Coastal Hearth & Home

Description of Work: On February 22, 2011 I purchased a full gas fireplace from Coastal Hearth and Home (Steve Rahal- owner) and paid in full that day. Steve Rahal sold me this fireplace insert without doing a home evaluation of my existing fireplace in our new (to us) home. He said he could install the unit by the end of the week and I indicated that I was not ready for it that week and accordingly he said he'd be in touch the following week to install. After not contacting me the next two weeks – I phoned him and reminded him that we had an install to do. He did not yet have the unit… We installed three (3) weeks after purchase date. The day of installation was eventful. Anthony (Steve’s cousin and installer) was unable to get the fireplace unit to work properly from moment one. The unit kept tripping the heat limit and turning itself off in a matter of a few short minutes. Anthony informed me that this is a safety function of the unit. However - the fireplace was useless as a functioning heat source for the two rooms we wanted to heat (it is a pass through fireplace = two rooms to heat). Anthony spent an enormous amount of time on the phone (in my backyard out of my earshot) trying to determine a resolution. He indicated that he spoke with Steve at Coastal Hearth and Home and that they had some dialog with “the manufacturer” in trying to resolve these issues. Clearly he was uncomfortable while he was here and trying to troubleshoot after each phone call. He verbally indicated that he knew that the solutions they were instructing him to try were not going to resolve my problem. Steve Rahal spoke with me via phone later that day and indicated that he would work with “the manufacturer” and figure out what the issue was and that they would return and get it working. Anthony did return finally several weeks later and indicated that he was instructed by “the manufacturer” to do several things that he had already tried and was pretty sure it wouldn’t work this time (and it didn’t). Anthony was of the opinion that my unit was too big for my firebox (so was I)… They even had him rearrange my gas logs and remove some of them to provide more air flow to see if it would maintain a fire. Not only did it not work - obviosly they had no concern for the esthetics of the unit and what I expected it to look like for the money I had spent as the consumer. I presume it never occured to them that I wanted a say in the esthetics of what went in my home. So once again Anthony left my home with a brand new fireplace unit that was not and never has been working but was paid for in full from date of purchase. To further add salt to my wounds, we had several weeks of cold weather here in Savannah where I would have turned that unit on to take the chill off the night air – if only it had worked. When I bought the unit Steve Rahal had told me that I’d get to use it yet that season – one of many such falsehoods. Steve did call me back after that second (and last) install attempt. He left me a voice mail message. He said that “they” (I have no idea who “they” might be - was it Coastal Hearth and Home, the manufacturer - just who was "they"?) were going to custom make some logs and that it might take a couple of weeks but to “hang in there” he’d be back with me. That was several months ago (I wouldn’t have accepted something as abstract as “custom logs” not knowing the ratings, fire codes, warranties etc. It was all more hyperbole and a hoax to keep all my money under the guise of “custom logs” in my opinion.). I have continued to phone him, I have physically gone back out to his store and discovered that he has closed his store to “appointment only - summer hours”, left notes at the storefront requesting that he phone me, and even had the good luck to see Anthony in the store truck and stop him on the road (yes – literally) so he could pass a message to Steve about my unhappiness and request a return visit/contact. All of this effort has not gotten me any follow-up action.