California Energy and Air Quality Services, Inc.

Review: My husband and I signed up for a federal energy efficiency program that California Energy Services managed. The consultant ([redacted]) sold us the program by describing several incentives we would recive - tax rebates, manufacturer rebates, and a PG&E rebate - for the upgrades we would do in our home. The PG&E rebate was dependent on how much energy improvement there was from our existing situation compared to after all the upgrades were made. We had a series of tests in our home before anything was done, followed by the agreed upon upgrades, and then followup testing to see how much of a difference there was, in order to determine our PG&E kickback. We had a followup meeting with the consultant, and he informed us we would be getting a check from PG&E for $3,000. Later I received a letter from the company that I didn't understand, saying I had to apply for any PG&E rebates. So I called to clarify that, as the consultant had told me it was all handled by them and I would receive a check in 6-8 weeks. At that time, the person I talked to told me that we would not be receiving anything from PG&E because we chose an electric HVAC system (which we did because we were also installing solar panels as part of the whole package), which disqualified us from that incentive. I told him that's not what we were told, that we had all these tests done for the purpose of determining our PG&E rebate, and that we agreed to the program in part based on this incentive. I followed up this conversation with an email to the consultant who worked with us and the president of the company, asking for an explanation. I never received any response. We spent a lot of money on this program (over $42,000), with the clear understanding we would be getting this money back from PG&E as part of this federal grant program.Note: the street address for this business is different from the address on my correspondence from them, but the phone number is the same. Perhaps another office used for the Home Performance Program?Desired Settlement: $3,000 as promised.

Business

Response:

I agree there has been some confusion on this particular job.

Review: I've been having air quality issues in my home.Something was making my family sick and I didn't know what.So I called California Energy Services to clean my air ducts and heating and air unit, which they said they would.I'd never had air ducts clean before and didn't know what to expect.I was hoping the air would get better.What they did was make it worse.They shot HUGE clouds of dust throughout my home, while a guy named [redacted] told me and my family to go outside, because it was going to be very loud, as he was trying to sell me home energy improvement products.Before I stepped outside I saw they used a spinning wire bristled brush attached to a vacuum cleaner that sat near the vent and a small shop vac. that shot the dust from the ducts, through the vacuum , and out the back of the vacuum into the room.I pointed out to [redacted], that the dust was going out the back of the vacuum and from the spinning brush into the room.He yelled at the guy to fix the problem by using a wet towel and said it would be alright.They didn't clean my heat and air unit like they said they would, and charged me a maintenance fee. Right after they left I looked around a realized what they had done.Dust was everywhere.The same day we were sicker than we've ever been. Afterwards I've since found out that we have a black mold issue in one of our bathrooms, which I'm fixing, but the air quality of my home has been made much worse because of their actions.I called and spoke to [redacted] and asked him if it was normal for them to throw huge clouds of dust throughout the house, but got no response.My house was clean before they came, and I had mopped my kitchen floor the day before.After they left I used a solution of water and bleach to mop my kitchen floor, and the water was black with dirt despite the bleach.How can they do that!Each room is now covered in a layer of dust that wasn't there before!I have a ten month old granddaughter and a three year old granddaughter that live with me.All their stuff is now filthy too.Desired Settlement: I don't want them back in my house. I trusted them. I want them to pay for me to have someone else come to clean up the mess they made throughout my house, and for them to never do this to anyone else.

Business

Response:

This Homeowner called us out because she had dirt all over the house and thought it was coming from the Ducting. I explained to her there can be many reasons for "dirt" all over her counters, floors etc. She has old carpet on the stairs and bedrooms upstairs that is shedding as you walk on it. This creates a tremendous amount of dirt and carpet fibers floating in the air. These all settle all over the house including downstairs.I explained to her that we would clean the ducting with our High Quality Duct Cleaning Machine. This machine does not let any dirt out of its filter. When the machine came on, the filtered air coming from the machine blew dust off her piano. She asked me about the "dirt" in the air. I explained that our machine traps everything in the HEPA Filter while it cleans out the Ducting. She did not seem satisfied with this answer, so I had one of the Technicians run a second HEPA unit from the air handler to give her some piece of mind. The ducts were in fact filthy. It took three times longer to clean her ducts than it normally takes. There was one duct where the garage has been converted to a bedroom that my crew was unable to access. My Crew walked through the house with the homeowner to make sure everything was satisfactory before we left.The homeowner called the following day and told me she removed one of the upstairs vents and found debris in the duct. I told here that I would be happy to go out and run the machine through the duct again. She declined. We have performed duct cleaning services since 1998. This is the first time in our company history that someone was not satisfied with the results of the duct cleaning.