Hired All Jersey to rebuild my chimney from the roof up. The first day they showed up about 10AM with 1 laborer, but no tools or materials. They leave the laborer in front of my house & go to get the tools & materials. It was about 2 hrs before they returned. Around noon, the laborer started demolishing the original chimney. He then began the rebuild, but only got about halfway done before they left for the day. I looked at the progress & immediately had concerns with the quality of the work. It was crooked & I could tell that some of the mortar joints between the bricks didn’t look right. I don’t think he even used a level at all when laying the bricks! I sent a photo to John, who quoted me the job & I assume is one of the owners. He told me not to worry because the laborer isn’t done yet & he’ll be back tomorrow to continue.
The next day, the same laborer finishes the remainder of the chimney. I take a look and it’s completely unacceptable. Still crooked & still has mortar joints that make it clear that he didn’t have any experience laying bricks. John’s reassurances from the night before were worthless. John agreed it was unacceptable & that they would need to redo it. It was well into the afternoon when they began demolition for the 2nd time. I kept wondering when they were going to call it a day, but they never did. Clearly, they were rushing to get done because they didn’t want to come back for a third day. What had originally taken 2 days, they were trying to redo in a few hours. By the time they finished up it was already dark, so I wasn’t able to get a very good look at the chimney. Of course, with the job finished, John was looking to get paid. I held up my end of the bargain and paid cash, in full, despite not having a good opportunity to inspect the work. No receipt was provided by John and I had to follow up the next day to get one. He even had the audacity to request a 5-star review from me!
After having a chance to see the 2nd attempt in the daylight, it was even worse! Same issues as the first time, but now there was also a gaping hole at the top where they blended the mortar between the bricks and the top of the flue. There was also debris from the demolition all over my front yard & back deck. I don’t even think they made an attempt to clean up! The laborer also spilled cement on my walkway, splashed cement all around my hose bibb, left his lunch receipt in my gutter & a bottle cap on my front lawn. I called John to inform him that the 2nd chimney was also unacceptable. I told him that I’d lost all faith in his company & that I’d like a refund. He reluctantly agreed, but said he wanted his bricks back. Very petty considering it’s probably about $100 worth of bricks, which now have pieces of mortar stuck to them.
Unfortunately, John is not a man of his word. Every time I reached out to him inquiring about the refund, he gave some excuse why he couldn’t pay it and asked me to give him more time. He even suggested a payment plan because he didn’t have enough money to pay the full refund! What kind of fly-by-night company is this? If I paid in full, why can’t you issue a refund in full? I really don’t believe he didn’t/doesn’t have the funds. He simply doesn’t want to return my money.
At the time of this writing, it’s been 5 months since I paid John. In that time, I’ve gotten lots of excuses from John, but very little of my refund. He made a small payment on 2 occasions. Both times required too many reminders & follow ups. He would tell me that he was going to pay on a certain day, but that day would come and go with no payment. I’d remind him a day or 2 later and he’d assure me that he’d make the payment that night. Again, no payment and I had to remind him again. Essentially, I had to fight tooth and nail to get the small amount he actually paid. In total, I received less than 25% of my refund, and then I just got more excuses. And, I still have the useless bricks that John requested on the side of my house.
