Fireside Living — Local services in Laconia

Quite possibly my worst buying/retail experience ever. In my entire life. Oddly enough I was even purchasing a brand of stove that we have owned before and, in the end, we probably would have been very happy with our purchase had we not had to deal with the owner of, or anyone who is employed by, Fireside Living.

Our brand-new stove arrived with an internally damaged part. (It obviously left the factory damaged. It was wrapped tightly and protected by a wooden crate that showed zero signs of damage.) The store's certified repairman inspected it (this alone took 8 days for him to come out) and advised us against repair, since repairing it would potentially compromise our brand-new unit, and suggested we simply have the stove replaced.

Many weeks passed of us assuming they were working on getting the unit replaced until I made 2 more calls.

Both store employees I talked to, and the owner, in the following weeks, told me that the repairman had spoken out of turn and had been fired.

I was shocked to be told at that point that they had the part on order and someone would come out to repair the stove. I explained (again) that I was not going to pay for a malfunctioning stove and would like to return it if they weren't going to replace it. She said they would not do that since it can simply “be fixed.”

The more hostile and rude she got, as the conversation continued, I explained that I just wanted them to come pick up the broken stove and issue me a refund.

She vehemently refused. I asked to speak with the owner. That took multiple more calls, on my part, and another rude employee at another location. Finally 6 days later I spoke to the owner, Greg, who said he had been "away on vacation."

I put him on speaker phone when he started to yell at me, so others in the room could hear his yelling (it was shocking, really). He was very defensive with a raised voice throughout most of our talk. I explained I wanted a full refund. He yelled, “Absolutely NOT” and insisted he would repair it. (After his own certified repairman had insisted it should not be repaired.)

I can't tell you how many times I wished I had simply googled this store before purchasing from them. The horribly rude, poor customer service that they offer is evident if you just do some research. It's my hope that taking the time to write this helps many other potential Fireside Living customers avoid the heartache and thousands of dollars of wasted money.

Do Not Go To This Store. Run the...

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