I had 2 interesting calls a few weeks ago, both are subcontractors for a company doing national contracts. There are several companies that sub out work, but this was only one of them. The first call from the SE area claimed that he does not get paid enough to clean the horizontals. He claims that he has told the contractor about that and there is nothing they can do with the locked in pricing for this particular chain. He even said he "Covers his rear" by checking of the box on his hood sticker "Inaccessible areas exist" The truth was that these areas are fully accessible, but he decided that he really did not want to access it due to pricing. I think he really focused on what I think is one of the major flaws in the NFPA96 codes. It allows the option to notify clients about inaccessible areas. That just leaves a cop out for cleaning companies in my opinion and this cleaning company I talked to just confirmed it. I have seen the same thing all over the country and no matter what the excuse or what was told the customer, this particular cleaning company told the real truth about why the companies are not cleaning these areas. I have said all along that inaccessible areas can not and should not be allowed to exist and that any contractor taking on a job MUST make all areas accessible and put what needs to be done to make all areas accessible in their bid. NO EXCEPTIONS!! The second caller work in the midwest. He said they are a subcontractor of the same national company. He claimed that he often skips pictures on any areas they do not clean or if it is too cold out for him to clean the roof or work outside. When they get calls about the pictures, his boss threatens to stop working for the National Company and since most other companies (Including myself) refuse to work for them or refuse work for them for what they are paying for the jobs. The contractor is forced to just accept whatever job is done with or without all of the proper pictures. That is why subcontracting really has NEVER WORKED in our industry. Everyone takes a cut of the pie. In my opinion, the only way they really make money is the shortcut the job the customer receives. These companies have great marketing programs and may do good work for a few jobs, but they use these few good jobs to get and keep the rest of their accounts. I just got back from a western market and every single job by this same national company was doing was grossly skipped. The horizontals were completely skipped and the stacks from the roof were only cleaned 1/3 of the way down. I attached a couple of pictures from one of the jobs and that was not even the worst one. It took the pictures 8AM October 3rd and the hood sticker is dated that it was done in October, 2008. I confirmed with the manager that it was just done the night. No getting out of that one. There was plenty of access to clean these areas and they are the same skipped areas I saw and took pictures of 2 years ago. One would think that after they were warned about it, they would have been watching closer. Who is looking at their pictures? I think we all know the answer, someone who has no clue about grease ducts!! It takes someone who has done this for a living to recognize proper pictures and where the systems go plus YOU MUST HAVE BASELINE PICTURES TO COMPARE TO!! Well enough of my rantings for today. Everyone, please remember that lives and properties are at stake here and YOU MUST GET THESE SYSTEMS COMPLETELY CLEAN AND KEEP THEM ON SCHEDULE!!! It may be someone close to you that pays the price for your negligence!! Think of that next time you choose to skip a section. How will you explain it to their next of kin?