacuum cleaner to clean the other vents around the house. The other worker climbs into the attic and returns saying the blades of our unit are dirty. Cleaning the blades of the furnace will cost us $295. Before our producer could say no to the extra work, we notice the other worker starts packing up.

There were no high-pressure tactics, and they only charged us $49 without doing the extra work. They claimed to clean our ducts and our dryer vent and they were on their way.

EXAMINING THE HIDDEN CAMERA VIDEO

It wasn't until we closely watched our hidden camera footage inside a walk-in closet that we witnessed Nathan's odd behavior. The entrance to the attic is in a closet. Our camera catches him closing the walk-in closet door keeping anyone from seeing what he's doing inside. Our hidden camera catches him going through our things. It appears he finds our hidden camera, which was inside the button of a pair of pants.

We brought Randy Kienast back to examine their work.

"They didn't clean your system at all," he says examining the ducts.

He says they are still dirty. He watches our video to see the workers didn't remove the vent covers, which he says you must do when efficiently cleaning an air duct.

"Any homeowner with their own vacuum cleaner could've done what they did for that," he tells us.

But at least we got that free dryer cleaning, or did we?

"Nobody even took this off to remotely clean it," he says while dumping out dust from the vent.

We reached out to Elite Aircare and sent the owner video of our findings. Initially he claimed he would respond, but he stopped returning our calls. We paid the company a visit at their Lafayette address in Contra Costa County. The address is a mailbox inside a UPS Store.

The Better Business Bureau's Gary Almond thinks this company uses these $49 coupons to get in the door to sell you something more.

"It's not ethical. It's not being honest with the customer," he says.

If you feel trapped by a hard sell, Almond says you should send the company out the door, which is exactly what Theresa did.

"I was mad, I was very mad," she said.

She put a stop payment on her check sending Elite Aircare a clear message.

"Don't prey on people. Do what you're hired to do."

CONSUMER TIPS
The BBB offers the following tips for consumers looking to hire a duct-cleaning firm:

• Deal only with reputable companies, preferably businesses in your area with a good track record. Ask for references from homeowners in your neighborhood. Always contact the BBB for a BBB Business Review by going to www.bbb.org or by calling (916) 443-6843.
• Beware of advertising that offers what seem to be extremely low prices for air duct cleaning. Often, these ads are used by businesses expecting to sell additional services once they get inside your home.
• If a company discovers a potential problem in your furnace or ducts, do not be pressured into paying for additional services until you have contacted a heating and air conditioning professional for a second opinion. While the second company may charge you for a service call to check out the problem, the call may save you money if no service is needed.
• Try to have a friend or family member with you during a scheduled appointment with a salesman or service technician. If that is not possible and you feel threatened or intimidated during the visit, ask the person or persons to leave your home immediately. If they refuse or hesitate, call police.