I am an advocate for using local businesses and avoiding large chains and corporations. That was a…read morebig part of the reason, the main reason, that I went with Christianson Plumbing & Heating to fix our gas fireplace. They were also recommended to my wife in a Facebook group when she asked for a recommendation. They also said that they charged no dispatch fee which was excellent news since we live out in the country. The pilot light wasn't working and I am less than qualified to work on a gas-anything. Their man came out on time with no problems. Nice guy. He determined that the issue was the pilot light fixture and they would order a replacement. After they received the pilot light fixture, our issues with Christianson Plumbing & Heating began. Our original appointment for install was placed on November 4th for November 10th between 12:30pm and 1:00pm. We felt this was perfectly reasonable since they were waiting on a part and of course that takes time. The day came and at 8:15 they rescheduled us for November 12th between 2:00pm and 2:30pm. Missing work for a last minute change like that is very frustrating. On the 11th they changed it again with no explanation. This wasn't a big deal as it was just an hour earlier. Then on the 12th, 9 minutes before our scheduled appointment time, they rescheduled us again for the 18th, again no explanation. They proceeded to reschedule us three more times at different times on the 18th. In between these appointments we called, usually with no answer and no calls back, many times. I'll attach the rescheduling texts I received. Their man installed the pilot light fixture on the 18th and both the pilot light and fireplace as a whole worked. Until he left. After he left the fire stopped working but the pilot light was working fine. When we called about it not working again, the reason for failure changed. Now it was two things. The first was that our thermostat couldn't handle our older fireplace. We needed to install a more basic thermostat that isn't programmed but is only tuned to a specific adjustable temperature and is American made. Second was that our fireplace is over 30 years old (it isn't) and is past its life cycle. We decided we did not want to work with them and risk the rescheduling issues again and so we stopped and received our bill. It was over $600. For a still non-working fireplace. Lo and behold they do charge a dispatch fee, one that was especially expensive since we lived in the country. Obviously we were charged for the part and obviously professional labor isn't cheap, but that was too much to pay for what we received. On top of that he left a part off the fireplace that I needed to reinstall myself. It was an easy fix, but still another thing. I went in person and we agreed to reduce the bill by half. I was thankful for that. They also explained that the reason they were rescheduling me without notice was because others heated their houses solely by fireplace and I was less of a priority...my house is also heated solely by fireplace. The reason for the confusion with the dispatching fee was: "I am the dispatcher and I don't get paid a dispatching fee." I ended up installing a thermostat like they recommended by myself. It did not work so I tried one last thing that I was nervous about trying myself out of fear of making things worse. I looked up the wiring diagram and that was when I saw that every-single-wire was in the wrong place. It took me ten minutes to fix and now the fireplace works perfectly fine. I have a hard time constituting a 1-star review but I don't see how I can post a review 2-stars or more. E.

Fantastic people and service. Highly recommend them for any plumbing or HVAC services.read more