Mountain Air Duct & Carpet Cleaning

Please see above.  One additional detail that was omitted was that a certain vent which I was told would be cleaned also happen to have a piece of trash about 10-15 feet down the vent.  I saw the trash and said I'd find something to help the workers get it out.  They insisted they could remove it as part of their cleaning.  When they were going to leave and I got the vent off to see if any work was performed, the trash remained.  During the conversation that occurred at their departure I also ask - as part of the job requirement - for the trash to be removed.  Again, the workers insisted this could not occur without me purchasing the $500+ package.

AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS.  I got the AmazonLocal voucher and had to leave at least two voicemails before anyone even called me back to schedule an appointment. (I should have *RUN* right here.)
John came out for the air duct cleaning. His partner did not speak English. He said I needed more filters and pushed hard for the upsale immediately upon stepping foot through my door.  He also said I needed mold and fungus treatment, which I allowed, and then pushy, young salesman suckered me into buying a UV-C lamp for my HVAC system. He swore up and down that it killed every possible bad thing in the air, "just like the sun" and even claimed that it would increase the resale value of my home. Over $600 later I had a new lamp, a lint covered mess on my upstairs floor/hallway, a crooked return vent, and missing paint near the return where they didn't even bother to attach the grate in alignment where it belonged.  Now I have to re-paint.
I felt like I had been taken for a ride.  Turns out, this roller coaster had only just begun.
Within a few hours of them leaving, I began to smell and taste ozone in the air.  More on this in a minute.  That night, when I went to bed and turned of the lights, my room continued to glow with an eerie, blue light.  I couldn't believe it.  The return connected to my HVAC system was right above my head.  They didn't even bother to clean this one or consider the light's path.  Blue light poured into my room. It was too bright to sleep. I had to turn the lamp off.
To make matters worse, the next day I began experiencing symptoms from ozone exposure. Ozone (O3) tastes like "metal" in your mouth, and has an odor of chlorine or rotten eggs.  I had a sore throat and a headache from the air pollution.  I researched it and found that ozone is a byproduct of UV-C lamps. It is also one of the most toxic substances known. http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/chem03/chem03323.htm  Of course, manufacturers will tell you otherwise, but I know what I smelt, tasted, and was getting sick from.
Immediately, I called the company.  Of course, no answer. No call back. I can not explain to you how FRUSTRATING the next three and a half months of my life became.  Yes, THREE AND A HALF MONTHS.  It was an outright battle with these people.
First, they argued with me.  Then they referred me to the manager who never called me back. Then they ignored my phone calls. Then they denied their product emits ozone. Then they recommended I stuff something in my vent to block the light. (What?) Then they refused to remove it. Then they lied to me that the manager was sick. When I insisted that John come back and remove the lamp they sent him unannounced and unconfirmed in the middle of a day while I was at work. Ugh! When I finally got a confirmed appointment, they didn't send John.  They sent Brian.  Brian's written instructions told him to "relocate" the UV-C lamp.  I had specifically instructed them to "remove" it, not relocate it. (It sits above the HVAC coils, where were they going to relocate it to anyway?)  Brian refused to help. He played dumb and threatened to walk out having done nothing.  I explained his instructions from the office were incorrect and that I needed a removal. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, that's not what my paper says so I'm leaving." When I objected he said, "I don't have to stay. I have a family so I'm going home."  I was appalled.  At this point my boyfriend stepped in.  Brian continued to argue and yell at his non-English speaking partner to "Go, now, get in the truck. We're leaving." Rude is an understatement. He escalated the argument in front of our home in full view of our neighbors!  He refused to tell is his name, his partner's name, or his supervisor's name.  He pulled away in his truck while my boyfriend was still speaking to him! It was the most humiliating, infuriating, and appalling way that I have ever been treated by a serviceman in my home. 
The next series of phone calls were to complain to the manager about Brian's inexcusable behavior.  The manager refused my calls.  The receptionist had the audacity to question my experience by saying, "That's not possible. That's not something Brian would do." The manager ignored me for weeks. I was stuck in a nightmare. 
I filed consumer complaints with AmazonLocal, Groupon, and Living Social.  I hope none of these entities EVER offer vouchers with this company again. I plan to contact the BBB next.
It took weeks to get John to come remove the UV-C lamp. This was only because I reached out to him on his personal cell phone.  The office was no help.  He arrived with a new contract agreeing to a partial refund of $249, with the condition that I sign and promise not to take any action against the company.  What am I, stupid?  We crossed that part out and made an agreement for the partial refund.  I called the office to confirm that the refund would be sent.  I was told a check would go out on Monday.  No check.  I called again and again.  No answer. Literally, Sherri, Lori, and Molly answer their phone less than 40% of the time.
I checked my credit card statement.  Instead of refunding me the $249 they CHARGED ME AGAIN $249.  Now they owed me double!!!!!!
I called again.  They agreed to issue a refund, but only for $249, not the full $498 that they now owed. Unbelievable. Now we were back to square one. When I called again they denied ever making the faulty $249 charge on my credit card.  They emailed a scanned copy of the refund transaction, but denied the charge transaction ever occurred.
At this point, I took it up with my credit card company.  I filed a charge dispute and M.A.D deceived them into believing that the existing refund was in fact for the equipment return. Fail. I filed Dispute #2.  MAD ignored all attempts to resolve the dispute until time ran out (over two months of this madness) and the credit card co. issued a charge back.  M.A.D never addressed the claims.
Please RUN. This company got in with a deal, upsold me, took my money, then gave me H*** every day after that.  From May through August it was a complete disaster with this company. I wish I had joined Angie's List before purchasing this voucher. I never would have let them through my front door.
NIGHTMARE experience.

The Groupon referenced "Its Duct Time" but the company that showed up was Mountain Air Duct Services. Reviews are terrible and quite possibly a SCAM! I would NOT have purchased the Groupon had I known this was the provider
It took three attempts to schedule service and wasn't until I complained and threatened calling the Better Business Bureau did they schedule an appointment. I still might...
With the exception of the dryer cleaning, nothing referenced in the Groupon was included, but I got suckered into the $389 service because they mentioned MOLD. He was a fast-talking young kid who showed up in a private vehicle, not a commercial one, but because of the potential health risk re: MOLD I got suckered in...having a child and senior citizen living here with me and obviously wouldn't do anything to potentially harm our health and well-being.
When I asked them to write down on the invoice the solution they used, he asked, "Why?" My response was, "Why not?" No commercial bottle, etc. It was in the cannister. To say that I will be calling another company to check their work is an understatement!
I have already called the company to complain; had to leave message. Don't think I'll receive a call back... 
I will complain to Groupon and Better Business Bureau!

First issue- the groupon refers to Its Duct Time but the company that showed up was Mountain Air Duct Services. If you look at the reviews of this company, they are quite bad and many refer to a scam. I probably would not have purchased the Groupon had I known this was the service provider. Second, it was not a duct cleaning the service removed each register and vacuumed the immediate area. Vacuuming the return vent would have cost extra,I did not see that in the Groupon fine print. The primary guy did go and inspect the air handling unit, more on that later, and showed me pictures of the wires in the unit with mold on them. 3rd, the technician really pushed hard for a mold cleanup and his final comment, when I declined was -well, it's your health.That is exactly the scam the reviews mentioned. Finally, just as they were leaving, I realized the AC was no longer running. I caught the technician and he offered to look, but as this point,i didn't trust him to do anything, let alone an AC or electrical issue. When I did get a certified AC repairman out, he fixed it quickly. Two of the wires in the AC unit had been disconnected, they were in same box and location where the duct cleaning technician had been. It appeared he had knocked off the plastic caps that held the wire together. Getting this taken care of cost $119. I called the company to complain; no call back or response.

I wish I read these reviews before I got $630 worth of mold-cleaning services.  I got a Groupon for air duct cleaning.  They came at the
appointed time, told me that I had mold in my AC unit as well as the air ducts, and that would be $399 for cleaning the main unit and $199 for cleaning the other ducts.  According to the contract, the cleaning included the AC main unit and components.  I am a new home owner, and since mold is not to be had in the air that we breath and it would be easier to just get it done now rather than taking another day off from work, I bought the service.  When cleaning, the technician said that the drain pipes must have been clogged at some point for the moisture to collect in the main unit.  So I asked him if he checked and if he checked the pipes for cleaning now, he said, yes, they are fine now but it must have been clogged at some point.  They were done in about an hour.  Fine. 
I noticed some white residue coming out of the AC pipes after that, just figured it was the cleaning agents that they used.  Two days later, our AC stopped working.  I just thought it overheated or something since it's been SO hot in DC, and called an heating/cooling company to come out to check it out.  But the diagnosis was that our drainage pipes - both the main and the emergency, the ones that I was pointing at when speaking with the technician - were clogged.  It was quick to drain the unit and unclog the pipes, but cost me another $250. 
So I've been trying to call Mountain Air Duct Service to get SOME kind of a refund.  I mean - a $630 service should not involve this drama.   They had the technician call me back when I first called, who just kept on saying how the pipes were NOT clogged.  Then he said that he'd get the manager to call me back.  No call back.  I tried to call the manager again a few times since then, and either he is just not there or the line goes straight to voice mail.
I called Groupon to complain.  I also called my credit card company to initiate a charge dispute, which makes me feel like I have SOME kind of recourse.  But I really wish that I had checked the reviews before I used them, cause then I would not feel so tricked.    

• ---

It didnt go well
Technician was very unprofessional
Technician failed to clean ducts and said I need a $400 cleaning service and $350 filter.
He moved furniture to inspect ducts and did not replace the furniture.
He turned off home heater fan and didnt tell me. This caused home AC to shut down. I had to call an AC service to restart my home AC. system.
Called the company next day to give feedback. They said manager would call back but no one returned my call.
Would not do business with this company.

Not a good experience at all!

I purchased a Groupon deal for $49.00 for a whole house air-duct cleaning, dryer-vent cleaning, and a furnace check-up. I was a little concerned about purchasing a deal through Groupon for such a low price as I have seen these same services costing $200 or more but for $49.00 I was willing to take the risk.
Due to the large number of Groupon purchases they had a bit of a wait to get an appointment but when I scheduled my appointment and had to reschedule they were very accommodating. When I rescheduled they gave me a time window between 4:00-6:00 and called me around 3:45 to confirm the time they would be arriving. I also asked that they call me about 10-15 minutes before they arrived so I could lock up my dogs. They called about 15 minutes before they arrived and showed up right on time.
Two individuals showed up: Jamie who was the sale representative and I did not catch the other mans name but they both were extremely friendly and professional. Jamie explained the entire process and gave me tons of tips on how often I should clean my ducts, dryer vent etc. We also talked about the condition of my furnace which is old but unlike other companies who have looked at my furnace told me it was in good condition and would not need to be replaced anytime soon - how refreshing, to meet someone who is not trying to sell me a $3,000 furnace. Jamie also showed me just how bad (and I mean bad) my air ducts were and explained how many older homes only have one filter which is gross with the amount of dog hair that goes on in my home. He made recommendations on how often I should get my vents cleaned and showed me how to change my filter in my furnace. 
They moved all my furniture to reach the vents that were hidden and left no vent unattended and left no mess behind. They worked quickly and efficiently and did an extremely thorough job. Jamie and I talked a bit about additional options but he was not pushy and did not make me feel pressured at all which I really appreciated. 
After they left I went online to begin writing this review and was amazed by all of the terrible reviews this company received. I probably would not of bought the Groupon if I had checked Angie's List before but they truly were incredible. From some of the other reviews it seems like others may of had a bad service representative/technician but I would recommend this company highly, if you ask for Jamie. Overall, I am EXTREMELY happy with the service I received today. Professional, Efficient, Meticulous, and Great Customer Service for the price of a steak dinner? I am a very happy customer!

We bought a "deal" for air duct and dryer vent cleaning.  Unfortunately, the "deal" did not include cleaning the return air vents.  As soon as the technician stepped in the door he began "upselling" before he did any inspection or work.  He started with the fact that to do the "complete job" the return air vents needed to be cleaned at a cost of $40 per vent.  As I was aware that it was not included I agreed to this.  Then he went down to "inspect" the furnace.  He came back to get me to show me the mold--I really could not tell if it was, indeed, mold or if it was just the dust and dirt I had paid them to remove.  Reluctantly, (and feeling as if I might be a senior citizen getting scammed)  I agreed to "mold control".  He asked me two different times if I wanted the dryer duct cleaned (part of the original package) and seemed taken aback when I said "yes, it is part of what I have already paid for".  At the end of the job, I ended up owing almost $600 above what I had already paid.  To add insult to injury, they refused to take my personal check because it is "company policy" not to take checks over $350--and insisted on a credit card.  Not a pleasant experience.  I ended up feeling very uncomfortable with the whole experience.

I guess I got what I paid for, which wasn't much. If I had a longer hose on my vacuum cleaner, I could have done it myself. When I checked my dryer exhaust hose to see how clean it was, there were still gobs of lint/and dust which they should have been able to get. The air return vents weren't included in the service and would have cost an additional $250.

I called and made an appointment for Tuesday, February 19. I was told they would be there between 4pm-7pm.
I had a medical procedure that morning. I would need to be home to recover for the rest of the day. That's why I scheduled for later in the day, so I would be rested but home from work.
John called me at 12:30pm and said that he's available to come now. I told him I just got home from a medical procedure at which I was under anesthesia and needed a few hours to rest before showing him around the house, going up and down stairs, etc. His response was startling"What do you want me to do? Just sit in my car for 3 hours?" I explained that I would be happy to have him come early if it were another day, but that I really needed to rest. He said he would come at 4pm.
I went to sleep and set my alarm for 3:45pm. Then Brian called me at 1:30pm and said they are in front of my house. I repeated what I had told John. Brian spoke with an angry voice and said that I would have to reschedule if I couldn't come let him in. I told him to please come back between 4pm and 7pm when I had scheduled my appointment. He said I'd have to call to reschedule; that he was not waiting until 4pm. This was upsetting since we spend quite a bit of time on Sunday moving everything off the floors so that they could clean the carpets.
I called the company when I woke up at 3:45pm and spoke with Sharon. She said that she'd check into it to see if she could find another technician to come out and she'd get back to me. I called her at 5pm and she told me she couldn't find anyone. I told her my experience and that I was very unhappy with the (non) service. She told me that Benjamin (manager) would get back to me by tomorrow (Wednesday.) Alas, no call from Benjamin or anyone else.
They were rude and unresponsive. I would not have them in my house.

Company called a day before appointment to confirm a 1-3pm time frame for arrival. I called back to confirm - yes, we will be available from 1-3pm. They confirmed it was still 1-3pm.  So 3pm came. 4pm came. 5pm came. No crew. No one was picking up at the office number to find out what the delay was. The crew showed up a few minutes after 5pm, just in time for me to have to run out to pick up our baby from daycare. TOTALLY uncomfortable with having to leave these strangers who just arrived in our house alone in our empty home, but had to pick up baby. By the time I returned about 20 minutes later the "crew" was done and had a list of further items that we needed done (to the tune of $100s of dollars). The voucher as it turned out was only for PART of the work that they did in their air duct "cleaning", so it cost us another $100 and we declined all the other added extras for which they told us our house was certain to burn down if we didn't purchase from them. So when they left I went to inspect their work, which was all performed while no one was home (to actually confirm that they were working). It was blatantly clear that the dryer duct had not been touched at all. The dryer had not been moved, the dust around the vent and behind the dryer was not disturbed at all. I called the company and the technician swore that he did clean the vent. For a vent cleaner he has an AMAZING and uncanny ability to leave the area completely undisturbed. They offered to send the technician back to show me what he had done, but I don't want to deal with this company any further. It is a scam. Oh....and one more little delight.....someone on the crew smoked a cigarette in our house while I was out picking up our daughter. Luckily that was free of charge.
AVOID THIS COMPANY. They will dangle a deal and then upsell the HECK out of you. Your pockets will be empty when they leave.

This was a horrible experience.
We had 2 Living Social Vouchers that we used: 1 for Air Duct Cleaning & Furnace + Carpets for 2 rooms and 1 for dryer vent cleaning. Each for $49.
 We also had a coupon for $39 for Air Duct Cleaning & Furnace for the 2nd system + carpet for 3 rooms + a bathroom fan
I called to schedule and explained that we had all of these coupons and could schedule for different days to meet the terms if necessary but they said they would do it all at once....
They did come on time, but questioned using all coupons. I verified who I spoke with and they did the work. Supposedly.
ALL of that work was done in 1 1/2 hrs with 2 people...?
 We were charged an extra $20 something for size of the rooms and were strongly encouraged to use a disinfectant  on one of the furnances  for $700+. and the guy really didn't want to take no for an answer.
After they left I realized they didn't ever clean any of the bathroom fans....!
the carpet was wet--but can't imagine there was any cleaner in it. Every spot on the carpet is still there.
 We are hiring someone else to clean the carpet this weekend!
We still have 1 LS voucher we bought to use next year for the dryer vent again.....we already paid for it, so I guess we'll have to use it.
However, we would not use them ever again if we didn't have that 1 voucher left.
 

My wife and I had a coupon for this company to perform unlimited ventilation duct cleanings as well as either a free dryer vent cleaning or carpet cleaning.  When my wife inquired about the free dryer vent cleaning, they incorrectly informed her that cleaning the ventilation gratings was that service (I was out at work).  My wife was uncertain as to the services that were being provided, mostly because the company arrived two hours ahead of the scheduled appointment, resulting in my absence.  The company failed to clean all the ducting as well as make good on the coupon for the free dryer vent cleaning.

Ok, so this goes along the line of "you get what you pay for".I used this company because it offered a deal on LivingSocial.They showed up within the window they told me of 9-11am. Their truck was unmarked (obviously private and not commercial).  Two guys, wearing Mountain Air Duct t-shirts but only one barely spoke english and he didn't even bother to introduce himself in any way.They came in and immediately tried to get me to buy more services than were on the coupon.  I repeatedly replied that i did not want to spend more money than already spent for the purchase of the LivingSocial deal.Their system was a portable hand held vacuum that worked as the duct cleaner and also as the carpet cleaner.  Warning flags right there for me, since any decent duct or carpet cleaning system is truck mounted.They cleaned one return and the registers.  I watched and it appeared the return was cleaner than before he started.  In the past, most professionals will show you "before and after".  These guys opened the return, cleaned, and closed it up - never offering to show me their work.The carpet is wet but doesn't look any cleaner than before they came.  I have a Bissell carpet cleaner that probably would have done a better job.After they finished, they wanted to go and hadn't even tried to clean up the debris that they had dragged in with their hose.  When I pointed out the debris, he picked up a few leaves with his hands.  no broom in the back of this truck.  and apparently no rags either because when I asked if they were going to clean the water they left in the foyer he went into my kitchen and used MY paper towels to clean up the water!!!!!!!!!

They were so lazy and did not want to do any work. My husband had to make them clean what little they did. They kept saying that they had another appointment to get to.  They told us they found mold in the furnace and charged extra to clean it out. I'm pregnant so didn't want to take any chances but similar to another rater they had no proof. I purchased a deal for the entire house vents to be cleaned but they only did the main unit and return. They told my husband (who was there at the time - I was working) that they didn't need to clean all of the vents because the vents were on the wall and not the floor.  They cut a hole in the main duct in order to clean it and did not have the proper tools to do so - or to patch it up. They put metallic tape over it to patch it up.  They did not clean the dryer vent as they were supposed to and didn't offer any discounts for anything else to compensate for it. I've called to complain but no response yet.



Update: They did eventually come back out and clean the other ducts and fix the duct that they cut open. They also did refund some of the money I paid BUT ONLY AFTER I CALLED CONSUMER AFFAIRS and got them involved.

High trained technician, very professional

I'm very pleased with the service and will recommend this company to anyone I know

From the moment the "technitian" came thru the door he was pressuring me to purchase more services. When I declined he became quite rude. I was so digusted that I did not check the  dryer vent before they left. When I did go downstairs I found that the hose was just left completely unattached to the dryer or vent. I called the company three times to give them a chance to correct the situation, but never recieved a follow-upcall. In short: BEWARE AND STAY FAR, FAR AWAY! 

Do not use this company.

Their carpet cleaner was broken so that did not get done. They told me there was mold in the the furnace and that they could take care of that. There was no testing doen to show that it was mold. My spouse suffers from very bad allergies (especially mold) so I decided to have it done right then. I should have researched this first and/or asked them to provide some evidence that the dust they showed me was actually mold. Lessons learned. I also found out that I was most likely overcharged for my small home. I never was able to get them scheduled to come back for a carpet cleaning. They did not respond to calls. Angie's List intervened and I was at least able to recover a small refund for that.

Everything went very well. David saw that there was a high level of mold throughout my vents.  He did a chemical test to show me the results. Because of my finances I decided not to get it done the same day.  I hope to have him do the chemical treatment in the near future.

If it wasn't for the Groupon, I probably would not have used Mountain Air Duct Services.  After doing some comparative pricing, I've found that most companies advertise similar "sales" throughout the year.

After purchasing the Groupon, I called to schedule service.  I called several times, only to be greeted with a busy signal.  I assumed this was because of their recent sale on Groupon and decided to wait a few days.  I would later learn that this would be a common occurrence.

I finally got through and asked about their services.  I informed them that I purchased a Groupon and would like to schedule a cleaning.  While the woman was quick, she didn't provide many details about the service.  I had to ask how long it would take, what would be covered, what I would have to do, etc.  I felt like I was interrogating her for information.  I don't know if it was because she was busy or this was just their business practice.  I scheduled the appointment for late in the day so I would not have to miss work for the entire day.

When the workers had yet to arrive after 45 minutes past the appointment time, I called the office to find out their arrival time.  I was told that they would call the technicians and then return my phone call.  I did not receive a call.  I called back 30 minutes later to find that the office was now closed.  I would later find out that they did not have my correct phone number.

The workers finally arrived three hours late.  It was only after they arrived that they informed me that the appointment was for a two-hour window, something that the receptionist failed to mention.  Seeing that I was home and I didn't have anything else going on, I told them to begin working.  They did nothing to explain their process and simply plugged into an outlet.  While I would have given them permission to do so, I found it rather rude of them to simply use an outlet without first checking with me.  I was unfamiliar with the process and did not realize that they would be using vacuums, something that my dog was uncomfortable with.  One of the service men, while completely apologetic, handed me a form to fill out and sign.  The work was completed within an hour.

While incredibly efficient, their equipment was sub-par.  The hoses used to shampoo the floors was not fitted correctly and left small pools of water on my wooden floor.  Not only did they not clean this up, they walked with their now wet shoes on the floor.  I will now have to spend the weekend mopping the floor to clean it.

Even though the vents are clean and the returns have been vacuumed, I'm deeply disappointed with the level of service I received from this company.  The likelihood of me using their services again are very small.