Sneaky, cunning, and caught!!

The latest tale is one of a well know local KEC vendor with that was well thought of previous to this episode. So desperate for work were they they they lost their integrity completely. After bidding on a very large exhaust cleaning project in a large city downtown area, they were awarded the bid by underbidding everyone substantially. Upon doing the job, they were requested pictures proving the job was complete. As they had not really cleaned much of the system, the head of the company claimed "I am so sorry, we were not complete" when confronted with pictures from the FM showing the missed areas. They then completed the job and promised pictures of the completed project. An entire cleaning cycle went by before the pictures arrived. With the pictures unclear and obviously missing many areas, the FM re-inspected. Vast areas were again found not cleaned. The KEC vendor was warned that they faced possible legal action plus other actions if not complete to NFPA standards. The unscrupulous vendor stated- "Well it has been a few months, can't we get paid for the re-clean? Besides we were never told about some of the ductwork on the next floor up and my sales guy missed in when bidding the job so we need to charge extra for that." translation: "we blew the bid and shortcut the job, but we hope you are ignorant enough to pay us extra money for it!" Of course the extra would have made them the highest bid. They were told very firmly to re-clean (actually finish cleaning) the system to NFPA96 and IKECA standards as they agreed to do and prove it is clean. As they had lowered themselves to the lowest standards and knew how little time FM's have to follow up, they again re-cleaned the system and again waited another entire cleaning cycle before sending in the pictures which again were showing grease buildup and did not show any of the multistory vertical riser that was one of the areas the FM found quite a bit of old built up grease in the bottom few floors pus missed areas in the main duct lines again. Being sneaky and once again thinking if they wait until the FM cannot possibly prove if the job was properly cleaned or not, they once again waited months before sending pictures of the 3rd re-clean. Now the customer has been through at least 4-5 cycles without the system being cleaned and no way to prove much of it. FM's and managers need to know that this waiting game with pictures and job completion notifications is a trick by companies without integrity to try to slide by with as little work as possible. These type of companies want everything confusing so it is more difficult for the management of the grease exhaust vent system to determine exactly what is going on. Do not allow this, timely inspections are a must along with clear pictures and showing the entire system. If it is a longer system like the one in our tale, also have them send a list where each picture was taking from along with a drawing of the system to clearly show you area looking at everything. The moral of the story, in wasting everyone's time and leaving the store in danger, they not only did not get paid for the re-cleans, they will never again work for this chain. They were bidding out other work in the same city and you don't have to guess how easy a decision it was for the restaurant to not use them for the other service also. They should have simply done the job properly in the first place.

Don