Offers of duct cleaning flood Windsor phones

Windsor residents, even those on the National Do Not Call List, are being inundated with offers to have their heating ducts cleaned.

The onslaught of calls caused Coun. Drew Dilkens to lament the practice on his Facebook page. It spurred his friends to post more than 50 similar complaints.

Dilkens is on the do not call list. He said there is not much the city can do to stop the calls from coming in.

So, he employs his own strategy.

"I said, 'every time you call me, from now on, I'm going to book an appointment with you. Every time someone comes to my house, I will not come to the door. So I will waste your time like you continue to waste mine,'" Dilkens said.

The Do Not Call List includes about 10.6 million registered phone and fax numbers.The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has imposed more than $2.1 million in fines over the three years to firms that violated the rules.

Windsor police have their own concerns about the calls. While they haven't had any fraud complaints, police said people should be able to call the company back. But that's impossible in some cases.

Dilkens has tried that but a message told him the number is not in service.

Windsor Police Const. Michael Akpata said people should answer cold calls with caution.

"We'd advise the public to never give out any financial or personal information over the phone, especially if it's a cold call," he said.

Darcy Dell, president of Fresh Air Exchange, also has some advice people can use to avoid being ripped off.

"With air ducts it's simple. How do you know if my ducts are dirty if you haven't been to my house?" he said. "At the end of the day, someone has to come out to your home, they need to take off your returns, they need to go down inside your duct work, they should have a camera, and a mirror and a flashlight, there's all different kinds of ways."