Stay away from vacumax

My husband and I were recent victims to a scam by a Company called Vacumax Duct Cleaning. We got our house serviced on Dec. 27, 2011. We were originally scheduled to have all our ducts cleaned for $130 as specified in their flyer. After one of the guys named Keith inspected our furnace (which I later found out that he is not qualified to do because he is not licensed for it), he told us that we had to get a mould wash done on the return line since we had a recent leak in the house. He told us it would be hazardous for our health if we did not get it done and also said that it would be much more expensive if we were to have it done elsewhere. Keith said we would save 13% if we paid cash and also that we would save more if we were to have the mould wash done at the same time as the duct cleaning. We trusted him and I left to go to the bank to get the cash. I came back in 10 minutes to find Keith having a cigarette outside of my house. In my head I thought, there's no way these guys just did a $1,200 job in less than 10 minutes. I should have listened to my instincts because I was right.

I've called around a few mould specialist companies and they told me that spraying chemicals in the return line is not the proper way to remove mould and that it would be toxic for people in the house to be breathing in those chemicals through the vent. I also recently got Sears duct cleaning to inspect the vents and we were told that nothing has been cleaned. He showed me how dirty the furnace filter was as proof that our ducts have not been cleaned properly. He's also never heard of a "mould wash of the return line". I've also tried calling Direct Energy duct cleaning and they never heard of it either. These are the 2 companies that Keith mentioned it would be more expensive to get done. So we basically got tricked into paying $1,200 for a service that does not even exist.

This company already has numerous complaints and letters sent to them from the Better Business Bureau and Vacumax has not responded to any of them. With further research from reviews on Vacumax, I found out that there are also many people that had similar stories like ours and also fell victim to this company. Apparently, this company has been doing this for years all over the GTA. I also found out that the address they have on their website does not exist and that they go by other company names too but the pictures that they use on their coupon flyer is usually the same. If you look closely, its got a picture of a van that says "Air Duct Cleaning" but not the name of the actual company. I am so disgusted of how this company is able to get away with this for so long.