Sears

I would like to file a formal complaint against Sears Carpet and Air Duct Cleaning in Lorton, VA regarding their unethical practice of misrepresenting their product offerings and misdiagnosing dust for "MOLD" in order to milk the consumers for thousands of dollars.

To summarize what my wife and I have already shared with the company over the phone today and what we have gone through:

We had scheduled a duct cleaning for yesterday morning (1/14/2013). Unfortunately, my wife was home alone when the crew of three workers arrived in the morning to clean our ducts.

They quickly assessed the situation and the special price of around $155 for a simple duct cleaning jumped up to $ 2750, and my wife was told that the ducts were infested with "MOLD” and that this needed to be cleaned ASAP before the mold would take over the walls and our entire house. They scared her by using the word “MOLD” and they did not do any type of testing whatsoever to support their claims for mold existence. They also made her believe that this was possibly going to take multiple days to clean and complete. They were selling the value we were getting for $2750 by promising the “MOLD” would disappear and that they would do whatever it would take to disinfect and get rid of it. My wife got really scared of the word “MOLD” and agreed for the work to be performed at $2750 with the assumption that the three men crew would stay and complete the cleaning task of mold and disinfection of the ducts, etc. as they had promised. They left after conducting a basic duct cleaning and installation of some UV lights after two hours. Upon further research online, we found that against the same franchise there are multiple similar complaints listed in numerous websites. Some of them sighted the same issues in regards to the scare tactic with usage of the word “MOLD” and upping of the price by multiples of hundreds and in our case thousands!

In addition:
1. The crew ripped us off by using the word mold several times. There is no proof that the black dust inside the duct was actually mold, since they had agreed that no testing was done in that area form their company after the fact.
2. The crew damaged the HVAC units on both levels, causing them to produce a real bad noise, noticed more during night-time sleeping hours. As a result, none of us could sleep last night. They sent some one to check on it but refused to accept any responsibility.
3. The crew broke the attic door and damaged some vents by re-installing them incorrectly
4. The crew left the premises dirty and dusty with left over cut outs and debris on the ground.
I asked Brook (from their company) for a full refund, she refused. I asked her to fix the issues with both HVAC units. She refused. It seemed like she was accusing me and my wife of lying about the incident of the mold. How else would we agree to pay $2750 for a $150 special? I need Sears Home services to pick up their UV lights and refund our money 100% in the amount of $2750. I need them to schedule a HVAC company and repair our HVAC units and take steps for repair and elimination of the noise. I need the damaged attic cover to be repaired and replaced. I need the air supply vent covers installed up-side-down and /or incorrectly to be installed correctly. They refused to agree to their wrong doing and provide a full refund. We are considering legal actions against the company, for all damages and costs involved.