Aaron may be a great installer, but I never got to find out. So why am I rating him and why am I giving him 2 stars?
This review is not about Aaron's work, but about his project and time management skills leading up to the project, and his lack of communication that in my case has resulted in a week of wasted time.
I called up Aaron after seeing all the great reviews here on Yelp and asked him to come in and check out a relatively big job (5 TV installations, speaker hook-up, cable ID, outside speakers, intercom replacement) at a house in Oakland. He showed up, I showed him the project, we discussed options, and I thought he was pretty great. He spent a bit over an hour at the house and then promised to send me a plan of action in the next 1-2 days.
As the house was being obviously actively remodeled and I communicated that I'd like to start figuring stuff out as soon as possible and get the move on while the contractors are still there and able to run wires and assist in various ways, time was of the essence. After not hearing anything back in the promised timeline, I tried to reach Aaron by phone several times and left him several voicemails. Still nothing.
I sent several emails and finally heard back 4 days after the meeting with a short message that he was crazy busy and didn't have time to even start looking up the parts (again, at the meeting, I was promised the initial plan of action with a couple of days). He finished the email with "was not aware you needed to get started so soon..." Really? Come on.
I replied to him and asked for a phone call to discuss the plan. No response for 2 days again. I sent another email with some research I'd done since he wasn't doing any and requested a phone call one more time. I was this close to just dropping him but he'd already wasted almost a week of my time by then, and Yelp had all the great reviews...
At this point, he finally replied, again via email. I never did hear his voice since the first meeting. The reply said: "Im sorry but im just not going to have time for your project...this time of year is very busy and I already have a crazy schedule without trying to fit more work in..its not fair to my excisting customers that are trying to get into there house before x-mas..it also dosent help that your 40 mins from my normal area of operation..i hope you can understand and find some one with more time for your large project.."
So rather than discuss the project and even talk to a customer with a big job, he just bailed. Which would have been fine if he just told it to me straight up and didn't end up wasting a week of my time while I tried to get him to communicate. But when he was leaving on the first day, he indicated that we'd do the project and did not hint at his busy schedule.
There are few things that annoy me more than lack of communication, and Aaron struck the wrong cord.
In the interest of full disclosure, I'll mention that the initial visit was on December 2nd, and while it is the end of the year, and Christmas steals a whole week at the end of it, it doesn't excuse the above behavior and does not mean communication has to be nonexistent. I was perfectly aware of the holidays and was ready to plan accordingly.
All in all, frustration level dealing with Aaron = 5/5. Star rating = 1/5. He does get a bonus star for at least coming out for the initial visit, though I'm puzzled why he did it in the first place, since my pre-sales description of the project should have painted the picture of how relatively involved it was going to be.
I ended up going with another installer (Robert from Sound and Video Concepts) who, while reluctant on taking on such a big project, has done so to my satisfaction after we discussed it further. (See this, Aaron? People talk, work things out.) read more