ComplaintsforModern PURAIR® Vancouver

• Initial Complaint

  04/04/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  In November 2023, I switched to Modern Purair for duct/vent cleaning from another duct/vent cleaning company that we have been using for years. I also added on the dryer vent cleaning after Modern Purair tried hard to sell this service product to me. The total comes to $872.31. After their service was completed, I noticed there was no lint collected in the dryer when we did the laundry. I called and emailed the company on Nov. 28th and informed them, they said they would come to take a look at the problem. We tried to do another load of laundry and the lint was blown out in the air, we started coughing and sneezing but we didn't know it was all caused by the broken duct. We switched to the laundry centre we purchased for the guest suite. Please note, we were in the middle of a renovation during Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year and it was hard for us to enter the area where the laundry room is so there was a long delay for the follow-up. Sometime in March when my carpenter moved the dryer and tried to change the baseboards behind the dryer and the washer, he discovered the duct/vent was completely unattached to the wall. There is a big hole made in the duct. I called Modern Purair and told them that we found out the root cause of the problem which was damage by their technician while they tried to clean. It cost me $504 to repair the damage they had done to my dryer vent/duct. Since it is an older home, it took longer to complete the replacement and we can't just replace a part of it, we have to replace the whole piece. We never had any problems with the dryer vent/duct in the past. Not to mention it took five hours of work from our renovation work plan for the work needed to repair the dryer vent. I have tried to contact the company numerous times but they refused to pay for the damage, although they agreed to refund me $220 for the dryer vent cleaning portion. We are not even talking about the health hazard caused because of the damage to the vent at this point. We only ask for a refund for the improper cleaning of the vent and the extra repair we had to pay for the vent/duct replacement. us for the dryer vent cleaning. Unfortunately, Modern Purair's manager said she couldn't make that decision so she said she would ask the owner to return my call but we never heard from the owner. I have tried numerous times via email and phone calls but still no reply. I think this is a time for me to have BBB involved to help me to reach a fair resolution. This company pushed me relentlessly to write and give them a good review right after I made the payment before I even had a chance to review and inspect the quality of their work. The owner has been unresponsive so far. As you can see from the images, they didn't even clean the duct/vent for the dryer yet I paid them the full amount plus the repair of the damage they left behind. The total comes to $1376.31.
  
  

  Business response

  20/04/2024

  Thanks for the note and the opportunity to reply.  I can confirm that a service was indeed performed for this client, and sadly did not live up to our usual standards of excellence.  We have previously offered to fully refund the dryer portion of the service ($225) as indicated, and we have also previously offered to pay for the time the contractor took to diagnose the issue.  We are currently awaiting the invoice for this "contractor time" from the customer.  This is something we are more than willing to cover, as our typically guarantee would have cover us coming back to diagnose and resolve any issues.  

  We did receive a "full invoice" from the customer that was paid to the contractor, but that is not something we are willing to pay as we feel that is a little unreasonable.  

  Essentially, as mentioned in the complaint the dryer hose was indeed "off" when inspected by the contractor.  Sadly we cannot state with 100% confidence if this happened during the cleaning, or soon afterwards (during usage).  However, this should have been fully inspected by our technician and verified, with photos as evidence for the customer.  The fact that this was missed by the technician is not part of our usual process, and thus we are more than happy to refund the service (as already agreed) and would have come back complimentary to resolve the issue.

  However, the "root" of the issue is that the dryer hose is a very old plastic style hose that had become brittle and cracked.  This therefore required a full replacement when inspected by the contractor.  The fact that this vent hose is old and brittle and needed to be replaced has nothing to do with (agreeably) a sub-standard service on the cleaning.  A hose simply becoming dislodged and falling off would have been an easy fix (and clean around the impacted area).  We are happy to cover the cost of the contractor time to re-attach the hose and clean the lint around the area (something we would have been happy to also come and resolve).  But we disagree with being held liable for what is essentially routine maintenance of a dryer vent hose that needed to be replaced, and was sadly a more difficult and complex replacement that normal.

  I can 100% understand and appreciate the customer frustration with the dryer vent cleaning not being preformed to a satisfactory level, hence the no-question refund on that.  I can also appreciate the frustration that they would not have known that the dryer hose needed to be replaced had this issue not occurred.  But again, while our technicians may not have performed a cleaning to our usual standards (and this has been used as a coaching exercise for the team), the root of the problem with the additional contract costs is based upon an old hose that needed to be replaced (with is regular household maintenance).  

  As mentioned, we've offered to refund the dryer cleaning, no-questions asked, and offered to cover the contractor time for diagnosis (inc moving the dryer out if the way, reattaching the hose, and cleaning the area).  We are simply awaiting an invoice for this to process that refund.  But any additional costs associated with the replacement of the old dryer hose, and subsequent install, are not something we feel appropriate to cover. 

  Our Lead Technician / Operations Manager has also been in regular communications with the client to find an agreeable resolution.  I'm not aware of a desire to have this escalated, but will certainly look into that to see if there was any misunderstanding, and would be more than happy to have a 1-on-1 discussion with the customer to resolve.  But as mentioned, my understanding was that we had a resolution, and were just waiting for the invoice.

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