I hired Five Star to build a large chainlink fence and an ipe wood gate in our backyard. It was frustrating right away because they will not even give you an estimate of when the work will be done until you sign a contract. Fine, whatever, I signed and got onto the books and then went back and forth with Romuald about the design. Now, when you are dropping 8k for a gate from a reputable company, you expect it to be done right the first time right? Not with these guy! On the day that work commenced, Romuald did not even bother to show up and walk through the project or all the back and forth emails we discussed over the phone. The crew was almost entirely hispanic and communicated as best they could, but they did not have the relevant info to do the job right. Surprise surprise, the crew messed up and did not know I wanted a deadbolt and handle on the gate. They hung it too far apart. Romuald's response was that he's too busy too deal with it. Instead of fixing it flat out, they rigged it with another latch so it would actually lock when closed. The problem with that is the gate is constantly sagging and I have to keep adjusting the latch to make it fit closed. Also, the overall workmanship was pretty shoddy. The expensive ipe wood that I payed a premium for looked like bargain basement cuts and half of it was bowed. I literally had to take pictures of everything they "forgot" to do to finish out the project (such as cut and cap the huge gate posts). I mean come on. Anyway, I would never use them again, or recommend them. I gave them 2 stars only because the workers did work hard, and they came back to adjust the gate on one occasion after a couple months and paint some of the rust away (which was there after 4 months...). It's not the worker's faults. It's management. Romuald was either just a horrible project manager or too busy to do a good job.
EDITED FOR RESPONSE TO OWNER
Well, I had given them 2 stars out of respect for the workers, but after the blatant lies of Romuald's response I feel I have to change it to one star. Please see below if you want to count the falsehoods. This just further drives home the point of why you should not use this company.
Romuald:
"Yes I do remember that gentlemen, even if I never met him, I met with his wife. We did the job more than a year ago. Here is the copy of the original estimate as it was specified from the beginning that it was a latch, but as he wanted a deadbolt the day we started we put it in for him."
Me:
Absolutely untrue and I have the back and forth emails discussing the different types of deadbolts with Romuald to prove it. We had this discussion before I even signed the contract. Happy to share the emails.
Romuald:
"I will try to make the story short, I came for the estimate the next day he called, he got the quote I believe the same day and they were told 2-3 weeks lead time for install, they said no problem. Then I came back, as it is close to where I use to live, to get contract and deposit, still no problem. Then he started been difficult saying that he needed installation next day as he had a construction project starting in a few days. We moved the schedule to accommodate him,"
Me:
Nope. Lies again. I started my correspondence with Five star on 6/6/16 with the express concern of installing the gate asap. They would not give me a date until I signed a contract. I did and they gave me a date of 7/6/16. I asked if it could be done sooner and it was moved to 6/20.
Romuald:
"I showed up to get the job started, right at the beginning around 10:00 am."
Me:
Lie. He did not show up on the day work began. If he had the gate would have been installed correctly with the required space for a deadbolt. He didn't show actually show up until the end of the project.
Romuald:
"I Came to see the wife and asked her if she had any question and then the deadbolt question came up. I even told them that it wasn't a good idea to put the gate before doing the new addition to the house as with trucks coming in and out it might affect foundation of the gate and make it sag."
Me:
Lie. He never discussed trucks "affecting the foundation of the gate". Not that I see why this should be an issue. It's a gate. You open it and cars drive through. He mentioned he was worried they might bang into it, which they did not.
Romuald:
"When the lock guy came to put the lock on, as I didn't want to be responsible for the lock install, I was there as well to make sure it works properly. We did everything that he asked us and when a small adjustment was needed we even came back to fix it."
Me:
This one is semi true. He came back after the project was a mess and did not take responsibility for properly fixing it. Instead of rehanging the gate closer together to work with a deadbolt, he made the locksmith ghetto rig the thing by screwing on a bunch of extra strike plates to the deadbolt. The "small adjustment" was the gate sagging so much that the latch wouldn't even close. read more