Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. 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.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:01/27/2025

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  
  
  Complaint: ********
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  
  
  ****** *******e boiler chimney, but the fireplace chimeny job was to be completed on Monday.
  I recieved an invoice on Monday stating all of the work had been completed. I requested photos of the chimney and fireplace as documentation that the job had been completed, but I was told that they were not going to provide photos, and if I didn't submit payment immediately, they would come out the following morning to remove the liner. They accused me of refusing to pay. I was asking for photos because that is what is expected when you have work done in your home in areas that are not accessible. The boss, Mike, assured me that he was there to oversee the job was completed. I submitted the payment in full on Tuesday.
  The following Saturday, we found that our fireplace is missing a flue/airflow mechanism. Our mantle is damaged, and the custom key for the air flow valve that operates the flue from the front of the fireplace, is missing. They did not show up to complete the work when scheduled.

  Business Response

  Date: 01/28/2025

  Miller’s Chimney was in
  constant contact with ****** through this entire process.  She had the personal cell phones of Gina, Office
  Manager, and Michael, the Owner.  No
  matter what time of day, weekend or after hours, ****** would reach out she was
  always answered back either immediately or within a reasonable time frame.  Miller’s made no final decisions or scheduled
  any appointments without ******’s approval first.
  
  Miller's Chimney was
  contracted by Mrs. ****** ******* to install a stainless-steel lining system
  inside of her second chimney which is for her fireplace flue while we were
  there doing a lining system on behalf of her HVAC company for the new boiler
  system on Friday, January 10th.  We received a
  phone call from ****** Saturday afternoon stating that the heat was not on at
  the house, so Michael, the Owner, came right out immediately to resolve the
  issue.  We informed her that this was a
  temporary fix to make sure she had heat and that we would have to come back out
  on Monday to make the permanent repairs. 
  Before leaving the house on Saturday, Gina called ****** to inform her
  that we had fixed the issue with the heat and asked her what she wanted the
  thermostat set on.  Michael and Gina both
  waited another 40-minutes to make sure that everything was working
  correctly.  While there, Gina cleaned up
  the areas that ****** had mentioned that the technicians had left some trash
  behind. She had also mentioned that there were some boot marks on the floor so Gina
  had made an appointment before she even left ******’s house on Saturday with
  ******* ******* to clean her carpets for Tuesday, January 14th, since
  the installer got some footprints on her carpet.  Gina informed ****** that the appointment was
  set with ******* ******* but ****** decided on Monday, January 13th,
  that wanted to use her own cleaners so we gave her a $300 credit/discount
  towards the cleaning.  Miller’s went back
  out on Monday and fixed 98% of the rest of the repairs needed. ****** informed
  Miller’s later that evening that the key was missing for the damper. She had
  many contractors inside the home while Miller’s was also there but since Miller’s
  was working on the fireplace, we decided to take responsibility for replacing
  the key.  They don’t make a replacement
  key for the damper, so Miller’s was going to install a energy saving top
  sealing damper until we could find a replacement but ****** wanted the exact
  same kind of damper that was inside the fireplace. Due to them not making the
  key any longer, Miller’s has to replace the whole damper system which means we
  need to go out and measure her smoke chamber and these are not dampers that are
  available locally. Miller’s made an appointment for Tuesday, January 14th,
  to measure for the damper and ****** confirmed the appointment and then at
  4:54pm on January 13th, ****** emailed and cancelled.  She said she wanted to wait to see what we
  were installing.  We informed her that we
  were not installing anything, we were just measuring for the new damper and we
  did not receive any response back from her. 
  We received a message from ****** on the evening of the 14th,
  wanting to know why no one showed up. 
  Angel explained that she cancelled the first appointment and never
  confirmed a new date.  Then we did not
  hear back from her again until she filed this claim.  We are more than happy to resolve the issue
  with the damper which includes the special key needed but she needs to confirm any
  appointments that are made beforehand. No where on any of the emails, phone
  calls or text messages which our system records everything, does she mention
  anything about mantel damage or hand prints on the wall.  We have no idea where this is coming
  from.  We do have pictures of the job
  being prepped with tarps while they were working along with booties on and pictures
  of the fireplace including mantel after the work was completed so we don’t know
  where any of these issues are coming from. We don’t know why these new issues
  were not brought to our attention when we were originally there and she informed
  us of all the other issues that we have been trying to take care of and have no
  issues fixing them.  It just seems that
  she is adding things on as we go now. 
  This house is under construction and we are not the only contractor that’s
  been coming in and out, it is not lived in. They do not go there every day but
  Miller’s took responsibility for the damper, obviously, the key which my technicians
  are animate they didn’t even know about and the footprints on the carpet which
  we gave money back to her already.  Seems
  very interesting that she was complaining to us about her horrible experience
  with her HVAC company and now we have to deal with this also.
  
  I have attached the
  pictures for review in case you have any questions.

  Business Response

  Date: 01/31/2025

  Miller's Chimney has already
  given her a discount/money back for the cleaning of the carpets and it was the
  amount that she requested. 

  We only need to replace the vestal damper kit with key but we
  need to measure it first. She needs to approve a date for us to come out and
  measure. The rest of the job has been completed!!
  

  In ALL of the text messages, phone conversations and emails that
  we have recorded, she does not say anything about the mantel being damaged
  until she sent a message to BBB.  We have pictures of the mantel from when
  we completed our work and it had tons of stuff on top of it that was theirs or
  other contractors. None of it was ours and there was no damage on the
  mantel.  Miller's has taken responsibility for all of the issues and some
  that we don't even feel were on us (the key my techs did not touch) but we are
  not paying for a mantel when there was nothing wrong with it when we left (pictures
  attached) and she made no mention of it until weeks later and she had already
  been thru the house with a find tooth comb.
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/04/2022

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Miller's Chimney installed a wood stove and Class A chimney in November 2021. I noticed several clearances were not up to code with the inside the house, and the exterior installation was structurally unsound, so they agreed to install a double-wall pipe, take down the Class A and re-install it with better support in December of 2021. In February of 2021 we had a carbon-monoxide alarm go off in our house, so I called Miller's to ask if they could come and identify the problem. They told me that they were busy for days and couldn't make an emergency call (it was a 30 degree day, we had to open the windows to air out the CO, and we have no other heat source in the house). They reassured me over that phone that "if there was really a problem with carbon monoxide we would see lots of smoke in the house," which is not how CO works. We have also had several birds get into our wood stove over the summer, despite the installation of a bird guard, which I'm wondering whether this was properly installed. These things all made me question the safety and competency of the work done by Miller's Chimney, so I requested a county inspection to make sure we would be safe to operate the stove for this winter. The county informed me that the project required permits that Miller's Chimney did not pull, so they would not inspect the work. I called a different company to inspect, and they noted several other code violations that I did not catch the first time Miller's did the work. The two major issues were that that a proper pass-through was not installed through the wall of our house, and the exterior structure is missing a T-support.
  I want Mike, the owner of the company, to come out with an inspector from his team to personally inspect the work that his crew did and send a qualified team to complete the pass through and T-support within the month. If he will not agree to this, I would like Miller's Chimney to cover the costs of another company of our choosing to complete the work.
  

  Business Response

  Date: 10/04/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/10/04) */
  
  At Miller's Chimney we are always honest and do quality work. If we make a mistake, we take care of our customers immediately. Our installer/technician went out in November of 2021, did the install of the customers stove which was a used stove, far from new. The customer used the stove the entire last winter and made no complaints. We are going to send out one of our technicians and the owner will meet him to go over a new inspection. The company who gave their inspection does not know enough about the system to make statements that we are out of code. This is an easy fix, we would have taken care of this without going through this process.
  
  Consumer Response /* (3000, 12, 2022/10/20) */
  ***Document Attached***
  To BBB: Sorry I missed the October 10th deadline to reply. The owner of the company and a technician were scheduled to come out on October 14th, so I figured it would be easier to speak directly with them first and then wrap everything up here.
  
  
  Hi Brian,
  
  Thank you for responding, and I appreciate that Angel promptly called to schedule Mike and Jesse to come out on October 14th.
  
  I want to make a few factual corrections to your reply: The stove was not used; we ordered a brand-new Hearthstone stove and had it delivered to Miller's Chimney prior to the installation date per your instructions.
  
  It is also not true that we made no complaints after the November install. The day after the November installation I emailed and called the office to ask about why the wrong interior pipe (single wall vs. double wall) was installed, along with a few other concerns I had about the installation. The install date had been re-scheduled last-minute for a day when my husband and I couldn't be readily available to make sure everything went smoothly, so we had follow-up questions. I figured the pipe was an honest and easily correctable mistake, but it took over a week of phone calls and emails before Angel even agreed to send anyone out to look at my concerns. When Chris finally did come out to inspect the installation, he admitted fault about the pipe, it was clearly not up to code, and there were several other structural issues with the exterior installation. The entire installation was dismantled and re-installed by Miller's Chimney in December.
  
  For more details, please refer to the attached document that contains my email records with Angel, Mike, and my ****** review about the November and December installation process for more details. Since issues were not dealt with quickly or easily that time around, I pursued mediation through the BBB for these new issues that came up after a third party chimney inspection.
  
  Again, I really appreciate that Mike and Jesse came out promptly to take a look at things this time around. Mike brought the manual for the specific class A chimney piping that was used (which is different than what most other companies use) and explained that the brackets function in place of the support tee, which does resolve my main concern that came up from the other company's inspection. He also assured me that the employee who did the original installation in November is no longer with the company.
  
  Going forward, Mike said they would schedule a time to cap the original chimney, since that was an unfinished part of the original job that we were billed for (and was noted unfinished in the inspection), and that they would also do a free cleaning. I understand there are no pressing safety concerns with our current system, and that it's a busy time of year for you all, so if this gets taken care of in the next month or two we can consider this resolved.
  
  Thank you,
  *****