Back to the Drawing Board (Tried to get a Regency Woodburning Insert)

[indiana34]

Last Fall I looked around for a wood burning insert to put in my conventional fireplace, and came to choose a Regency 2400 model.

I put a deposit down in early November at a seemingly reputable fireplace shop, and waited for the insert to come in, which was expected to be 2-6 weeks. In the meantime, I cleaned the fireplace and had a sweep come and clean it out and give an estimate for the required flue liner.

And waited. And waited. And waited.

Missed use of the fireplace at Thanksgiving (ok, optimistic to hope it would be there by then), anniversary, Christmas, New Year's, Super Bowl Sunday, etc, since we were keeping the box clean for the installation.

Called the shop frequently and they were just waiting for one face plate part, or "Oh, we'll have the installer call you right away", or "Didn't some one call to make an app't?", "We'll call the supplier right away!", "Just one more week, promise", etc., etc.

Finally, got sufficiently PO'ed that I demanded my money back and they countered with "We will give you $100 off, and promise to install it within two weeks". I took my money back and filed a BBB complaint; I wish that I had looked at their record there before putting in the order since they had dozens of complaints for this very scenario. Live and learn.

So, I am going to go back to the drawing board and try again. It was never clear whether the problem was with Regency, a distributor (if there was one), or simply the fireplace shop I started out with. Regency looked good to me in the display room, and seemed to have good specs and finally was recommended by members on this forum.

Do you know of any issues that should have kept Regency from fulfilling an order? This was not a bad winter around here (Mid-Atlantic), at least during the time this order was in play.

We may now have the opportunity to change the fireplace as part of a remodeling effort, but I want to have one "fail-safe" woodburning appliance for power and natural gas out (I know this is unlikely, but...).
Accordingly, I am sticking to a woodburning insert (not a pellet machine).

Thanks for any help.

[jtp10181]

This forum is mostly geared towards gas products, you might get better results over here: http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/

I have not heard anything like this from Regency, this past season there was plenty of wood products available. The year before (05-06 season) there were major shortages on wood units, some had almost a 3 month lead time.

[hiflame]

I havent had any problems getting regency products, this season.

[indiana34]

Sounds like a bad dealer, not a bad manufacturer.

[billb7581]

I had my Avalon insert installed 2 weeks after orderning it.

[makinmoney]

I had my Avalon insert installed 2 weeks after orderning it.

How did you make out on your A/C system?........

[patg88]

I installed my Kozy heat about 6 years ago. Burn about 3 cords a year. 3,200 sq. ft. home and at 10 below, the furnace never cycles.

[billb7581]

How did you make out on your A/C system?........

Good as far as I can tell. . The install looks neat enough to me. I posted pics. Had a couple of little nitpicky things pointed out, but most guys said it looked OK.