Complaint Review: Reliable Roofing & Chimney - Selden New York

This may be a long read but it will save you time and money in the end.

I was looking to have some repair work done on my chimney and had seen a reliable roofing & chimney van while on the way to work one day. I called the number early one morning and Christopher Ciccarelli (the owner) answered the phone. He was initially polite and was able to come over immediately to provide an estimate even though I was not home at the time.

He called me afterwards and told me that the work which involved allot of chimney repointing, a new crown and the replacement of some broken bricks, and shoulder repair including bluestone, and water proofing; would cost around $1100. Seemed reasonable, but I explained to him that I was on a budget and only wanted to do the crown, replacement bricks and all of the repointing. Christopher then said "Well let me see what I can do to help you out." After some finagling and removal of the big ticket item, the bluestone shoulders for $460, he says "here’s what I’ll do. I’ll come down and do the work myself to save you some money. I’ll give you the water proofing for free and I’ll do everything else for $560, if you pay cash $500." He left the estimate, a copy of his license and insurance and a business card touting "22 years of Service" in a neatly bound folder. Sounds great right? Now I’m thinking wow I lucked out, this guy has it together.

So after a few missed appointments (in all fairness some were due to weather conditions) he shows up to perform the work. He sends me some pictures as its progressing, which of course is great; everyone likes to see progress right? He texts me about 4 hours later and tells me it took allot longer than he planned but he's all done. He asks when he can come by to pick up the payment (thank god i did not pay up front). I tell him later that evening when I get home from work.

Let me start by saying that I am not a layman to this type of work. I have performed masonry repair, tiling and cement work on many occasions. I am well aware of the time it takes and the craftsmanship that it takes to do the job correctly. The reason I had called Reliable Roofing and Chimney was because I really did not have the time to do it myself; I have all the tools and skill to do the job correctly. I get home and I review the work. I am completely taken back. I thought that this guy was supposed to be a chimney and masonry guy? It says so on his license so it must be true, right? Wrong. Half of the areas that needed repointing were not done the ones that were done; the cement (clearly was not brick mortar) was already dried up and literally turned to powder when you touched it. Some of the cement was actually cracked by the very next day. The shoulder that he was supposed to be repair looked like he just troweled some cement across the face of it, the bricks were all lifted on the top side which would have made it impossible to install the bluestone shoulder at a later date. Seriously, a 5 year old with some playdo could have done better!

So I call him up to discuss the issue and I tried to explain to him that the work that 'was' sort of, half done, was not what I had expected. He immediately cut me off and became belligerent. Stating how he knew this was going to happen and that he was so glad that he taped our phone conversation when we discussed the work that was to be completed. Arrogantly saying "see that’s what makes me a good business man, I taped our call so I can use it when this type of thing happens". Finally, tells me that he is going down to the town and filing a mechanics lean against my home, and then hangs up the phone. I hadn’t even been given the chance to explain what I was dissatisfied with. I give it a few minutes and call him back. He wants no part of even discussing and hangs up on me yet again. I ceased and desisted all further communication and reached out the Suffolk County Department of Consumer affairs. Remember the claimed 22 years of service? Dept. of Consumer affairs informed me that he only got his license 3/30/2015. No prior record at that business name. As of just now, while typing this he now threatened to take me to small claims court.  I now have to either rip this all up myself or dare to find someone who knows hows to do the job correclty. Run People!! do not do business with this hack!