Commonwealth Maintenance, Inc.

I wish I had read these reviews before I tried scheduling an appointment. I made 3 appointments and they did not show up for any of them. They did not call me and when I called there was no real apology or reason given. Do not waste you time — wish I had the four hours I took off from work back!

STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY! FRAUD. I gave a $ 450.00 deposit for a chimney cap in November 2014. Scheduled installation in December several times as they never showed up or called. As I knew they were just wasting my time, I requested a refund — spoke with Domenic — he agreed to the refund. Since then I have called 32 times requesting my check, every time he says the check «is in the mail.» In yesterday’s conversation, Domenic said he «personally» mailed it «3 days ago.» I should have read their Unilocal reviews — Commonwealth Maintenance will be reported to the Better Business Bureau of Boston along with the Office of the Attorney General for fraud. DO NOT HIRE THEM.

AVOID the GROUPON or any deal it’s not worth it! They lie and scare you about safety issues so they can overcharge. Terrible terrible terrible. I called around and other companies charged $ 500+ less. I feel like I completely wasted $ 2,000 this weekend as another company said the work was unnecessary even though commonwealth warned it was combustible and emitting CO2– also, I had a 9am appointment that he called at 9:15 to change to between 4−5pm with a call before. Showed up unannounced at 6:45pm. Left the job undone and I’m still waiting for this special email with before/​after pictures and my lifetime guarantee. They also gave me a cost on paper and then «oh by the way» charged me an unexpected, extra $ 200 putting me in an uncomfortable corner. I have mortar work to be done in the spring and will not be choosing this «company». Notice all of the reviews are recent I would be so embarrassed to work here with no action for solutions. Customer service is a joke too– just stumbling over words and passing the buck until you run around in a few circles to end up where you started with nothing but higher blood pressure

I feel like I am kicking a dog when it is down, but this company is a real dog. I agree with all the other folks saying how bad they are with scheduling. They could not be any worse if even they were trying to get a bad review. I am on my fourth appointment — the first three have been cancelled by Commonwealth Maintenance. And when they cancel they promise to call back and never do. It is up to you to call them back to reschedule the appointment that they cancelled. If you call and the «scheduling director» is not available, which is usually the case, you will get a promise of a call back when she is available. But that call never comes either, so you have to call again and hope you get them when the scheduling director is available. I first called them in early September and now my next rescheduled appointment is for mid-​December. My suggestion is to avoid this company — do not get sucked into the great deal you are getting with Groupon. It is not worth the aggravation!

I hired Commonwealth Maintenance to clean my chimney.

Absolutely horrible experience, first it’s impossible to get someone to answer phone so you have to leave message and wait. Once I actually got an appointment scheduled a month out I didn’t hear from them again. The day before my appointment I called them to confirm, left a message of course. They eventually called me back and confirmed I had an appointment the next which they never showed up for.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way…
These guys are atrocious with scheduling. First appointment was rescheduled due to the truck breaking down, they never ended up showing up that day. Every time I talked with them they said they were on their way and would be there within a half hour. I was pissed.
Then the second rescheduled appointment was rescheduled due to a family emergency. Or, so at least these guys say. I was supposed to get a voucher for a free cleaning when they finally arrived, but never got that either. My third appointment was actually done two days earlier because someone called and said they were in the area and could come on that day. That worked better for me so I said come on down. They still showed up late to this one. But, at least they were here.
The saving grace of this experience was the guy who did the work. He came with his assistant and they went up the ladder and took some pics. Those pics suggested a problem with our gas exhaust and at first I wasn’t sure if they were trying to scheme me or legit. However, it was like 7pm and getting dark. You’d think these guys would want to go home, so why would they scheme me? Plus, I saw the pic and it was definitely out of whack. My house was built in the 80’s, it was very upsetting that this problem occurred as I just bought the place and didn’t have funds to fix this.
This guy Joe seemed genuinely concerned about the state of my flue and was uncomfortable leaving with it in this condition in fear of what could be happening. Who knows how long gas could have possibly been venting back into the house.
I decided to trust this guy and decided to just do it, as the price seemed reasonable, but I’ve never had a new flue installed so I can’t attest how expensive these things typically are. They were here for a few hours getting things done and didn’t leave until it was nearly 11pm. I heard one of the guys say «it’s late we should stop» and Joe said «we can’t leave this guys house this way, it’s not right».
They left, cleaned up and everything looks good. I had to cut and patch a huge hole in my wall, but it had to be done.
Hopefully this place figures out their scheduling issue as I would like to continue using them in the future.

I’m adding my two cents to this whole thing. We recently purchased a house in Waltham and the home inspector pointed out multiple issues with the chimney. When I saw the LivingSocial deal for a chimney cleaning from Commonwealth Maintenance, I jumped on it. As soon as the deal printed, I called them and set up an appointment. The lady on the phone was nice and I explained that I’d probably need some more work than just a cleaning and she noted this.
The company showed up for the scheduled appointment on time and proceeded to do the cleaning (of two flues) and diagnosis of the additional problems. I did not share with them ahead of time the exact prognosis given by my competent home inspector. This is because I’d started reading the nightmare stories here on Unilocal about these guys. They did the work, took pictures to show the issues with the chimney, and gave me an additional estimate of the work needed. It was exactly what my home inspector told me and their estimate was a fair price for what was needed. I gave them a deposit and we scheduled the additional work (masonry, a cap, and extension of the flues).
For the next appointment, they showed up on time, took a little more time then they had estimated due to additional work (which I was not charged for) and did a professional job, cleaned up, and I am completely satisfied. Dominic (sp?) — the guy in charge, he listened to my needs and did the job properly.
It seems that they have been overwhelmed with Groupon, LivingSocial, and other type of deals and the are overbooked. While I do fault the business with this (as it’s pretty well known that these ‘special deal’ sites have put people out of business due to the bad reviews they get after getting so high a response), I feel that once they actually are at your house for a job, they will do it properly. If you feel their estimate of the work is high or unnecessary, it’s up to you to get multiple quotes, as we did.
It’s sad that they can’t seem to get their scheduling straight and are thus getting all these reviews, but this was not my experience with them at all and I hope that they can replicate our experience with others in the future.

Oh man don’t even consider them. I got an Amazon deal for them to come and clean the chimney. They supposedly did so, and then tried to scare me into buying $ 20,000, that’s TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS worth of chimney «repair». The lying bastard that came said he was «feeling faint» from being in the cellar. He sort of didn’t know what to say when I told him that no one in the house feels faint, including me, when doing laundry or other activities down there. This company is pure evil — caveat emptor.

BUYER BEWARE!!! This is the worst run company I have ever dealth with. Getting an appointment took 3 phone calls. When I finally got the appointment I got a call informing me that the tech was stuck at another job and they cancelled me. They said they would call me the next day to reschedule and they never did. I’ve probably made 15 phone calls to this place and they always say the scheduler is not available but will call me back which never happens. I’m usually careful and read reviews before purchasing anything, i wish I checked here first. I requested a refund from LivingSocial and will be going elsewhere. DON’T DO IT! Call somebody else, there are many other good sweeps out there.

DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THEM! 1^st appt: they canceled because tech was sick. 2^nd appt: they canceled saying tech was stuck at previous job. 3^rd appt: canceled again because tech was stuck at previous job. 4^th appt: didn’t even bother to cancel. Just no one showed up. Good luck calling their «office» because you’ll usually get an answering machine. They don’t even have an office, they use a rented mailbox at 1900 West Park Dr in Westborough MA 1 581.
What really ticks me off, is I suspect there was never really a tech coming out at all. They sub-​contract work out to other businesses, and I’d bet my bank account that they never found anyone in my area to do the work, so kept pushing off the appointments until they could find someone in my area (which they obviously never did).
I lost 2 vacation days waiting on them. Utterly ridiculous. Please don’t waste your time or money on this company. Horrible.

AVOID!!! Scheduled several weeks ago for 12 – 3 today (Aug 16^th) and got a call at 1 that the technician would be here between 3 – 4. 5:15 and still no show. Called the office and no one there. Makes sense with the previous reviews. Found their offer on Groupon or Living Social and called to get more info then they said they would honor that price on the phone (so they don’t have to pay the fee to the site). Slime balls really…

I used this chimney sweep company after purchasing an AmazonLocal deal. They came to my house in March, 2014, to clean and inspect my chimney. Upon inspection, they advised me that I needed to do $ 3850 of repairs, and attempted to scare me into committing to these repairs by suggesting I faced an imminent fire risk. When this didn’t work, they offered to drop the price to $ 3000, on condition I do the repairs THAT day AND write a positive review online. This struck me as more than a little suspicious, and so I declined. Instead, I contacted an acquaintance who works with furnaces, and asked for a reference. He advised that I contact North Shore Chimneys in Peabody (978−531−9205) and ask for Ray, a fellow who has been working in this industry for 20+ years. Ray came by just now and inspected the chimney. He advised me that the chimney was in fact in *excellent* shape, and *none* of the repairs Commonwealth Maintenance tried to sell me on was necessary.
Ray’s inspection cost twice as much as Commonwealth Maintenance’s. Personally, however, I’d rather pay twice as much for an inspection than ~ $ 4000 for unnecessary repairs.
***UPDATE 04/​19/​14***
Maria from Commonwealth Maintenance’s Quality Assurance department called me just now. She seemed genuinely upset to hear of this experience, and indicated it was not at all consistent with the philosophy of the company’s owners or with their own internal commitments. She strongly suggested that, should a similar situation occur to another customer, they should immediately call Commonwealth Maintenance and share with them their concerns.

Worst! I bought a chimney sweep from this company via amazon local, on making the appointment they tried to double the price saying the furnace flue needed to be cleaned as well for twice the fee, I disagreed then made an appointment that they didnt show for, I waited four hours on a saturday, no phone call, I called them, left a message no call back, through late Monday, I called them, they said i was scheduled for ²⁄₁₅ (not true) I asked thy then come first thing on ²⁄₁₅ was told they would, NO SHOW on ²⁄₁₅ waited again till noon no call Mon Tues or Weds explaining what happened,
WORST!!!