ComplaintsforCarolina Ductmasters, Inc

• Initial Complaint

  09/03/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This is a long review because I want people to truly understand why.I would NOT recommend Carolina Ductmasters. They don't care about your safety and will not properly inspect your fireplace. You will put your family and investment in danger if you hire them.They are nice on the phone, but they are not willing to hold themselves accountable for their dangerous practices/mistakes.They were recommended from **** and I hired them in spring 2022 for an in depth inspection due to planned home purchase. I wanted to make sure the fireplace was safe and void of any hazards. I paid $650 for air duct cleaning and fireplace cleaning and inspection. They assured me this is what they do and the inspector will indicate if the fireplace has any issues. The report stated no hazards or issues. I began using the fireplace in winter 2023. I burned about 1/4 of half a cord of hardwood during that time and noticed smoke stains developing at the ceiling seam from behind the fireplace wall... Indicating an issue. After months (Feb-June 2024) of trying to get a resolve from their manager ****** and ************************ on why this issue wasn't caught or mentioned for my initial safety inspection, I was basically brushed off. They were no shows for scheduled investigations and then tried coming to my home unscheduled on a Saturday. I was forced to send them away because I was leaving for an engagement and they didn't schedule a date/time.To date the ** tells me they are all booked up and I would have to wait until they are free. But yet they seemed to have open schedules whenever they wanted me to pay for a yearly inspection. I had to hire a different company to inspect my fireplace and they immediately found the safety hazard, showed me, and told me the fireplace is not safe and I'm lucky my house didn't catch fire. Carolina Ductmasters is essentially costing me thousands of dollars to replace.If you value your lives, choose a different company to properly inspect your fireplace.

  Business response

  09/13/2024

  We cleaned this lady air ducts and fire place.  She had just bought the house, so we cleaned her ducts and fireplace.  We inspected the fireplace and gave it a smoke test like we do all fireplaces.  She had a double wall flue going up her flue.  It was inspected from top and bottom with no problems. She calls back a year later and says she sees ***** spot on her ceiling and wanted us to come out and check.  She has a solid pipe going up the flue.  I sent a couple of techs out on a Saturday. when they got there she say she didn't have time, even though they say it wouldn't have taken more than 20 minutes to check. Her chimney is safe to use at time of inspection she may have a water leak somewhere.  But I can;t check out what I can't see.  After 27 years in business we have inspected thousands house with no problems.

  Customer response

  09/17/2024

   
  I am rejecting this response because:
  Carolina Duct masters personnel (************** and ******) did not care to resolve the issue regarding their lack of proper inspection of my unit. I specifically hired them to do a thorough inspection of the fireplace, for my home purchase, to make sure it was safe. They clearly did not do that and instead performed a regular maintenance cleaning. ****** admitted that the piping should've been inspected on the initial inspection date. ************** was dismissive when I informed him of staff inspectors coming to my home unannounced (without scheduling) and expecting me to cancel my prior engaged appointment.

  Carolina Duct masters put my life and my family's life in extreme danger for their gross negligence. Their neglect is now costing me thousands of dollars to remedy.
  

• Initial Complaint

  02/02/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Hired company to remove dead mouse from ductwork due to smell. They "cleaned" the ducts and the smell got worse. Called and they waited 5 days and came back. Still did not remove anything from ducts and still had smell. Called ******** at the ********** ** office who promised to come back but never returned. They did not do what I paid them to do.

  Business response

  02/21/2023

  ************** called and said he had a dead animal smell in one of his vents.   We cleaned all vents and did not smell anything coming out of the vent he thought the smell was coming out of.   A few days later he called again and said ***** was in other vent.  I sent another crew out and they said that the smell was in another rather than the first one.  A dead animal cannot move from one vent to another. His smell I believe was coming from the unit.  The vents were cleaned and sanitized and that is all we could do.  We feel that ************** got a good job at a fair price and there is nothing else we can do.

   

  Customer response

  02/21/2023

   
  I am rejecting this response because: The cleaners absolutely said they smelled a dead animal and that they never removed any dead animals. So they did not do what I hired them to do. The smell moved simply because it got worse. 
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  11/22/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My husband and I hired Carolina Ductmasters, Inc. to clean our chimney on 9-20-22. A crew of two men arrived and first of all didn't have a tall enough ladder to reach the upper peak of our 2-story home to inspect the top of the chimney. The technicians then worked on the inside of the house, cleaning out the chimney from indoors using a large wand with multiple extensions and a plug-in vacuum. The first outlet where the vacuum was plugged in, stopped working after several minutes and it was impossible to reset the breaker for that outlet.The crew plugged into another outlet and blew that one as well. At that point, the crew packed up and left and we immediately called the office in *****, ** and spoke with ********, the manger and reported the events that occurred. We told ******** we would call an electrician in to assess the problem and repair the issue and that we expected Carolina Ductmasters to pay for the cost of the service call and repair. After some effort, we were able to locate and electrician who agreed to make an emergency call at the end of his day. It was imperative that this problem be addressed right away as the second outlet was on the line that operated our refrigerator/freezer and it had stopped working when the second outlet blew. The electrician didn't arrive until 6pm and was able to get the breaker reset on the first outlet, but had to replace the second outlet and reset the breaker. He noted that the company's equipment overloaded a normal household 15 amp breaker and should have been run on a 20 amp breaker instead. The charge was $200. My husband and I have had several calls with ********/Ductmasters staff and we agreed to accept a partial reimbursement of $125. We have continued to be told a check would be in the mail at subsequent calls asking about the arrival of the agreed upon check.. It has been two months and at this point the company is non-responsive and has not reimbursed us.

  Business response

  11/28/2022

  Apologies for the late response. We are aware of the issue that was caused, and we had every intention of paying the $125 as promised. Unfortunately, our office managers came down with COVID, and was completely forgotten. A check for $125 was mailed out on 11/25 so they should be receiving it shortly. Once again apologies, but when both managers are out with COVID with a small office something is bound to get missed. 

• Initial Complaint

  11/10/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I contacted them for a quote to clean my chimney they told me $275.00. Which includes a free safety inspection. I said ok fine. They showed up came into my home covered in ash. Didnt have on booties or anything. They guy looked into the Chimney from the top and bottom said it didnt need to be cleaned. There employee was there for probably 15 minutes did not even attempt to do the job they agreed to then told me it would $200.00 for the safety inspection I never asked them for. I have no problem paying a service call fee, but will not pay $200.00 for something I never asked to be done.

  Business response

  12/01/2022

  Good Afternoon:
  
  In response to customers complaint. We were to go out to clean the customers chimney per request. Once our technicians were at the customers home, they took a look at the chimney as we always do before we proceed because we do not want to clean something that is already in good condition, and take our customers hard earned money. Per the technician who has been with us for over 3 years, it was clean. So, he called our manager and the manager stated to only charge the customer a inspection/service call fee. The customer stated that he was not going to pay for something that he didn't request so we wrote it off as a debt and have not dealt with the customer since. We also were there longer than 15 mins because ************** measured for caps which the customer stated he was not going to purchase. We are not requesting or looking for him to pay any debt as it was written off. His chimney was clean and our services as far as that were not needed. there...

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