Chris Hansen Uncovers Air Duct Scams

I just finished watching Dateline Sunday today with Chris Hanson. I found this very interesting because not but about a year ago, I had a friend of mine call me who is in the Valparaiso Kiwanis Club with me. She called me at my office and asked what I would charge to clean her air ducts. I told her that with the number of vents she had the price would be about $500.00. She was a bit put back and said that she saw an ad in the Times for a company that was offering to clean her air ducts for 59.95. I told her that I could not match the price. I also told her that I believe that there is no possible way that this job could be done for this price. I continued to explain to this individual that for $59.95 it just does not make any sense. My equipment alone cost me at base $30,000.00. Then I add the labor that is needed to do the job. In this case 6 man hours. If I just take a base of $12.00 per hour for an employee this would be $72.00 for labor only. Then, I need to take into account that I will use at base 4 gallons of gas at $3.00 equalling to another $12.00. Then I need to take into account my modest building that I own. I also need to take into account the depreciation on my equipment. What about the money that I pay the bank. What about the money I pay the insurance company?

I forgot that my employees that go into people’s homes actually care about the homes. Tudor does not just ram equipment in as if we were throwing garbage into a dumpster.

After I explained all this to my friend who is in Kiwanis with me, she decided that she wanted to save the money and go with the cheaper price. I told her that I had an idea. I said what if I acted as if I was a relative of hers and at the least, I would help her get the best job she could get for what they were offering. She called me back and said that the job was scheduled for a Tuesday morning. I told her to call me when they were about 45 minutes away. She called me on that Tuesday morning. I got there before these individuals got there. I waited with her. They looked similar in concept to the Duct Masters company that was on Chris Hansons program. They showed up in an unmarked vehicle. It was a black pick up truck. When I see people posing as a professional air duct company and all they have is a glorified vacuum cleaner and a vehicle that is something like a mini van, I just think “oh brother”.

They came into the home. Neither guy had a hat that identified these individuals with their company. Neither guy had a coat that identified these individuals with Chicago Air Duct cleaning. Neither guy had a business card.

They started their vacuum machine up. They had a roto tool which was basically a drill type unit that ran a cable that spun. In my business, we use a very large air compressor (180 psi to be exact) to dislodge the dust. Where this company had a 1 ½ inch vacuum hose with a cable that spins inside of the 11/2 inch hose. At the end of the 1 ½ inch hose that has a cable spinning in it is a brush that is about 4 inches in diameter. So, this unit would act as the vacuum and the agitator to remove the dust. When removing dust, one need to remember that there need to be something to agitate the dust, then there needs to be something to extract the dust. In my case I use a very large air compressor that is connected to a hose that has smaller hoses connected to it that will cause the dust to be disrupted in the duct. Then our very large vacuum will remove the dust. Our vacuum is a larger cousin to a leaf blower. It is larger than the leaf blower you might have as an accessory that you pull behind with your rider mower, but this might give you an idea of what I am talking about.

Let me get back to these fellas that were working at this woman’s home. As I walked upstairs to see how they were doing, I watched them latch onto my friend’s computer wires. You know the one that goes to the printer, the one that goes from the fax to the wall receptacle, and the electric chord that goes from the computer to the outlet in the wall. This company’s spinner that was connected to the four inch brush that was turning grabbed onto all these wires and did 3 or 4 revolutions around the brush. I thought the fax machine was going to get pulled right off her desk. I looked the the fella who appeared to me as if this was the second job he had ever done and I said to him “Wow, that was a close one!” He replied to me in a Beevus and Butthead way “Huh, Ya”.

The job continued and after about 55 minutes, the one fella came downstair and told the homeowner that they were finishing up with the job. At this point from my perspective they had been glorified maids. They had gone down about 8 feet into the ducts they could access and vacuumed them out. A homeowner could have done this same thing with a household vacuum cleaner. I believe the air duct technicians were onto me because my truck was parked in the neighbors driveway. On my truck it says air duct cleaning. I told the homeowner that I did not think this was a good idea, but she said it would be no problem. I typically like to be a bit more sneaky than that usually. The senior technician said the homeowner that if she wanted to get some extra services, that now he can offer them. Things like if you want to clean your main trunk line in the basement it will be an additional $180.00. If you want to have the trunk line cleaned for the upstairs, it will be another $180.00. If you want to have the vents sanitized, there will be an additional $90.00 charge. If you want to get the Special disinfectant that will be guaranteed for one year, that will be $200.00. I asked the technician what the life of the base sanitizer was. He replied by saying that the product would last for 6 months. In fact, I know that no sanitizer has a life. Once it is applied and it dries, it has no life. It is done. If there are any issues in the ducts where they are getting wet, the problems will continue and the disinfectant is basically useless.

The technicians left the job for only $59.95. Before they left, I found a vent that was falling through the floor. I know they took the screws out because I heard the screws go up the 1 ½ inch vacuum hose. It makes a certain sound when you hear a screw go up a vacuum hose. The customer asked the technicians if they were going to fix her vent? They said no that that was a preexisting problem. I just looked at her and said don’t fret it, I have a drill and some screws in my truck just let them go.

I went out to my truck and got my drill and two drywall screws and fixed the problem in about 5 minutes.

At the end of the job,the customer and I were peaking out of the window as the black pickup truck left and drove slowly as if they were scanning my Tudor truck. It did say air duct cleaning on the side of it!

The customer said to me “do you think they did a good job?” I said “I think because I was here, you only spent $59.95. I also think you can think of this job as a glorified maid service that came in and vacuumed some of your vents 4-8 feet in. You got what you paid for in this case, but they did not con you!”

As far as the Chris Hanson bit on his Sunday night program on 1/30/11 at 6 pm, I thought it was a pretty good segment on the air duct cleaning business.

For me, those discounts that I see are a real pain. Not too long ago, I went to another lady’s home. She said to me what are you going to charge me. I told her that it would cost about $800.00 to clean her vents. She quickly pulled 3 of these coupons out for $49.95 and $59.95 and $69.95 as if she was going to barter with me on my pricing. The next time I go to Wendy’s, I am going to tell them that McDonalds has a special on double cheeseburgers for a buck. Maybe they will match my price schedule.

Quality people do quality work! Quality people do a good job! Quality people take care of their mistakes! Just like a taxi, the customer needs to pay the toll. There aint no free lunch.

htpp://www.tudorservices.com–

James Tudor

Tudor Cleaning and Restoration Services

443 East U.S. Highway 30

Valparaiso, IN 46383

Phone: 219-465-6904

Fax: 219-531-7733

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