Early Times Home Solutions

Not sure how they landed on Angies List… charge 25.00 travel… to estimate… pay 200.00 for a video of inside of the chimney and there is no video to refer back to… although if I pay another 229.00 they will make a dvd for me… The inspector was very rude and basically said I don’t do repairs so I don’t really care about anything I find… Asked questions he didn’t want to answer… Estimate was very high compared to others… I would not use them

I had Early Times several times to clean not only my Chimney but dryer vent as well. I just learned my dryer vent was not cleaned the last few times they were paid to do this because it is actually clogged with lint. I now have to call another company to repair what they failed to do. I would NEVER recommend this company!

If you read my previous review you will understand that I did not use them in 2013. Today and for the past month a man keeps calling me trying to come out here from this company. They want to review their estimate and see what new damage has happened to my chimney. Obviously I didn’t use them last year and we live in a capitalistic market. Their service was poor and their quotes were outrageously high. I told my husband that if we need a new fireplace I am willing to close ours off for a few years to save the money instead of paying for patchwork. We have other priorities and a fireplace is just a nice extra to have. Stop harassing people. I am 8 ½ months pregnant and have no desire to be bothered. It is obvious that I didn’t contact you for a reason. I am sure that they are harassing other people who have children or sick family members. Maybe some have even foreclosed on their homes with this crappy economy. Just go away!!!

I had been a long time customer and while I overlooked the fact that the damper on my fireplace suddenly did not work after a cleaning several years ago, I cannot overlook the lack of integrity of John from their office which quoted a price for a cleaning and chase top replacement. After better than 20 years and looking at the picture of the old chase top I was in agreement that a new one should be installed before holes developed in the old chase top. The service tech, Matt who came out to the house was genuine and went above and beyond to provide great customer service. When I realized later that evening that I was overcharged by $ 20, I assumed Matt did not have the right info and a quick call to the office would resolve it. After what developed into a heated conversation with John who raised his voice and more than once told me that if I demanded the price be honored that he would take it out of Matt’s paycheck. Seriously, take the money out of the pocket of the guy that did the work and in no way was responsible for the issue! I trusted these guys with the verbal quote which in hindsight was a mistake. Frankly I would not have been all that upset over the $ 20 had it not been for John’s belligerent attitude during the conversation. The manner in which he treated me is unacceptable! Good job John, a customer lost forever because you were unwilling to honor a reasonable verbal quote and felt the need to be verbally abusive. I have no interest in doing business with a company I cannot trust and takes out on their employees the mistake of the office /​management staff.

So I had birds falling down the chimney and causing my furnace to shut down. My furnace guy suggested I replace the chimney cap. I know what to do and how to do it, but I lack the correct size ladder and would have to rent one and a truck to hall it home on, which would cost me about $ 70 alone. So I figure I’ll see what it cost to have a pro do it instead. I called a place near my home with really good Unilocal reviews an recommended by neighbors, who quoted me a price of approx $ 140 which included a new stainless steel chimney cap! Unfortunately this is busy season and they couldn’t make it out for 3 – 4 weeks! I didn’t want to risk waiting that long and having to deal with another evening without heat and another furnace repair! So I called Early times who came out later the same day! They jumped on the roof for a few minutes and told me some good news ! My cap didn’t need to be replaced, all I needed was some screen to go around it which he had on the truck! I’m thinking great this will cost way less the $ 140 quoted for a cap replacement by the other place! Life is good! WRONG! $ 125 to tack up $ 2.00 worth of screen around the outside of it! I grudgingly agreed due to time constraints! It took 15 min and although functional it looks like crap! I feel totally taken advantage of and have no intention of doing business with them ever again! AVOID THESE GUYS IF POSSIBLE! This spring when I’m not under time constraints I will rent/​buy the correct ladder and replace the cap myself!

Worst home service experience of my life. What «Chimney expert» would cap an active fireplace flue using a wooden cap? These guys did just that.
Called them for tuckpointing. On our 3 flue chimney, they recommended a sheet metal cap for an unused flue and rain /​screen caps for the others, and indicated that our chimney location and steep roof required special scaffolding. We agreed to the work.
When they performed the work, the tuckpointing was incomplete, used mismatched mortar, and the chimney and roof weren’t cleaned — incredibly sloppy job.
They also put their ladders right up against our copper gutters, put up no special scaffolding, and left the gutters dented — when questioned about it while there, and calling the office, they denied ever committing to put up special scaffold. Finally, the fireplace wouldn’t vent properly.
After many phone calls and actually sending in pictures of the mess, they agreed to come back and clean up the exterior of the chimney. They gave a small credit for the gutter damage. The fireplace still wouldn’t vent, so after multiple go rounds and calls to the office and discussions with the manager over a 4 month period, they agreed to come back and remove the caps. As it turns out they had installed a WOODEN, not sheet metal, cap on the wrong chimney flue, which was causing our fireplace to back up into the house. They did provide credit for the caps, but nothing for the aggravation and time spent getting the problem fixed.

A bunch of hacks. They are the most expensive and they try and rope you into extra things you dont need. They ask if you have a coupon and then they adjust the price. A total ripoff.

Don’t trust them to work on your home. I had them come out and clean my fireplace chimney. After they were done the said I need a new chimney cap and also needed to replace the concrete at the top of the chimney because it was cracked and water would start to leak into the chimney. So I scheduled them to come back and they did the repairs, within 1 week the concrete was cracked again. After multiple phone calls to get them to return the remove the concrete and replace it again. Once again in about 1 week is was cracked again. So the phone calls start, finally they came out again and I went up on the roof with the repair guy this time and he told me most homeowners will not come on the roof with them and he wasn’t comfortable with me being up there with him.
Guess what it is my roof and my money I’m staying, he also told me that it is normal for the concrete to crack. So why did you tell me it needed to be replaced???
He removed the concrete and replaced it again… guess what it also cracked !!!
Once again after multiple phone calls they told my they had to order the correct fireplace concrete. WHAT !!! Once the repairs were done again with the right materials it was fine. I guess they don’t like like customers on the roof because they can see the repairs are not done correctly. Oh and also there was nothing wrong with my chimney cap !
Do not trust them !!!

I called Early Times Chimney Sweeps but I think they have changed the name to Early Times Home Solutions or something like that (because of a bad reputation perhaps?)
I wish I had read about them before I hired them to clean my chimney as it seems this is a common complaint about this company.
The ad in the yellow pages made them look really great but after $ 250 (including the assumed $ 40 coupon) they told me my fireplace should not be used and wrote an extensive quote for thousands of dollars of work for a variety of issues. The guy was «guessing» about these problems because he couldn’t see in my chimney without a video inspection which costs more. He was really there to tell me all the services they sell. I didn’t trust him and I feel like I just paid for someone to waste my time on a irrelevant sales pitch. RIP OFF!

This was a ridiculous experience. We were quoted a flat fee of $ 139 to clean out our dryer vent. The woman on customer service specifically said there would be no additional charges unless we wanted more work done. Of course when the serviceman came out, he said there was a bird’s nest in our vent and as a result it would take a lot longer and he would have to charge an additional $ 50 — $ 75. I called back customer service to complain and they backtracked on their words and said that if there was a large object like a bird’s nest it would take longer and they would have to charge more. The whole cleaning ended up taking only 15 minutes TOTAL and they still charged us $ 189. A complete rip-​off. Beware! We need more work done that they could have done but now we will be taking our business elsewhere.
RESPONSE TO BELOW: When we were told that there was going to be an additional charge, I was convinced that we were told on the phone previously it would be a flat fee with no additional charges, so to prove that fact, I called up Early Times pretending to be a new customer. I said that I had pulled a bird’s nest out of my dryer vent, however I wanted a cleaning to make sure I got it all and to clean out anything else that would be in there. I asked how much that would be and the customer service rep said $ 139. I asked if there would be anyway it could cost more and she said only if I wanted more work done. There was never any mention that it would cost more if they found a bird’s nest in there. I then told her that I actually have someone at my house right now cleaning the vents and they are trying to charge us $ 50 — $ 75 additional. She completely backtracked and said that was because I hadn’t gotten enough of the nest out. This Company quotes you a price and then waits until they are out to add additional charges they don’t mention. We went ahead and paid because we have a baby coming in less than 2 weeks and didn’t have the time to wait for someone else to come out. We needed to be able to use our washer and dryer. We plan on having the cover put on our vent, however we decided to go with a company that doesn’t deceive their customers. And yes they were there for an hour but that was because we were so shocked that they were trying to charge us more and were trying to get that straightened out. The whole cleaning process took 15 minutes. I guess that is considered longer than it would normally take so we had to pay $ 50 more.