In 2020 we had Daves Ducts come clean our ducts because we thought it might help with some musty smell we were having. We weren't sure it was necessary, but when we first spoke on the phone, they mentioned they would not proceed unless there was actually something to clean. Turns out the ducts had been clean only a few years prior and they were totally fine. They should have taken one look and told us this was not necessary.
We were promised before and after photos of every register. These were not provided, and I had to follow up several times. Ultimately we were given 10 unlabelled 'after' photos. I asked why only 10 - no answer.
The team was a little disruptive in the house and not particularly sensitive to us - very transactional.
After all was said and done, it was pretty clear that this was just a blow-and-go cash-in, but we were really looking for someone to help us figure out if this was an opportunity to fix a weird smell.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $428.00
- Company Response
Hi Daniel, very difficult to determine who you are so we could personally reach out to help discuss your concerns. We value our reputation very much and am sorry your issues weren't resolved. We've reached out to Homestars to try to identify who you are so we can help further. Musty smells in homes may or may not be resolved with a duct cleaning service. For example, the odour could be emanating from a shared joist space with ductwork; or there could be an odour in an adjacent joist space or stud wall where ductwork travels; or the evaporator coils are dirty and require a wet cleaning service - hard to help you since we don't know who you are. As for determining cleanliness of your system, we would always give our customers the option of continuing with the service or not; sounds like you wanted to have the system cleaned perhaps thinking the musty smell would disappear. When we perform our service we take before and after photos, so if we do that and aren't able to show a difference then it wouldn't make sense for us to continue with a cleaning unless you requested that we proceed. NOTE - when before and after photos are taken, they don't include pictures of every register. Heavy debris is typically precleaned with a vacuum as we wouldn't want to send it through your supply runs as it likely wouldn't make its way down to the trunks where they are connected to; there would be too many elbows that our pneumatic tools would not be able to overcome. Therefore, the pictures we do take is primarily return vents that are extraordinarily dirty (as that's the side of the system that's constantly under negative pressure), to verify they've been cleaned properly. And pictures of your main trunk lines were we force any debris to so we can extract. Taking pictures at the register level isn't what we do. All our technicians went to school for this service and have obtained their own NADCA certifications. As a company we also have licensed HVAC technicians that design and install ductwork. Which means we are very competent with this line of work. That's why we offer a LIFETIME service guarantee on this service. Any issues with our work, we return at no cost to investigate and rectify. I started this company more than 11 years ago because I got scammed by a duct cleaner. Trust that we would never do that to others. KARMA is important to us. If you want to reach out so we can have a discussion to help rectify your concerns, please do. Sincerely, Dave (www.davesducts.com)