TL;DR: One star. The installation itself may have been fine, but when the crew damaged my mother's…read moreTraeger smoker, the owner, Rick, initially accepted responsibility and promised to make it right. After weeks of one-sided follow-up, he reversed course, accused us of essentially trying to scam his company, and refused to cover the repair. We had planned to hire this company for an upcoming $10K+ project. We are incredibly grateful we found out how they handle problems before moving forward. Run, don't walk, to the next company you received a quote from.
During a door and window installation, the crew knocked my mom's Starlink panel off a table next to her Traeger smoker on the deck. Fortunately, the Starlink wasn't damaged. However, the incident immediately drew our attention to the adjacent Traeger, where a knob had been completely sheared off. My family had recently cooked a meal using the smoker, and it was fully functional--including the temperature-control knob--before the crew arrived.
We immediately called Rick that same afternoon. He told us mistakes happen, emphasized that his employees were like family to him, and assured us he always makes things right. During the conversation, Rick even volunteered stories about other incidents involving his crews: a $700 lamp they had broken at another customer's home, a screwdriver dropped from a roof that broke another customer's windshield, a broken garage door he was dealing with at another home, and so on.
At the end of the call, he took $150 off our nearly $5,000 project and promised to get the Traeger repaired.
I specifically told him I did NOT have the time to manage the repair myself since his crew had caused the damage. He agreed.
The next day, Rick texted that his guys didn't know they had damaged it but were extremely apologetic because they liked my mother. He again accepted responsibility and said they would handle the repair. See Exhibit A.
Then nothing happened.
I followed up. See Exhibit B. Eventually, I was told the foreman was looking into metal glue. Then nothing happened again.
After another follow-up, the story completely changed. See Exhibit C. Rick essentially accused my family of trying to defraud his company and said he wasn't spending $600 on an "old, rusty smoker" because his team hadn't damaged it.
Please.
This was almost a $5,000 project. Do you really think I would spend hours following up, contacting Traeger, researching repairs, and dealing with a contractor over a few hundred dollars because I wanted to scam someone?
This was never about the money. It was about principle, integrity, and accountability.
Rick is a smooth talker--he can talk the talk as a salesman. Unfortunately, in our experience, he didn't walk the walk.
At one point, Rick sent us back the same photograph we had originally sent him showing the Starlink on the ground next to the smoker, apparently as part of his "investigation." Rather than honoring his original commitment, he used the photo to construct an explanation for why he believed his crew couldn't have caused the damage. See Exhibit D.
I ultimately spent hours dealing with Traeger technical support. Traeger confirmed multiple times that there was no way to simply glue the sheared component back onto the smoker.
Interestingly, while Rick and his team claimed they couldn't find the part because it was such an old smoker, Traeger immediately located it and emailed me the price, quote, and ordering information. Surprise: metal glue wasn't going to cut it.
I paid $160 for a replacement temperature controller box and then received a $450 quote for a handyman to travel to my mom's house to complete the repair.
So much for "just use metal glue."
My mom is absolutely infuriated. I'm honestly not sure what upsets her more: being called a liar by Rick or having her beloved smoker referred to as "old and rusty."
And that's the real lesson here:
Mistakes happen. What matters is how a company handles them.
Rick initially accepted responsibility and promised to make it right. After weeks of inaction and repeated follow-ups from my side, he changed his story, questioned our integrity, minimized the damage, and refused to stand behind what he had promised.
If you have multiple contractors quoting similar prices and the main thing drawing you to this company is how smooth Rick is during the initial sales pitch, RUN -- don't walk -- to the next company on your list.
Maybe you'll have a five-star experience. I genuinely hope you do. That's what we expected based on the majority of the Google and Yelp reviews.
But you may also end up in the one-star section of Yelp wondering why nobody warned you.
Go look at my other reviews. I don't make a habit of bashing businesses. I generally prefer smaller companies because I want to support people who genuinely care about their customers.
Rick says he cares about his customers. See Exhibits F.
In our experience, the follow-through simply wasn't there.
