A1 Chimney

• Quality & results▲
• Staff & attitude▲
• Speed & response▲
• Honesty & trust▲
• Price & value▲
• Communication▲

We used A1 for cleaning our chimney, tuck pointing the firebox and insert repair. They did great work, were professional and on time. They were honest in their quote and the work provided and extremely easy to work with. Cleaned up after themselves and answered questions that I had. Will use again soon for tuck pointing the external chimneys.

• Speed & response▲

Don’t waste your time or money with this company. They no call / no show two times for both of the appointments we made. The way they offered to “make it right” was to reschedule and ensure it doesn’t happen again for a third time. Only reason gave one star is they were quick to respond to me asking why no one showed or called me following the appointment slot end time when I had to be the one to reach out both times. Find a local / small business to spend your money at instead.

• Quality & results▼
• Price & value▼
• Would recommend▼

Horrible customer service. Two days waiting for someone to call me and get a quote done. Absolute joke, employees all had the same response and couldn't get a simple quote scheduled or phone call. Your loss cause you were looking at 15k to 30k of work. Wouldn't recommend anyone wasting time or effort on them.

• Staff & attitude▲
• Would recommend▲

• Jonathan

Jonathan was very professional, knowledgeable and friendly. He informed us of all the needed repairs and the importance of the repairs. We want him to come back and do our repairs. We highly recommend him For your chimney inspection.

• Honesty & trust▼
• Price & value▼

not a real company BBB repeatedly marks complaints against them as "Unpursuable" because BBB is unable to locate the business bbb bbb One customer alleged the business has representatives in various urban areas who visit homes, provide misleading information to inflate prices, and either do the work poorly or not at all, with invoices sent via text or email carrying no identifying company information bbb A separate complaint described a rep who couldn't give a fixed business address and said she "works from home" when asked bbb Bait-and-switch pricing (quote $99–129, then upsell to hundreds or thousands) is a recurring theme across multiple listings

• Jonathan

Thank you appreciate your service Jonathan!

• Honesty & trust▲
• Price & value▼

I called earlier in the week to schedule a chimney cleaning. Looked at the website and watched their video, they looked reliable. When I called to schedule I was quoted $299 for the cleaning and I would be called the day of before the appointment when they are on the way. Today is the day, they called at 12:07 saying they would be here in 40-50 minutes. Okay. I waited an hour and 15 minutes before I called them and he apologized for being late and had to make a stop to replace a part and would be here in 5-15 minutes. He finally gets here with his partner, no decals on the vehicle like advertised, and when he got here, he said he couldn't clean the chimney through the inside and would have to climb the roof and it would now be $599. When I was quoted on the phone, it was $299. I told them to leave because I'm not paying that price. I will not be calling them back to get my chimney cleaned, I'll find a more reliable business.

• Price & value▼
• Would recommend▼

We are in the midst of purchasing a home. We had A1 Chimney come out to do an inspection on (2) fireplaces and a chimney. We did not receive all of the documentation and estimates from the technician after the inspection was completed. My husband and I made 12 calls to A1 Chimney the following day to get all necessary documents, as we had a deadline to meet (which we expressed when setting up the appointment, at the time of inspection, and with every phone call). A supervisor got involved but never saw it through that documentation was sent and stopped returning my calls. Finally, we did receive a letter in our email (after the deadline) and it was a statement as to why there wouldn’t be documentation. I replied to the email with our frustrations, and still have not heard back. I cannot recommend A1 Chimney to anyone.

• Quality & results▲

Great job cleaning the fireplace! It looks brand new! A suggestion for future cleanings...to please put tarp on the hearth and carpet where you are kneeling and working when cleaning to prevent soot from getting onto the carpet. Carpet was not protected and had a considerable amount of soot on it that had to be carpet cleaned following the appointment.

• Price & value▼
• Staff & attitude▲
• Speed & response▲

• Isaac
• Moses

TIFFANY PRICE. TEMU SERVICE. I have a chimney that had some paint and other stains on the side, which I assumed were soot escaping through the grout, and was concerned about the liner. I called A1 based on terrific reviews on both Google and Yelp (Milwaukee location). I was particularly attracted to the attentiveness of the "owner" to the reviews, good and bad. A sales rep came and looked it over. Said the liner needed to be replaced and the chimney tuckpointed. They'd remove the stains. I signed up. The team came a week later. Spread the work over 2 or 3 days, working into the dark on the last day. Isaac insisted that I pay that evening, which I did since I was heading out of town. Before I got to see the final work in the daylight I asked Isaac for a quote to tuckpoint the house. He and I both saw the chimney work at the same time, and we noticed it was not adequate. His partner Moses said he would come personally to finish it (he didn't). I looked more later, and noticed more areas needed work: * they did not remove excess grout behind the roughly 5' x 5' area behind the scaffolding * they made no effort at removing the paint and stains (I later did this myself with a chemical stripper but w/o the benefit of scaffolding) * they only tuckpointed 1/3 the way up the seam where the chimney meets the house--which looks odd now * they missed many areas near the stains that needed tuckpointing--the entire reason I called in the first place * they destroyed the lock on my gate by not covering it during work Needless to say, I did not have them tuckpoint the remainder of the house. That was all 4 months ago. Today was the 5th appointment that they either canceled or no-showed on me to correct the work. When I call the office, uniformly the service folks are friendly and concerned and seemingly helpful. But.... ultimately ineffective in getting the team to my house to fix the work. A few lessons here. First, for the company, there have been multiple points of failure. At the jobsite the workers should have done quality control (QC) as they worked. The foreman on the job should have done QC overseeing it. And the sales guy should have done QC, particularly once we both saw there was a problem. At the office level, jobs that go sideways need to be brought quickly to the attention of the general manager so that he can ensure follow-up and protect the brand. Finally, if there are multiple calls on the same job (there were 5 or 6 from me, and an additional 2 or 3 texts), the owner should get involved to protect his investment. Next, for potential customers. I made multiple mistakes. The most important mistake was paying them at nighttime before I had a chance to review the work. I was too trusting of the assurance of the sales guy that they stood by their work, and the "owner" commenting on Yelp and Google seeming to want to cure issues. I also wrongly assumed that this was a business that had been around for decades. That does not seem to be the case. They've clearly got up and running quickly and successfully (in the Milwaukee area at least), but it was just a strong start. I think they are failry new (note that there is no history section on the website). My bet is that they are trying to expand in the Chicago area, but did not seed the effort with a strong team from Milwaukee (and in fact might be using a third party team for execution). The Chicago effort needs *a lot* of work. I've had similar experiences with skilled trades companies that build up a reputation over generations and then sell to private equity. The boss is then some 30 yo master of the universe based in NYC or Miami. I have no idea if this is private equity or not. But it turns out that the owner is based in Miami! I did try to talk with the GM and owner by phone, but consistent with my previous experiences neither called me back. I'm going to take care of the tuckpointing myself at this point, as I did the stains. I need to move on. Posted the estimate to head off the "we have no record"....Google doesn't let you respond....