I contacted Cedar Rustic Fence for my new cedar fence project because of an ad I received and I read a number of positive reviews. I was very pleased with Kelly and the sales rep Joey. I also spoke to Carla about scheduling the actual date for the work to be done, which I describe below. Kelly, my first contact, set an appointment for Thursday, May 12 @ 3pm for Joey to visit and quote the job. I told Kelly and she informed Joey that my wife would and I would not be home until 4pm. In that case he could go in the backyard, take the measurements and call me with his quote. That day (May 12) Joey called me said he had taken measurements and would leave the quote between the doors at the front of our house. I came home later that night, retrieved and looked over the quote. I called Joey's cell, left him a message to call me Monday (today) so we can finalize the project.
Well before May 12 Carla had spoken to me and schedule the work to be done on May 26. Kelly originally scheduled the work date for mid/late June. I told Kelly June would be too late because I have a major landscape project scheduled for late May and that project could not be done until the fence was installed. Kelly put me through to Carla. After a brief discussion with Carla accommodated me and scheduled the work to be done on May 26. That was very kind, and I told her how much we appreciated that.
All his went south was on Saturday morning May 14. I received a phone call from Carla. Immediately Carla says that she will no longer honor the May 26 work date. Before I can ask why the date is cancelled Carla said that on May 12 my wife and I were not at home to meet Joey the rep, the project was not quoted, and therefore she was cancelling the May 26 date. I told Carla that we had pre-arranged with Kelly that Joey would go in, take measurements, call me and leave the quote for us. All of which took place. Carla acted surprised that it had been done as I said. Nevertheless, Carla refused to honor the May 26 work date. We did exactly what had been arranged through Kelly at the office.
Monday afternoon (May 16) Joey, the sales rep called me as requested. He was unaware that Carla had cancelled our project date. I told him why she cancelled, which he knew was a misunderstanding on Carla's part. Joey then called Carla to sort this out. Instead of sorting this out Carla changed her story for cancelling the May 26 date. She told Joey to tell me that it would be impossible for me to get a permit from the village office in time for May 26 that it would take a minimum of three weeks. Carla was making a broad assumption with that, and furthermore, as I told, Joey, I have an adult daughter who works for the village, which means I could have a permit in a matter of a few days. Furthermore, I did not appreciate Carla speaking to me through a third party who has no knowledge of and nothing to do with the problem that she created. Carla should have called me herself to sort this out. I could have tried to reschedule the landscape project to get the fence in first. Carla, however, never gave me a chance.
On Tuesday (5/17) Kelly phoned me about the project and she too was unaware that Carla had killed the May 26 work date. Kelly said she would discuss this with "Greg" (the owner) who called me to discuss the issue. Greg did offer to keep the May 26 work date. Later that day, however, I contacted Joey and left a message for Kelly to inform them I am postponing the project, and may contact them later this year or early 2017 to try again.
I'm sorry that what had been a good experience with Kelly, Joey and initially Carla had turned sour. People make mistakes, but we step up and own mistakes. It would have been helpful if Carla would have at least shown some professional courtesy during her phone call to me on Saturday, maybe an apology and offer an alternate plan, but she did not.
I don't discourage anyone from contacting Cedar Rustic about a fence project. I like to believe my experience was an exception to not the rule for Cedar in their customer relations.
PS: I understand that Cedar Rustic may respond to this review. If one iota of what I have described above is disputed, it is an untruthful rebuttal. read more