AirBroom Minnesota Furnace & Fireplace

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2016/02/14) */ Customer first contacted us on May 2, by way of the Revdex.com lead systemFirst spoke on May 3rd She claimed she had HVAC system cleaned by another highly rated Accredited Revdex.com member in She felt that there was "too much dust" in her home again months later and that the HVAC system may be the causeClaimed there was at times an odorWe discussed at length and I explained that cleaning an HVAC system cannot eliminate all dust from your homeTold her dust reoccurs in every home and comes primarily from human skin, fabrics, being carried into your home from outside on shoes and clothingThe dust could be coming from other sources (around ceiling light fixtures, breaches in duct connections inside the walls, panels, etc.)I speculated that if the Air Ducts within the walls were a part of the issue those ducts could have breaches where fine particulate could be enteringIf so a pressure test from an HVAC company or Utility could identify thatI encouraged her to contact the Revdex.com Accredited company that had cleaned her HVAC system in and ask to speak with the owner or General ManagerTold her I felt confident they would offer to clean her system again, offer another resolution, and stand behind their workTold her I wouldn't feel right charging her to clean her system until she gave the other company a chance to rectify her concernsLater that same day, she contacted me again telling me she was unable to speak with anyone who would address her concernsI told her to please try again when she informed she did not speak with the Owner or General ManagerThe following day - May 4th - she contacted me again and informed the other firm offered to come back and clean her system again for $( about 1/regular charge) since it had been too long since the original cleaning ( many months) She turned that down because she claimed that now she "did not trust them" to do the cleaning rightShe again asked if we would be willing to clean her systemI reiterated that I recommend she accept their offer as I would need to charge her our rate vstheir discounted rate ( $179) , that they would undoubtedly be very thorough the second time around, and that we could not schedule her for weeks since we were booked several weeks out as our our Chimney Repair season was underwayShe asked us to do her cleaning at our menu priceHer air duct system cleaning was scheduled for May 26th and completed as scheduledAs she states in her complaint we "spent extensive time" cleaning the system completelyShe called on May 28th and thanked us for doing such a fine job and offered to recommend us to othersOn July 24th - almost months after the cleaning -she emailed and I called her to discuss her concern that she could see dust in front of her office window being blow into the air she speculated from the floor registers in front of the windowI discussed again that dust reoccurred naturally and reiterated (and she agreed) that her system was thoroughly cleaned by usI suggested that if the dust was coming from the duct system she may want to try installing dust filters under the register covers on the floor of her office which should stop most dust coming from the ducts and if she still saw the dust in front of the window when looking out confirm that it was coming from other sourcesOn September 24th she left an urgent message complaining about her office "dusting again" and asked that I bring her register covers and if I needed to be paid to come out and install them that would be OKWe exchanged phone and email messages into October trying to arrange a time for me to come out with the filtersI needed to special order filters and told her that we were extremely busy with Chimney repairsOn October 20th she left me a message asking that she be "put on a list" to come with the register coversI called her back the same day offering to come install the register filters "at no charge" on either Friday the 23rd or Saturday the 24thI received an e-mail on Thursday the 22nd thanking me for getting back with her and asking me to just leave the register covers by her door as she would likely be gone Friday and SaturdayI dropped the filters by her door on the 24th of October and followed up by phone and e-mail letting her know they were delivered and to see if she had any questionsI received a phone message thanking me for delivering the filters the following MondayThere was no more communication between us until a message I received an e-mail on Thursday November 5th saying simply : "Hi John, Thank you for your efforts The filters are thick and block the air flow too much So I had to take them out because the system was not allowing enough warm air through them also made the house smell not too goodStrange musty odor [redacted] " The above was the complete messageThere was no request for any type of follow up or action from usThrough this time all communications (including this one) had been very friendly and cordialThere was never a mention of the customer being dissatisfied or any question that we had performed the contracted cleaning of the air ducts very wellThe customer had always thanked me for our efforts and seemed appreciative for suggestions made THINGS CHANGED WITH ONE VOICEMAIL MESSAGE LEFT ON THURSDAY JANUARY 22nd In this first communication in over weeks ( Since Novemebr 5th), the customer left a message where she claimed that the dust was just terrible, was all over her home, and that she was "totally dissatisfied" and wanted a refund so that she could "go out and hire somebody else to clean her air ducts." I was surprised and very disappointed by this message and waited for another call or e-mail to discuss this out of character message My next communication on this matter was a notification end of business on February 4th by e-mail from the Revdex.com that a complaint had been filed against our company and instructing me to log into the system to view and respond to the complaint and call the customer to discuss and try to resolve itI was able to contact the customer on Friday November 12th to discuss the situation and see if I could address her concernsWe spoke brieflyShe noted that she wanted a full refund for the services performedWhen I asked her if she thought it was fair that we should refund her money, be paid nothing for the cleaning services performed, counseling provided, and follow up service we providedI asked if we could discuss a resolution short of a full refund to which she replied that she was not interested and needed to have a full refund in order to hire somebody elseShe then said "we are not going to settle this" and abruptly hung up on me To summarize, I think the customer is a nice woman who simply has unrealistic expectations about the re occurrence of dust in her home and the ability of air duct cleaning to keep dust from reoccurring Before we accepted this engagement and agreed to clean her air duct system - which we did completely and thoroughly on May 26th - I spoke with her about the dust she described occurring in her home and that it may well not be coming from her air ductsI informed her that cleaning her ducts again may not solve her issue, encouraged her to contact the past cleaning company to have them resolve her situation at what I believed would be at little or no cost to her After counseling time (both before and after the service), suggestions , and efforts we made including providing register back air filters at no charge, never being told she was dissatisfied and wanting a refund until almost months after the cleaning was performed , being complimented on the cleaning and thanked for the counseling ...to then be told she wants nothing less than a full refund and that she would accept nothing less on February 12th brings me to the decision that we cannot refund her money The cleaning was performed properly, no claim of dissatisfaction was raised until 1/months after the service was completed, and in the interim we responded to her inquiries, counseled, and provided register air filters - all at no charge to try to demonstrate to her that the air ducts were not the main source of the re occurring dust in her homeI believe that until the customer explores other possible sources of what she believes is more than dust in her home another cleaning of her air ducts will likely not resolve her concernsAll we can ever provide from is a complete and professional cleaning service - as we did and were complimented on - and professional counseling and advise when the customer inquiriesIt is not reasonable to expect a cleaning of the air duct system to eliminate all dust in a home...especially in perpetuity John [redacted] Owner Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 7, 2016/02/17) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Vent covers were John's suggestion for the continuation of the dust and debrisTo me, it seemed it would be like placing a band aid over a soreI thought I would try the suggestion and placed them My results: The message I left "Hi John, Thank you for your effortsThe filters are thick and block the air flow too muchSo I had to take them out because the system was not allowing enough warm air through them also made the house smell not too goodStrange musty odorI never heard back from himBesides myself, I decided to leave another message just recently, asking for a refundNo response, so I went forward to ask for help from the Revdex.com His comment today: "It is not reasonable to expect a cleaning of the air duct system to eliminate all dust in a home...especially in perpetuity." I never have stated I wanted to eliminate all dust in my home I now have to run a negative ion machine downstairs 24/The dust has lessened downstairs and the smell issue seems to be gone on that levelThe upstairs continues to have lots of dust the way it was before and after the company worked on itSmell is sometimes there in the morningThis was always the worst area of dust including the bathroom I run my furnace fan 24/With the negative ion machine running, the air throughout the house is being filteredThis has saved my life! When I turn it off the poor air quality returns...high amounts of dust and musty smell on both levels I continue to change the furnace filter once a month I want to share that some visitors in our home have smelled the same strange odor A partial refund was offered after the company was contacted from the Revdex.comI reclined from asking the amount since I still feel the full amount is what I need to hire a company who charges more then the last companiesThis company was recommended by a neighbor who purchased a foreclosure which needed lots of work Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 9, 2016/02/28) */ February 28, This is our second response to the customer's complaint requesting a full refund of monies charged for the Air Duct System Cleaning services we spent hours performing on May 26, Our response was and remains that the cleaning service was performed properly as contracted, no claim of dissatisfaction was raised until late January -1/months after the service was completed, and in the interim we responded to her inquiries, counseled, and provided register air filters to stop any possible fine dust that may have been entering her office through the floor registers as she claimed - all at no charge to try to demonstrate to her that the air ducts were likely not the main source of the re occurring dust in her home just as we had counseled prior to scheduling her cleaning in May of This complaint follows this customer's initial dissatisfaction with another Revdex.com Accredited business she refers to in this complaintJust as with us she first complained many months after the cleaning, was offered a solution short of a full refund which she refused, and then moved forward (as she is proposing to do once again)to have the system re-cleaned despite our urging to allow the prior company we recognize as a reputable competitor to address her issues We reluctantly agreed to re-clean her system and explained to her that re-cleaning the system may not solve her concerns of too much dust in her homeThat dust reoccurs naturally in all homes and that if the problem continued there was likely an issue other than the air duct system involved with creating what she describes as excess dustShe now again wants to hire another company to clean her air duct system and for us to return the fee we clearly earned in order to fund that venture In our initial response we provided details of our attempt to be responsive, helpful, and even our attempt to offer something short of a full refund that reflected the work we did, the satisfaction that was expressed prior to the complaint, and our wanting to satisfy all of our customers by even in this circumstance offering a "good will" gesture to settle this and allow us both to move onThe response I received in our last conversation on February 12th was being hung up on by her after being told she would accept nothing short of a full refund which I informed her seemed unfair to me given the circumstance In the customer's first complaint she claimed "The return vents have a lot of dust on them and not sure why this is the case." What this actually signifies is that dust from the home is being pulled back into the Air Duct System which is exactly the opposite of her claim that the Air Duct System is putting dust into the home I will end my response once again by saying I think the customer is a nice woman who simply has unrealistic expectations about the reoccurrence of dust in her home and the ability of air duct cleaning to keep dust from reoccurringI believe that until the customer explores other possible sources of what she believes is more than dust in her home - which we had discussed even prior to our cleaning - another cleaning of her air ducts will likely not resolve her concernsAll we were and are able to provide is a complete and professional cleaning service - as we did provide and were complimented on - and professional counseling and advice when a customer inquiresGiven the history of this situation and our counseling prior to agreeing to clean her system it was and is not reasonable to expect a cleaning of the air duct system to eliminate all dust in her home...especially in perpetuityNor is it reasonable for her to expect us to offer a refund of monies for the services we clearly performed John [redacted] Managing Partner

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/02/14) */
Customer first contacted us on May 2, 2015 by way of the Revdex.com lead system. First spoke on May 3rd 2016. She claimed she had HVAC system cleaned by another highly rated Accredited Revdex.com member in 2014. She felt that there was "too much dust" in...

her home again months later and that the HVAC system may be the cause. Claimed there was at times an odor. We discussed at length and I explained that cleaning an HVAC system cannot eliminate all dust from your home. Told her dust reoccurs in every home and comes primarily from human skin, fabrics, being carried into your home from outside on shoes and clothing. The dust could be coming from other sources (around ceiling light fixtures, breaches in duct connections inside the walls, panels, etc.). I speculated that if the Air Ducts within the walls were a part of the issue those ducts could have breaches where fine particulate could be entering. If so a pressure test from an HVAC company or Utility could identify that. I encouraged her to contact the Revdex.com Accredited company that had cleaned her HVAC system in 2014 and ask to speak with the owner or General Manager. Told her I felt confident they would offer to clean her system again, offer another resolution, and stand behind their work. Told her I wouldn't feel right charging her to clean her system until she gave the other company a chance to rectify her concerns. Later that same day, she contacted me again telling me she was unable to speak with anyone who would address her concerns. I told her to please try again when she informed she did not speak with the Owner or General Manager. The following day - May 4th - she contacted me again and informed the other firm offered to come back and clean her system again for $179 ( about 1/2 regular charge) since it had been too long since the original cleaning ( many months) . She turned that down because she claimed that now she "did not trust them" to do the cleaning right. She again asked if we would be willing to clean her system. I reiterated that I recommend she accept their offer as I would need to charge her our normal rate vs. their discounted rate ( $179) , that they would undoubtedly be very thorough the second time around, and that we could not schedule her for weeks since we were booked several weeks out as our our Chimney Repair season was underway. She asked us to do her cleaning at our normal menu price. Her air duct system cleaning was scheduled for May 26th and completed as scheduled. As she states in her complaint we "spent extensive time" cleaning the system completely. She called on May 28th and thanked us for doing such a fine job and offered to recommend us to others. On July 24th - almost 2 months after the cleaning -she emailed and I called her to discuss her concern that she could see dust in front of her office window being blow into the air she speculated from the floor registers in front of the window. I discussed again that dust reoccurred naturally and reiterated (and she agreed) that her system was thoroughly cleaned by us. I suggested that if the dust was coming from the duct system she may want to try installing dust filters under the register covers on the floor of her office which should stop most dust coming from the ducts and if she still saw the dust in front of the window when looking out confirm that it was coming from other sources. On September 24th she left an urgent message complaining about her office "dusting again" and asked that I bring her register covers and if I needed to be paid to come out and install them that would be OK. We exchanged phone and email messages into October trying to arrange a time for me to come out with the filters. I needed to special order filters and told her that we were extremely busy with Chimney repairs. On October 20th she left me a message asking that she be "put on a list" to come with the register covers. I called her back the same day offering to come install the register filters "at no charge" on either Friday the 23rd or Saturday the 24th. I received an e-mail on Thursday the 22nd thanking me for getting back with her and asking me to just leave the register covers by her door as she would likely be gone Friday and Saturday. I dropped the filters by her door on the 24th of October and followed up by phone and e-mail letting her know they were delivered and to see if she had any questions. I received a phone message thanking me for delivering the filters the following Monday. There was no more communication between us until a message I received an e-mail on Thursday November 5th saying simply :
"Hi John, Thank you for your efforts.
The filters are thick and block the air flow too much.
So I had to take them out because the system was
not allowing enough warm air through them also made
the house smell not too good. Strange musty odor.
[redacted]"
The above was the complete message. There was no request for any type of follow up or action from us. Through this time all communications (including this one) had been very friendly and cordial. There was never a mention of the customer being dissatisfied or any question that we had performed the contracted cleaning of the air ducts very well. The customer had always thanked me for our efforts and seemed appreciative for suggestions made.
THINGS CHANGED WITH ONE VOICEMAIL MESSAGE LEFT ON THURSDAY JANUARY 22nd 2016. In this first communication in over 12 weeks ( Since Novemebr 5th), the customer left a message where she claimed that the dust was just terrible, was all over her home, and that she was "totally dissatisfied" and wanted a refund so that she could "go out and hire somebody else to clean her air ducts."
I was surprised and very disappointed by this message and waited for another call or e-mail to discuss this out of character message.
My next communication on this matter was a notification end of business on February 4th by e-mail from the Revdex.com that a complaint had been filed against our company and instructing me to log into the system to view and respond to the complaint and call the customer to discuss and try to resolve it. I was able to contact the customer on Friday November 12th to discuss the situation and see if I could address her concerns. We spoke briefly. She noted that she wanted a full refund for the services performed. When I asked her if she thought it was fair that we should refund her money, be paid nothing for the cleaning services performed, counseling provided, and follow up service we provided. I asked if we could discuss a resolution short of a full refund to which she replied that she was not interested and needed to have a full refund in order to hire somebody else. She then said "we are not going to settle this" and abruptly hung up on me.
To summarize, I think the customer is a nice woman who simply has unrealistic expectations about the re occurrence of dust in her home and the ability of air duct cleaning to keep dust from reoccurring.
Before we accepted this engagement and agreed to clean her air duct system - which we did completely and thoroughly on May 26th 2015 - I spoke with her about the dust she described occurring in her home and that it may well not be coming from her air ducts. I informed her that cleaning her ducts again may not solve her issue, encouraged her to contact the past cleaning company to have them resolve her situation at what I believed would be at little or no cost to her.
After counseling time (both before and after the service), suggestions , and efforts we made including providing register back air filters at no charge, never being told she was dissatisfied and wanting a refund until almost 9 months after the cleaning was performed , being complimented on the cleaning and thanked for the counseling ...to then be told she wants nothing less than a full refund and that she would accept nothing less on February 12th brings me to the decision that we cannot refund her money.
The cleaning was performed properly, no claim of dissatisfaction was raised until 8 1/2 months after the service was completed, and in the interim we responded to her inquiries, counseled, and provided register air filters - all at no charge to try to demonstrate to her that the air ducts were not the main source of the re occurring dust in her home. I believe that until the customer explores other possible sources of what she believes is more than normal dust in her home another cleaning of her air ducts will likely not resolve her concerns. All we can ever provide from is a complete and professional cleaning service - as we did and were complimented on - and professional counseling and advise when the customer inquiries. It is not reasonable to expect a cleaning of the air duct system to eliminate all dust in a home...especially in perpetuity.
John [redacted]
Owner
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2016/02/17) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Vent covers were John's suggestion for the continuation of the dust and debris. To me, it seemed it would be like placing a band aid over a sore. I thought I would try the suggestion and placed them.
My results: The message I left...
"Hi John, Thank you for your efforts. The filters are thick and block the air flow too much. So I had to take them out because the system was not allowing enough warm air through them also made the house smell not too good. Strange musty odor. I never heard back from him. Besides myself, I decided to leave another message just recently, asking for a refund. No response, so I went forward to ask for help from the Revdex.com.
His comment today: "It is not reasonable to expect a cleaning of the air duct system to eliminate all dust in a home...especially in perpetuity."
I never have stated I wanted to eliminate all dust in my home.
I now have to run a negative ion machine downstairs 24/7. The dust has lessened downstairs and the smell issue seems to be gone on that level. The upstairs continues to have lots of dust the way it was before and after the company worked on it. Smell is sometimes there in the morning. This was always the worst area of dust including the bathroom.
I run my furnace fan 24/7. With the negative ion machine running, the air throughout the house is being filtered. This has saved my life! When I turn it off the poor air quality returns...high amounts of dust and musty smell on both levels.
I continue to change the furnace filter once a month.
I want to share that some visitors in our home have smelled the same strange odor.
A partial refund was offered after the company was contacted from the Revdex.com. I reclined from asking the amount since I still feel the full amount is what I need to hire a company who charges more then the last 2 companies. This company was recommended by a neighbor who purchased a foreclosure which needed lots of work.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2016/02/28) */
February 28, 2016
This is our second response to the customer's complaint requesting a full refund of monies charged for the Air Duct System Cleaning services we spent 5 hours performing on May 26, 2015. Our response was and remains that the cleaning service was performed properly as contracted, no claim of dissatisfaction was raised until late January 2016 -8 1/2 months after the service was completed, and in the interim we responded to her inquiries, counseled, and provided register air filters to stop any possible fine dust that may have been entering her office through the floor registers as she claimed - all at no charge to try to demonstrate to her that the air ducts were likely not the main source of the re occurring dust in her home just as we had counseled prior to scheduling her cleaning in May of 2015.
This complaint follows this customer's initial dissatisfaction with another Revdex.com Accredited business she refers to in this complaint. Just as with us she first complained many months after the cleaning, was offered a solution short of a full refund which she refused, and then moved forward (as she is proposing to do once again)to have the system re-cleaned despite our urging to allow the prior company we recognize as a reputable competitor to address her issues.
We reluctantly agreed to re-clean her system and explained to her that re-cleaning the system may not solve her concerns of too much dust in her home. That dust reoccurs naturally in all homes and that if the problem continued there was likely an issue other than the air duct system involved with creating what she describes as excess dust. She now again wants to hire another company to clean her air duct system and for us to return the fee we clearly earned in order to fund that venture.
In our initial response we provided details of our attempt to be responsive, helpful, and even our attempt to offer something short of a full refund that reflected the work we did, the satisfaction that was expressed prior to the complaint, and our wanting to satisfy all of our customers by even in this circumstance offering a "good will" gesture to settle this and allow us both to move on. The response I received in our last conversation on February 12th was being hung up on by her after being told she would accept nothing short of a full refund which I informed her seemed unfair to me given the circumstance.
In the customer's first complaint she claimed "The return vents have a lot of dust on them and not sure why this is the case." What this actually signifies is that dust from the home is being pulled back into the Air Duct System which is exactly the opposite of her claim that the Air Duct System is putting dust into the home.
I will end my response once again by saying I think the customer is a nice woman who simply has unrealistic expectations about the reoccurrence of dust in her home and the ability of air duct cleaning to keep dust from reoccurring. I believe that until the customer explores other possible sources of what she believes is more than normal dust in her home - which we had discussed even prior to our cleaning - another cleaning of her air ducts will likely not resolve her concerns. All we were and are able to provide is a complete and professional cleaning service - as we did provide and were complimented on - and professional counseling and advice when a customer inquires. Given the history of this situation and our counseling prior to agreeing to clean her system it was and is not reasonable to expect a cleaning of the air duct system to eliminate all dust in her home...especially in perpetuity. Nor is it reasonable for her to expect us to offer a refund of monies for the services we clearly performed.
John [redacted]
Managing Partner