Just had sheriff out to the house. Thanks to all of these reports we did not hire him but he did 100% of the same story to include damaging our ducts. I have copies of his new quotes, business names and whatever else may be needed. If we can help any of you.
HVAC Scam
Head scammer is Ryan Himstedt and partner Jonathan Tager. Tager AIr Care is the company name but they have a long list of previous companies.
Here’s the scam, Ryan Himstedt arrives after you have replied to a FB Marketplace add for HVAC duct cleaning. Ryan does an inspection and comes back with the mold in your duct work and damaged ducts due to their age story, need to be replaced. He actually damaged one of the ducts while doing his inspection to build a case of replacement. Provides a quote and requests half down to move forward. Then Ryan suggests if you pay cash you can get a discount, and fell for. I agreed and we scheduled the work to replace all of the flexible ducts and include two UV lights in the air handlers.
“Jamal” easy to spot with his gold capped front teeth was scheduled to arrive at 10:30 on a Friday. Ryan calls and explains that they had an issue with their trailer and cannot make it, but can we come out on Saturday. Sure no problem that will work I explain. See you at 10:30 Saturday morning Ryan explains. At 5pm Jamal arrives with his silent partner and my wife asks if there’s enough time to complete the job today? Yes mam explains Jamal. I should have gone with my gut and stopped them right there. OK off they go, up in the attack and replace ducts.
I can see them removing the ducts, install the UV light in the upstairs air handler and everything seems to be on the up and up. At about 8 pm Jamal asks where is the nearest Lowe’s, further explains that they need some additional ducts. Jamal and his silent partner leave on a parts run and return about 10pm. At this point my wife is suggesting to me to have them come back another time to finish, I should have listened to her. But I just wanted to get this done and get these guys out of here, so we let them work.
They crawl under the house and bang around where I can see them taking some old ducts out on our Ring camera. Looks like things are moving along. About 11:30 Jamal rings the door bell and says we are all done. I pay em the $2500 and off they go.
Next morning my wife is inspecting the ducts from inside the house and notices that some are replaced and others are not. After further inspection 8 of the 13 ducts were not replaced and the UV light was not installed in the crawl space air handler.
Turned out I had shorted them $50 and texted Ryan asking him to come out and get his $50, and BTW we need to reschedule to finish the work. Wants me to send it via a cash app. By this time I had done some research, which I should have done first, and found that there are many others with a very similar story to mine. So I now know that I have been scammed and unlikely to get my money back or the work finished. But Ryan gives me a call and explains that Jamal had messed up and he wants to come out and make it good, Ryan himself will be here and they will install the remaining ducts and UV light. Ok see you at 5pm, you guessed it they don’t show. The scam continues.
These guys are thieves, low life’s of our society preying on people. Learn from my mistakes, stay away from Ryan Himsteadt, his partner Jonathan Tager, Jamal the gold tooth scammer or any other people associated with Tager Air Care or their alias companies.
Don’t hire Ryan. He will damage your property in hopes of you hiring him to fix it.
All–
I would like to add to the list of complaints. We need to get the State AG’s office after this guy and his partner, Jonathan Tager, because they are utter frauds.
In short, I too responded to a FB post for duct cleaning (most likely a fake profile that has since been removed). Ryan showed up and told us that the ducts were too old and that the brush would destroy them. He also told us we had black mold and needed UV lights. We had just moved into the house (which is why we wanted the cleaning) and assumed that the ducts were the original in a 20yr old house. So, we paid Ryan $3,000 to do a full duct replacement. He also did the UV lights at the outside unit and in the attic, which we later found out were essentially cheap decoration and did nothing. We have been in the military for the past 12 years and always rented, so we didn’t know better and jumped in too quickly. Long and short, the “work” that Ryan’s team did (2 guys came the next day, one had never done ductwork before) was complete garbage. Worse, they were in our house all day and we actually bought lunch and dinner for them. The main worker (Jamal) also admitted to me that the ducts really didn’t need replacing. Hey kept saying that Ryan was “a salesman.” Translation: a liar and scammer. So it was all a big scam. We paid $3,000 for horrible work that has to be redone. It will cost much more, AND we didn’t need it done in the first place. I am an attorney and will definitely be pursuing this in court, both against Ryan and Jonathan. Ryan’s number is 843-655-1935. He won’t answer or respond but there it is. Please text me at 423-260-0650 if you’re interested in joining an action against these scammers.
Victim Location 41094
Type of a scam Home Improvement
On Facebook, an individual (Sam Mars)made a post that his boss was trying to get work to their vent cleaning business and was offering deals. I set up an appointment for them to come to our home and clean our ducts.
Upon arrival, Ryan Himstedt, went through our home for cleaning and then opened our furnace up and found mold. He sold us on treatment and a UV light to help prevent further mold later. After installing he came up and showed us photos on his phone of the light he installed. He told my husband that he had wired it into the furnace so that it wouldn’t have to run to an outlet.
When going through payment he was trying to get me to use CashApp. Luckily cash app would not do the transaction, so we did a check.
After he left, my husband went to check the light and we discovered there was no light installed. There was a vent right next to the stairs that was not cleaned at all. We asked him to send us the photos of the light he installed in our furnace. He sent them to us and we responded advising there’s no light in the furnace. And communication ended.
The photo is the light he “installed,” before he left. After he left, the light was no longer in the furnace.
Hello. This same situation happened with me and my family. It was wired incorrectly and was a major fire issue and we are seeking legal recourse through my attorney. I’d love to speak with you all. He has just quit responding.
Can i have his number