Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  03/03/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Sadly, we have been customers of Gem Woodstove. We have never sued or wrote a bad review of any business until now. We bought a Vermont Castings wood stove from Gem who installed the stove along with a new stovepipe. We were skeptical of the stovepipe angles they formed, but they assured us it was safe. The angles they formed equaled 135 degrees, prior to entering the wall. Conventional wisdom is that these angles should equal no more than 90 degrees, which we discovered later. This is a fact Gem should have known. They’re lack of knowledge could have burned our house down as well as killed our children and pets. Approximately two months after Gem’s installation we had a chimney fire. Due to the fire damage of the clay flue we had a steel flue liner installed by a certified installer, not Gem. We then had another fire after six weeks of use. At that point, our chimney sweep company cleaned the chimney again. Our chimney had been and is always cleaned regularly. Then five weeks later we had another fire. We called Gem to let them know of the issue and asked them to inspect the stove and pipe and reconfigure the angles. They obliged, but we waited for many weeks. After their service, the location of the angles were changed but, the total number of angles still equaled 135 degrees. Tom, Gem’s installer assured us it would be safe, and that he installed stoves this way “all of the time” but maybe the warm winter was effecting the creosote buildup. A few points worth highlighting: we had a ***** stove for 21 years and never had a fire (stovepipe angles equaled less than how Gem installed the ******* ********* less than 90 degrees total). The stovepipe angle was brought up by us from the beginning and we were always told there was nothing to worry about. Our installer of the previous woodstove (*****) took great care in angling the pipe just right for our configuration. Our firewood is dry, seasoned, even checked with a moisture meter. We know how to start and maintain a fire. When we finally asked for the stove to be removed and our money refunded, we were told by Tom we had many chimney fires prior to their installation, so he did nothing wrong. This is an absolute lie. Our major concern has always been that we’ve never had an issue prior to Gem’s work. Tom also feels that the company that installed the liner “tampered” with the stove and so he is not responsible. Please stay away from this company.

  Business response

  03/28/2023

  Response taken by phone:  We installed the woodstove 9/18/21.  They had a chimney fire and called another contractor  to address the issue.  We went out towards the end of December and again February 20.  We inspected the stove and adjusted the elbows.  They had stainless steal sleeve installed by another company.   We could not figure out why they are having so many chimney fires  unless it is what they are burning.  Since he has other people work on the stove, a refund is not warranted after a year and a half.

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