Powers Chimney & Masonry

DO NOT USE THESE PEOPLE. You have other companies that are rated higher and are comparable in price and schedule availability.
Here is the story if you are interested:
I have used Powers three times. First time was summer 2014. They cleaned and inspected the chimney and fireplace. Same in summer 2015 for the second visit. Except, this time they said that we MIGHT have had a chimney fire. The technician said it was ok though — he said we should have it cleaned twice a year and this would keep us okay to continue to use the fireplace normally. He said we should consider letting them install a flue liner to the tune of around $ 4000. So the next time I scheduled a cleaning was for 6 months later. The third and final visit was in December and a new technician showed up. He was just finished with his ‘apprenticeship’ but I was reassured that he was qualified. He performed a cleaning and inspection. He told us that we have now had multiple fires in this chimney and that we should not burn in it or we might burn our house down. By the way, he thought it was smart to say that in front of my 7 year old. Thanks, it took me an hour to calm her down and now she is scared of the fireplace.
How could burning a quarter of a cord of seasoned wood have caused this much damage in 6 months? We never let it burn when we are not around and have never noticed any of the many signs of a chimney that is on fire. You can google what happens. It is impressive and very noticeable to say the least.
Because of the experience we had with this technician and because I am not a new homeowner, or an idiot, I decided to call other Chimney companies to get at least 2 more opinions. I called Emerald City Chimney and Chimcare. Both are highly rated companies and were WONDERFUL to work with.
Emerald City: They were the first to come out. The technician has been doing this for 20 years. He worked with the owner of Powers Chimney at Emerald City in the past. He saw no evidence of a chimney fire in the fireplace. I was assured that what he saw was pretty normal. He regularly sees worse. He also noticed that the cleaning job that Powers did was horrible. He offered to clean the fireplace the right way. I approved the cleaning.
Chimcare: Next, these guys came out and inspected everything. They were of the same opinion that Emerald City was. Really professional and also in agreement with the fact that there was probably not a chimney fire. He then proceeded to show me why he thought there was no fire and to explain what happens in a chimney fire.
A chimney fire is a big event. There would have been more evidence that this happened. When confronted with all of this information, this is what the «Professionals» at Powers Chimney did:
1. They refused to offer me a refund. They say that there technician did a good and thorough job. I was shown evidence that he did not.
2. They refuse to apologize or even acknowledge their technicians behavior. Would have been a nice thing to do.
3. They actually claimed that the reason these other companies don’t see any evidence of fire is because of how good they cleaned it. Emerald City and I had a good laugh about that one.
4. They continue to threaten that I am going to burn my own house down. Their people skills are atrocious.
5. They refused to take my word on any of the information from the other companies, they insisted on speaking to them and seeing their invoices. Both companies welcomed that. Not the end of the world, but I didn’t appreciate that.
Last but not least: The owner of this company used to work with Emerald City and went out on his own a few years back. Emerald City’s take on the situation was that they were not surprised to hear this happened to me when working with Powers. I think he ripped me off, was inappropriate and has some unthoughtful and unprofessional people working for him.
He can keep the cleaning fee. Keep treating people like this and he is going to need the money anyway.
I absolutely welcome a rebuttal from Powers to this review.

Ekraam is awesome. Knowledgable and nice. We have had tons of issues with a smoking chimney downstairs as we build a fire upstairs. Not a cheap fix, but he figured it out and stayed here an hour trying different things for us. We will use them for all of our future needs. Office staff was great too, emailing to check in and being super responsive.

Selling my house and needed to get fireplace fixed. I had a pellet stove installed 8 years ago. Within 2 years, the stove died and I couldn’t get parts for it. We chose instead of replacing it, we installed a stove downstairs which heated the entire house. We left the dead one alone. Now that we want to sell, I wanted to turn it into a regular fireplace. Powers came out to give me a quote. Said it would be cheaper to just install a new stove because otherwise, they’d have to pull out the brick and such. I agreed.
They also looked at the cap and components on top of chimney and noticed they were in need of replacement as well. I figured this was the case, I had known it was in bad shape up there so I anticipated the work needed. He went up on the roof, and checked everything and told me what needed to be replaced. I needed a new storm cover and chase collar. Price quoted was $ 1250. I agreed and paid ½ up front. Appointment was set for 2 weeks later. I emailed them a few days before appointment to confirm we were set as I was taking off work. They confirm that unless part that had to be custom made wasn’t finished in time, we were still set for 8−9am on Friday the 24^th. I emailed them again and they said they were set.
The day of install, it gets to be 9:30. I call them and ask what’s up. They tell me they tried calling me yesterday and said they had to take care of another issue before mine first thing but that they would be out around 1pm. I said ok fine. 1pm comes and still no sign of them. I call their office again and there’s a new girl there who didn’t know anything about it and that she only saw the appointment was for this morning. She says she will call them again and find out. She calls me at about 2pm and tells me they are still 45 minutes out. Finally they show up around 3:30. They get to work and install the part. Unfortunately, the collar was made the wrong size so they now have to come out on Monday and install the part again.
The guy who came out was really cool and very knowledgeable and thorough. Communication within the office needs to be better. They said they called me to tell me about schedule change when I had been emailing them throughout the last 2 weeks. Why not send an email if you can’t get a hold of me? I had stuff to do that day other than wait around for them.
Four stars due to the communication issues, they could have done better.

great service… came out the same day and installed a top damper for me. But very high priced. Still, I wish I had waited, because I ended up paying double.