Customer says air-vent cleaners overcharged

Mildred Oliver expected to pay Southeastern Air Restoration $120 to clean and sanitize the air vents in her North Raleigh home.

So she was shocked when an employee created a work order that totaled $1,169. Oliver said she told the crew to stop work. They negotiated a price, she said, and Oliver wrote a check for $400.

"What was I going to do?" she said.

Now Oliver, a senior citizen, is worried the company duped her. And she wants some of her money back.

Oliver learned about Southeastern Air from its advertisement in The News & Observer. Its ad says the company will clean the air ducts of 10 vents and a home's main trunk line for $59.95. Additional services, such as sanitizing vents, cost extra, the ad says in smaller print.

Oliver said a worker told her before the visit that it would cost another $59.95 to sanitize the vents. She agreed to the total price, and workers went to her home on Oct. 9.

The work order, however, lists $59.95, as advertised for vent cleaning - plus $45 for cleaning another main air line, $150 to use a blower machine and $130 to clean coils.

The work order shows that Southeastern also recommended treating air vents with a mold-killing substance for $364, a soot sealant for $300, and a sanitizer treatment for $120.

Oliver told the worker she didn't want all of those services, and they worked out the $400 price, she said.

She later filed complaints with the state Attorney General's Office and the Better Business Bureau of Eastern North Carolina.

Since last spring, the Attorney General's Office has received four complaints about Southeastern Air, said spokeswoman Noelle Talley. The complaints had to do with high costs for services, she said, and some involved senior citizens. So far, the office has helped three of the complaining customers get refunds, Talley said.

"We have concerns about this particular company," she said.

Southeastern Air has an "F" rating with the BBB, which has received nine complaints about the company in the past three years. The complaints were about customer service, billing, refunds and issues dealing with services or products.

Seven of the complaints were resolved, according to the BBB, which lists the manager of the Chapel Hill office as Chris Staley. A man named Chris contacted about Oliver's complaint would not give his last name to a reporter and referred questions to the lawyer who responded to Oliver's BBB complaint.

Attorney Shavonne McKinnon referred to the formal response with the BBB without further comment. In the response, McKinnon said Southeastern Air does not believe it overcharged Oliver. The response says a worker recommended Oliver let the company clean the blower and A/C coil, and apply sanitizer, mold treatment and soot sealant.

Oliver declined those services, according to the response, and agreed to cleaning ducts for $59.99 and a main line for $45. The response says she also agreed that workers would apply the sanitizer for $120 and the mold treatment for $364.

Oliver said she doesn't know what services were performed before she stopped the workers but said that she is sure that she agreed to far less. "I didn't agree to any of that," said Oliver, who has contacted a lawyer about her options and is waiting to hear back about legal fees. "I don't want to invest any more money in this." The BBB of Eastern North Carolina has heard from lots of folks asking about Southeastern Air, spokeswoman Courtney Smith said.

In the last 12 months, she said, the bureau has received about 13,150 inquiries about companies that specialize in cleaning and sanitizing air ducts. Of those inquiries, 932 have been about Southeastern Air, she said.

That's probably because the company has been advertising a lot, Smith said.

"We've seen their aggressive advertising campaign," she said.

Jim McClure, vice president of display advertising for The News & Observer, said that he had not heard complaints about Southeastern Air and that the paper has not heard from the Attorney General's Office, as it sometimes does when consumers complain about N&O advertisers.

"We take complaintsseriously, because we would never knowingly publish false or misleading advertising," McClure said.

If the newspaper heard from the Attorney General's Office, McClure said, it would contact the advertiser. Each situation is handled individually, but if the Attorney General's Office takes legal action against a company, the newspaper pulls the ad, he said.

The consumer protection division of the Attorney General's Office could take a company to civil court for overcharging customers, Talley said.

Meanwhile, Oliver is frustrated.

"When you feel you have been taken advantage of, you want some recourse," she said. "I don't want anyone else to be taken advantage of, particularly senior citizens."

Sarah Nagem is filling in for Troubleshooter Leah Friedman, who is on maternity leave.