Ron L. installed my cage and screen years ago, so when it came to rescreening, they were my first…read morecall. I got some other quotes, but a screen is just a screen, right? Regardless, Ron L.'s professional approach at this stage led me to select them for the job, and I did. They sent an email on Thursday that read, "Great news, we'll be on your job tomorrow." Okay...that works. And then a crew showed up completely unannounced at my home that evening at 6:30 because they were there to measure the job. Umm...didn't the "office" send you the specs? No...that's why we're here. Okay, strike one, and I sent a message to Ron and another company representative, and crickets....
The crew came back on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to do the job. It's a good thing I didn't intend to use my backyard space for what should have been a one-day event (according to Ron L. and every other screening company I spoke with). And then the crew left on Sunday. No notice, no final report, no review with the customer...just drove off. Then I checked out the work and found that they ran the screening from one side of the lanai to the other. Had Ron L. bothered with any quality checks, that may not have happened. But they didn't, so now I had to address it, and I did. The crew made excuses and said that's how they did "rescreens." The same crew came back out the next weekend, fixed the problem that I (not the company) found, and again...drove off with zero notification. Then, 2 weeks later, I received the final invoice.
So, of course, I asked the question again. How do I know the work was done to any kind of standard? So far, I have had to address every issue with the company and its crew. Here I go again, and I contacted the company. Only then did someone who said they were the project manager reach out to me directly (first time) to address my concerns.
It's at this point that I told the individual (I'll leave your name out of it, but you know who you are) that I was disappointed in the company's ability to communicate to me what was going on. Of course, I again addressed the crew's attempt to shortcut the job, and the response I got was "they're lazy." So here we have a project manager (who doesn't know what it means to manage a project) who is diming out their work crews. They're only lazy because you are an ineffective manager. They offered an apology and only then said they would come out to review the crew's work and thus do their JOB. I offered my comments as constructive feedback and asked if they were willing to offer any additional concessions (other than an apology and acknowledgement that they need to do better). The response I got was that the work was done. Okay, fair point...but I had to do YOUR job and inspect the work.
Ron L. has a terrific reputation for building cages, and I will likely use them again if I ever need a new one or a rebuild...but I simply can't trust them to do my screens, especially when they hire out subcontractors and don't follow up on the work. They lied to me and tried to deceive me. I can hope they can figure out how to transition their build expertise into their larger business plan, and remember that the customer (read the one who is paying the bills) should be your primary focus.
