It is very poor business practice to blame the customer for your own professional mistakes and…read moreshortcomings, but there are people who do this. Richard made one excuse after the other, one rationalization after the other, one delay after the other, on e mistake after the other, one written or verbal temper tantrum after the other. To myself and my General Contractor alike.
Richard will claim he has had wonderful customers for 24 years - but refuse to provide referrals of customers to contact with regard to their experiences working with him and refuse to provide addresses to see the gates he built for them - despite politely repeated requests from both client and designer.
Richard will provide estimates for new gate motors and then later on submit much higher estimates, claiming he mistook the address of the property he was proposing to do the work on.
He will promise appropriate job related details will be included on his custom Gate proposals - and then not include them, claiming the client is being difficult and demanding to request them.
He will require money for 50% deposits on gate motors, and then the items are late, the install dates are delayed, his workers made a mistake, it is taking longer than he originally said it would to finish, etc., etc.
My new gate motors ceased operating on one side less than one month after they were installed. He said it was ants on the motherboard. Which of course aren't covered by his warranty.
Why didn't he initially tell the Contractor to have the pest control company come out and spray this area for ants the minute the new motors were installed so this wouldn't ever be an issue?
The parts he installed below the exterior motor housing were rusted upon install. This is unacceptable. He had an excuse for that, stating the painter should have galvanized and painted them to prevent that from occurring. How is that possible when they arrive rusted?
Another resident in our area had problems with operating his gates and ceased using him, stating they could not and would not recommend him.
As the owner, I ceased communicating with Richard entirely at the end of January, and left it to the general contractor.
My General Contractor several times expressed ongoing frustration with Richard's paperwork errors, delays, excuses and long winded self promotion to me.
On March 30, Richard decided via email that he didn't want to proceed with making the gates he'd been promising to build for the last 3 months; blaming me for his flakiness, stating among other things his costs had increased, his wife didn't want him to do it, he pitied the contractor for dealing with me, there is CoronaVirus, I was unpredictable and a wild card, etc. That rambling set of excuses and accusations to avoid responsibility, are in my opinion, Richard to a "T".
My beliefs are there are probably other far more competent exterior gate companies whose owners brag about them selves less, and deliver with less hassle and more timeliness.
You can do whatever you want with this man and his company. If you want to hire him, go ahead, it is certainly your right to do so.
All I can do is warn you what happened with me. And recommend you do your due diligence.
One unhappy customer or General Contractor can be dismissed as the exception to the rule. When it is others that you hear also have similar complaints? Up to you to decide.
