EnviroCair

I purchased an Angie's List Big Deal for this service and it was horrible. Whatever they did was a complete mess and was not professional. I had a lot of expenses due to what they did in my house and they were not licensed, although they told me they were.

Assuming this is the same EnviroCair in the ad and at www.EnvironmentalCAIR.com that we hired. First, we saw a plain, unmarked white van pull up with two gentlemen, one seemingly barely out of his teens. They showed up very late (around 6 pm) with a shop vacuum and regular vacuum attachments, which immediately made me suspicious. I asked about that and the technician, Teddy, explained that they've been doing this for years and he guarantees we'll be happy with the work. So we stayed out of their way to work their magic. We were offered additional services for the price including sanitization, mold control, mildew elimination, anti bacteria and deodorizing. However, all I noticed them doing to our main unit was spraying the inside with a hand-held spray can. After they left, we removed several of the vent covers and were shocked to see that most of them were almost as dirty as before they showed up. Only the immediate openings inside the vent openings were apparently vacuumed and they didn't appear to get beyond a foot or so inside the ducts. One was left so filthy, filled with all kinds of dirt from the original home construction and even a soda can stuck about 5' down in the duct, which I managed to pull out myself. Also, they did NOT clean out the clothes dryer vent and duct as promised and apparently didn't even clean the vents in the laundry. We contacted the company to complain and asked them to send someone to clean our system as promised. Again, another team of two different men with a white unmarked van showed up. I asked the older guy where the truck in the advertisement was - the big red truck with the company logo and the powerful vacuum equipment. He said there was no such truck and that was just a picture for the ad. I explained to him how unhappy I was with the first crew and he promised he'd take care of it. They had what appeared to be a rotary brush but still attached to a shop vacuum rather than the truck, as I had anticipated in error. They appeared to do a better job but we were still unhappy that they didn't reach way down into the ducts (I checked with a mirror). This is a very unprofessional outfit and we will NEVER hire them again. As a matter of fact, in the future, we may be afraid to hire any duct cleaning business and I may just purchase a shop vac with extensions and just do the job myself. It's a lot cheaper to buy the shop vac and I have only myself to blame if the job is not done well.

As a guy who worked in the maintenace/service industry for years prior to college, I am inclined to almost always side with a small business owner or tradesman knowing the challenges they face day to day. This company single- handedly managed to change my attitude all together. The first tech arrived and right off the bat explained that the price quoted over the phone would not apply. He suggested an additional charge for "deep cleaning" of the carpets. I am still uncertain what the other options were...surface cleaning?. We agreed on the additional charge but chose not to have him treat our brand new ( under scotchgaurd warranty) furniture as he suggested. Never the less, he wrote up a work order for over 500% of the price quoted over the phone. While I was out of the room, my wife explained to the tech that he must have misunderstood us and that we did not want our furniture to be treated. He explained it was "too late as he had already put the chemicals into the machine." I immediately explained his options were to correct the invoice or leave. He corrected it, I should have gone with my gut at that point however, again really wanted to believe that ultimately he was just doing his job. After watching him spend less than 3-5 minutes in each of the three 300 sq.ft. rooms, it was clear that they were pretty much wetting the carpets and moving on. (the following weekend I achieved a much better result using a Bissell proheat 2x, purchased for approximately $120) Next they moved to our dryer vent. The tech stuck the vacuum end of the same device used to "clean" out carpets into the dryer duct for a few minutes, reattached the dryer to the vent and left. Total time working less than 20 minutes. The very first time my wife went to use the dryer an indicator light came on..."check vent". According to Kenmore, there is a thermal fuse that will cut power to the heating element when the dryer cannot exhaust correctly, a safety feature meant to prevent fire. After a phone call or two, the manager of ENVIROCAIR aka ENVIROCARE sent out another tech who could not even find the exterior duct outlet. When I went outside to show him I noticed that in the back of his small pickup truck he did not even carry a ladder tall enough to reach it, so this was all just basically a waste of my time. Instead the tech came into my home, stuck a cell phone camera into the 4 inch. duct and snapped a picture.I thought he was going to his truck for tools or something but we never saw anyone from the company again. Ultimately, I had to hire another company to come out and unclog whatever they did to the line. Though I had to pay for the same services twice the other company did a great job and there has been no problem since. (see other review)

What a joke these guys were. They showed up in an unmarked truck and proceeded to get out a high powered shop vac. The one guy started vacuuming the vents while the other guy walked around and unscrewed vents. The guy who must have been the supervisor, because he did nothing, asked to see the furnace. He took a very quick looked at it and said you have mold. I said ok and he told me what it would cost to fix it. I then told him I had to think about it. I had an actual HVAC company come in and the guy said did you pull out a kit and test it? I said no he just said that I had mold. He said unless the guy is a mold expert and has the stuff tested he cannot say you have mold. He was like that is how these companies get you and make you think you need to spend more money on stuff you don't need. I highly recommend you do not go with this company. They will do work you could do yourself with a vacuum and then tell you that you have mold so they can have more of your money. DO NOT HIRE THIS COMPANY!!!

I purchased a living social coupon for the cleaning of air ducts/vents and the dryer vent. I showed the EnvirocAir tech all vents in the house, also showing him the furnace so he could begin. The other tech started immediately cleaning the air ducts/vents. The tech then showed me MOLD that was growing on the coils as well as other places in the furnace. I was totally amazed because I know the damage mold can do to one's health. The tech then quoted me 500 bucks to treat/remove the mold...along with the cleaning of the air ducts/vents and dryer vent. It was a little pricey but that's a small price to pay to ensure my family's health. As the techs worked, they kept me in the loop showing me the before and after. They were very professional. I had lots of questions about prevention of future mold. The tech answered all my questions. The one thing he did suggest was a UV Light unit to get installed in the furnace. I could not afford that unit today but will continue to research it and possibly purchase in the near future. I am in full appreciation of the results and thanks again EnvirocAir!!

We bought the Groupon deal, thinking that the work was going to be pretty comprehensive. Little did I know that the deal I bought was just for vacuuming the vents with a long hose. I could have done that myself. In any case I'm glad that it was them, since I don't have the equipment to reach the higher supply and return vents. So he tried to sell me their other services all totaled $610. I said fine, go ahead since they have a two year warranty. I can get all of this done every year until 2015. I will surely take advantage of that! In any case it was a stormy day so we anticipated that it will be messier than expected. We asked them to remove their shoes as they come up stairs to which they complied but I thought that they weren't very careful with the way they handled their equipment in our house. They were dropping their hose carelessly on the floor, yanking their ladder that it broke off our child safety gate, and leaving quite a mess with their shoes on the first floor. It took a few hours of cleaning up after they left - I wasn't very happy with that. Again, we kinda expected that but not to the degree of cleaning up that we had to do after their work. They used our paper towel from the kitchen and left the dirty towels on the bench in our foyer! To top it off, they did not reconnect the vent hose properly back into the dryer unit. I discovered this after I was putting our things back in place when they left. I cannot imagine the work that I had to do to clean that mess up more if I hadn't discovered it! Overall, we couldn't believe the amount of cleaning up we had to do after their work was done that we felt like it didn't make much of a difference, but we shall see in the couple of days in the quality of air we are breathing indoors. He did help me screw back up a blinds to which I appreciate but when they used our toilet, they could have at least put the seat back down. And for $610, we were really expecting better service. We will be in touch anyway for the yearly service since we paid for it!

I purchased a living social coupon and they completely scammed me. It happened so fast, I didn't even have time to realize that they were totally taking advantage of the fact that no one wants mold in their house. I'm pretty sure I didn't have anything wrong, but they are professionals at taking your money. Don't use this company!

I called because I had a coupon for air duct cleaning, they started and in the middle of it, he told me I need to get my "mains" celaned as well and it is (something like) $285 each and I have two mains, plus the coupon plus something else. I was in shock and then he said he would talk to the office to get a discount and he got the price a little bit down. I feel I have been taken advantage of because I did not know anything about cleaning airducts and "mains". It made me join Angie's List! I researched afterwards and found out I was definitely paying the most expensive way of anyone paying.

The original appointment was yesterday, with a service window from 9-11. I called at 9 AM just to confirm and get an approximate time. I was told they would be here at about 9:45 or 10. At 10:30, still no sign of them. I called back and was told they would be here by 10:45. At 11 AM, I called back and was told they were 5 minutes away. At 11:20, still no sign. I called back and they said they would check. At 11:30, I got a call back saying they had an equipment problem and would not be able to come. No apologies or anything. Since it was a groupon, I rescheduled for today (otherwise I would have just cancelled). This time, they were on time. They got right to work and all was fine. My major complaint was that the work crew moved furniture to clean the vents, but then left the furniture where they moved it (e.g., couches moved in the middle of the room). I had to move it back myself after they left. There was a team of 2, with the one person doing the work and the other trying to sell me mold services and more advanced air duct cleanings. Given the missed appointment without apologies, I would have not hired them for additional services. This is a perfect example of how a groupon can hurt a business. While I never would have hired them but for the groupon, I can definitely confirm that I would not hire them again.

I was told I had toxic mold and a test was taken using what looked to be a 5 year old vial/test kit. I was then told it could be repaired for $1000 plus another $400 for a UV light. Do yourself a favor and don't bother with this company.

unknown

Envirocair and their technicians are not to be trusted and attempted to commit fraud by having us pay for unnecessary services. We recently had Envirocair come to our house for a whole home air duct cleaning and carpet cleaning. When the arrived, they said the deal we purchased did not include the top floor of our house because it is on a separate AC system, but for an extra $50 cash (off the books) they would do the top floor. We skipped the top floor as our first impression did not inspire instant trust that they would do a good job. Then, during the cleaning, the technician said that we had mold in our AC unit and in the main air supply line. We asked him to show us the mold or pictures of the mold, but he said he had already closed it up so we couldn't see it and he didn't take pictures. He offered to clean up the mold for us on the spot for $500 and we declined, again because we just didn't trust him based on our first impression. Lastly, the carpet cleaning was barely adequate as the technician merely did a once over of the carpets with his machine. After he left, we noticed that some of the vents had not been put back on. A few days later, we had another HVAC repairman come over to see the supposed mold. He arrived and looked at the unit using a tiny video camera that could slink through the ducts to see if they're clean and if there were other problems. As it turns out, the ducts were actually cleaned quite well. However, there was no mold anywhere. Envirocair would have had us shell out $500 for non-existent mold cleaning. Save your money and look elsewhere for services. The best thing about the service was that the ducts were cleaned well and the technician was actually early.

This is the most horrible and unprofessional company I have EVER dealt with. They left my house damaged and refused to take responsibility. I will be VERY detailed because I documented EVERYTHING that day and the days after. I called and scheduled these services after receiving a promotional offer in the mail -$64 for steam cleaning 3 rooms, vacuum all return vents, and video inspection of vents before and after. Two men showed up at my house at 930am 10/10/11 in an unmarked vehicle. The service man that spoke English, Guy, asked for a hose bib to attach their cleaning equipment to so we directed him to the side of the house. They cleaned the vents with a long hose then Guy took us downstairs to tell us about "mold" in our (NEW) furnace and offered a service to clean it for $399. What he was pointing to was clearly not mold. When we refused the service, it was very obvious Guy was displeased. When we asked about the video inspection he said, and I quote "we didn't do it because he (referring to my husband!) wouldn't spend the money to clean the furnace so there is no point. It's going to look just as bad after." The other man started cleaning the carpets. They did NOT vacuum the carpets prior to cleaning. They were instructed to clean the upstairs master bedroom (which they TRIED to charge as two rooms), the upstairs hallway, and the downstairs family room. We did not see ANY difference in the carpet and Guy told us that the stains we had wouldn't be removed with the steam cleaning, they needed a special spot cleaning which would cost $30. We thought it was ridiculous but the whole purpose of having the carpets cleaned was to remove a cluster of dark stains so we agreed. Guy disappeared outside and came back with an unmarked spray bottle filled with, with what looked just like, soapy water. He unscrewed the top, poured it all on the carpet, and had the other guy vacuum over it again. No change. We were asked to sign the receipt, we were told not to walk on any of the carpets for at least an hour, and they rushed out the door. My husband and I sat at the kitchen table for about an hour and at 1030 he happened to look up on the ceiling and there were water marks. We ran upstairs and found a GIANT wet outline . This huge puddle of water was seeping all the way into the master bathroom, under the bathroom tile, and through the floor. We immediately took pictures to document everything. My husband rushed to get our wet vac and vacuumed up at least 2 galloons of water. Took pictures of that too. We pulled up the bathroom tile to try to prevent further damage but the water marks continued to spread in three areas of our kitchen ceiling. We pulled up the carpet and took pictures of the soaked plywood -an area of about 5x4. It is clearly evident in these photos that a huge amount of water was dumped in one place. After the immediate crisis was over, we called the number on the receipt (866-806-4224) and spoke with Ms Rowe. I told her there was damage done to my house and I wanted to speak with a manager. She told me Nelly, the manager, would not be in the office until 430-5. I told Ms. Rowe the extent of the damage, was told it was documented, and she assured me Nelly would call immediately when she came in. No call. I called again at 755pm and there was no answer. I left a message on the voicemail saying I was disappointed I did not receive a call back and requested a call ASAP the next day. The carpet was still soaking wet at 7am before I left for work the next morning despite having fans and overhead lights on the water stain. No call received the next day. I called at 1130am and I was told the manager (Nelly) would come in to the office within a few hours and would call me then. No call. I called at 3pm and was told AGAIN by Ms. Row that the previous employee I spoke to was mistaken and Nelly wouldn't be coming in until 430pm. I asked "isn't there another way to reach a manager?!" She suggested I send an email and gave me an email address. When I asked who would receive that email, she could not give me a name, she just said that the managers were the only ones that could access that account and check it when they come in. I sent an email at 1145am. At 4:45pm I received a call from Nelly who was extremely rude before I even got a chance to explain the damage. She told me that the damage "wasn't possible," that she "hadn't heard anything like that in 8 years." Then she told me that we were responsible for inspecting everything before they left. I said "Not when we were told not to walk on the carpets!!" She asked me what kind of equipment he had. I said I didn't know and I tried to describe the long hose. She said "if it was a portable unit, all they would need to do is fill up the unit with water from a facet." I asked how much water the unit held. She answered about 1.5-2 gallons. She asked if I had pictures of the damage. I said yes. She asked if I could sent them to her. I of course did. Then, while still on the phone, she changed her story to say "I don't understand because the water usually comes from the truck and it's attached to the truck." Clearly she had no knowledge, or pretended to have no knowledge of the equipment used. After some pushing, she finally said she would give this to the attention of her manager, Ray Allen, and he would call me. I asked for his number because I wanted to call him. She absolutely refused, saying "We do not give out his number." I told her "I don't understand why I cannot have the contact information for a manager to report a problem. I don't find it acceptable that you do not have a manager onsite or available for these concerns. You were not available yesterday or even until later today." She to replied "I was here for several hours yesterday." I was furious and said "So when I called and was told you would return my call to address this problem as soon as you came in, you disregarded that?" She replied "There were other calls ahead of yours. I don't think I have to justify where I was yesterday to you." Yeah, great customer service. I sent the email with the photos and the next day I received an email back from Ray Allen saying there was absolutely no way that this damage could have occurred. He then said "I am willing to send a technician to inspect your damage to try and find the source of water. " I replied that it was interesting he was claiming the damage is not possible prior to even having HEARD the full story (because I could not call him) or SEEN the damage. I replied giving more detail of the damage, told him I had plenty more pictures, and gave him my contact information to set up the appointment. No one called to schedule. On 10/14/11 My husband called for an appointment for 10/17/11 He made sure to verrify that the appointment was for the inspection, not for work. On 10/17/11 9AM Guy called and said "Good morning. This appointment is about water damage in the basement?" We replied "No. This appointment is about the water damage to our kitchen ceiling from the work you did on the carpet upstairs." There was a very long silence. Then finally he said "Oh ok. Now I understand. We are going to leave now." I asked when he would be here. He answered "Um I don't know. I will have to check and I can call you right back." Never received a call back. At 10am we called Guy's cell number that was on our caller ID and he said "I'm still checking to see if it is ok that I come because the equipment cannot be the cause of that water." We told him we had corresponded with Ray Allen and Guy said he was not able to come until later in the day. I had to go to work so we had to reschedule for 10/19/11. I also thought it was completely ridiculous that they wanted to send the same worker to inspect the damage that he, or his team, caused. On 10/18/11 6pm I called and spoke to Nelly and told her I wanted someone else to come and inspect the damage. She refused. On 10/19/11 Guy was supposed to be here by 11am and did not show. Called and spoke to Efie who put me on hold to try to reach Guy. She could not reach him. She tried again then called me at 1125 to tell me he would be late because of heavy traffic. I asked when he would get here and she replied she didn't know but that I could reschedule if I wanted to. I said No! 10/19/11 12:15 Guy came. I showed him about 10 photos of the water damage. He also took 1 or 2 pictures of the ceiling with his iphone. He told me there was no way the equipment could have caused that. Because the big puddle of water was close to the sink he claimed it must have been the sink. I told him that was ridiculous because the water pattern was CLEARLY not originating from the sink then I also turned on the facet to prove there was no leak. He again said the equipment couldn't cause this. He said they use buckets to fill the machine. I asked then why he asked for my hose bib. Then he said he "didn't remember what type of equipment they used that day." I asked him a series of questions like "what if there was a blockage in the hose, or he dropped the vacuum, or there was a loose connection." He kept avoiding the questions and then finally, ridiculously enough, said "What if the water was there before we arrived?" He started getting upset saying "You're just going to have to talk to a supervisor." Then he finally just stormed out of my house. I sent a follow up email to Ray Allen after not hearing anything and I also asked him for the make and model of the equipment that was used. His response was that he concluded it was impossible for their equipment to have caused the damage. He then refused to give the equipment information, saying "the make and model is not relevant." We repaired the damage ourselves because our insurance deductible would have ended up being more. We weren't even offered a refund. We planned to take this to court to get reimbursed but because of some serious personal circumstances, never got to it.

The 2 service people were very fast. Afterwards founds some duct covers that were not put back and some ducts that were not even cleaned. Obviously they focused on speed instead of quality.

This place is full of scammers. I bought a groupon-type deal for $49 for air duct cleaning of "unlimited vents" and the dryer vent. The first technician who came out was named Guy. They cleaned one vent and tried to upsell us on $1,200.00 worth of additional cleaning services. When I said no, they started packing up, claiming that they could clean the whole system from one vent. This is obviously not true -- I took the technician up and showed him that our system is like an octopus -- with about a dozen tubes snaking out from one main line, and each of them going directly to a different vent. He still claimed they could clean them all from one vent, even though the deal said "unlimited vents." I called their customer service number and talked to Tom and his supervisor Ray. Ray said they shouldn't have done that and they would send a new crew the next week. The second technician's name was Bitsu. He came in and said he needed to figure out which vent they could do the cleaning from. I told him they need to open all the vents, and showed him why. He tried to tell me that opening all the vents wouldn't work, and ultimately said he would not do the job and left.

They were great. Very nice people, they explained everything to me. Envirocair did more than what was expected of them as the house was a new one and certain addition services needed to be done. They were good. I would surely use them in future.

It was horrible. Do not use this company. I think we got ripped off.

After I found these problems, I tried to contact their company multiple times. My contact attempts are listed below: Made a phone call to 1-866-806-4224 on Oct. 14, 2011, Friday 5:30PM EST. I reported the air cleaning problems. The phone receiver requested me to send a dispute message to ENVIROCAiR company with their website. I did, but the ENVIROCAiR website cannot send any dispute messages. I tried to send the dispute message many time within the last couple days, but it never worked. I made another phone call to 1-866-806-4224 on Oct. 15, 2011, Saturday 17:46PM EST. I left message and requested someone to call me back. No one from ENVIROCAiR ever called back. I made a phone call again to 1-866-806-4224 on Oct. 17, 2011, Monday 10:40 AM EST. I reported the air duct problem again. I sent an email to environmentalcar@gmail.com on Oct. 17, 2011. But I have not received any replies. I sent Certified Mail to the EnvironCair to request investigate the claim on Oct. 19, 2011. I filed a complaint with the BBB (Better Business Bureau) on Nov. 24, 2011. The complaint id 8821776. I requested on the BBB site for EnviroCair to investigate the issue, apologize, and refund $2000. The crew of EnviroCair misleads the consumer into believing that the duct work was contaminated with mold, fungus, dust mites, or bacteria and that it posed an immediate health risk. They then proceed to charge the homeowner significant additional money for sanitizers, air vent cleanings, or ?germicidal ultraviolet lights?. Actually, the EnviroCair did nothing to clean the air vent and duct. The evidence in the case showed that EnviroCair engaged in fraud and this goes beyond negligence. 1. EnviroCair offers the air duct cleaning services, where the purpose of effect of the offer is not to sell those services, but to bait or entice the buyer into the purchase of other or higher priced services; 2. EnviroCair provides, through direct mailing, coupons offering air duct cleaning service at a specified price, and then failing to provide such services at that price; 3. EnviroCair fails to provide air duct, vent cleaning as it promised at its website ?WE OPEN, BRUSH AND VACUUM EACH DUCT? ; 4. EnviroCair refuses to reply to any the customer?s complain and requested investigation; The Better Business Bureau(BBB) has given EnviroCair the lowest grade ?F?. http://www.bbb.org/washington-dc-eastern-pa/business-reviews/air-duct-cleaning/envirocair-duct-carpet-cleaning-in-kensington-md-235981697

unknown

BEWARE!!! They were 4 hours late, and upon arrival, one of the two technicians asked me right away where my furnance was. He looked at the furnace and said I had a mold problem in the main duct. He said it was a health issue and said it would cost $500 to clean it. I told him that I was not interested but he spent most of the hour on the phone with his boss trying to talk me into accepting the service. I accepted the service and told him that I would inquire with other companies about the cost and service of what they were offering. He guarenteed the cost and service, and if I found another company that would provide the service cheaper and and better, they would return the money. They spent 15 minutes providing the service, and they spent less than an hour at my house. I called other companies with the same exact service (right off of the invoice) and all 3 companies said it would be less money and would take up to 3 hours to perform. I contacted them and they said I accepted the service through siging the invoice. They said they would not honor the commitment made by their technician and when I said I would dispute the charge on my credit card, they threatened to take me to court. I was stupid to have them perform the service, but I have 3 degrees and usually don't fall for these scams. It was obvious they bait people by offering coupons and quite intentionally right away try to talk you into a service by warning you about "health hazards" and then they don't perform the service. Then when you complain they threaten to sue you. Stay away from this company ... they run very well scripted scams and don't even perform the service you pay for.

Beware! I hired Envirocair to perform an air duct cleaning of my home after seeing a coupon in a local paper for a $59 complete duct cleaning plus free carpet cleaning. What a mistake!. I was told over the phone that I would be getting a thorough 2-3 hour duct cleaning but in fact the workmen spent only 25 minutes cleaning the ducts and another 15-20 minutes cleaning the carpet in my basement. Upon entering my home, one of the workmen immediately tried to upsell me by taking a quick glance at my furnace and telling me it had a "major" mold problem. I asked him to substantiate his claims but when he couldn't, I declined the expensive chemical treatment and UV lights he claimed I needed. The following day, I had a home inspector stop by to examine the furnace and check for mold. He told me that there was absolutely no reason to suspect a mold problem and that I had nearly been scammed. Moreover, even after seeing that I have a 1-year-old baby, the Envirocair crew left several nails, screws, and shards of wood on the floor and failed to replace one register cover. They never mentioned these hazards to me before leaving, and later in the day I grabbed a nail out of my baby's hand just as he was about to put it in his mouth. When I called the company to complain, I was told that I would have to wait until late the following week for a workman to return to finish the job. It was only after three phone calls and my threat to withhold payment that they finally agreed to send someone back the following day. (It's worth noting here that neither of the company representatives I spoke to apologized for the crew's oversights. In fact, one threatened to sue me for withholding payment and was tremendously rude throughout the call.) Want a duct cleaning? I'd hire a more reputable company.