Mad Hatter Air Duct Cleaning & Chimney Sweep Service

I had water problems with my chimney in 2009. The mortar was deteriorating around the bricks in the fire box. The Mad Hatter completely rebuilt the firebox for increased efficiency, replace the damper, and repaired a crack on the top of the chimney, >$1900.
In past 8 years, have only used the chimney 10? times. None in the last 3.5 yrs. I did not the need to have it cleaned. One night I awoke to sound of 6 bricks falling into my fireplace. Severe water damage.
Mad Hatter told me that it was a bad gutter system and my damper was open 2-3 inches. Didn't mention that sealant on crack repair doesn't last the 15 yrs as the sealant company claims. When they rebuilt the firebox there were no iron inserts used for support. They used only mortar to rebuild. Never said that there was any need to have sealant looked at each year. On my side, I did not have the damper all the way shut. Owner of Mad Hatter said that it was not their responsibility. My fault. He told me that he had to make some calls. Lawyer??, Insurance agent??
He had his office manager call me to tell me that they only guaranteed their work for 1 year. He could have told me that himself.
New company said that it was shoddy work. When they assessed the chimney, they never said anything about bad gutters. I am not pursuing this any further with Mad Hatter. I wouldn't trust them to repair my chimney again. However, I would like to warn new customers to be careful in having them do any major work by them. I can understand why they are not recommended by the Revdex.com.

I called The Mad Hatter to get my chimney cleaned. I have not used them previously. They quoted me a price of 169.00 over the phone. I always have my stove insert setup which includes pulling out the catalyst ahead of time so all they have to do is go on the roof and run their brush down the chimney. The guy came out and tries to run his brush up thru the insert up the chimney to clean that way instead of going on the roof like all other chimney sweeps have done in the past. He seemed like he thought he knew everything when I questioned him. I just don't think he wanted to climb onto the roof which was dry and a mild day. I could have told him what he found out that there was a brace going across in the liner base that restricted him from running the brush up into the flue from that direction. So he left that brush their in the house and went on the roof. I watched to see how much soot or creosote was going to come down. Funny thing he closed the flue before he went up. That made no sense to me because you want the creosote to come down into my stove so you can vacuum it out. I go outside and he is already putting the chimney cap back on. I don't think he was up there for more than 5 minutes. I went back into the house and raised the flue cover and there was no soot or creosote in it. I then walked back outside and and he was coming down from the chimney with rods but I did not see a brush that he would have need to brush it. I said you done already and he said yes. I said that was fast. I should have questioned him more. I'm convinced with no soot and and no brush that he came down with that he did not sweep it. I know my chimney is pretty clean when I get it done regularly but there is always a small pile that comes out of the chimney into my stove box when others have cleaned it previously. Then he packed everything up and wrote me a bill for 179.00. I told him that they quoted me 169.00 over the phone and he said that's our price and made it sound like he didn't believe me and that was the price. It was right before Christmas so I waited until after Christmas to send a complaint letter to Mad Hatter. It's now the end of January and I never have received a phone call or a letter back. That is really customer service. I have never paid more than 149.00 but have got a lot better service from all previous one's I have used. I feel I paid all that money and never really got a good cleaning done on it. I urge anyone out there to not take a chance on this company. I did and I'm really sorry that I got ripped off. Plus they don't seem to care either.