Dryer Vent Wizard of Middlesex-Essex

"I am sorry this customer was not completely happy with our service. I will speak to the technician about how he explains the foil situation to ensure that he does not give the impression that people should know about it because of course there is no reason they should. Whenever we schedule an appointment, the customer is sent an email explaining how our service works and that there might be issues with their vent. The exact text is as follows: "your appointment confirmation is below. Please let me know if any changes are needed. When the technician arrives he will inspect your dryer vent to ensure that it is safe to clean as we do not want to cause any damage during the cleaning process. If he should find any issues, he will let you know what they are and what additional cost (if any) there is to resolve them BEFORE ANY WORK IS DONE. If for any reason you do not want to proceed, just let the technician know and he will leave and you can get a full refund for the coupon through Angie’s List. And if you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at anytime. All my contact information is below. Thanks! Webb Dickson"............... The purpose of this is to ensure the customer does not think we are engaging in any sort of bait and switch. Although this customers situation was unfortunate, we did have dozens of other coupon customers that had their vent cleaned with zero additional charges because their vent was all metal and safe to clean. Unfortunately "slinky style" foil or plastic with get damaged by a thorough vent cleaning which is why we do not offer to clean vents made from those materials. To do so would be a disservice to the customer. As far as mentioning foil, plastic, or other materials explicitly that are not safe to clean, I have tried explicitly mentioning them but in most cases it confuses people more than it helps as most people do not know what to look for and in many cases, the duct is not visible to the owner (however in the instance of this customer I believe it was all exposed in the basement making it easy to see) as it is built into the structure and usually requires disconnecting the dryer of removing the vent cover to confirm exactly what materials the vent is made from. Once again I am sorry that this customer was not completely satisfied and try to be more clear in the future regarding the issues with cleaning foil, plastic and other flexible materials."

"First I would like to note that we serviced this customer back on September 17th of 2010 and this review was solicited by Angie’s List over the phone in May some 8 months later. But as always, at Dryer Vent Wizard had we heard from this customer we would have been happy to work with him regarding any issue he might have had. Unfortunately he never contacted us directly and this is the first time we have heard of any issue from this customer. However I would like to comment as best I can given the amount of time that has passed since the service was provided. It is not clear what sort of “mess” he is referring to but the owner did personally service this customer and is always very meticulous with regards to making sure everything is clean before he leaves. However during the process of an exterior dryer vent cleaning, the lint is expelled through the vent to the outside and it can blow around. After each cleaning we make every effort to clean up as much of the expelled lint as possible. However there are limits to how far we can go and we cannot rake or sweep the entire yard. So in some cases, there is some lint remaining in the yard when we leave. Perhaps this is what the customer is referring to. However I cannot say for sure since we never heard from him directly. As for the pricing, first I can say that we never quote $100 since that would be misleading. We always state that an average cleaning is around $150. However in some cases there are other issues with the vent that need to be resolved and this was one of those cases. The vent was broken and we needed to do a camera inspection to determine where the break was located. Then we had to cut into the wall/ceiling to expose the brake and repair it. Then we cleaned the vent line. So all of this extra work resulted in the higher price. However all of the work was absolutely necessary for the dryer to vent properly and safely to the outside. The customer was also presented with a detailed breakdown of the work that was needed along with the pricing before any work was done and he signed off on it. So there were no surprises with regards to the price at the end of the job. But regardless Dryer Vent Wizard once again regrets that this customer was not completely satisfied with our service and wishes we had heard from this customer directly so we could have worked with him to resolve some of these issues back when the service was given."

"This customer had a flexible foil duct. Our policy is not to clean flexible foil duct since it is no longer considered safe by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the appliance industry, or the NH state building code and is considered a fire risk. In these cases our policy is to only propose to replace the flexible foil with rigid metal duct as per current building code because of the safety issue and because it will most likely be damaged by the cleaning process. A handyman that was on site at the time disputed all of the above facts even though our technicians provided printed documentation and building code pages that support all of these statements. We are always willing to provide any potential customer with copies of the independent documents that describe improper and proper dryer venting materials. This customer purchased a $99 coupon through Angie's List and received a full refund since we are not willing to clean dryer vents made from this material."

"Dryer Vent Wizard is very sorry if this customer was not 100% satisfied with our service. Our goal is to ensure that every customer is completely satisfied. This is why we tell each and every customer to call if there are any issues that they feel need to be addressed. Unfortunately this customer did not call to discuss any of these issues with us. Having said that, we would like to respond to some of the comments made by this customer. First if the hole in the wall was not sealed, then that was an oversight on our part. We are human and sometimes make mistakes. However we would have been (and still would be) more than happy to come back and correct that situation. The washer/dryer could not be properly leveled since the washer/dryer could not be moved into their final resting place until the electric and water hooks ups were installed. That move was to be done after we left so we could not properly level the machines at that time. Dryer Vent Wizard always makes every effort to schedule jobs based on geography to minimize driving, to keep costs down, and to help the environment. This is why there were 2 technicians and why one left briefly to clean the neighbors vent. We apologize if this was perceived as anything less than professional. And finally, we normally do provide a detailed invoice but somehow this was not done on site. We will mail this customer a detailed invoice and ask her to call us if there are any further issues."

"In response to the price, this job was more than just a simple cleaning. First it was necessary to make a repair to the dryer vent. Second a new vent cover was installed. And finally when the technician measured the air flow at the vent cover, it was less than 5 mph indicating the the vent line was basically clogged. The price for cleaning a clogged vent is much higher than the regular cleaning price because the vent must be unclogged AND cleaned. And in most cases this can take a good deal of time. I just wanted to clarify exactly what work was done for this member."

"Dryer Vent Wizard is deeply sorry for the poor experience of this member. Unfortunately this was the result of several things going wrong at the same time. First the manager of this area was on the road that morning and had no cell phone service. At the same time, the technician that was supposed to service this member had a family emergency and was unable to honor the appointment. Since the manager had no cell phone service, he did not get the call from the technician or the message from the member until much later. By this time the member was understandably upset. We regret that the member wasted so much of their time waiting for our technician and offer no excuses but just this explanation. As a result, we have been trying to contact this member to offer any dryer vent services they might need for FREE. However he has not returned our calls."

"A QUICK NOTE TO CLARIFY THE VENT COVER ICING ISSUE. I SPOKE WITH THE MEMBER AND APPARENTLY THERE WAS WATER RUNNING DOWN THE SIDE OF THE HOUSE(I ASSUME FROM THE ROOF SNOW MELTING)WHICH RAN OVER THE VENT COVER AND LATER FROZE THE VENT COVER SHUT. I EXPLAINED THAT WE WOULD BE HAPPY TO INSTALL A "HOODED" VENT COVER (THE STYLE WITH A ROOF OVER THE FLAPPER) BUT THAT THEY ARE LESS EFFICIENT AND CAN BE PROBLEMATIC DUE TO THE FACT THAT LINT CAN ACCUMULATE UNDER THE ROOF AND CAUSE THE FLAPPER NOT TO CLOSE. THIS CAN LEAD TO BIRDS AND INSECTS NESTING IN THE VENT CAUSING SERIOUS ISSUES. WE AGREED WE WOULD TAKE A "WAIT AND SEE" POSITION FOR NOW BUT THAT IF THE WATER FREEZING CONTINUED TO BE AN ISSUE, WE WOULD RETURN AND INSTALL A HOODED COVER FOR FREE."