We visited Rich's (in Tacoma) for their big "After the Fair" sale, and were totally ignored for 25 minutes! Next, we tried Aquaquip. After being told my their sales person that for a certain trim piece, "I could just get a piece of sheet metal and spray paint it black," we finally found Fireside in Kent. We thought we'd found Nirvana! Beautiful showroom in Kent, knowledgeable salesperson, (who we later found out was the president), and the most realistic looking log sets with supposedly "the largest viewing window made in the industry." We put a $2500 down payment on an insert for our living room and another upgraded insert, with a fan and adjustable flame height, for our family room.
Both inserts remained with the fronts covered in their original cardboard until the tile work surrounds were finished. At that point, I called Fireside to set up an appointment for the "light up" procedure where the logs and "rock wool" (to make glowing "embers") are put in place and the customer is given instruction on the operation of the insert as well as the remote. This is the point at which I lost all faith and contentment with Fireside! I made many calls to set up this appointment and most weren't even acknowledged for 3 or 4 days usually with some type of excuse: the Holidays, the big storm, etc. I finally was able to schedule someone to come out and get my inserts working and was relieved . . . until he showed up. The service tech. they sent to my home was a nice guy but . . . knew absolutely nothing about either of my inserts! Between the two of us, we had to actually read page by page of the owner's manuals to complete the assemblies! During his visit I noticed the ceramic glass front was broken on the family room insert. The tech. assured me it would be replaced and said it would be fine to switch the front from the other fireplace so we could at least have one working insert.
Numerous calls were made to Fireside to follow up on the glass replacement as well as to assure me that a different, knowledgeable technician would come out next time! When the next tech. came out to replace the glass he found that the glass front that had been swapped was now warped and would have to be replaced!
After both glass fronts were replaced, I noticed an intermittent inability to control the flame height in our family room. After being given a new remote, the problem persisted. More phone calls! A technician replaced the control module and the problem still persisted. At this point, out of sheer frustration, I called and demanded to talk to someone who would actually listen to my problem. I spoke with Steve Tate (management?) who was the first person who actually seemed to care and promised to do whatever it took to get the flame height working as advertised. Steve came out and replaced, I believe, the regulator and after more than four months since installation, I now have two fireplaces working as they're supposed to!
I mentioned that we were required to put a 50% deposit down to order the fireplaces. While we were out of town, my wife was looking at our bank statement and happened to notice that Fireside took the balance owed ($2679.35) out of our account, without notifying us! This resulted in us being charged for insufficient funds!
I remarked to Steve that my wife and I thought we deserved some compensation for all the frustration involved in this and told him we were interested in a magnetic front with doors to make our family room fireplace look even more realistic. I asked him if there was anything he could do for us. He responded a few days later willing to sell the front we were interested for 50% off. The front was $759 meaning we'd pay $379.50! Or, he had another, less appealing, front regularly $349, and we'd pay $174.50! I told Steve I'd discuss this with my wife and he assured me that if I had any more problems with my inserts that I had his number.
I am very grateful I finally spoke with Steve and that he came to our home and fixed our ongoing problem. And my wife and I are once again pleased with our purchase as we believe Fireside sells an outstanding product. However, considering all the time and frustration I've had with after-the-sale service, the thought of handing over any more money to Fireside, despite their "generous discount," is really unpalatable!
We recently had over $100,000 in home improvements done to our home and every bit of it, from tearing down walls to relocating plumbing went without a single problem. Fireside more than made up for it! read more