SOOTBUSTERS CHIMNEY SERVICES LLc

See above

I scheuled a cleaning and inspection of my chimney. I knew my refractory bricks needed to be replaced. He set up a date and time showed up when promised. preformed the cleaning for the price quoted. Said I would probaly get a discount for being an Angie's List member but got none in the end. :(
After he performed the cleaning and inspection. he said some chimney pipes had separated and wanted $50 extra to put them back together. He got on the roof and beat on my chimney until he distorted the firebox. Then informed my wife that the chimney and entire firebox needed to be replaced. none of it was useable.
I went on the roof and looked at the chimney pieces they were all screwed together which is why he couldn't move any pieces closer together. so they have been in the same position for 26 years. I still can't figure out where he came up with separated chimney pieces.
Then I had to get a lb sledge hammer and undo what he did to my fire box.
All that and I paid him $200 to screw it up and tell me that all the work he did was for naught because the piece he cleaned was no good.

unknown

found company on this list, with 2 "A" reports. Decided to use them in part because this is a local company.  Wayne responded to my initial phone call, we set an appointment for him to inspect the chimney and fireplace.  I told him we were getting birds in the chimney and we had water in the fireplace.
He explained what he would do upon inspection; explained the two levels of inspection and costs associated with each.  we set the date for the inspection.
He arrived on Wednesday for the inspection, we learned we did not need to have the chimney cleaned - it was fine.  Wayne did indicate he believed our primary source of water in the fireplace was from rain blowing under the crown/cap (forgive me, I don't know if these are two different things).  He explained how he could prevent birds from getting into the chimney. He explained it would render the fireplace unuseable to seal off the flues (we had multiple flues for reasons I don't know).,  He said we couild also be getting water from blowing rains causing water to seep through the exterior of the chimney and explained what product/service could be employed to fix that. 
we decided to do only the fix for the birds and water coming down the chimney as opposed to the coating of the bricks for water that might be seeping through in a rain.
so far as I know his inspection was thorough; it certainly appeared to be.
he said that Jose would be back the following Friday or Saturday to do the repairs.  Jose did not show up and we did not receive a phone call to let us know he would not be coming.  I called Wayne on  Monday (today) morning and told him that Jose did not come on Friday or Saturday; Wayne offered only that  he "did not want him (jose) to work on Saturday for personal reasons."   that was the extent of his explanation.  However, he said he (Wayne) would be at my house today.
He arrived in the afternoon; apologized for the no-show of last week; and he and another worker whom I did not meet completed the tasks according to the work order we had signed the previous Wednesday.   We will wait now to see if we continue to get water in our fireplace during heavy rainstorms.  If we do, Wayne said that most probably it is seeping through the chimney bricks.
I have no way to judge/evaluate the quality of work performed since it is all on the roof, out of sight.  I guess if birds are not able to get into the chimney now and if rain does not continue to come down the chimney will tell the tale of the quality of the work performend.  Assuming all is well with our chimney now, I would have no problem getting in touch with Wayne of Sootbusters again.   

Soot Busters Chimney Sweep is very reliable, prompt and punctual. They're a little expensive but he is licensed and a former fire fighter. He inspire confidence since he's licensed. He had a brochure he gave me that explained how chimneys operate and what you need to do to maintain them or what not. He's professional and thorough.

Everything went well. Showing up on time was important and they were there, at the time agreed. They worked very efficiently, and took time to explain everything. - Good experience

They did an excellent job of cleaning out our main chimney, but they couldn t clean the furnace chimney because some tiles from our house seemed to be stuck in the exhaust piping. We had to get another company to do this. This company provides a great chimney cleaning service though. They are neat and very reliable.