GRATE BALLS AFIRE

Very well.

Very well indeed

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They are great. There are very few that actually offer just a cleaning of the gas fireplace lines. So, what they do is kind of unique. I don't really have anything to compare them to, so I was fine with everything I did experience. There was a wait time because they are in demand, so I had to wait till they actually got to come in.

Vicky really knows how to please the customer. She: ~promptly returned my phone call ~scheduled an appointment for the services much earlier than my former service company could provide ~showed up on time ~kept precautions to keep the area where she worked clean ~found solutions for unexpected problems ~left the units working and looking great!

Vicki Ball arrived when she said she was going to and got right to work. She had extensive knowledge and was able and eager to answer all of my questions. This was, without a doubt, one of the best service experiences that I've ever had. In fact, another company I had phoned, tried to sell me new gas log units which are expensive. Grate Balls Afire saved me hundreds of dollars in addition to great service. I will definitely use them again in the future and wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone that needs fireplace work.

I contacted Grate Balls Afire (what an excellent name!) via Angie's List. Within 30 minutes I heard back from Vicky, saying she'd received my message. She asked questions about my problem and said she would call me back to schedule an appointment. The following day I got a call, saying she could be out in two days and gave me a two-hour window for her arrival. She called when she was on her way, and showed up right when she said she would. She walked into my home with all of her equipment, clean and well-organized. She removed her shoes as soon as she walked in the door, without asking. She sat down in front of the first fireplace and placed a tarp on the floor to protect it. I told her that I'd watch what she was doing, so I could learn about the workings of the unit and why we couldn't get it to work. She was completely fine with that, and thoroughly explained everything as she did it. Once the first unit was cleaned and working, we headed upstairs and ran the same process with the second unit. I was so pleased with Vicky and her work, and I would highly recommend Grate Balls Afire to anyone.

Glad I checked them out. Found just what I was looking for at a much better price than quoted elsewhere. Got installation 5 days before Christmas! Friendly and professional all the way

Called on thursday and I made an appointment for saturday. There was a problem with the pilot assembly which she thought was the valve. Instead of just assuming and replacing it, she took it back for further diagnostics. She called back Monday to tell me she had to rewire the assembly, which was actually cheaper than the valve. I made an appointment for wednesday at which she was here very promptly. Great professionalism and left absolutely no sign that she was here (other than my fireplace worked). I will continue to use their services in the future. Great experience.

Since purchase of units in 2009 they have been fantastic with help, advice on phone or in person. This service call was fast professional and fairly priced for distance they had to travel.

Our experience was wonderful! My husband and I needed our old gas log system replaced. We went to Great Balls Afire on Sunday, I ordered new logs on Tuesday and they were installed on Wednesday. Doug is very knowledgeable, professional and courteous! The new logs are beautiful and I love having the remote. So much better than our old system.

BWARE of Grate Balls Afire. Their installation Expert with 20 yrs. experience arrived to install a fireplace insert in our home on 11/5/12. Installer removed our fireplace screen. All was well, until after a conversation with the installer describing the work we wanted done. Grate B Afire installer LEFT our home, without any explanation on why he is leaving. The GBA installer returned to our home approx. 45 mins. to 1 hour later. Installer then fit our fireplace screen incorrectly back to the brick masonry. My husband asked him if anything was wrong, installer replied, No. Then the installer proceeded to walk towards our front door to have this conversation: That he was insulted, that his 20 yrs. of work experience was not good enough and he does not want to do the job for me. All this, because my husband talked to him about our recent experience with gas line leak, and upon asking this installer simple questions, express our simple concerns about how the installation was to be done. He stated he did not want to to the job he was hired to do......and LEFT!!! Clearly, if Grate B Afire doesn't want or need to do new any business, that is their prerogative. However, the GBA Installer's demeanor and actions were highly unprofessional. He arrived to do a job, then left... while keeping me and my husband waiting.... without one shred of courtesy nor explanation of his behavior. So my husband asked him why he left. The GBA installer explained he went back to the GBA company store to talk to his wife, to check if it was ok with his wife to refuse to do the job in our home. What???? If anyone decides to do future business with Grate B Afire, BEWARE!!! Do not ask their installer any questions- above all, do not express any of your concerns about your home. The Grate B Afire Installer may take any of your concerns as a personal afront. He may get offended, may get mad, and may leave your home without doing any of the work. Grate Balls Afire should not treat new customers so abruptly. I would not recommend GBA to anyone in the future to do business with their company. The only thing and quot;afireand quot; at GBA is their installer and his bad temper! In retrospect, I am so glad we did not pay our bill in advance. Grate Balls Afire did not install my fireplace insert, due to their unprofessional, rude behavior. I found another fireplace vendor that shows friendly, professional courtesy to the customer, is respectful of their customers needs and welcomes my business.

The husband/wife owners were there and were very friendly to my young children-- who were not too excited about this adventure. We felt rushed, explanations of the products were vague, prices were estimated as opposed to that one costs $XX. Even with this, we asked if they could do an inspection of our fireplace/chimney so that we could get the real pricing. They were too hurried to even look at a schedule for us. We were asked to call or come back next week. We chose to go elsewhere.

We bought a fireplace insert from Grate B**** Afire a number of years ago. They were extremely helpful and knowledgeable at the time of purchase and the installation was in a timely manner. For a few years they were prompt in showing up to perform scheduled annual check-ups. In recent years the service has greatly declined. Over the past couple of years I've tried to schedule check-ups and have had extreme difficulty getting anyone to call me back or, once scheduled, have resulted in a no-show. In the past two weeks I've made calls and talked to Vicky who, for some reason, could never schedule an appointment at the time but would have to call me back later. She forgot to call back at least once but finally on Monday 10/5/09 spoke to my husband. However, as she had told me in previous conversations, she reiterated to him that she couldn't guarantee a specific day for a service call because there were only 2 people (including her) that worked at the store. That didn't make any sense to me the second time either! Could it be that they can only run out to someone's house when there are no customers in the store? Do they not have a dedicated service person or at least dedicated days or hours of in-home service? My husband said that I would have to call her back to work something out (We both work and there are only certain days and times that we can be at home). Before I had a chance to call her I received a call at work from Jim on Tuesday 10/6/09 and he promptly scheduled an appointment for Friday 10/9/09 between 10 and 11:00. I didn't question why this couldn't have been set up as easily when I first called and talked to Vicky but was just glad that finally it was all arranged. Well, here it is on Friday. At 10:30 I called just to confirm someone would be here before 11. I spoke with Jim who said he had me down for before noon and that he would "try" to have someone out there by then. I reminded him that he had given be a specific range of time when the appt. was scheduled but he just seemed annoyed and said he was doing the best he could do since he was the only one at the store. I did persist in asking him why he would tell me one thing and then not be able to honor it or at least call to say it would be a later time. His replies and tone of voice made it sound as if I was the one who was out of line for expecting a service person to show up between the agreed time frame! He never apologized once for the inconvenience and said it sounded as if I didn't really want to use them anyway. Huh???? Wasn't I the one who initiated the phone calls to arrange all this? I did get very frustrated and hung up on him. Despite Grate B**** Afire not being very dependable in the past couple of years, I did call them again this year because I bought the fireplace insert from then and, as I stated at first, they had initially been great to deal with. However, their current lack of professionalism and customer service and (particularly the last "conversation" with Jim) will certainly mean I will never use them again and will never recommend them again. Too bad that something as simple as an annual tune-up should result in inconvenience for me and loss of business for Grate B**** Afire.

The sales staff was extremely knowledgeable and is the main reason we used them. They definitely know their product and the installation. Very informative and helpful in making a decision. I also liked the fact that the owner was available for consult during my installation since it was a bit unusual. (I lived in log cabin with large stone fireplaces at the time). Installation went off without a hitch and the fireplaces work great.

I THOUGHT THEY DID A FINE JOB FOR THE PRICE. THE FIREPLACE IS CLEAN AND EFFICIENT. IT REALLY CHANGES THE WHOLE ATMOSPHERE OF THE ROOM. WE WOULD DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN IF WE MOVE. THEY ARE A REALLY NEAT PLACE TO GO AND LOOK IN.