I used Thaddeus last year for a chimney cleaning and was happy with his service. He told me at that time I would not need another chimney cleaning for 5 years because it is gas and doesn't create soot buildup like a real fireplace. (although other companies say you can go 20 years unless of course you get a birds nest or something in it)
Recently my gas fireplace was burning unevenly so I ask Thaddeus with Certified Sweeps to come check it. When he came I had other things going on at my house so did not sit and watch him the whole time. At one point when I came back in the living room I saw he was in the process of cleaning my chimney. I was shocked but didn't say anything as he already appeared to be nearly done. And why would he be doing this since he did it a year ago and even told me at the time I could wait another 5 years.
He did correct the burn of the gas buy vacuuming away some sand that was likely causing the clogs and did a quick cleaning of the logs which was basically just vacuuming them. He was here just under an hour. When he finished he said he was going to truck to create my invoice (which I never did get). He came back in and said it was $266 and that was with $50 off because he said he was here so recently he gave me a discount. So this service would have been $316 normally. I was shocked but didn't want to say anything as I had company over so I texted him the next day to ask why he felt the need to clean the chimney when he just did it last year AND that is not the service I asked for.
After many back and forth texts, between me trying to ask why he cleaned the chimney (which he never directly answered) and I said I felt a bit "taken" he obviously became irritated with beginning the next text by saying "Look..."! That was a bit shocking as I was not angry at all just trying to understand and said it was hard when I never received an invoice breaking down the services. He basically just said it was a package deal but he did say the chimney cleaning was an extra $100. IMO that was a waste of my $100.00 and that doesn't sound like a package deal. At that point I said it sounded like he was angry so I told him that and said I was just leaving it alone and told him to have a great day. Crazy.
TBH I appreciate that he is very clean when he works in your home and was a reason I contacted him when I had a problem. However the sweep company I previously used was just as clean but unfortunately he no longer does it due to health issues which is how I ended up using Thaddeus last year. I will not use Thaddeus with Certified in the future. Upon calling other sweeps it sounds like he overcharged me overall, and other sweeps said they would absolutely perform a service like this without having to clean an already clean chimney and charge the extra for doing so. read more