Air Duct & Chimney Scams in the Triangle: How to Spot Them

Fall is when the Triangle lights its first fires and runs the heat for the first time in months, and it's when the "special offers" show up — in your mailbox, your neighborhood listserv, your Facebook groups and your phone. They come in the same few patterns every year. Here's how they work, what's been reported locally, and how to check any company in five minutes, including us.

The $59.95 service call that became $1,500

This isn't new here. In 2014, WRAL's 5 On Your Side reported on a Holly Springs couple who booked a $59.95 air duct service call. The technician told them they had mold and mildew, the bill came to almost $1,500, and he pushed them to pay in full on the spot. Another company later told them their ducts hadn't been cleaned at all. Other viewers complained about repeated telemarketing calls from the same outfit, and the station reported that the North Carolina Attorney General was investigating and had issued an alert about robocalls and air duct cleaning scams.

The company names change. The script doesn't.

The five patterns that keep coming up

1. The price that can't be real. A $49 chimney sweep. A $79 or $99 "whole house" duct cleaning. Neither covers the labor, and that's the point: the low price gets a crew into your home, and the real price arrives once they've "found something." A genuine whole-home duct cleaning takes hours with negative-air equipment, which is why ours starts at $300 and why we publish it. A proper chimney sweep starts at $200 — here's what goes into that.

2. The surprise discovery. Toxic mold in the ducts. A cracked flue liner that means you can't use the fireplace. Real problems exist, which is exactly what makes this work. The tell is the pressure: a price given in your hallway, a discount that expires today, a push to start right now. The EPA's advice for duct mold is simple: ask the company to show you the mold it says is there. Hold a chimney finding to the same standard: ask to see it.

3. The fake neighborhood post. Offers posted to neighborhood listservs, Nextdoor and local Facebook groups, sometimes by accounts that aren't who they say they are. Residents of one Triangle neighborhood warned on local forums that an air duct cleaning post on their listserv came from a fake user who had gotten onto the email list. A glowing post from a "neighbor" you don't recognize, with a flat whole-house price, deserves a second look.

4. The impersonator. Someone uses the name of a real, established chimney or duct company, takes a deposit for work that never happens, and disappears. The real company never heard of the job. The defense is simple: find the company's number yourself, on its own website or Google Business Profile, rather than calling the number in an ad, a text or a flyer.

5. The cold call. Robocalls, texts and door-knockers offering a duct or chimney "special" because they're "already in your area." Unsolicited calls about air duct cleaning are exactly what the Attorney General's 2014 alert was about.

Chimney scams have their own twist

Chimney work has a height problem: you can't easily see what's on your roof or inside your flue, which makes it easy for someone to claim a liner is cracked or a crown is failing. Some of those findings are true — masonry in older Triangle homes does fail. The difference is proof. A real finding comes with photos of your chimney, an explanation you can follow, and time to get a second opinion. A scam comes with a deadline.

If a sweep tells you the chimney needs major repair, get it in writing with photos and have a mason or a second sweep look before you pay for anything. We're not masons ourselves: when we find something that needs one, we photograph it, explain it, and leave the choice of who fixes it to you.

How to check any company in five minutes

• A real local address you can look up, not just a phone number.
• Reviews that go back years on more than one platform, not a sudden burst of new ones.
• Proof of insurance, provided when you ask for it.
• A written quote before any work starts, with the price and the scope in it.
• Photos of your own system, before and after, not stock images on a tablet.
• Credentials you can check. The EPA doesn't certify, endorse or approve duct cleaning companies, so "EPA certified" is a red flag. Ask for any license or certificate by name and number, then look it up yourself.

That list applies to us too. Our address, our 90 Google reviews and our prices are all on this site, and every job comes with before-and-after photos.

If it's already happened

Put your complaint to the company in writing — what you were quoted and what was actually done — and keep every photo and receipt. If you paid by card, your card issuer has a dispute process. Then report it to the North Carolina Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division at 1-877-5-NO-SCAM (1-877-566-7226), or file a complaint online.

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