How would you feel if your babysitter said she charges $5 per hour, but when you come home from your evening out, she hands you this bill…
| Four hours of babysitting time | $ 20.00 |
| Feed the kids | $ 10.00 |
| Read to the kids | $ 10.00 |
| Give kids bath | $ 10.00 |
| Put the kids to bed | $ 10.00 |
| Total | $ 60.00 |
Pretty crazy isn’t it. But that is what you can expect from many low priced air duct cleaning services. They give you a low price to hire them, but when the job is done they’ve tacked on additional charges that run up the bill to 2 to 3 times more than they quoted you.
| Clean up to 12 vents | $ 99.00 |
| Fuel charge | $ 35.00 |
| 5 Additional vents ($15each) | $ 60.00 |
| Two returns $50 each | $100.00 |
| Clean furnace | $175.00 |
| Disinfectant and deodorizer | $100.00 |
| Total | $569.00 |
Wow! That great discount isn’t so great is it? But, many people get scammed on air duct cleaning deals like this all the time. As a matter of fact, the Better Business Bureau and Dateline NBC have done a series on it. (Check out Chris Mathews on Air Duct Scams) Our advice is to get educated and choose a vendor that has upfront and competitive pricing. NADCA has a helpful brochure to help consumers learn about air duct cleaning and what questions to ask when hiring an air duct cleaning professional.
If you are in the DC area, call Potomac Services at (703) 444-5155. We’ll help explain this further and provide you a fixed, upfront prices quote.
