Duct cleaning scams remain prevalent on Facebook, and, thanks to ever-changing tactics, they also remain dangerous.
They can be seen in local Facebook groups, and involve posts claiming to offer duct cleaning services at a discount, often including pictures of incredibly dusty vents or people who supposedly work for the company in question.
High Riverite Evelyn Parker hired a cleaning service from one of these posts about a year ago, partially because she thought she was helping a new family in town.
“They posted this plea for people to please hire them to come and do your duct work, because otherwise, their small family business was going to have to close. And so I felt sorry for them. So I hired them." says Parker. “They told me they would give me a discount, and they gave me a price of what it would cost. They posted pictures of a family. So it was a young man and his wife and two little kids. They made it look as though it was a local family here in High River. And so that's the only reason I hired them, I know how hard it is to relocate and to try to start a business, especially if you don't speak the language very well.”
Despite the initial offer of a significant discount, she was hit with a bill that was much higher than what was agreed on.
“I arranged a time for them to come when I knew somebody would be home.
I wasn't home, but my son was here. When they left, he said, ‘They told me I had to pay them before they left,” and I asked them what they charged, and they charged way more than what they agreed upon price was, so I called them up and talked to them and they were not going to give me back any money.”
Kellen Pretulac, the owner of Plumbing & Heating Paramedics, has been keeping an eye on these scams for a few years now.
Unfortunately, the increased price is a common theme with these scams.
“It's kind of the game. They'll get in, they'll say, it's this much, and then they're going to start adding things plus, plus, plus all the time,” says Pretulac.
There are a few things to look out for to avoid these scams.
A cursory look at the profiles posting these inquiries gives the impression that the person is a member of the community in question, as they’ll have shared posts from local events dating back years ago.
However, a closer look shows that these posts are often edited to show they were from years ago when in reality, they were all done within the same time frame.
Taking a specific line or phrase from these duct cleaning posts and searching it in Facebook’s search features could also help, as these posts often share similar or even identical phrasing. If you find that someone has shared the same posts in other groups in different cities, provinces, or even countries, it’s very likely a scam.
Pretuac recommends confirming a company name and seeing what people have to say about the company online.
“Google reviews are always a good way. Someone who's Better Business Bureau certified, you know, A-plus rated, that kind of thing. I always say to everybody, if a company you're thinking about employing cares enough to respond to the reviews they get, they probably care about your business. If they don't have any reviews or they're not accredited by the Better Business Bureau, there's a good chance if you do have a complaint, they're not going to be interested in resolving it.”
Years worth of these posts have hurt the industry’s reputation, says Pretulac, despite duct cleaning being a valuable service.
“I'd say the biggest way it affects us is it takes away from the credibility that good contractors have in the industry. We don't want everybody going around giving people a bad job and giving the whole industry a bad name, because it is a service that is very valuable, and it helps improve the air quality in your home, prolongs the life of your equipment so that it makes sure it doesn't have dust just sitting on all those components all the time. The way that it's being presented on Facebook and other avenues of advertisement, it makes it seem like it's something that's not actually a valuable service. So the more they do this, the less credibility the whole industry has.”