My elderly mother heats part of her house with a very large Sears wood burning stove. She started off with a metal chimney - were several house fires caused by these things - so she had a brick chimney built with flu liners. She has a fire all winter long. She was told she should have her chimney swept. This past summer the chimney sweep did his thing - and showed my mother some pictures of how damaged her chimney was from cracked all the fires she kept going. He told her he could repair the chimney for $2,500.
My mother has insurance covering everything - called her insurance agent - showed him the pictures and told him it was going to cost $2,500 to repair and what portion of that repair would the insurance cover. The agent got one of their adjusters to check it out. Guess what her chimney was in perfect condition - not a crack in any tile.
My mother called several other people who were using this crook - a couple had similiar stories and one of them had already agreed to have her chimney repaired.
She would not go after the crook - but be careful out there.
Two years ago she had an "insulation expert" tell her she needed more insulation under the metal roof on the second floor of the house - another crook - there is no room for more insulation in that space - I installed it many years ago.
So be careful out there - crooks abound.