Interstate Ventilation Inc.

This complaint is without merit for several reasons which follow below:First and foremost, we DO NOT EVER charge a fee for processing a payment for work completed or for any reason when a customer decides to use a credit card any credit card, *** or otherwise.Secondly, We
contacted this customer on several occasions, spoke directly with her and tried to amicably work out some sort of refund to make her happyShe verbally accepted our generous offer of a partial refund of $but when we mailed her to the offer in writing she never returned(Please see attached letter of good faith and refund.)Thirdly, we DO NOT scam ANYONE! There are few if any complaints of any sort of "scamming" on us online or elsewhere, apparently this customer is making that upWe service literally hundreds of satisfied customers weeklyIf one of our technicians is found to be conducting himself unethically we IMMEDIATELY excuse him from working for us ever againWe have ZERO TOLERANCE toward that sort of behavior or any other deceptive practices.Fourthly, we DO NOT do any work on any elderly person's home who seems to be in need of assistanceIt is readily apparent that *** *** is quite capable of making purchasing decisions based on her obvious level of intelligence and ability to comprehend what was being explained to her. In closing, we do offer discounted ventilation system cleanings when we are in areas by phoneIt is merely a form of marketing that is perfectly legal and used by some of the biggest Fortune Companies in the worldThe fact is, despite our marketing efforts to do the work on ventilation systems that IS needed, we do very little actual work aside from cleanings when compared to the number of cleaning jobs we go onCustomers have and do sometimes get upset that their systems need much more work than a mere cleaningAll we do is point out the damage to them and let them mnake up their mindsIf we go on a cleanings we might do actual work on maybe of them! We take great pride in trying to satisfy all of our customers to the best of our abilityWe do not have a "closed door" policy when it comes to dealing with complaintsThe price charged per foot for the amount of work completed on this job was well within industry standards (we performed more than just a lining installation)Apparently the customer's sons are not in the same business and are unaware of what the going rates are for such workIf they were they would not have allegedly told their mom we were so over priced.SincerelyInterstate Ventilation

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me
Please mail refund to the address on your letter
Regards,
*** ***
For *** ***

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:
Good Morning, I filed a complaint on behalf of my mother *** ***. Unfortunately the two letters that you mailed to me were not opened by my motherShe is and thought it was my personal mailInterstate Ventilation, inchas not made restitution to my mother as of this date. I had asked them to contact me only, as she is now scared of them. Please reopen this case, and send all correspondence to me at the address below or my home address *** *** *** *** ** *** Cell ***
Regards,
*** ***

To Whom this may concern,
We at Interstate Ventilation would like to apologize for any inconvenience this has caused youWe take pride in having a good name for our company so that we can continue to obtain word-of-mouth referralsWhen we purchase our calling lists from lead providers and
compilers they are scrubbed against the National Do Not Call RegistryAside from that we also import the DNC list into our automated dialing system to be sure that if a number did come in, it would not be calledHow your number got into our dialing system I can not be for sure, however I can assure you that if you asked to be put on our do not call list that you will not receive any future calls from us.I would also like to address the fact that the representative said "good luck." All of our sales calls are recorded but the only way for me to look up the recording is to have the phone number they called you on so that way I can listen to itThere is no excuse as to why anyone would say that and again apologize for thatAs for as us being a "scam," why would you say that? Because we schedule appointments cold calling? That by no means suggests that we are a scam! We service over hones weekly and have been in business for a couple of years and any negativity about our company is mostly because we phone solicitNewsday phone solicits, are they a scam? The cable companies phone solicit, are they a scam also? It doesn't make any sense to assume a company is a scam because they book their appointments via cold callingWe have hundreds of thousands of customer who we have serviced over the years and continue to do so that are 100% satisfied with our work and use us annuallyMy sincerest apologies for the phone call and be assured this will not happen again!

I would like to express my thanks to Interstate Ventilation on the excellent job that they did on my chimney. They called me for a cleaning but unfortunately when they got there, they could not put the brushes into the chimney because they explained to me that they whole chimney would crumble. I asked the price and he went through everything with me and gave me a senior discount because my mother lives in the house with me. The gentleman also took pictures and showed me what it looked like before and after.I would recommend this company to everyone. They made my chimney look brand new. They went above and beyond duty too make sure that my family would be safe in the home and my chimney would not catch on fire. Thanks again

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:  My mother nor myself was never received an offer of 914.00 refund.  If that is the case she will gladly accept it and will sign the wavier and cancel the formal complaint logged with the State of NJ Consumer Affairs. 
I will still state that in 40 years of homeowner ship and having my fireplace and oil flue cleaned on a regular bases, the cleaning companies always come in to the house, to clean a fireplace from the top down with out checking the inside is a very serious flaw in workmanship and a safety violation. I stand by all of me pervious statements. If  they are offering the refund, please have them email me directly at [redacted]
Regards,
[redacted]

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. I would be grateful to have you send me a refund check in the amount of $500.00 as offered.   I am on a fixed income and feel foolish for letting strangers into my home via cold calling without checking the company out first.  As far as the 200.00 charged for using my [redacted] account, I was told by your sales person/tech [redacted] (? I believe this is his last name) that if I gave him a check or went to the bank and took out the cash (unbelievable) he would charge me 3000.00 or if I put it on my [redacted] card he would have to charge me 3200.00.  It may not be your company policy but that is what he told me and that is the god's honest truth. 
Regards,
[redacted]

This issue occurred with Mr [redacted] because the job was referred to us by a manufacturer to see Mr [redacted], Take measurements and install a chase cover provided by the manufacturer. When the manufacturer made the chase cover it was made of completely different...

material then we normally use and it was extremely heavy. John in our office has been going back and forth with the manufacturer to fix this issue and it seemed to never be resolved. Mr [redacted] charged back his credit card for the amount of $100 which was the deposit for the work and we allowed him to get his money back. This is not a typical incident with our company and I apologize that it had happened.

small-caps;">Business
Most Recent Message
Date Sent: 5/2/2016 3:23:34 PMwe are working on this issue as we speak we will contact the customer as soon as possible thanks

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because it either factually inaccurate that the company scrubbed this list against the the National Do Not Call Registry or their is a major flaw in the process. The number has been confirmed to have been on the list since December 21, 2012. A copy of the email validation is below. Also according to [redacted] in Pennsylvania, the PA Attorney General has alleged that Interstate Ventilation has violated the Do Not Call list with "hundreds of thousands of unsolicited phone calls to people registered on Pennsylvania’s Do Not Call list." This article is available here http://fox43.com/2016/04/28/representatives-of-chimney-cleaning-companies-...⇄ /> When you google the phone number that called (which came up very strange on the caller ID, similar to a spoofed number), there are numerous alleged complaints of violations of the Do Not Call Registry. 
Police in Massachusetts have also warned the public of aggressive sales tactics by people reported to be from "Interstate Ventilation." http://patch.com/massachusetts/marblehead/police-warn-aggressive-...⇄ /> I welcome you to review the call further. The recording is the same day as my original complaint and the number called was [redacted] As mentioned in my original complaint, I am looking for the company to follow the law clearly and if there is a flaw in the process, I would like to see that corrected so complaints similar to this are properly addressed.
Regards,
[redacted]
 
Begin forwarded message:
From: [email protected]
Subject: National Do Not Call Registry - Your Registration Is Confirmed
Date: June 20, 2016 at 11:50:58 AM EDT
To: [redacted]
Thank you for registering your phone number with the National Do Not Call Registry. You successfully registered your phone number ending in [redacted] on December 21, 2012. Most telemarketers will be required to stop calling you 31 days from your registration date. Visit https://www.donotcall.gov  to register another number or file a complaint against someone violating the Registry.[redacted]Please do not reply to this message as it is from an unattended mailbox. Any replies to this email will not be responded to or forwarded. This service is used for outgoing emails only and cannot respond to inquiries.

Dear [redacted]
We are very sorry for any inconvenience our solicitation(s) might have caused you and w certainly do not intentionally violate the "DNC registry".  Actually we have a very strict zero tolerance policy with our employees, if we find out they are violating ANY...

known rules and regulations regarding the responsibilities here. We also want you to know that some times the data we retrieve has been "SCRUBBED" properly by the sources we've attained them from.  But rest assured, we take every precaution to prevent this by cleaning our data ourselves.  Sometimes, though what might of happened in your situation is that your data came through.  We apologize if this happened, it was not intentional.If you'd like, we will take ever further precautions by manually deleting your data from our records this way we'll know for sure this matter will not happen again.
Therefore, we have the correct information such as name, address and phone number and we'll make sure we take care of this immediately.
 
Sincerely
[redacted] M[redacted]
Director of Business Development

I have nothing but great things to say about Interstate. I have been using them since 2015 to clean my chimneys and they do a fabulous job! I was introduced to them when I recieved a call from them to schedule a chimney cleaning. I set up the appointment and they came on time, very professional and courteous. I call them every year to schedule and they locked me in at $140 for my heating chimney and fireplace. A+++ from me

Repeatedly contacted my 90 year old mother telling her she urgently needed her furnace cleaned (I am he son and had it cleaned 18 months ago). Now they tell her she needs her chimney repaired - In my opinion they are preying on the elderly, stealing their meager savings performing work that does not need to be done. It’s a disgrace. They should be shut down.

Review: My name is [redacted] . On July 29th 2014 I received a call from a woman at a company called Interstate Ventilation, Inc. The woman wanted to know first of all if I was a senor citizen then proceeded to tell me about a special for cleaning out my furnace chimney for $35.00. I agreed to have someone come out and clean the chimney for $35.00. The service man came and checked out the chimney from the basement, came up and told me there was a big problem: the chimney was collapsing and I could possibly get carbon monoxide poisoning. He went on and on basically scaring me very much. I was very upset and caught off guard. He quoted me the price of 2400.00 to change the metal liner and recap the top of chimneystack. They were here for a little over an hour and when he finished the job presented me with a bill for 3000.00. I was so flustered by the difference in price and I obviously do not have that kind of cash at home. I told him I would have to put it on my [redacted] card. He became irritated and said if I used my [redacted] he would have to charge me 200.00 more. It clearly stated on his business card that they took [redacted] and [redacted]. I felt completely taken advantage of. I called my son in law, a contractor and my son also a contractor in NY. And they both said that 3000.00 + 200.00 is an outrageous amount to pay for a simple liner and cap which in materials would cost $300-350 tops and maybe a couple of hundred dollars at the most for the labor. We also further checked out this company online and the reviews were of a company that targets elderly people and rips them off. The scare tactics sales language was verbatim to what this slick sales person said to me. In the state of NY their operation was shut down because of scamming consumers. I have had very heated phone calls from them because I called [redacted] immediately to dispute the charges.. I have been going back and forth with [redacted]; the charges were removed, and then put back on. Eventually I did have to pay the 3200.00 because I signed a document at time of service. I had my oil company give me a quote for the labor and materials to replace the liner and cap and it was for 500.00 plus tax. I feel completely taken advange of and ripped off. Interstate Ventilation Inc has horrible business practices and they should be ashamed of ripping off elderly senor citizens. I feel foolish that I fell for their fast talking employees and using fear tactics for sell over priced services and good. Please note my dissatisfaction. Thank you very much. [redacted]Desired Settlement: I would be happy to pay 500.00 which is a fair price for the material and service. I would love to have a refund of some type from this company although considering how they do business I hightly doubt they would to anything. This whole transaction has caused me tremendous stress not to mention a big hit to my finances. Thank you for any help you may offer. [redacted]

Business

Response:

This complaint is without merit for several reasons which follow below:First and foremost, we DO NOT EVER charge a fee for processing a payment for work completed or for any reason when a customer decides to use a credit card ... any credit card, [redacted] or otherwise.Secondly, We contacted this customer on several occasions, spoke directly with her and tried to amicably work out some sort of refund to make her happy. She verbally accepted our generous offer of a partial refund of $500.00 but when we mailed her to the offer in writing she never returned. (Please see attached letter of good faith and refund.)Thirdly, we DO NOT scam ANYONE! There are few if any complaints of any sort of "scamming" on us online or elsewhere, apparently this customer is making that up. We service literally hundreds of satisfied customers weekly. If one of our technicians is found to be conducting himself unethically we IMMEDIATELY excuse him from working for us ever again. We have ZERO TOLERANCE toward that sort of behavior or any other deceptive practices.Fourthly, we DO NOT do any work on any elderly person's home who seems to be in need of assistance. It is readily apparent that [redacted] is quite capable of making purchasing decisions based on her obvious level of intelligence and ability to comprehend what was being explained to her. In closing, we do offer discounted ventilation system cleanings when we are in areas by phone. It is merely a form of marketing that is perfectly legal and used by some of the biggest Fortune 500 Companies in the world. The fact is, despite our marketing efforts to do the work on ventilation systems that IS needed, we do very little actual work aside from cleanings when compared to the number of cleaning jobs we go on. Customers have and do sometimes get upset that their systems need much more work than a mere cleaning. All we do is point out the damage to them and let them mnake up their minds. If we go on a 100 cleanings we might do actual work on maybe 30 of them! We take great pride in trying to satisfy all of our customers to the best of our ability. We do not have a "closed door" policy when it comes to dealing with complaints. The price charged per foot for the amount of work completed on this job was well within industry standards (we performed more than just a lining installation). Apparently the customer's sons are not in the same business and are unaware of what the going rates are for such work. If they were they would not have allegedly told their mom we were so over priced.SincerelyInterstate Ventilation

Consumer

Response:

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. I would be grateful to have you send me a refund check in the amount of $500.00 as offered. I am on a fixed income and feel foolish for letting strangers into my home via cold calling without checking the company out first. As far as the 200.00 charged for using my [redacted] account, I was told by your sales person/tech [redacted] (? I believe this is his last name) that if I gave him a check or went to the bank and took out the cash (unbelievable) he would charge me 3000.00 or if I put it on my [redacted] card he would have to charge me 3200.00. It may not be your company policy but that is what he told me and that is the god's honest truth.

Regards,

I would like to express my thanks to Interstate Ventilation on the excellent job that they did on my chimney. They called me for a cleaning but unfortunately when they got there, they could not put the brushes into the chimney because they explained to me that they whole chimney would crumble. I asked the price and he went through everything with me and gave me a senior discount because my mother lives in the house with me. The gentleman also took pictures and showed me what it looked like before and after.I would recommend this company to everyone. They made my chimney look brand new. They went above and beyond duty too make sure that my family would be safe in the home and my chimney would not catch on fire. Thanks again

Review: This company repeatedly has contacted me via the phone with robo calls despite my being registered with "do not call registry", and has ignored my requests that they stop calling, even after discussion with their sales staff.Desired Settlement: They are violating the law and need to be held accountable.

Business

Response:

Dear [redacted]We are very sorry for any inconvenience our solicitation(s) might have caused you and w certainly do not intentionally violate the "DNC registry". Actually we have a very strict zero tolerance policy with our employees, if we find out they are violating ANY known rules and regulations regarding the responsibilities here. We also want you to know that some times the data we retrieve has been "SCRUBBED" properly by the sources we've attained them from. But rest assured, we take every precaution to prevent this by cleaning our data ourselves. Sometimes, though what might of happened in your situation is that your data came through. We apologize if this happened, it was not intentional.If you'd like, we will take ever further precautions by manually deleting your data from our records this way we'll know for sure this matter will not happen again.Therefore, we have the correct information such as name, address and phone number and we'll make sure we take care of this immediately. SincerelyJohn M[redacted]Director of Business Development

I suspect that aggressive phone solicitation convinced my elderly memory impaired relative to allow Interstate Ventilation to do chimney work at her home. No chimney work was needed as her home was reroofed and the chimney repaired five years ago. She is unable to tell me what work they did or if they came into the house and cannot find any itemized bill or receipt. The only evidence that workers were at her house is the $531.35 cancelled check made out to Interstate Ventilation.