Let me start out by saying, I had Arklatex build my shop/garage in Seguin Tx in 2013. They have an office just north of New Braunfels on IH 35. The whole process went great, and the shop was finished. There were a few cosmetic issues that were quickly resolved by the company. Now jump to August 2023 and Arklatex main office of business in Haughton, LA. I moved to Mineola Tx. and wanted a shop/garage built. My first call was to Arklatex. The woman on the phone stated that a Salesman would be calling me back later today or tomorrow. Salesman Steve was assigned and called me back. I gave Salesman Steve my plans over the phone (size, height, doors, windows, etc.) and Salesman Steve got back with me the very next day with a bid. Mind you that this was just a verbal bid. I then was informed by Salesman Steve that the dirt work was not included. I told Salesman Steve that I had used Arklatex in the past in New Braunfels. Salesman Steve said that because I was a repeat customer he would give me a good price and continued with "we only use #1 pine 2x6's and 4x6's or 6x6's." I called a couple of dirt companies and got the work done. During this process I was in contact with Salesman Steve and had changed the deletions of the building and he quickly responded with a new bid, again, verbal. I have a Martin Marietta cement company just 1 mile away from my property and asked Salesman Steve if that would be a plus for the cement costs? Salesman Steve said that their (Arklatex) cement guy would use whoever he could, no discount. I called a couple of cement guys of my own to get a price of just how much a 36x65x4" slab with 3/8" rebar 36 inch on center would cost installed. At this point, the dirt work had been completed. I asked Salesman Steve to give me a bid with and without the concrete work, also letting him know the dirt work was done. Salesman Steve stated and I quote" there would be a difference of around $5000.00." I asked Steve to send me the two bids, and to my surprise, Salesman Steve said that he was in his car and could not send me the bids. This was a Friday and I said that Monday would be soon enough. Salesman Steve then informed me that he would not be in the office on Monday and that he could not send me the bids. I asked him to just text or e-mail them, Steve said he could not. I asked him if his company used templates or fill in the blank form bids. Salesman Steve said he could not get them to me. I then told Salesman Steve that I guess we are done here If you could not get me a written bid. This again was Friday and I was willing to wait till Monday. The call was ended without any explanation.
Throughout Sept, Oct, and Nov I called several other companies to try to get this project done including metal building companies. There bids were all written and e-mailed to me within a day. The problem was the bids were above my budget. So on December 13th, 2023 I called Arklatex and asked the person on the phone if they give written bids, she replied yes, and when asked if they do business in Mineola, again, she replies yes. I asked her to connect me with a Salesperson other than Steve. She said Lee would be calling me that afternoon or the next day. On Friday December 15th, I got the call from Salesman Lee, told him what I wanted to do and that I want him to see the build sight in person. He said he would be at my home at noon on Monday December 18th, just 3 days later. I thought WOW, maybe I can get this project started. On Monday at 11:45 am I put the dogs up and waited at the gate for Salesman Lee to arrive. At 12:03 pm I got a Call from Salesman Lee with excuses as to why he was not at my home. Mind you that Salesman Lee had a 2-hour drive from Haughton, LA to Mineola, TX and did not have the curtesy to call be until after the meeting time. I took his call and listened to the excuses and rescheduled the meeting at his called two days later on Wednesday December 20th at 10am. I should have known better by now, Salesman Lee was a no call no show.
I read the reviews on as many websites for ARK-LA-TEX I could find. They were all bad, really bad back in 2018 and steadily got better into 2022. Still not great but I felt the improvement had to be new management. I guess not. The verbal bid for my shop/garage was over $38,000. I am spending more on a metal shop/garage and have learned my lesson about Arklatex. I hope this review and others you can find on the internet will not be such a hard and time-consuming lesson. read more
