Avoid Will and Backyard Funstallations at all costs. Dealing with him has been an absolute nightmare. Maybe he's good at building swingsets, but his personality and people skills are among the worst I've ever encountered.
The full story of my encounter with Will is below, but here's a quick summary for those who don't want to read the whole saga:
1. Will cancelled my initial appointment without telling me.
2. When I rescheduled, he arrived at my house and said my yard wasn't flat enough to build on. He suggested I hire a landscaper to level the yard.
3. I hired a landscaper to level the yard.
4. Will came back a month later and said the ground was still not level enough (it was completely level, I measured).
5. Will yelled and screamed at my wife, calling her a liar and demanded payment despite no installation services being rendered.
My saga begins on April 16. I told Will I wanted to schedule an installation with him. His soonest available appointment was a full 3 weeks away, so I booked a May 7 appointment. I ordered the swingset on April 30, at which time I texted Will to confirm our May 7 appointment. He confirmed. The initial tracking on the swingset showed it wouldn't be delivered until May 8, so I asked Will if he had any availability to push the installation back a day. He said no, if I needed to push back, it would have to be pushed to June 7. Later that week, I let him know the tracking had updated and it would actually be delivered on May 3, so we would have it in time for our original appointment. Will responded and let me know that he had taken it upon himself to cancel my appointment. I never asked Will to cancel or reschedule my appointment. What kind of business cancels an appointment with a customer and doesn't even tell them???? Incredibly unprofessional.
Will recognized the error of his ways and relented. He showed up on May 7 as originally planned, but said our yard was not flat enough to safely build on. He measured a 7" slope (which exceeded his 6" maximum slope limit by a whopping 1"). He advised that I level the yard, or hire a landscaper to do so.
I hired a landscaper to level the yard. The landscaper brought in a TON of dirt to level the area. After the job was complete, I sent Will a photo of the area. He told me it did not look flat enough and he said I should have the landscaper come back out, tamp (pack down) the dirt, and continue to add more dirt until the area was compacted better. The landscaper came back with a tamping tool and more dirt. He used stakes, string, and a string level to show me that the area was indeed completely flat now. I sent Will more photos and he was still not happy. He said that because there were footprints visible in the dirt, it clearly wasn't compact enough. Give me a break! I told will I would personally compact the dirt further in preparation for our June 7 re-scheduled appointment, which I did.
Will said that if the ground wasn't up to his satisfaction, "the playset will not be installed and we will not return for a 3rd time with no additional charges for our repeated visits." I told Will that was fine...that if the ground did not meet his high standards on June 7, we would go our separate ways and I would build the swingset myself.
Will came on June 7 to inspect the area, and despite the fact that the landscaper measured the ground in front of my very eyes and showed as completely level, Will was not satisfied with the area. He declined to install the swingset, and then he yelled and screamed at my wife, demanding payment. He bullied her, called her a liar, and even had the nerve to say that he hopes we don't raise our kids to "not take accountability like this." Will himself had stated there would be no charges until a 3rd visit. The fact that he tried to extort money out of my wife is unfathomable. If Will wanted payment, he should have built the swingset.
We bent over backwards to accommodate Will and his high standards, and he was nothing but rude to us on multiple occasions. read more
