Red Rover Chimney Sweep

Buddy just might be the best scam artist we have met. Scary. He said our newly purchased have had a sustainable Ed chimney fire and needed a new liner and work that would cost $6500!!! We went to our realtor who suggested we get a second opinion. The liner was fine. Work cost less than $250. Run the other way!

Ihave had buddy out and to clean my chimney and fireplace for the past few years. He has given me a discount for being a respeat customer and it has only cost $250 last few times for my one story. They always let me know what I do and don't need before they start doing the cleanin. The last few years they have shown me the before and after pictures of the inside of the chimney. His guy cleaned my glass doors and left my fireplace empty and he also let me know if I have any issues on the roof that might need looking at. They have done good work and I haven't had any problems burning wood.

Almost exactly the same as another reviewer here. 100% DO NOT USE RED ROVER CHIMNEY SWEEPS in Fergus Falls, MN or the surrounding lakes area. You definitely have better options.

The issue: We just needed somebody to do the seasonal cleaning of our chimney before the start of the season. We probably only burn about a 1/4 of a chord of wood every year - mainly on holidays, and on really cold days to take the nip out of the air. The previous season we used Dust Busters out of Alexandria, MN and they were awesome. Dust Busters snapped photos of their work and of our chimney liner, and showed us how clean everything was before they left. Basically they reviewed their work with us prior to leaving. The job cost us $175.

This season we decided we would try somebody local (in an effort to support the local economy), so we called up Red Rover Chimney Sweeps in Fergus Falls.

Red Rover Chimney Sweeps came (Buddy Kasper and one of his employees) and cleaned the chimney. They really dug around, moved the fireplace to clean behind it, etc. It was surprising how much they seemed to "inspect" everything. Considering all of the effort they put forth inspecting everything, we both wondered why they failed to clean all of the glass in the fireplace. The front glass was only partially clean and the two side glass panels weren't even touched. The only reason the glass was dirty is we knew we were going to have somebody come clean the chimney so why bother cleaning the glass ourselves. I've done it many times and it's actually very easy. So - for $400.00 Red Rover Chimney Sweeps came in, swept the chimney liner, moved a bunch of stuff around, and failed to clean the fireplace glass. Buddy Kasper took his $400.00 check, told us that we would have no issues getting a fire going right away, and then wished us a great season of warm fires, etc. etc.
Fast forward about a week or two later...we receive an email with a proposal from Buddy stating that the chimney liner was cracked. WTF. So why wasn't this brought up during the initial visit to clean the chimney? It get's better. Buddy Kasper quoted us $7000 to replace liner (an eerily similar $ amount to the other persons review).

We wanted another opinion, so we called out another company to take a look - Chimney Liner DID NOT need to be relined. OMG! We will never EVER EVER even talk to Buddy Kasper at Red Rover Chimney Sweeps again. EVER.

After hearing all of the similarities between stories of the other reviewers, and ours, we are pretty sure this is some sort of Chimney Sweep Scam! If you need a chimney cleaning or inspection - DO NOT trust Red Rover Chimney Sweeps - they can't even properly clean fireplace glass - and in the end, you'll pay way too much to begin with, and then days, or even weeks later, you'll end up with a surprise follow up proposal for work that likely doesn't even need to be done!

Thanks for reading, now please excuse me while I go up on my roof and inspect my chimney cap to ensure that Red Rover Chimney Sweeps put it back on properly before they over charged for their work and then tried to rape me with an indecent proposal.

Seriously, look elsewhere - you'll be glad you did.

The issue: chimney needed cleaning and handle to flue could not be moved.
Red Rover Chimney Sweeps came, cleaned the chimney, said he was unable to loosen flue handle, and said the chimney liner was cracked and posed a fire danger. Quoted us $6000 to replace liner and flue. And then charged us $400 plus tax for cleaning the chimney. Way more than we had paid in the past, but because we’d not negotiated the price beforehand, we paid it. Feeling very uncomfortable we called out another company for a competitive bid. And here’s what we were told: Going rate for chimney cleaning is $150-$200 and is not a taxable service. This company loosened the flue handle – no charge. Chimney did not need to be relined. Wow! Tried to deal with Red Rover by mail, but address shown on the internet is not valid.
It’s been a long time since we felt totally scammed! If you need chimney work done, look further than Red Rover.