Description of Work: A large piece of cement crown fell off my chimney. I asked A Tec to repair it. A representative inspected the work, contacted the office and agreed to do it. He also recommended installation of steel chimney caps on my two chimneys, which I did not have, and I agreed. I also engaged A Tec to clean my gutters and my fireplace chimney, as long as they were coming out anyway. | |I am not qualified to assess the quality of A Tec's work, other than the gutters, which now drain properly. | |With the exception to be noted below, I found everyone to be polite, professional, and punctual. | |The company provided quotes before the work was begun, and the invoices equaled those quotes. My first concern, however is with their pricing. | | |Subjectively, it felt the cost of the caps felt high to me, but not being familiar with the market, I can not say I was overcharged. Cleaning the chimney took less than an hour, and $169 also felt high to me, on the other hand, this is specialized work requiring specialized equipment. Cleaning the gutters, which occurred in a separate visit, took 2 men 45 minutes from the time they drove up to the time they drove off. $250 for this work, requiring only a tall ladder definitely felt excessive. My house is 3 stories, and perhaps there is a hazard premium built into the pricing. Nevertheless, I felt overcharged. | |My other, and greater, concern was with the company's internal and external communication. | |The careful reader has noted that I called them to repair my chimney crown, but there has been no further mention of that work. That is because A Tec later determined themselves to be unqualified to do it. This despite the fact that their inspector studied the chimney, and described the problem to his office, before A Tec agreed to do the work. A less cynical customer might be concerned that A Tec had been worried that I might have chosen a different company for the chimney cap work, had I known A Tec could not do the crown repair. I give them the benefit of the doubt, but conclude that their internal communication leaves a great deal to be desired. | |Supporting that conclusion, I provided a $200 deposit during the inspection visit, which A Tec promptly deposited, but when I paid the bill for their work, no credit was given for the deposit, indicating that the inspector did not communicate to the office that I had provided the deposit. I e-mailed the company 3 times through Angie's list to inquire about the matter. I called after receiving no response, and learned that A Tec does not use that e-mail account because they have to log on first, which they find inconvenient. This is an external communication problem. After several phone communications, and reading of my e-mails, A Tec agreed that I had not been given credit for my deposit, and refunded the $200. | |As noted above, during much of my interaction with A Tec they were very professional, I give the company C for professionalism because of the communication problems. |