update added below...
Happy to come back and rate this company. These guys were friendly and professional, did a great job and were more than $250 less than Direct Energy for the same service. I stuck my head in my cold air return and checked it out with a flashlight and I fail to see how DE could have provided $250 more value.
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A couple of days after my cleaning I noticed a blanket of dark black dust under one of the vents in my bathroom. I left it there and called Topline to come and take a look. They showed up and said this was just from the dust that may have accumulated on the register itself. He took the register off and cleaned it, put it back and assured me it was clean. I put some register filters on this vent and waited. A couple of days later the filter is getting black. I called Topline to advise that the vent is still dirty and wanted to give them a chance to come back and clean it properly. They advised that it is clean and that the problem is just that my house is very old and the vents were never cleaned. They advised just to change the filters 3 or 4 more times and if it's stil happening to give a call.
The next day after my cleaning I was feeling a congestion in my sinus and lungs and I don't even sleep in that room! My wife had a headache, runny nose and sore throat. My son had a sore throat. Now about a week later my 5 month old daughter has a runny nose and can't breath through her nose. The scary part is that is HER ROOM!! A layer of Black dust has settled on everything in her room. We washed her blankets and have vaccumed her carpet numerous times so hopefully we got most of it out. But unfortunately we can't take the dust out of her! With 80-90 year old house which undoubtedly had lead paint on the walls at one point, who knows what is in that dust -AND IN MY FAMILY!
They're good guys, and a problem like this could have happend to any company (assuming they really even tried to clean that vent at all which I'm still unsure of), but it's all how you handle it when problems occur -and for that they receive a failing grade. Looks like I should have spent another 250 bucks and gone somewhere else.
*************FINAL UPDATE*******************
After my update the guys decided to come back today and clean it again. They powered up the vacuum and went to work on the trouble spot. I got a bit dismayed that they didn't bother to close off all the other registers as they had done the first time thus ensuring that there was maximum suction for the trouble spot. I pleaded and so they closed them and tried again. I watched closely and I discovered that the suction at the trouble spot was very low -lower than the other areas. This is most likely the reason for the dirt remaining in this section of pipe. Being an old house (which they reminded me of 10 times) it likely has many holes in the duct work. It turns out it has more to do with my old leaky ducts than doing a poor job. ...but there were things they could have done to improve suction on this spot and I wish they would have either known how or been more willing to do it. As an exmaple they could have not only taped the other registers, but they could have adjusted the main damper so as to direct all of the suction to the proper area ...something I suggested. They're good guys and I'd recommend them to anyone with a new and straight forward duct system -anything that doesn't require problem solving.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $200.00