Chimney Cleaning Service Scammer is Sweeping My Neighborhood

By Pinyo, on April 16, 2009

I got a call from a company called Steel River today. The lady on the phone said that their cleaning truck will be in my neighborhood and wanted to know if I want the chimney cleaned. Because the truck will be in the area she was able to offer me $49 for the chimney inspection and cleaning services ($40 off the regular price). Sounds good right?

Photo by Elsie via Flickr

Rule #1 – Never trust unsolicited sales calls

Well, I am always leery when someone calls and trying to sell me something, help me, or do me some sort of favor. This time is no different. There’s no way in hell I am going to say yes to this.

Rule #2 – Beware of scare tactics

Then she went on to ask when was the last time I had my chimney inspected. I told her never — but I didn’t mention that my fireplace was sealed off since we moved in. Then she asked if I use natural gas or oil. I told her natural gas. I don’t think my answer mattered anyway, because she went on to make these points:

• Chimney has to be cleaned every 2 years, otherwise…
• It could cause a fire
• My family could die from carbon monoxide poisoning

Damn, I’m scared man!!! And as a bonus, she will send a letter of certification to my insurance company that my chimney has been cleaned…what???

Rule #3 – Never say YES under pressure

As you can see, she’s using two marketing techniques here: (1) this is a limited time offer to get $40 off, and (2) I can put my family in danger if I don’t do it. Sounds familiar? As appealing as this deal sounds, I wasn’t going to go for it until I get a chance to do my research.

By the way, I didn’t tell her my neighbor spoke to me about this limited time offer a few weeks ago.

Rule #4 – Do your research

Right after the call, I did a couple of searches on the net. Here are a few interesting points according to comments on Brownstoner:

• Natural gas is really clean.
• You do need occasional inspection, but probably not cleaning every 2 years.
• Many of these unsolicited offers are scam.
• These scammers will create artificial problems and try to con you into buying flu parts, mason work, repairs, and other “services”.

Does this mean I don’t need my chimney cleaned? No. It’s still a good idea to have the chimney inspected once in a while. But the proper way to do it is to find a trustworthy chimney inspector that you call.

I went on and did a few more searches for the “Steel River Chimney” company. The result from State of Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection caught my eyes. This is the first paragraph:

The Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection is reminding state residents that with the start of the spring season, scammers and unscrupulous home solicitors will be visiting neighborhoods in hope of tricking consumers out of their hard-earned cash.

Apparently, scammers like good weather too!

Okay, I digressed. I went on and read the rest of the article and found this:

In 2007, customers of Steel River Home Maintenance, a Long Island company, contacted the Department with concerns about sales tactics used by some Steel River employees, and unfinished or unsatisfactory work done on their chimneys. A multi-agency task force involving the Department of Consumer Protection and various local police departments led to the June 2007 arrest of four Steel River employees after they offered undercover agents illegal home improvement contracts.

I don’t know if this is the same company, but holy shit.

Anyway, consumers beware and I hope this article will save you some money and grief

Pinyo is the owner of Moolanomy Personal Finance and an entrepreneur with over 20 years of business experience. He is interested in business management, investing and wealth management. He has written for many online publications, including American Express Currency and U.S. News Money. You can follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

Add Your Question or Comment (12 Comments)

1. Matt SF:

   April 17, 2009 at 12:34 am

   Good stuff. I got the “car warranty extension” call last week. Just to piss them off, I talked 10 min before admitting to knowing it’s a scam.
2. MoneyEnergy:

   April 17, 2009 at 1:05 am

   Thanks for pointing that out… it might help a few people for sure – amazing what some people will do to scam people out of money.
3. Kyle:

   April 17, 2009 at 7:54 am

   I am also leary of anyone who calls me or comes to my door to try to sell me something or give me something for “Free.” You will pretty much always get turned away.
4. Miranda:

   April 17, 2009 at 1:12 pm

   In my old neighborhood it was roofing scams. They ask for half up front, say they’ll start the next day, and you never see them again. The weirdest scam? In my mom’s neighborhood there was a lady offering to paint house numbers in local high school colors on the curb for $5 She actually did the work and did it decently. But when done, she asked to use the bathroom. She looked through the medicine cabinet and took half the pills (dumping them out of the bottles and pocketing them).
5. Pinyo:

   April 17, 2009 at 1:50 pm

   @Matt – I get them all the time too. I once decided to go along with it and the minute I asked what company she’s with, she hung up. Never heard from her again.

   @MoneyEnergy – I hope it will.

   @Kyle – The ones that come to my door are usually ESCO (alternative electric distributor companies). I usually turn them away too.

   @Miranda – Now that’s a real scammer — ask for deposit and never comes back. As for the lady, I think she just have problems.
6. Travis:

   April 17, 2009 at 3:42 pm

   There used to be a similar scam around where I live. A guy would show up and ask if we would like our carpets cleaned. If you would like this service he would look around in your house to give you an “estimate”. If you were a woman and alone, he would tie you up and steal your stuff. Luckily this only happened three time before he was caught. He came by our house and he wasn’t using the scare tactics on my wife once he noticed that I was in the kitchen. It was weird because he was trying to poke his head through and take a look inside.
7. Dora:

   April 20, 2009 at 10:49 am

   Chimney guy called me saying “Hi, it’s Ron from Chimney Guys!” and I said to him, “Did I call you?” He then says “Oh, Ok, I get it” and hung up. I’m going to use that line again for the next jerk who calls.
8. Pinyo:

   April 20, 2009 at 11:46 am

   @Travis – That’s not a scam…that’s robbery. It’s a lot more serious than this. Anyway, I am glad the crook was caught.

   @Dora – Great story. I love that.
9. SavvyMoney:

   April 20, 2009 at 7:00 pm

   The other offer I keep getting emails on is the debt settlement promise. They promise to clear all of your debts and upfront you have to send them money. Scamming, pure and simple.
10. Sandy:

    April 21, 2009 at 2:07 am

    Scams abound. I am probably the most pessimistic that I have ever been now that my eyes have been opened. By BF think I’m crazy but I don’t trust ANYONE who want to do anything for me for the low, low, price of…
11. Anne:

    September 15, 2009 at 3:36 pm

    I got a call from a chimney cleaning service about a week ago, don’t know whether it was Steel River but the woman sounded familiar. Steel River actually did work on two of my chimneys a few years ago – they had called me about a cleaning but gave me another info and an estimate to hire them for repairs instead. I had them come back several times till the chimneys stopped leaking – one leaked and that’s why they were fixing it and the other didn’t leak until they sealed it. In the end, we thought they did a great job. The lesson – be persistent and keep insisting till the job meets your satisfaction and make sure the price holds even if they come out repeatedly – you shouldn’t be paying for their mistakes.

    Well, two days ago, the cap blew off one of the chimneys. So I called Steel River – 3 separate numbers – and the numbers are all out of service. So I guess it was the same company where all the employees ended up in jail. Now I wish I knew who called me a week ago.
12. Ben:

    April 19, 2010 at 12:44 am

    My family is dealing with Steel River right now. We did not set up an appointment with them to clean the chimney, but they showed up anyway. When we sent them away, they began cursing us out, and then followed up with threatening phone calls. They then claimed that we not only asked for them to clean the chimney for $49, but that we also asked them to “re-build” our chimney for $4700. They said they already purchased the materials for that, and wanted our credit card number so they could charge us $4700. They continued to call back and harass us, using profanities, threats, intimidation, etc.

    We ended up having to file a police report, and alerted the entire neighborhood to be on the lookout for them in the event they show up again. We are contacting the phone company to have them release the phone numbers Steel River is harassing us from, and we intend to press charges against everyone involved in this operation. I’ve also made clear to the harassing caller that if he were to show up on our doorstep as he threatened to, I will kill him.

    It is my personal mission to make sure they go out of “business”, and that they land in jail.