Carpet Cleaning Discussion Forum Community! If you wish to interact or post your own topics you will first need to register a new user account. After you have registered and read the forum rules, you can check out the more information on using the forum. We hope you enjoy your stay here! used carpet cleaning equipment?Click here to create an account… I accept AreaVibes' Terms of Use Duct cleaning has become a thing in the last few years, and while it may be necessary at times, there are also people out there taking advantage of our fear of mold and allergens. How do you know when the job really needs to be done, and who do you trust to do it? I come home from a business trip and check on my father-in-law. He tells me that while I was gone, he received an unsolicited phone call from a "duct and air cleaning specialist" who says that they will look at his air conditioning/heating duct work for a free inspection. The guy come over, does some sort of inspection, and says that the ducts needed to be cleaned out and the total would be $395.00 (attached).

He lives in a 1,600 square foot ranch home build about 13 years ago with forced air heat/air conditioning. Apparently after starting the cleaning, the technician comes back upstairs and tells him that he has "mold growth" and "visible water damage." I take care of his home and I wasn't aware of any of these things. My father-in-law is unable to climb the stairs down to the basement due to his physical condition, so he could not examine the "mold" himself. So then he gets the second estimate (attached)... $638.00 to treat the mold and then $377 to seal the entire vent system with "soot sealer #1." In total, he ended up paying these people around $1000.00. I have never heard of the company before, and even the invoices they use don't even have a company letterhead on it. I blocked out the name, but it's just a rubber stamp on top of the invoice. This amount seems absolutely crazy to me, but perhaps I am wrong which is why I am here. I've received lots of offers to clean the duct work in my house (almost same size as his), but it's always been for a couple hundred bucks or so.

Did my father-in-law just get totally ripped off? Check out the attached bills and let me know what you think. A free inspection is a come on. The ducts "always" need to be cleaned. The price of $395 seems to be inline. The mold and water damage price seems to be excessive. Who knows if you did have mold. Water damage is probably stretching the truth. A lot of these companies play on people's fears of mold. A word to the wise... If you want your ducts cleaned, make the call to contact a company... don't accept an unsolicited offer. Getting recommendations or using a well-known company is highly recommended. I agree with all of that PJmax. Unfortunately, my father in law is elderly and I feel he fell victim to a fraud. I just can't imagine ANY duct cleaning service costing $1000. If this is very excessive, I want to contact my Attorney General. If the pros on this forum feel it's not excessive, I guess he's just going to have to eat his $1000. And what the heck is soot sealer?

It is unfortunate that these companies prey on the elderly. They mention mold since it's such a hot topic and basically everyone is afraid of it. Unfortunately he approved the order for the extra work. Others will stop in and offer their opinions.The requested URL /companies/?Confero was not found on this server.What is with all the telemarketers?clean usa air duct cleaningFirst off, the family is more than pleased with TekTalk. air purifier voucherThe quality and price are fine, and so are the many features (well, the ones I've managed to figure out, that is. indoor air quality air duct cleaningHow would I get speed dial to work?).My major peeve, however, is the crazy increase in telemarketing calls. It's either calls about fucking air duct cleaning, or pre-recorded notices about credit cards we don't have or some such nonsense.

I honestly can't remember if we got these kinds of telemarketing calls with Rogers-—or, if we did, certainly not this frequently.I make sure to block the numbers through the Tek Talk portal, but I don't know how useful that is. Even as I'm writing this, I paused to answer a call about air duct cleaning.Is there a way to properly screen and block these calls? Or is there some other service you guys provide that we can sign-up for to combat this?Not sure how everyone else in the family feels, but I'm pretty done with this stuff and would like it to stop.Other than that, though, Tek Talk has been a great, cost-effective service in comparison to Rogers, our previous jailers.Hope to hear from some helpful voices soon. Yeah, I was afraid they had a way to cycle their numbers. :sI guess if there's no way around it, we'll just have to hang up as soon as we know it's a telemarketer. Grah, I was really hoping for a way to stop the calls.Anyways, thanks for the speedy response. to Garneac Garneacjoin:2011-05-01Brampton, ON

to Garneac DavesnothereChange is NOT Necessarily Progress Premium Memberjoin:2009-06-15Canadakudos:81 editI'm on VoIP.ms and just use an IVR (interactive voice response) to completely filter out all automated telemarketing calls.Those voice recordings don't know how to press 1 to actually go through the to the line, so they just get a number disconnected tone.... I do the same sort of thing at Anveo, with my previously Bell landline number.In their web portal, I setup a 'Call Flow' which prompts the caller to Press '3'.Autodialers cannot interact with that sort of thing, so the calls get dropped.MORE THAN 99% of unwanted callers to my number have been autodialed, so my phone VERY rarely rings from them.Then, periodically, I check my web portal incoming calls log and add the specific numbers to a Blacklist, after checking them on 800 Notes dot com.Blacklisted numbers which call again get a 'Number Disconnected' tone.The main reason for doing that last step is to avoid paying for CNAM lookups for repeated calls, as Anveo charges per CNAM lookup, though not for the incoming calls themselves, on my service plan.

In nearly 2 years, I have accumulated less than 100 entries in that list, but hardly any unwanted calls ringing my phone.Silence is Golden ! to GarneacI have a retired friend that hates these calls as well. but, this is about him. We've both put ourselves on the Do Not Call List the government has, »www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/index-eng, it works for VOIP as well.Now back to the story of my friend. He gets a little, hmmm, p****d at telemarketers calling so after many a call he decided to do something about it. He got one of those duct cleaning calls. He acted completely dense and asked as many questions as he could. He kept the person on the line for a good 45 minutes to a hour. Then he proceeds to make an appointment with the company for a couple days later to have someone come by for an estimate. The day of the visit he made sure to have his son with him. When the guy came to the door, my friend ask for the man's business card and asked him many more questions on how this "duct cleaning" worked.

My friend still hasn't let this guy in the door. He then asked how the man had gotten to his house? The Duct cleaning rep says my friend made the appointment with their phone service.That's when my friend goes off on him. Asked him if he knew it was illegal to call someone on the DNC list. The man said yes. It's funnier when he tells it because I can only imagine the look on the guys face when my friend tells him that he will be (and did) reported to the government for breaking the DNC list mandatory rules for telemarketers. Then proceeds to tell him to get off his property.I know, long story; but imagine wasting all the telemarketers time. Its less time they have to bother someone else. Sounds like a fun retirement diversion once and a while.I don't encourage anyone to do this. I'm just telling a story of my friend. I do encourage using the DNC list. to Garneac chinesedeviljoin:2010-08-03Scarborough, ON DavesnothereChange is NOT Necessarily Progress Premium Memberjoin:2009-06-15Canadakudos:8

to Annexsaid by Annex:....is there any easy way of setting up a front on my phone number that requires a human to press 3 or something as was previously mentioned?Would I need VOIP for that?Does teksavvy tektalk offer something like that? Most likely you would need VoIP.The function which most of us VoIPers call 'Press Key' can be done at Anveo (which I use), also at CallCentric and at VOIP.MS, AFAIK.- Dunno, as they did not serve my area when I was shopping, so I did not research the finer points of their service.Cogeco introduced some kind of call blocking by number, but I was already on VoIP by then, so did no further look-see.Rogers digital phone, dunno, and they do not serve my area, because Cogeco does.Cell providers, no, AFAIK.Get more good info about VoIP in our VoIP forum , as well as more experienced users of it :»VOIP Tech Chat sbrookModjoin:2001-12-14Ottawakudos:13Given the frustration and anger these people cause, you'd think the police would actually do something to help enforce the law ... but because it's under the CRTC and not criminal law they don't go far enough, unless there's actual fraud.

And there isn't ... just poor service after the telemarketing. Even if there would be good service, I simply DON'T want anyone phoning me to try to sell me anything.To me, it's an invasion of my privacy.Remember when door-to-door salesmen were the norm ?Most of us hated that too, and the only reason that THAT practice tapered off was because the newer tech-based ways COST the selling companies less.Oh, and because our dogs cannot bite the salesperson over the Internet or phone. = = = = =BTW, if I ever get lonely enough as to look FORWARD to such BS, I will prob'ly go get a gun and shoot myself. DavesnothereChange is NOT Necessarily Progress Premium Memberjoin:2009-06-15Canadakudos:8What gets me is that Bell has means to block many of these calls, but they make no effort to do so.One way to help prevent number spoofing is to compare the numbers they pick with a lookup, to see if it's a land or cell line ... cos that won't come in over VoIP! Please would you explain that in more detail ?

In common with MANY cord cutters, I have a former Bell landline ported to my VoIP.How would my calls be (mis)treated if I called a Bell customer and Bell performed the test which I think you meant ? to MacGyverLearn something everyday. I got quite a few calls like that recently and I assumed those were mis-dial. And yes, when I look up the "spoof" number, they actually belong to some poor souls. to MacGyversaid by MacGyver:What I have noticed lately is that the telemarketers are spoofing CID to match your NPA-NXX. Yeah, that's what we get now even though our local 3 digit prefix is a brand new exchange with hardly anyone local even knowing it is local. Our VOIP.MS setup can do that look up thing on the incoming number and our phone can match it to our address book. If the number incoming is blank for owner or I don't know the owner I just ignore it. A fine use of voice mail since if it's legit they'll leave a message. I've reported dozens of numbers to that government thing and I just gave up on it.