Anderson Fireplace & Spa

Pleased completely now.

He was here less than 15 minutes. Acted like he was in a huge hurry. Let me know I don't need to worry about carbon monoxide fumes leaking. ? He spent a couple minutes cleaning it and boogied out. It does work but I have seen an ad for same service for half the price on Angies list. Called them 10/25 and the earliest they could come was 11/16. Would probably shop it next time we need service but would not rule them out.

It went very well both both repairs. When the fireplace was serviced, Michael was very thorough and spent a lot of time tracking down the problem, which was a faulty switch. He even inspected the entire system so thoroughly that he found the source of a small propane leak caused by a small, very loose screw. When he replaced the fan, he was just as thorough, again going into detail about the fireplace, and the fan. This company is always busy, but worth the wait.

unknown

My letter to Anderson Fireplace and Spa on 1/26/2015: We own a rental home in Everett that is rented by our grandson (Pat). On November 4, 2014, your company installed a new chimney liner, a Lopi Wood Fireplace Insert & ?GreenStart? lighter at this home. Shortly after install, Pat noted that when he built a fire, the house would fill up with smoke. No matter what he tried, nothing seemed to stop the smoking each time he opens the door to add wood. He called and talked to Rod and was told that he wasn?t getting the fire hot enough and that he?d probably ?clogged the chimney?. The glass on front of insert already was getting blackened as well, so Rod told him to get the fire as ?hot as he could? and it would ?burn the clogged material? out of the fireplace. Then the next day the ?Green Start? ignition quit working. This was 3 weeks to the day after the installation ? Nov. 25th. Pat called service dept. and they said they?d send someone out. They did, but then they told him they?d have to ?order the part. No one would schedule him for service until the part came in. He made several calls over the next couple of weeks and no one would return his calls, so I decided to take over. I called on about Dec 15th and got a young woman who told me ?Oh, that part has been sitting here on the shelf!? I said I?d like to get it put in and she told me that the only person who could put it in was on vacation. She did not schedule this until January 6th! On the 3rd of January the ?blower? on the fireplace stopped working. I called on the morning of the 6th and left a message at service department to let them know they would now have to look at the blower while they were out that day. I asked that the call be returned if there were any questions. No call returned, so I assumed it would be handled. When the repairman (Josh) came on the 6th he knew nothing about checking the blower and when I called to ask Kevin about this he said that he couldn?t do anything after I had left the message ?because the repairmen were already out in the field?. Really ?repairmen don?t have cell phones? Josh could not replace the igniter after all because he said the way the insert was installed it would take 2 men to pull it out so he could get to it. He said blower was probably a ?snap disk? problem and he didn?t have one with him. He called the shop and told them they?d need to send installers out to do the igniter and bring a blower. (Now this is after I was told by the office gal that ?there was only one man who could install these igniters, and he had been on vacation so we had to wait til Jan. 6th!?) Josh called Pat back that night and said in a couple of days they would send someone to do igniter and blower. The original installers came to install igniter and they still did not know anything about the blower! They did fix the igniter, but in doing so, rerouted the wiring and now instead of the faceplate being flat against the brick, the faceplate and brick have a large gap between them, and now the hole they made in the brick to fit the insert shows and does not look good. They said the blower was completely shot and would have to order a new one. During this operation they scratched the fireplace faceplates. They said paint would cover it, but they didn?t have any with them. Note: At this time, and subsequent repair visits, the installers all said that the ?smoke? issue was not due to ?clogging? due to a low temp fire. Pat was told there was no way in 3 weeks the chimney could be clogged that bad. A few days later, out comes another repairman ? this time the ?service manager, John? who (by himself ? not 2 men) took the fireplace apart again and said ?this blower is fine? just needed a new wire and/or switch. So John fixed it, and it works ? but he also did not have any paint for the scratch and the hole in the brick was still now showing. When they first installed they evidently ?shoved? the insert over far enough to mostly cover the hole they made. Now they said they shouldn?t push it over that hard as that is probably why the wire on the blower failed. And/or the rerouting of the wiring for the igniter is causing the spacing problem. Now John decided to make things right and said he would send out a brand new fireplace front and faceplate. Nice. However when these installers came and took out the old faceplates, they carefully put them face down on the carpet so they would not get dinged again. However they failed to do that with the new faceplate and managed to drop the fireplace tools on the new face and scratched the new ones. Still no paint with them! These scratches are not nearly as bad as the first time, but we paid good money for a new insert, that works poorly at best with all the smoking it still does, and the service we have received, it's almost a joke. If it weren?t so much money I?d just send my complaint to the BBB and maybe a scathing report to Angies List and let it go. But this is a lot of money to us and here we are now with a brand new fireplace insert that was installed in a manner that leaves it unpleasing to look at because we can see the hole in the brick ? and it smokes every time the door is opened. The old fireplace that was supposedly no good NEVER SMOKED up the house. Several of the repairmen told Pat that this has been a problem with these inserts! And there is something terribly wrong with your service and communication within your company. We have been told many different stories by each and every person we have dealt with during this ordeal. Several have said ?the young woman who answered phones and took care of scheduling? was at fault and has been let go. Two repairmen say we need a new blower ? the service manager says old one was fine, just needed wire/part fixed. The sales person I talked to originally about getting the igniter replaced gave me a long story about how busy you were and we would just have to be patient. Kevin acted like I was a bother to deal with when I talked to him on the phone. So here we are. Back to a smoking fireplace insert that has had no less than 5 service calls in 2 months. Still scratched (Pat finally stopped by to pick up the paint for it himself). There is still a hole in brick that is not covered, and the excuses for the smoking have been several. One repairman said it was the barometric pressure??hmmm, every day? One or two of the installers tried building a fire himself to see if Pat was building fire ?correctly?. It smoked for them too. The wood Pat burns is dry. John says we need to call Travis Industries and complain. I think your company should be the one calling the manufacturer and getting this figured out. I had Pat call the manufacturer and he left a message for Sean, and they haven?t returned the call yet, but we will probably try again. We?d like to have resolution to the smoke that comes into house each and every time the door is opened - this is not satisfactory the way it is. We'd like a larger back plate/faceplate to cover the hole in the fireplace front or somehow refit the existing one to cover the broken brick. This letter was sent to Anderson on 1/26/15 and today is 1/29/15 and I've had no response.

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Anderson Fireplace is a family owned business that provides friendly and professional services. We purchased a Lodi AGP from Anderson Fireplace at a very comparable price to the other companies in our area that sell this unit. We did our research and decided that the Lodi AGP was the insert for us. Once that decision was made, we researched which company we wanted to use. Anderson Fireplace was great to deal with from the beginning: friendly, courteous, professional, knowledgeable. The reason we gave Anderson Fireplace a rating of and quot;Band quot; overall is for one reason only. At the time we purchased the insert and scheduled the installation, we asked if it was necessary to measure the fireplace opening to make sure the unit would fit. We were told and quot;No, because all fireplace openings are standard.and quot; Finally, the date of installation came. The installers were right on time and placed protection on all our floors and they started the installation. Then we received the news that the insert would not fit. The opening was not tall enough. They handled all the arrangements to have a contracted mason come in and make the necessary repairs. But that meant a delay in the installation of the stove. We had to wait several weeks for the initial appointment for installation because they are very busy and this meant another delay. If only they had asked for the measurements of the opening to begin with (especially since I even asked if they needed them), there would not have been a delay. The insert was installed after the work was done to adapted the fireplace opening, and we are very pleased with the insert and the work that Anderson Fireplace did. We would highly recommend them.

unknown

Took over two weeks to get a service tech out to look at stove. Service tech arrived (no specific time given, so had to take off work). Service tech spent 5 minutes looking at the stove, reach behind with hand (did not even bring tool in house) and said he tightened a wing nut, then started the stove and said it was fixed. Husband explained to tech that is usually starts up however within 15 minutes will repeat the error. Technician told my husband, and quot;it is fixed, or it wouldn't get this farand quot;. Tech was in a hurry to leave. Within 10 minutes after tech left, same error message appeared, stove shut down. Same senario that was explained to tech which he said would not happen. Promptly called service, left message at approx. 2:30 pm in afternoon, never received a call back. Waited until 12:00 next day, called service again and talked with service manager and she said she would talk with tech. She called back and said they had to order thermal coupler part and would call us when it came in. Gave them two weeks, no call from them. We called, was told part was still on order that the manufacturer sometimes has backlog and was told again, that they would call us when part came in to schedule service. Called again January and was told the same thing. It is now February and still have not heard anything. Did search on line and found part availability in multiple places, including ebay.

Anderson Fireplace and Spas: They were here bright and early in the morning. They took time to reconfirm with us how we wanted the piping finished before starting the job. Even doing part of the work before calling us in to show us the options of what could be done - just to make sure we were happy with the end result. Kevin discovered a problem with an area we had prepped incorrectly but he installed the insert so that it isn't noticeable. He called us the next day with an idea for an inexpensive and easy fix to the area. That was above and beyond what he was hired to do - and we're grateful for the information. Best yet; the gas insert works great!

Price and quality are average but service left us perplexed. There were surprise extras such as trim around the unit that were not included in the original purchase. It would have been nice if we would have had a clear picture oat f what we needed at the beginning. Also, we go the basic plastic thermostat with the unit that had a sticky and unusable slide control. We took it back for a replacement at the Everett Broadway location and the and quot;helpand quot; acted as though it was our fault. It amazes me that we spent 8-grand here and they make an issue over a cheap $20 thermostat that they ought not to be even selling in the first place. If we had to it over again, I would avoid Anderson and shop around for both a better deal and better service.

They did a good job with the install. They were very rude and hard to talk to. When we would ask them something they would snap their eyes at us and answer with less than polite effort. We felt like they were acting as if they resented installing a stove that didin't come from them. One guy went as far as telling my husband that he wasn't making money installing the stove. I felt like we were being treated rudely because we didn't buy one of their stoves.

We went to the showroom to view their inventory. We made arrangements for them to come out and give us an estimate. In preparing the estimate they noted that we needed some electrical work. If they hadn't come out for the estimate the whole installation would have been delayed. They then came out and installed the fireplace on the date and time scheduled. The installation was complete in approximately 3 hours.

Everything went great. It will have to be a little colder before I can report how effective the insert is.

Technicians arrived at the appointed time. They were very professional and friendly. The work was completed well and in a timely manner. The old wood stove was hauled away at no charge. While removing old stove, they did minor damage to the door molding. They immediately offered to compensate us for the damage. Instead of taking compensation for repair to the molding, we asked if they would haul away a second wood stove (normally a $40 charge), and they agreed. Overall it was a very good experience.