Fireside Living Bedford — Fireplace Store in Bedford, New Hampshire

• Lucas★★☆☆☆
  a month ago

  TLDR: Bad communication, preventable installation issues, damage to our home, no follow up, and no care from the owner. We expected professional guidance for easily avoidable common problems but ended up dealing with everything we hired Fireside to avoid. We do not recommend Fireside. We purchased a gas fireplace with installation from Fireside, and our experience was disappointing from the moment we paid the deposit. Communication stopped almost immediately. Our email about scheduling went unanswered. When we called, it felt like they were annoyed that we wanted an update. We were told to wait for the installer to contact us, but after another week with no update, I had to go to the store just to get answers. The installer finally called later that day. No customer should have to chase a business like this. Installation day revealed several issues that an experienced installer should have anticipated. Our doghouse had no insulation. This should have been identified and addressed before installing the new unit. Experienced installers should know this is a common possibility and should have planned for it and guided us toward the right solution. Instead, the installer offered to add some insulation for an extra cost, but we later learned it did not solve the issue. Now we are trying to fix it, and it is more complicated and costly with the unit already in place. Removing sections of the chimney created an opening that allowed water to leak onto the new fireplace. Cold air was also coming through. They should have caught this immediately, warned us, and made sure the unit was not put at risk. It is reasonable to expect that their work would not leave the unit vulnerable or create new problems. We were also told to arrange plumbing after the fireplace was installed, but once the unit was in place, access became extremely limited. This was predictable and should have been planned for. The installers were polite, but they damaged our brand new carpet even after we specifically asked them to be careful. When I told the owner, instead of apologizing and offering to cover cleaning, he said he would talk to the installer about getting new drop cloths. He missed the point and took no responsibility. The lack of follow up was just as frustrating. No one reached out after the installation to confirm the work was done correctly or to check for concerns. We contacted the owner directly with a detailed summary. He called once when I could not answer, and for several days I tried calling back with no success. I provided two specific windows when I was available, but no one called during either. Later, he emailed saying he had been on the road. A simple message saying he was unavailable that week and would call on a specific date would have prevented this. Instead, I spent days calling a number he knew he would not be available to answer. When we finally spoke, he blamed the house, the project, and everything except his company. He even said water leaking on the unit was okay. He told us you never know what you will run into with older homes, which is exactly why we hired what we thought were professionals. He implied we should be grateful because not many companies do this work anymore. He took no responsibility and did not apologize. He did offer to remove the unit so insulation could be added, but based on the lack of care we had already experienced, we decided we did not want Fireside involved any further. When calling to pay our final balance, we raised the carpet damage again. At that point, they agreed to remove the carpet cleaning cost from the bill. Fireside installs fireplaces every day. We do not. Fireside knew these were common issues, did nothing to assess or address them, and showed no concern that we are now dealing with them. We relied on their expertise and expected a professional process. Instead, we were left with missteps, added expenses, avoidable damage, and issues we are still trying to fix. Based on our experience, we do not recommend Fireside.

• Aron Duquette★★★★★
  2 years ago

  If I could give more stars, I would!!! I stopped in on a monday not knowing they were closed. A man (I believe to be an owner) noticed me outside walking away and invited me in anyway! Spent probably 45 minutes with me going over 2 different stoves and was extremely informative. I ultimately ended up ordering a stove from this company a few weeks later and the folks there when I went in to pick up were just as friendly and helpful. Great atmosphere and a no-pressure buying experience. You have questions? They are guarenteed to have the answers. On the off chance they don't, they will work to get you the answer as fast as possible. My Pacific Energy Summit wood stove came in very quick (suprising for ordering in the fall). Pick up was a breeze and they loaded the stove into my truck with the forklift. The loading guy even made sure it was exactly where I wanted it before driving the fork lift back to the garage. After getting it set up in my house, i had a few questions about how it was burning. I sent some videos to their facebook page where I got a reply fairly quickly reassuring me the burn was correct, and saved me a trip to the store. 10 out of 10 all around experience and I can't recommend them enough!

• Stan Popielarz★★★★★
  a year ago

  I had a great buying experience at Fireside Living in Bedford. Walked in on a Saturday and met two employee installers(Chris and Drew) who sold me on a fireplace insert instead of gas logs. Two weeks later the installation was complete just before the April storm. The challenge in the installation was access to the fireplace flue because of the topography around the chimney. It required three ladders to be used around the chimney and the roof. Great install and an excellent product!

• H Iqbal★☆☆☆☆
  12 months ago

  Fireside installed a wood stove for me and it was an overall terrible experience. They took almost three months to install, didn’t show up on their scheduled install dates on multiple times, took wrong measurements which led to more cost for me, and didn’t properly insulate the stove after the install. I wouldn’t trust this business for anything in the future.

• Rich Parez★★★★★
  2 years ago

  I am one of those people who very rarely leave reviews but I had to document my experience. I love Fireside living and had a great experience. Greg was one of the nicest guys I have interacted with and he was so personable. Him and Drew went above and beyond and explained everything and they were thorough. Hopefully I won’t need to buy another stove but if I do this will be the first place I go. If anyone is looking for a fireplace company please put this on your list!

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