I hired them to clean the exhaust pipe and woodturning stove in my place in Cazadero.
During the cleaning, one of the guys dropped and broke a piece of the soapstone hearth liner pieces. The main hood piece to be exact.
The gentleman apologized and said they would replace the damaged piece and he glued the broken one together for use in the meantime.
Before leaving, to my surprise, they charged my credit card for the cleaning.
I waited several days, expecting to hear from them regarding replacing the damaged hood. But no contact. So I decided to call and check the status.
During the call, the owner told me they don't take responsibility for damages incurred to these type of soapstone surround pieces as they are fragile and prone to damage. But because his employee said they would replace it, he would honor it. He stated that because the manufacturer (Morso) is European, it might take a while to receive it.
He then said I was also in need of a deep creosote cleaning with would cost around $175. I decided that could wait. (The stove and pipe were only about a year old, how much build up could there possibly be? And funny, but $175 is just about the cost to replace the set of soapstone pieces.)
* First issue: If you don't accept responsibility for damage incurred during cleaning this type of stove, you need to say that IN ADVANCE. Not after the fact. That way I could decide to proceed with your service knowing and accepting the risk or choose to find a sweep that is more confident in their ability.
** Second issue - Their employee DROPPED IT. It didn't just brake by itself, nor brake during removal or reinstalling. He dropped it on my porch while taking it outside to clean it. I stood there and saw it happen. The owner then acting like he was doing me a favor by honoring his employees admission to responsibility is manipulative and insulting.
*** Third Issue - Attempting to up-sell a customer (me) for unneeded services so technically I would be paying for the replacement part. That was an uber slimy move.
About three months later, I called to check the status. I was told he forgot and would "get on ordering it"
Fast forward almost a year and a half since the initial damage, other than my occasional cringe reminder when I caught a glimpse of the cracked and glued hood piece, I had almost forgotten about the replacement piece promised, when I received a promotional email from SuperSweeps. So I replied to the email inquiring about the status of the replacement piece. Again, his response was, that he forgot.
Over two years have passed.
I now burn an occasional creosote sweep log, add anti creosote powder to every third wood load of the stove, purchased a pipe sweep brush ($40 at Friedmans) to use with my shop vac just like they do. I have also ordered, received and replaced the broken soapstone hood piece myself from Morso.
Note: After ordering, It took only about 5 days to receive.
All this and the only good thing about the entire experience was the employee admitting to and accepting responsibility for damaging my stove. So I guess that's what the single star covers.
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