Offenbachers - Falls Church, Virginia

Mark P.

Worst retail experience I have ever had.

We came to woodburners to purchase chimney supplies for our wood stove installation. After speaking to a representative, I sent in a written order request with all the parts we needed. When we went to install the stove we noticed that we were missing several parts and had duplicates of other parts we did not need. The representative informed me he changed my order without consent as he 'knew' what we would need.

Now correcting their mistake was a major hassle. We came into the store with the duplicate parts to be refunded and the sales representative wrote on our original receipt the parts returned and amount owed. In terms of the parts we still needed, we were told they would be there the following week. A month went by and we did not receive reimbursement or the original parts. I called and was told they would look into it and get back to me but they never did. I called back the following week and was told the same thing and once again no follow up. I started calling every other day and still no answers or follow up. It was completely frustrating as I would talk to the same individual day after day and he would act as if he had no idea who I was or what the problem was. I then began calling them multiple times a day and I would still get the run around of 'I'll look into it and promise to get back to you within the hour.' But still nothing. After about 15 or 20 dead end calls I escalated to the manager and the next week our supplies came in. However, when we went into the store to get our refund for the duplicate parts they indicated they had no record that we returned the parts. Luckily we had the handwritten note on our original receipt which after some back and forth he reluctantly accepted.

We then installed the wood stove but realized we had an extra length of chimney pipe which proved unnecessary. I contacted the manager about returning this piece and he told me they would not accept the return since the last return was such a mess (due to their mistake!).

In summary, Woodburners was a horrible experience and ended up being a 3 month nightmare of run arounds and ignored issues. Don't do business with this company.

Roshelle B.

Disaster. No customer service, They just give you the run around. I have been waiting since the beginning of January for an installation. February is almost over, and it's not done yet ! They have an excuse every week. Either the parts are not here, or the ladder is not tall enough, or they don't have enough material to line the chimney, or the weather is not good, or they are closed in the middle of the week ! Every time I call, I'm told someone will call me back. They never do. I have to call again and can't get results. They have removed the damper on my fire place and left it open with no covering ! The house is cold and I have to pay a huge electricity heating bill because the warm air escapes through that opening. I have tried to cover it with trash bags, but it doesn't work well. They damaged the freshly painted walls by making large cut out holes and no one has been here to fix it or to tell me when they can take care of it. I wish I had gone to another company. I thought an american owned company will give me better service and will be more reliable. Not in this case.

Peter H.

Stay away from Woodburners! The negative reviews are true. They are totally unresponsive and could care less about their customers once they have sold you a product. After purchasing my Regency stove from Woodburners a few years ago and needing to replace the baffles in my stove, I was quite taken aback by the many negative reviews of Woodburners. I needed to replace the baffles in my stove as they had deteriorated and one actually had a corner break off. I later learned that this is common with Regency baffles. No problem, I figured, since Regency has this Lifetime Warranty on its stoves which specifically covers the baffles. In fact, one of the reasons we purchased this particular stove was the Lifetime Warranty touted by the Woodburners salesman. The problem is that Regency administers its warranty through its dealers, specifically the dealer where the Regency product was purchased. I drove over to the Falls Church, VA Woodburners and, after an interminable wait, was finally informed by one of their salesmen that Woodburners was no longer honoring Regency’s Warranty as it applied to replacement parts. Apparently it was the decision of the new owner, Michael and Sons. I contacted the owner in writing and requested that he honor the Warranty and replace my defective/deteriorated baffles as provided in the Warranty. I noted that I had the original sales receipt and the written Warranty and could produce the deteriorated baffles for inspection. It’s now been well over two months and I have not even received a courtesy response from the owner. He obviously has no intention of honoring the Warranty. I also contacted the Director of Technical Services for Regency who refused to replace the baffles directly and instead referred me to several other local Regency dealers. One of these would not respond to my telephone calls and e-mails, and all of the others absolutely refused to honor the Regency Warranty, claiming that I had to obtain warranty services or parts from the original dealer (Woodburners). One, however, did say he would contact Regency to see if it would honor the warranty. A month has passed without a response from that dealer or from Regency. I also initiated a Better Business Bureau complaint but, to date, Woodburners has not responded to three requests from the BBB (they are not a member of course). In the meantime, I was told that I should not use my stove because it would be a safety hazard. So, I am writing this review in frustration. Hopefully I can help someone else avoid such frustration in the future. My recommendation is to not deal with Woodburners or you will probably regret it later. If you don’t believe me, read the other reviews here and elsewhere. The message is very clear. Also, I would recommend that anyone planning to purchase a Regency product consider that its so-called Lifetime Warranty is, based on my personal experience, not really worth the paper it is written on as it is wholly dependent upon the original dealer honoring it at his discretion. Regency will not arrange for replacement parts or services under the Warranty and if the dealer decides he doesn’t want to honor the Regency Warranty, you are out of luck as Regency seems reluctant or unable to do anything to help out the owner of their product obtain warranty services or parts. Again, caution to anyone planning to do business with Woodburners or planning to purchase a Regency product.

Alan A.

The only hope for this business is its takeover by Offenbachers, a more reputable company. From the start our order for a fireplace door was a fiasco. I called to check on its status after about 4 weeks and was told, after they had to search for my order and call me back, that there was some "questions" about the measurements which had been taken shortly after the order was made. My wife and I suspected that the order had been lost during the four weeks. They sent a technician out to measure again, and after another call to them four-five weeks thereafter I was told the order had just come into their warehouse. The following week an installer came to put the door in and discovered that the brackets which fasten the door to the interior fireplace walls were not long enough. Fortunately, the installer has the ability to get some additional brackets from his truck and fasten them to the ones which came with the door, thereby extending them so they could be used for the installation.

What should have been about 4 weeks from order to installation ended up being nearly 3 months. The only blessing was the installer, without whom we probably would have had to wait weeks more to get the proper brackets.

Service like this does not deserve further business.

Jeffrey L.

We scheduled them to come out and clean our chimney. The woman who scheduled it kept repeating to ensure she got the info correct. Then she called back 5 minutes later to again confirm. Kinda funny but whatever. The day they were to come out, they called and said the truck broke down. We rescheduled for first-thing the next day. The man called and said he'd be here in 20 minutes. He didn't arrive then called to say his truck broke down again and asked to reschedule next week. I said I was no longer interested and w/o saying anything, he just hung up. Rude and incompetent. Don't bother with Woodburners.

Joe L.

Like the other review, I have had absolutely the worst service experience. Dozens of calls, punctuated by a lack of return calls from the Customer Service department. I left a message today at 12:48. When I didn't hear from them, I called again at 5:45 this evening to discover that everyone is gone until Monday. This is typical - I have to hound them to get a response and this has been going on since December, 2013. I don't know if this is a new phenomena now that Michael & Sons bought Woodburners Two but, either way, it's clear that Michael & Sons cannot properly manage its assets. After all, how difficult is it to return a phone call, especially when someone is trying to give them business? I give up - "uncle."

Claire E.

You never want to do business with this company - service is as bad as described. They promise to call with updates and do not follow through - ever. After numerous calls with the usual brush-off about a follow-up I am ready to cancel my order.

Mike D.

Service has been terrible, I am still waiting for my gas unit install after 3 months of waiting. Additionally, they contracted the install work to Michael and Sons who just did the gas line install, when I came home from work it looks like a gas line run in a trailer home not a historic town home.