Afew Points Of Interest

PLEASE DO YOURSELF AND YOUR HOME A FAVOR AND KEEP LOOKING…
Let me tell ya a bit about Roger, he came to check out our stove and clean and inspect our pipes. We were having trouble getting the fire in the stove to stay lit after we installed the new wood stove. My husband called him out to have him clean the spark arrestors and the chimney. Roger came, my husband was gone, he had pushed something in the stove open a bit more and said that was probably the issue. He lit a piece of news paper and said the flow of air looks good now. He went up on the roof and checked things out.
Roger came back down saying I didn’t need the cleaning because the airflow looked good when the newspaper was on fire. I told him I’d have my husband call him if there was any questions or concerns. ONLY TWO days later we decided to give the stove a go. The fire went out again after about a half hour… The EXACT problem we had to begin with. Brian called Roger immediately and asked if he could come out, that it had the exact same problem. Roger told him, it was working fine when he left and he didn’t understand why it wasn’t working now since he had been gone.
He refused to come back out and check it out.
PLEASE GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. It is only good business to come out and check why what you said was working, isn’t. We were willing to pay the 89 $ cleaning fee, but then decided we wanted NOTHING to do with his business any longer.
Listen, if someone takes the time out of their busy lives to come on Unilocal and type a novel like this, you have got to know that something is up! Someone also wrote on Unilocal about his ‘smooth talking nature’ he is right. Don’t get caught up with him.

have no idea why many reviews are classified as untrustworthy. I agree with many of those reviews that give him one start or less.
I called Roger Holmberg to activate two fireplaces there stopped turning on after I shut the gas for the summer. I assumed it was a minor pilot light issue that Roger would easily be able to handle. After spending an hour, opening one fireplace completely with great difficulty (by his own admission — he looks and leans) he was nowhere close to a solution. I took him to the other fireplace with the same result. Then he started telling me how I will have to pay for his diagnostics and then order parts as needed. I declined and that is when he lost it. He screamed non-​stop for 15 minutes and demanded payment. I agreed but I requested that he put the fireplaces back together (5 minute job) and I will start writing a check in parallel. He continued to scream at me before storming out of the house. He called me a drugged out crack addict, a twitch-​mouth idiot, a small twit, and a bunch of other things. I followed him outside the house and continued to request that he put the fireplace together while I write his check. On his part, he kept calling me names and threatening me. On Video! I had my phone video pointed at him and he kept screaming.
He drove off and called the police who came to my house and had a chuckle at the incident. [The policeman dove into the fireplace himself and gave me more information that Roger — we do have great police in our town.] He has also threatened a lien on the house — the police assured me that he would not, but he has nothing to lose! By the way, I was going to send him an email about writing a check for his time when the police came!
Please use Roger knowing that he is quite flammable if you question his knowledge and credentials.
Thank you for reading (unless it is deemed an untrustworthy review).

Recently our renters changed propane companies and the service tech from Gennesee determined that our propane fireplace required service before it could be safely reconnected…
Being a landlord from afar isn’t easy, and when something happens on our property we are always worried that contractors will take advantage of us because we can’t be there in person.
I heard about Roger through a very dear friend and didn’t read reviews first (which is very unusual for me). When I called, he answered right away. He was quick to get an appointment on the schedule, knowing it’s getting colder and that heat is important. He took care of my renters and my fireplace beautifully and didn’t do anything that wasn’t needed. He reconnected the propane and the cost was appropriate for the service provided.
Our experience with Roger was stellar and he’ll be my go-​to fireplace guy from now on, and whenever anyone asks me I’ll refer him without hesitation.
UPDATE, Jan. 29, 2015
We had another problem with carbon monoxide in the house from our on-​demand water heater, and Roger got out there the same day for an extremely reasonable fee. I continue to be very impressed with his skills and service.

Read reviews and felt I needed to judge for myself. Roger was thoroughly honest about my upgrade needs. I compared his prices and found him to be very comparable but also added a few free services also.
He offered a lot of information and this helped me sort through what to do first and then scheduled the remaining services as he advised. I can’t speak to the other posts but my experience was timely, honest and I found Roger to be very accommodatiing.

Roger is a very smooth talker while explaining and constantly trying to upsell you with things. After coming out to quote some chimney work, when I told him I would think about it he just lost his temper and started shouting and swearing. Even more concerning as there were very little children in the house hearing and seeing all this.
Subsequently got the work done for almost half of the cost he was quoting with a much more professional setup. Do your homework and avoid letting this guy rip you off.

Edit: I took this to the BBB, the guy didn’t even send me an itemized bill that was the simplest thing I asked for, the claim got unresolved. Avoid this con artist.
He confused us with all his talking and he ripped us off. $ 1500 for two or three hours of work we didn’t need and that was poorly done.
Reading other five stars reviews it’s clear he usually succeeds taking money from people. I’m wondering if the person that wrote about all the «bad news» coming during the job asked for a second oppinion. I wonder if the other reviewer that is happy with «all the money he made her save» did actually save any money, or even needed the work. Now I see why he had immediate availability in the middle of the busy season, where all others ony had appointments one month or more in the future (tip: repair your fireplace in spring or summer).
Where to start, I feel I am the victim of a con man. So many red flags I should have seen, but he cought me off guard in a bad moment. This guy Roger Holmberg kept repeating all the time how honest he was (red flag!) and what an amaizing deal I made and all the money I’ll save. He talked over and over about the amaizing work he was going to do for only $ 1500, I felt I was going to have a brand new fireplace and I accepted the deal and paid half up front.
He didn’t answer or return my calls when I tried to modify the deal. Then he showed up to do the job. The little work he actually did, we didn’t need it. He installed a damper because «ours was broken» and one at the top was much better. Turns out, ours worked fine (I discovered later it just had a screw protecting it from accidental close I could remove). Same thing with the cap and animal cage, we already had working ones.
Mi wife did confront him to make him explain exaclty what he was doing, and he treated her really bad, saying he didn’t have time to explain it all over to her. Then he apologized many times, but I’m so stupid, I should have kicked this man off of my house at that very moment. A few minutes later he tried to show my wife that «fantastic» damper system, to show her he used the very best materials, saying how it was made of copper… Man I had that thing in front of my face and it wasn’t the copper model, I’m not that stupid, I can tell one metal from another…
Some other things: he asked to be paid in full *before* finishing the job, since he had to return to do the new crown on a sunny day. Man, he even tried to take more money from me, asked for $ 70 to spray the creosote on the inside with some product to break it up. More money! for $ 1500 I don’t get a clean fireplace?! I could continue over and over, he used some dark gray material that looks terrible for the few cracks he did repair, he left the handle he istalled loose and I had to screw it myself…
I called him to let him know I don’t want him to come anywhere near my house ever agin. I had to pay for everything except what he hadn’t done yet: $ 200 for the heat reflector he had yet to deliver and the new crown. But wait! when he talked about the job I’m pretty sure the crown was $ 300 and the heat reflector $ 200, but at the moment of not paying for them yet, it’s $ 200 for both. Also, when we wanted to leave the reflector out of the deal he said he could only deduct $ 100, «his cost», so he charges $ 200 for something that costs him $ 100 and requires no installation??? He offered to trade it for a gallon of some cleaning product instead, he clearly wants to grab as much money as possible and not let it go. I could go on, but I think you get the idea… I reported him to the BBB (see the edit on top, he didn’t care to even send an itemized bill to help resolve the BBB claim)

great customer service, honest results.

I recommend A.P.O.I., scheduling is easy, service is timely, prices are reasonable and Roger is great. Roger serviced our gas fireplace and he was on time, professional, courteous and worked quickly. He shared important information to help us understand the work he was doing as well as things we needed to know to maintain our fireplace going forward. We will definitely use A.P.O.I. again. Thank you!

Trust.
5 letters, but what a big word.
It’s key in a few business relationships, and almost all personal ones.
In the case of a house built over 100 years ago, with a roof as pitched at likely 60+degrees and a chimney that like most celebrities, I’ve seen in pictures but not in real life, trust is essential.
Add to the lack of viewing the actual chimney it’s use in our home, to hold smoke and get it OUT of of the house while leaving a nice fire burning in our giant old fireplace, it’s an essential thing we need to work pretty perfectly.
So, I contacted Roger at AFPOI and he came out to check out our chimney. We knew it’d been about 5 years since it’d been cleaned, and while we don’t use it often, we had lost the raincap in a storm a year back and had been putting up with rain leaking down for longer than we wanted to.
He replaced the (two I found out) raincap (s) and cleaned the chimney. The bad news? Our old chimney was losing some of it’s structure, and needed additional work including replacing the flue.
There was more bad news than the flue, but as I just nod and pretend to understand, the more savvy husband talked details with Roger.
Well, it’s bad news to find out you need more work done, it’s good news Roger’s a very trustworthy guy to do that work.