Never a dull moment – today our tech went to a dryer vent cleaning job. We love dryer vents because they are relatively simple to do with the right equipment and having clean ducts makes a big difference in safety and efficiency of your dryer.
Our office team is pretty consistent about qualifying these jobs so that we don’t waste our customers’ time or set the wrong expectations. And of course a job left in complete leaves our day incomplete and disappointing.This one was a side access, on the wall adjacent to the dryer.
Except it wasn’t.
Our focus is on soft surfacesand tile, so we reserve the space on the trucks for more of that equipment. We don’t travel with ladders or a lot of tools, which doesn’t matter for most of the dryer vent jobs we do, but it does limit us when something complicated comes up.
The client showed our tech to the exhaust location(s), both of which were full of dirt and spiderwebs. Spiders don’t generally like to hang out and dryer vents because they exhaust pretty hot air. So that was the first clue. The second clue was that usually vents have a flap on them to prevent critters from crawling up inside. That was absent on both of these pockets. Also, they normally don’t vent above a window.
So two clues in and the technician figures he’s got to find a vent somewhere and turns on the dryer to look for the exit. Much to his dismay, there was no hot air venting from the side of the house. The homeowner had no idea, so our tech could only assume that it vented to the roof because since we don’t carry ladders, he couldn’t get up there.
This particular job didn’t end on a high note. Not every job does and this was one of these times. The technician called the office to explain the complication, and we had to walk away from this job.
These things happen, and they are always upsetting.
For us – while we are great at cleaning dryer vents, it’s not our specialty nor our focus. It’s added value when we are there cleaning your soft surfaces, but we are a bit limited in that service area.
We are so sorry for that customer not having her expectations fulfilled today. It’s always a little bit awkward and uncomfortable.
