A small business with poor customer service. Our impression was that they were over-extended, but…read morewe realized this was not the problem.
The job site staff were great. The design was excellent. At times, it felt like a struggle to get answers about the process and schedules.
Then problems arise: a new staff person without skilled professional experience was sent to work on the painting. He left damage and a mess for other regular staff to repair the next day. This was only resolved when we demanded that no further work be done until the damage was corrected. The owner was planned to send the same employee back with someone else the next day. He stated they "would assess after." He stopped into the house the day it happened, and saw part of the mess, but left the employee there alone.
We had to push for something when it should have been obvious to the owner what the right thing was to do upon damage (for example: sloppily painting over areas that needed patching/sanding, not using drop cloths and getting paint on the new floor, door frames/accessories and surfaces, painting adjustable melamine shelving so they stuck to the walls and supports, and using the wrong paint type on surfaces). We lost two days of work from that. The shelves had to be replaced.
We always received excuses and contradictory explanations, for any issue or inquiry, to what really occurred or was stated. Furthermore, communication problems persisted. Staff didn't keep each other informed about specifics to the job. Office staff actually made excuses or statements that indicated what was on paper didn't matter. Several inquires were ignored. The owner had excuses for everything. When a customer is paying on time, and honoring a contract, they better care, and know about the job specifics. That is what they are being paid to do.
We honored the contract fully and engaged with the owner because we liked the work until then. We were at the junction where small finishes and the final payment were due. A staff member flushed blue contractor paper towels down the toilet. We found out when our system backed up on a Saturday a few days afterward, and sewage flowed out of the lower level, into the garage and down the driveway. We couldn't use our plumbing and had to have an emergency plumber come out. He showed photos of the blue paper towels from the scope camera that were in the pipes out front of the house. They blocked the drainage and back-flowed into the toilet downstairs anytime plumbing was used anywhere in the house. This bill was $868.00. It took the weekend to clean up. We presented the bill and photos to the owner. He agreed to pay for it.
Then the final construction statement increased and the accounting for this was murky. There was an over $800 increase on the labor side without explanation. Only the materials were itemized, and a some final items increased without clear itemization. After running numbers for both labor and materials from the estimate, compared to the final total, 75% was labor and not itemized. When we demanded this to be itemized, the owner refused. When questioned about why a door was priced at almost double and incorrectly identified as a double panel when it was a single, the owner referred to labor for the door-after stating labor is not itemized. He offered no justification for any unexplained labor increase.
Stopping short at calling the lack of transparency suspect is being generous. Being over-extended or disorganized doesn't defend charges that don't add up on the final tally. My spouse is a PhD in math. Numbers don't lie. We were prepared to retain an attorney when the owner refused to clarify and itemize expenses and refused to provide receipts and itemization for those increases.
He offered a 5% discount on the final project total, plus reimbursement for the plumbing fiasco. We accepted and paid the final amount. We were sick of dealing with them. The owner always had his own version of what occurred. This isn't about COVID issues. It's about an owner not taking accountability.
UPDATE as of 2/2021: No permits were ever filed for any part of this job, like the owner was supposed to do, until we found out in January 2021. The job finished in November 2020. The owner actually replied that he thought we wanted the job done without permits. Note this is a licensed contractor who "completed" a professional job without permits. Worse, he actually tried to shake us down for $500 more to file the permit applications. His justification was that permits were never a line item in the contract. If the reader has fully read this review, it was noted that he could not and flat-out refused to provide documentation for questionable increases, and for the labor that was 75% of the bill. My spouse reminded him of this, and he filed the permits after we also informed him that we spoke directly with the permit office.
STEER CLEAR OF THIS COMPANY. The owner is dishonest.
