ComplaintsforA-1 Chimney Sweep

• Initial Complaint

  11/12/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Very negative experience with A1 Chimney with misleading estimate, credit card fraud and extremely poor customer service. Estimator quoted $699 for "extensive 2-hr cleaning" on 9/28 for "Class 3 creosote" in the chimney "about to catch fire" but finished in 20 minutes?! Either he misled us or didn't provide complete cleaning we paid for. We were charged additional $814 for fragile mortar repair after he deliberately damaged the mortar with our poker! He sprayed black spray paint for "years of use" which looked nice but burnt off on 1st use. Somehow 15% "tip" was added to $1799 bill resulting in $2068 charge and then the credit card was charged twice for over $4,137! Citi Fraud called us that evening and locked our card due to fraudulent double charge. I called A1 the next business day to inquire what happened and try to resolve our concerns. 1 week later I was forced to provide new credit card # after receiving a very threatening phone call to destroy my credit score, turn us over to collections agency and jail time in Texas! What kind of customer service is that when it was their tech who double charged us?! Over 12 calls to Customer Service team and Manager over 2 weeks went unreturned. I was told owner is overseas and unavailable to help us resolve this. The tech also damaged our driveway banging his tools clean on the way out leaving ashy grooves in the asphalt. He was onsite for total of 55 minutes for $1799 leaving a partially (?) cleaned chimney and now burned off spray painted firebox. Photos at a1chimney.net I do not recommend A1. They pay for Google ads in local markets with local phone # and website claims to be local - look at the hundreds of false "local" locations: https://www.a-1chimneysweep.com/sitemap. But they are in Texas and subcontract according to tech. Quality and integrity of contractors and employees and owners is highly questionable based on this very terrible experience. We feel we got robbed. I'm still waiting for a call back.

  Business response

  12/13/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/11/15) */ Re: We received a complaint # XXXXXXXX on your business External Inbox A1 Sevices <*************@gmail.com> Nov 14, 2022, 2:26 PM (23 hours ago) to me I do not have this clients name in my system Please provide phone number and service address. Thank you Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2022/11/15) */ LC 11/15/2022 (BBB Note): Lisa **** 1:27 PM (1 minute ago) to A1 Greetings, Attached is a copy of the invoice that the consumer provided. image.png Lisa **** Dispute Resolution Team Leader BBB of Greater Maryland, Inc. *** ** Sharp ******* ********** ** XXXXX Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX Fax: XXX-XXX-XXXX Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2022/11/16) */ This client has already been refunded due to him not being satisfied with the service. This complaint should be closed since a refund was issued

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩