I would have loved to give a positive review, and believed I would have had things gone differently, but my concern is actually about a review -- specifically, the request to give one immediately after the work was done, why I didn't do that, and why that turned out to be the smart thing.
The gentleman who came to fix my garage -- I believe the owner -- said he understood my issues. I needed to have gaps between the garage doors and the walls closed so that pests could not get inside, and I needed him to fix the problem I had with one door sometimes not closing. In other words, I told him all the issues I was having and wanted to get them all fixed, and was willing to pay his fee.
After he secured items needed to close the gaps and made the repairs. He then said he'd fixed everything, which I couldn't actually confirm at the time because the door wouldn't close when he was done (he said it was because the system needed to cool down -- he'd opened and closed it many times and it was overheated, apparently).
Here's where my problem came: As he was filling out my paperwork and getting ready to process my payment, he offered a $10 discount if I would immediately -- before he ran my credit card -- gave him a positive online review.
That immediately made me suspicious of him. As a general rule, I do not claim to be happy with something immediately after purchasing it, whether it's a good or a service. This is because I work in media and I know very well how online reviews work.
Once a person posts an online review, it is not a simple process to go back and change that review. In some/many cases, you're stuck with the co-sign you've given someone. And should you find out a few days later that this good/service wasn't what it seemed to be, wouldn't that be unfortunate? You paid for something you didn't get, and now you've told people you're happy but will have a hard time explaining that with time you learned that the job wasn't done.
Simple. No one should ever give a positive review immediately after something's done. You should wait until you know it's done and the work was up to standard before you praise that person/company and their work.
And sure enough, there were problems with the work, which I discovered a day after the job was "done."
One of my two garage doors now made a very loud banging noise as it got close to the floor when closing it. Again, not a negligible noise -- a very loud bang, like something was very wrong. Not that the extreme level of noise should matter though.
It's important to note that *this was a new problem that didn't exist before.* So it wasn't just that the work wasn't done, a new, loud, very concerning problem was created.
It took the owner weeks to come back to fix the door. And I remember when I called the company phone number (apparently the owner uses an outside customer service company to take calls for him), he called me back and seemed to check to make sure what I needed done -- you know, the job -- was under warranty. That irked me, but since he confirmed that it indeed was covered (of course it was), I let it go.
The noise went away, but then I noticed that all of a sudden the door wasn't closing again when I tried to close it remotely. This was something I asked to be checked when I first hired him, but I noticed it was different this time -- it mainly happened first thing in the morning when leaving the house, but not when returning. In other words, it wouldn't close with the remote so I had to get out, walk into the garage and hold the interior button down for manual override, then walk out the front door. Not convenient.
So I called the number again and asked, again, for the problem to be fixed so the job could be completed, because this was yet another new problem. Something had changed in how often it wouldn't close (daily).
I got the owner on the phone, who said it sounded like a sensor problem (I agreed). He then said he would come and fix it during a week when he was free and I was back from a work trip. It seemed like all would be fixed and fine.
He never came. I began leaving messages that were not returned, all while having to do this same process of getting out of my car, holding down the garage button to let it fully close, and walking out another door to get in my still-running car.
After waiting more than a month to be contacted, I finally left a message letting the company know that if I didn't hear back by a certain day (two weeks ago), I would leave a review -- and it wouldn't be the kind of review he offered to give me a discount for. It would be a complaint about the service and their commitment to doing what they said they'd do.
The problem I have is this. I paid for repairs. I got new problems. And had I been so thirsty to save $10, I would look silly saying "Wait, actually I had to almost harass this company to do what I paid them for. So nah, maybe my review..."
I ended up fixing it myself. So nah, I'm not happy. read more
