Complaint Review: First Choice Home Services

Complete failure to provide contracted services using substandard equipment and untrained technicians along with failure to meet time guarantees.

On August 12, 2013 I contacted 1st Choice Home Services to provide Air Duct Cleaning as I had purchased a Groupon for their 10 vent, 1 Main, 1 Return service for $35.  I was told by Jennifer (CSR) the earliest date for service was Saturday Sept. 21, 2013 between the hours of 8am and 1pm.  I accepted and awaited the date.  On Sept. 20th I received a call confirming my appt. and said yes I would be there.  On Sept. 21st, 2013 I waited and waited and no call from anyone.  I called them at 1:30pm and talked to Jennifer again.  She said a service person would call shortly.  At 2:25pm I called again.  Talked to another woman who would not give her name.  She placed my on hold for about 4 minutes and then returned stating they were in the area and had two more clients before me.  At 3:03pm I finally heard from the Technician who stated it would be 4:15 / 4:30 before they showed.  At 4:05 I was called again saying they were nearby and would be there at 4:15.  The two gentleman showed and I brought them in.  I showed the lead the vents and while the other technician went to the basement and began disassembling the Furnace / AC intake.  I walked back into the basement with the lead after counting my 10 vents (All I have in a tiny 1000 sqf bungalow home) and he began pricing things up.  Next thing I know I have 3 Mains, 2 returns and the 10 vents.  Well my NEW Price was going to be $115 on top of the $35 groupon that was covering those areas.  I only have "1" main (verified by my A/C installation Tech) which is all attached but they claimed I had two and had already torn apart my furnace.  I will say I had and "2" returns "1" on the main floor and "1" return in the bungalow area.  I told them I only wanted what the Groupon stated.  The Lead said I would need to at least pay for the 2nd Main or they could not do the work and my furnace was already disassembled.  So I paid an extra $56.80 on top of my Groupon just to get the falsified second main done. 

So I figured they had real equipment to do the job.  Well I was even more disappointed after they brought in their so-called gear.  It was nothing more than an Electric Blower from a leaf blower (have the same model as he was using) and a $29 wet vac to collect the dust.  The lead as I watched him spent less than "30" Seconds at each vent using the blower pushed into them and never closed any of the other vents with doing so.  He did spend about 1 minute each on the main and return which I watched from the basement with the second guy as he vacuumed with the tiny nozzle with did not cover the vent opening meaning dust and debris flew all over my A/C condenser which they did not clean. The majority of the dust came out from the other open vents on my carpets and hardwood since when blowing none of the other vents were blocked off.  I was so absolutely disgusted by this service I wanted them done and gone.  Just as soon as the Lead finished upstairs on the main he was gone and back into the truck for a smoke.  The second guy then tried putting the furnace back together.  As I spoke to him I found out he was on his third week of work with the company and had never been trained on furnace work and was just doing on the job training without supervision.  Well at this point he placed the housing for the furnace back together and asked that I turn on the ac to make sure it was working.   Well it did not as the installer did not properly install the door on the furnace.  So I went to go find the Lead and pull him from the truck.  He told the other guy to re-install the door which he was already doing. Finally it kicked back on though it took another 5 minutes and dust came out of the vents.  Again I was expecting a trained crew, Real Equipment (as in vehicle mounted with the ability to actually suck dust out). What I got was a fly by night crew (brought in from out of state specifically to handle all the Groupon orders as stated bt the lead) with sub par tools, a day wasted, $56.80 extra spent on shotty work and questions as to if my furnace / AC was not damaged.  I reached out to Groupon and filed a complaint #19307681 as well to state my experience with this company.  I did the same with the Better Business Bureau Case# 40090701.  I was told this company is no longer a member of the BBB and has an "F" Rating primarily due to the reasons listed above and to not get my hopes up that they will reply or try to even answer the charges and make good on the problems or any damage done.  

To put it simply, DO NOT USE this company for ANY Reason!  They are a Complete Rip-Off!!!!!