Alpine Air LLC

They came out and gave me and estimate for $5,500 for all kinds of additional work for mold removal, a vapor barrier, and new insulation in the crawl space. I told them I only wanted the duct cleaning for the advertised price of $44.95. They told me that their insurance would not allow them to do the work. I told them I would sign a weaver for their insurance and they said they still wouldn't be able to do it. The manager said I would have to sign this weaver but he had to speak to his boss the owner first. He was outside on the phone for 5-10 minutes and then they just got into their car and left. I spoke to the manager about this but when I asked to speak to the owner I was told they were told not to bother him because he was hunting.

After  the (two) workers arrived,  they indicted that the initial services on the ad was just  a promotion and more cost would be needed to clean the entire system and to install a Mildicide. An estimate was provided for all the work. The cost went from a $50 special to well over $1300. My wife who was handling the project  was Ok with the price increase and the services provided. As the work progresssed,  my wife noticed that one man was doing all the work and the other doing very little and was doing  a lot of talking and visiting with my wife. The work took 5 hours. The  vent cleaning and added services seem to go as described in the final WO.   
 During the cleaning,  the talker started to describe to my wife the benefits of installing a UV light system in the vents to further purge and purify the  source air for alergens.  My wife who has very bad alergies became convinced that this was what was needed in our home.  The added cost woudl be $699 per unit. Two units would be needed in our system. My wife called me at work for advice. I went along with it based on what she described to me. She payed for the vent  cleaning service and the UV devices up front.
The later was a mistake. This is where the wheels began to fall off the wagon and is my major complaint  with this company.  My wife called several times to the Greenboro office to set up a  schedule for the installation. Each  time she was put  in contact  the talker. At every occasion,  there was an excuse why he could  not come;  not enough units,  no help so forth and so on. 
In the second week of June, I called the office and told the the clerk that I need to set up an apt for installation and we could not get satisfaction with the talker. After several days  the talker contacted my wife,  again.  He gave her another  round of excuses. I called the office again and told the clerk that if I  did not get service ASAP,  I would  report them to the BBB. After that I got a call from the Customer Service Rep. He had the units delivered to my home the next day and set up a service  call for several days later. When the service man arrived  (the same man who did all the work in the vent cleaning),   I found out i needed 110 v outlets  to install the UV light system. Dumb me it never dawned on me that this was needed and it was never discussed up- front . Fortunately,  there was an outlet available for the garage unit. The service man told  me that the talker could not make it to help him and that he could would  install the unit himself.  I  asked him if he installed any units before and he said yes and that he had done  "several"  (4 total)  I was not comfortable with this and went with him for the observe the installation.  It became apparent to  me that he was not experienced on  what to do. There was a template in the box for cutting the installation holes and installing the screws which he was not aware of and  I am not sure if he knew what to do with it. The installation was that complicated,  so I  assisted him. I feel if I was not there,  he would have screwed it up.
I decided not to install the unit in the attic  because there was no 110 V outlet available and  I  did not want to spend more money plus the installation would have been more complicated as the air duct was not metal. 
I sent the unused unit box unopened back with the service man  (labeled it with my name on it.) I have written a letter asking for my money back. This was a week ago and no reply so far. I the contract indicted a 10 day return policy. I  will start calling next week.
l have learned  several  lessons from all this, They are as follows: 1.  Do not answer ads that seem to good, 3. get up front estimates from the  contractor and use the 3 day waiting period to think about it. In the meantime,  get more estimates, 3. Do not pay for services or equipment until  the work is complete. 4. Research  contractors using  Angie's list ( I am now member) 5.  My wife (and i) will be more alert  to piling on services that we have  not discussed in advance.  6. Pay more attention to the contract language and not the talkers

Be careful of using their service. We got the coupon in the mail for $49 unlimited vents, one main and one return. The technicians came on time. There were two of them. While one tech going through the house doing an estimate, the other is doing the setup already. Asher he is done with the estimate, he showed us some pictures of our air duct to show just how terrible it is. It even has lots of dead bugs and spider. He immediately told us we need to also do sanitize of our air duct because if it. When we received our estimate, we were shocked for the price of over $1400. He charged us two additional mains and two additional returns. Which we actually only have two mains and two returns. Those were additional $300 worth of service. And the additional sanitize service which he said was required is about $1000 with 5yrs warranty. We initially were shocked by the pictures he showed us so we thought we probably should do what he said. We then realize that our air duct isn't that bad. We weren't even sure if those pictures were really from our vents. We then did some research online while they continue to setup. We realized that many people complain about them showing other people's pictures to scare you and overly charge you for services. We decided just do the air duct cleaning without the sanitize at this point, if we feel the need, we well have them come back to do it in a few month. The technician was extremely pushy. He kept saying well it will be just easier for them to do that right now since they have the vents out. He even had the guts to say he can charge us the fee right now and come back to service at anytime. In the beginning, he said they do everything to our satisfaction. Will let us inspect their work after they are done. Since we told him we don't want to do the sanitize, his attitude became very bad. They sealed up the vents without even letting us check. Extremely bad experience. Be cautious.

First dryer vent was totally clogged and when my appliance guy hooked up the dryer.  Appliance guy came back twice to figure out the issue.  I told him vent was cleaned.  It was totally jammed up.
That was not the worst.  Do not have time to tell the entire story.  The technicians looked at my heating vents and told me I had black mold and they could treat it.  Well, I was devastated. I kept questioning about it and they said it was common. Long story short, they cut holes in my black duct work and compromised my system, said they treated the black mold (without masks or gloves btw - and I was on the premises).  When I questioned again about the black mold before signing the invoice they confirmed it again.  Being taken by them for $1200 was just not a good feeling.  When the dryer vent did not work that is when I pushed back.  We went through a mediator and the technician lied through his teeth.  I did get my money back, but Rocky was going to make it all right... He did not change out the exchanger like he said he would.  When I tried to call back several times he never got back with.  I suspect since I got my refund he figured I would not say anything about this. 
Well my neighbor had them come too - and haphazardly told me her story.  They almost 'took' her for $5000.  Her son stopped that - thank goodness.  That is what made me write this review.  This company is a rip off and preys on people at vulnerable times.  It is unfortunate that this happens.  I am glad there is a place that we can tell others about our experiences.

See above. 
I want my last air vent cleaned.  It has been 13 years, popcorn ceiling removal and 3 cats later (now gone to rainbow bridge) worth of dust and animal hair.  Although I do change my air filters monthly, I do not want to overlook cleaning even one vent since having to have gone thru this experience. 
 

Mailer said $99 cleaning and for the number of vents and in takes we had, we thought about $250 total. Came back at $1500 because they found "extensive" mold and damage. We said that was ridiculous and tech got mad, stomped around my attic and left. We brought in Ductz and he did twice the work, reassured us the mold was mild and totally typical in a house this age. He only charged us $620 and took the time to show my husband how to clean the in takes with a little bleach to prevent build up in future. Apparently Alpine Air had been on the news as being a bate and switch company. They'll show you pictures of other people's vents to scare you into paying more and you will never get the work described on the coupon. Throw out the mailers and check out better companies like Ductz.

Initially hired them for their "special" to clean up to 15 ducts. The job ballooned to include a more extensive job. I expected to pay more than the 'special' of $44.95, however, I never expected the final price of  $1500.

I was scheduled for 1-4. They called me and my husband both several times that morning to come earlier, but we couldn't answer because we were both in class. I arrived home from class at 11:45 to find them sitting in my driveway.  I showed the two gentlemen  where all vents and the furnace are so they could get started. I was scheduled for a $44.95 air duct cleaning, but expected that once they got there an attempt would be made to sell me something else.The house is 25 years old and I have only had it for 2 years, I am not sure what, if any, cleaning had ever been done on it.  Sure enough a few minutes later the lead man came to me with an estimate for $800.00!  I wasn't expecting that much of something else!! My house is only 1800 square feet!  But I was on the spot and everything he said made sense at the time, and they were givng me a "discount"  these services are usually  $1105.75, so I agreed.
 As far as the work goes, I am pretty sure they did everything I paid for and they seemed to know what they were doing. I just did NOT like the sales technique of getting in the door on a low ad and selling me for over $700 more in stuff. If I wasnt on the spot and would have known what all they were going to try to sell me, I would have taken the time to learn more about it and contact more companies for estimates, but the additional services the company sells weren't even mentioned on the phone. Lesson learned, I will ALWAYS check Angies list first and NEVER make on the spot decisions.

This was not a great experience.  It is clear their practice is to upsell services.
New to the neighborhood we received a coupon for 44.95 to clean up to 16 vents and one return. It was cheap and all I wanted done.  Even though the system in the house is only two years old we wanted to start clean since the previous owners weren't the best housekeepers.
The home is a ranch style. We have 13 vents and two returns. When I made the appointment they told me it would be 15 dollars for another return. Fine. My appointment was set for Saturday morning between 8-10 am. We received a call around 9:40 that they were running late and would be there by 10:30. At 11:20 I was ready to cancel when they showed up. The guys were very courteous and seemed to be knowledgeable.
I walked them through the house pointing out the vents. One guy went out to the truck and bought in a large vacuum (Hepa) with a long hose and proceeded to lift the vents from the floor and start cleaning. The other went into the crawl space for their "complete" inspection of the system.
After about 40 minutes or so they both came into the kitchen, the one guy who was the Lead person had a clipboard with an invoice on it and he proceeded to go over it with me as to what work should be done, to the tune of about 420.00. He then showed me pictures on his iPhone of what the inside of my main line looked like. This is a sealed line and all of the vents leading from it are sealed to it as well. I have no idea how he took pictures of the inside with his iPhone. (BTW, he had two iPhones each with a series of pictures on them) Part of his promotion was to sell me permanent air filters for 120.00 each. I declined. I told him all I was interested in is what I asked them to do which was clean the vents.  I thanked him for looking things over and requested a copy so I could have it handy if I chose to have it done.
He went and rewrote the invoice while the other guy finished up. When he came back and we were paying him for the cleaning he offered to sell a sample filter to me for 60.00. The new invoice excluded all of the other services he recommended and he never did leave me a copy with the rest of it as I requested.
I went online after they left and bought two permanent filters for 80.00. Later I found where they had bent a few of the vent covers and actually broke one of them. They never mentioned any of this. I ended up at Lowes later in the day anyway so I picked up replacements. Lesson learned. They left me with too many questions in my head.

They did a great job. They were prompt, courteous, and knowledgeable.