Southwest Fireplace

We looked at quite a few fireplace retailers before selection Southwest Fireplace. The main reason was location, but they seemed to have knowledgeable staff and prices were comparable to others. We were wrong. Despite looking at various models - nobody provided important information about selecting a fireplace. Things like size of the room. Our new family room is 4oo sf. We were sold a fireplace that was designed for a room 5 times that size! We have 5 settings on the remote - 1-5, with 5 being the highest flame. We can only leave the setting on 1 as anything higher and the room gets too hot. They did not tell us that the fireplace did not need a hearth. We just assumed it did and had it added when the fireplace framing was built. It was only on the day that the fireplace was installed that we were told that we could have set the fireplace on the floor. We probably would have selected that option if we were told that the salesman, but we were not. We were also never told until after the fact on what the height of the mantel needed to be. Another oversight on the overall team on their lack of proper communication to the seller. They also installed it by not following the original plan of having the rear vent at the height we were told. Now we can see daylight thru the fireplace when sitting in the family room because the vent it right behind the fireplace box. My advice when buying a fireplace from Southwest - ask a lot of questions and then ask more. Make sure you question them on their installations. For the amount of money, we spent on this- fireplace we expected more professionalism, proper installation and superior customer service. Southwest Fireplace failed in all three.

.