EZ Air Care

I think they are a bunch of Chesapeake, and I think they take advantage of people. They are suppose to come in a company van, which they did not have. No name tags. They just when up and went to go look at the vent. What upset me the most was that he took a piece a tape off the ducts. I wanted to keep the piece of tape because it was not that bad. I even had the check I wrote them canceled. They must have called me 6-7 times after they left. But when I wanted to file a complaint because he was not bonded and licensed. He argued that he was, however I told him that he needed to have his bonding and licensing information. They also say that they are not responsible for damage done by the company. The owner called me again, because I called the valley press and filed complaint against these people. The owner said I had no right to file a complaint.

I have strong reasons to believe that EZ Air Care vandalized our air ducts in our attic to try to get our business to replace them. I called EZ Air Care from an ad in ValPak, the coupons that come in the mail. Two men came out. They seemed, in my opinion, surprised (and I think a bit disappointed) that my heater & interior ducts were new. Then when they went in the attic, and they said those ducts were old. They had said they needed me by them as they went up, which I didn't understand at first, but now I think it's so they could claim I was right there and they couldn't have done anything. The young guy who was doing the talking, "Ron" according to the receipt, stayed down with me while the older guy went up. I saw gray plastic (the protective wrapping the duct) around the older silent guy's body as he went up, but couldn't see the whole duct as his body was blocking it. I'd just woken up and wasn't paying super close attention, but I do think there was more gray visible as he was going up the first time than after. Then when he moved, the young, talking guy said, look, it's all ripped (gray plastic cover pulled away to show pink insulation under) and rat damaged. He spoke to the older guy, who had been continuing to move around in the attic out of sight. Then he (the younger guy who hadn't gone up) told me there were rat droppings. I said I just had a pest control guy up there (twice, actually), who told me there was no sign of rat activity. Then he said, oh, they're old dry droppings. Then the younger guy stuck his cell phone up into the attic and showed me with his cell phone camera another ripped duct further inside. I asked for an estimate for repair/replacement ($2982!) but refused to agree to any replacement work. They said due to the tearing they couldn't do the $29.95 advertised blow-out cleaning, but could spray disinfectant for $75. I found that annoying and ridiculous - much easier and faster to spray disinfectant, but I expect these guys to try to up the ante a bit, and I did want the ducts cleaned, so I agreed to that part anyhow. After they left, I started thinking how - not only had I been told we had no signs of rats just before - the rips didn't seem like they COULD be rat damage. Neat, extreme rips as though they came from one slit and pull-to-each-side, starting at the top-front curve, going down? Not little bite holes, from the bottom, or even total top, as might be expected, and none of the understuffing pulled out, say for nesting. I think the one guy made a quick slit and pull as his body was blocking it. And more when he was up in the attic and couldn't be seen. I started to think how this might just be a common scam for companies like this to pull on homeowners. I'd already expected them to tell me we needed everything replaced, and already planned to say no. (This is because of how an air-duct company acted two years ago when we had them come out to our old house. In that case, though, we knew everything was very old and in poor condition, so though I think we ended up paying more than necessary, and having stuff done that we should have avoided, it was at least somewhat objectively needed.) Luckily, we just had the home inspected a year ago when we bought the house. The inspector checked his report and came back out, and confirmed that none of that had been present when he had inspected it. He also told me there were holes, perfectly round, through several ducts. He took pictures. They look like they've been poked through with a finger, which would apparently be easy to do with the material they're made from. One picture even shows the dust and grime has been wiped away around the hole - apparently BEFORE the hole was made (otherwise, there would be tiny traces of grime in the folds of the plastic around the edges of the hole). The inspector saw no signs of activity and confirmed that the holes did not look like they could have been caused by rats. He thought the plastic could have torn from sunlight coming in, but that the holes did look like finger holes, though he could not confirm that they were. No one has been in the attic since his final inspection of it before we moved in, except pest control to look for rats, and lay traps in case any were up there (they weren't). So in my opinion, the damage must have been done by these guys, EZ Air Care. Also, talking about damage, at first the older guy up in the attic said 5 ducts, then he said all of them. All of them?, repeated the young guy. Yes, the old guy said. But when he came down, after I'd balked at repairs, the young guy said no, it was only 5 of 10, and that the other 5 were old but not damaged. So I think he changed his story to a lesser cost after he saw I was resistant. The inspector said the ducts did not need to be replaced, as they did not look in bad shape other than the holes, and that the holes could be very easily and cheaply repaired with aluminum tape. In addition, after EZ Air Care sprayed the disinfectant, the young guy had told me the fan had to run for an hour or two. I said, should I turn it on? He said he would do it. Except he apparently couldn't figure out our very basic thermostat, so only turned on the system without actually starting it, which I realized over an hour later when I came to see why I heard no sound. So much for the "7 years experience" he claimed to have. So he performed incompetently in addition to, in my opinion, probably criminally.