Prairie Village Heating & Cooling Contractors Prairie Village, KS

Kansas City customer not happy with air duct cleaning

COMPLAINT: Laura King, Raytown, Mo.

"I called Air-Vision Duct Cleaning after reading the reviews other customers wrote on Angie's List. We discussed the air ducts in my old house and [Ward Holman, the owner] quoted me a price, and we set an appointment.

"[When he came out] I explained some don'ts before he set up. He followed all my concerns and went to work. Several days later, I called concerning the dust problem I was having. He didn't call back.

"A few days later, I called again and explained the problem, telling him the ductwork wasn't clean. He refused to come back out and reclean the ducts, stating the dust was due to my cats, the fact that I smoke and because I have an ionizer.

"I then explained I'm not allergic to cats, the ionizer only works when I turn it on for a couple minutes and I've never had problems with smoke or cat allergies. I stressed that I could taste dust and grit in my mouth.

"I told him a contractor always corrects the problem when it's not done right and if he doesn't guarantee his work, he's in the wrong business.

"Ward should have known his equipment wasn't the right machinery to use in a house where the ducts had never been cleaned. Had he owned the right equipment, in all probability the ducts would have been clean."

DESIRED RESOLUTION: "I want them to pay someone else of my choice to finish cleaning the ducts."

RESPONSE: Ward Holman, owner, Air-Vision Duct Cleaning

"If this had been a bad duct cleaning, dust would have been noticeably blowing out of the registers as I was packing up my equipment and both of us would have been coughing. Instead, when the furnace came on, she commented "I can tell the difference already!"

"I don't know how she could tell, she must have a bionic sniffer. I feel that she expected too much from the duct cleaning. I can do nothing more than eliminate them as a source of her problems.

"The sum of the small parts is that she had allergy problems from dirty carpets harboring human and cat dander, nicotine from cigarette smoke masking what may have been the real problem and using an ionic air cleaner.

STATUS: Resolved

Editor's note: King informed Angie's List that Air-Vision Duct Cleaning refunded her money.