Strap in kids, here we go.
I ordered my Mt. Vernon back on November 29th, put down a deposit. Went back a few weeks later and paid the balance in full.
Today was the big day. At 12:00 noon as I am awaiting the installer I get a call from the dealer. It's explained to me that the installer was looking over the order on the way here and saw the OAK. Apparently, I wasn't charged for OAK installation on an insert ($225), just for the price for the kit itself. Lets call this screwup #1.
As I am sure you all would expect to hear, an attempt was made to talk me out of doing the installation with the OAK. Basically, since I wasn't charged for the OAK install it wasn't going to be done. Unless, I either pay the $225 extra or talk to the installer and see if I could work it out with him, since he's a subcontractor. At this point, I am highly annoyed, and I decide to wait for the installer and see how this is going to proceed.
The installer arrives. First of all, I can't say enough good things about him. He shined through all of this. Professional, conscientious, and reasonable. End result for the OAK situation is that we worked it out, he installed the OAK out the back wall of my fireplace and did a great job. He actually swept my chimney. I had it swept 5 years ago after we had bought the house, they capped the chimney, and the fireplace sat unused since then. Well, it turns out all they did a quick brush run down from the top and throw the cap on. They didn't brush it out down low. There was a few inches of soot/ash on the smoke shelf, and all over the place. Now, it's spotless.
When I was in the store asking questions, I asked about the thermostat installation. I explained that I understood it had to be installed on a wall and was wired to the stove, and that I didn't think it would be too hard since I have a nice (concrete floor and block walls - bone dry) crawlspace under my living room. You would think at that point I'd be told that I'd have to do that myself. But nope, that wasn't the case. Lets call this screwup #2. Apparently, the installer just hooks the thermostat up and leaves it there off to the side with final placement being the responsibility of the customer.
Fine, whatever. I can go get a length of 3-wire thermostat cable and run it myself. In a way, this is better because wasn't 100% sure where I wanted to put it. But I'll probably just mount it right next to the thermostat for my heat pump.
Installation went forward, everything done. Stove won't fire up. Coming up auger jam. He found the wires that go to a photo eye for the auger were pinched. One was almost completely broken, another really pinched hard, and the others just showed they were pinched slightly.
They are sending the installer back Saturday morning with the part. Hopefully, that is all it takes to get it running. It's just immensely frustrating. The Mt. Vernon is my Christmas present from my wife. She's beside herself because of the whole OAK fiasco and the fact that I am going to have to do some of the work myself. I was actually thinking about doing the OAK myself later. But she's mad because I have to do the thermostat job. And on top of it all, it doesn't work...