I selected Vesta based on two things. First, the number of great reviews. Second, their use of the Ramair cleaning system, which uses compressed air whips to draw dirt and dust out of ducts toward the register, instead of rotary brushes and a vacuum source at the furnace. Vesta's website includes a number of the manufacturer's promotional videos about the system, which talk in detail about how thorough a job it does, how it is much safer for flexible air ducts than rotary brushes, and how it disperses less dirt and dust into the air than a traditional duct cleaning system. The videos also tout the fact that the Ramair system cleans forward - rather than using a vacuum source connected at the furnace end of the system, which will inherently suck dirt and dust back toward the furnace, the system runs with the fan on and the combination of the system fan and a large cyclonic vacuum move dirt and dust forward toward the registers, where it gets vacuumed out through a see-through box that enables you to witness first-hand how much junk comes out of your ducts. Maybe that's all marketing hype, but it's what we wanted and thought we were paying a premium for.
I have severe dust, mold, and mildew allergies and my wife has a severe dog dander allergy, so getting the air ducts (which had not been cleaned since the house was built in 1992) as clean as possible, with as little dust introduced into the air as possible, was extremely important to us. My willingness to pay $1,840 to have the air ducts cleaned (more than any other provider quoted, by about 35%) before we move in was based almost entirely on the use of this type of system.
...and that's where the problem comes in. I received a message from Vesta on Tuesday to confirm my appointment on Wednesday - except I didn't have an appointment on Wednesday, because we weren't even going to have possession of our new house yet. I had an appointment on Friday, and had been told that two technicians would be there to do the work because our house is large and has two forced air systems.. I explained this, and was told a few minutes later that "a technician" would be there on Friday.
On Friday, one technician showed up - except he was not a Vesta technician and he did not have a Ramair duct cleaning system. He had rotary brushes and a portable vacuum source that sits at the furnace and draws dirt and dust backwards, as well as a Shop-Vac type vacuum at the registers. That is the type of service we thought we were paying a substantial premium not to get. If we were going to use that type of duct cleaning, I would have used a service with a much larger, truck-mounted vacuum source. However, I was not at the new house yet when the technician arrived, so my wife let him get started as neither of us realized he was a subcontractor with different equipment. Had we been told in advance that a subcontractor was coming, I would have verified whether he used the same equipment we thought we were signing up for. He was mostly done with the second-floor system before I got there, so we let him go ahead and finish the job and paid him.
The provider who showed up worked extremely hard and was professional, thorough, and meticulous. He worked for seven or eight hours, nonstop. If I were reviewing his service (which I will do separately), he would get five stars. The problem is, I didn't sign up for his service and I was never told my duct cleaning would be farmed out to a subcontractor using a totally different type of equipment than Vesta advertises. Instead of sending a sub, Vesta should have simply owned up to its scheduling error and rescheduled either my service or whomever else's they double-booked.
N.B. The only reason this review is two stars instead of one is that the subcontractor who ended up doing the work was extremely thorough and professional. He did good work - it just wasn't the service I thought I was getting (and that's not his fault). read more