COMPLETE AND UTTER JOKE OF A COMPANY! DON'T EVER DO BUSINESS WITH OUTDOOR KITCHEN CREATIONS.
My wife and I bought our house in La Verne 2 years ago...it was a complete fixer upper, so over the past two years we've had a ton of work done, both interior and exterior.
Most recently, we had our backyard completely remodeled--new block wall with decorative caps, stucco, new planters, new pavers, a built in BBQ bar with an awesome alumawood patio cover. The entire project was perfect with the exception of a few design flaws in the BBQ Bar--namely, we didn't include enough entry doors to the interior of the BBQ which made it difficult for access. We also didn't have the previous contractor pour a concrete base at the bottom of the interior, so we wanted to get that done as well.
I typically search for and interview all of the contractors who do work for me, but my parents had just had Brad from Outdoor Kitchen Creations do some touch up on his outdoor BBQ, and it looked reasonably good, so I asked for his info.
Brad came by and was a nice enough guy, listened to what we wanted to accomplish, which was the installation of two aluminum doors and the pouring of a concrete floor throughout the interior of the BBQ. He came back a day later with a bid, which was fair. Normally, I get at least 3 bids for any job but figured since my parents had been satisfied with his work, that I'd just give him the job, which I did.
We had some back and forth regarding which hardware I wanted to purchase, but once that was figured out, I drove over to his shop in Upland, and gave him a check for the deposit. California law only requires the consumer to give any contractor 10% of the total contract price, which was around $1,400, but Brad asked me for $800, citing that he'd need money for the hardware and materials. Against my better judgment, I didn't fight him and wrote him a check. This was on February 11th, which was a Wednesday.
Brad told me he'd call me on Friday of that week to coordinate and that based on his workload, he'd be able to start the job the following Thursday (Feb 19th) and that it would take 4 days. I received no call on Friday. The following week, I left him a voicemail on Tuesday letting him know that I was leaving for a business trip and wouldn't be back until late Thursday, and that we needed to chat and confirm the start date. I got no call back. Fast forward to Thursday, and I called and left another message requesting a call back (THE MAJOR RED FLAG IS THAT BRAD DOESN'T GIVE YOU HIS CELL PHONE, ALL HE PROVIDES IS AN OFFICE LINE WHICH NO ONE EVER ANSWERS). Again I got no call back so I emailed his son Shad, and finally got a response indicating that the doors were being built by his manufacturer and that he'd call me the next week to confirm a start date.
So the weekend passes, and I called him again on Feb 24th, left a voicemail, and again on Feb 26th, again left a voicemail. Didn't get a single call back, so I decided I'd pester him and called a number of times before he finally picked up on Friday, 2/27/15.
I was irritated by his lack of response, considering I'd written him a check for $800, and I communicated that and asked him whether or not anyone ever checks voicemail at his office. He replied by saying, "let's not go there." I'm like, REALLY? So you're saying you didn't get the repeated voicemails I left you? And he sat there in silence and finally said, "well that's my problem."
Clearly, it is his problem. I understand that a $1,400 job is not a huge moneymaker for him, but being in sales and in a consumer direct business myself, I was flabbergasted by his complete disregard and brash responses, especially because many business owners live and die on REFERRALS, which is what this was. He didn't even apologize.
After a heated discussion, he told me he'd call me back when he could confirm when the doors would be finished, and of course he couldn't follow through with that request. So my wife and I discussed and decided to request our deposit back.
Thankfully, they obliged without any hassle, but after all this, all I got by choosing Brad Stilkey and Outdoor Kitchen Creations was 3 weeks of wasted time and ZERO follow through.
IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING ANY TYPE OF OUTDOOR BBQ WORK, DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY UNLESS YOU WANT YOUR TIME WASTED AND BROKEN PROMISES. IT'S AMAZING TO ME THIS GUY IS EVEN IN BUSINESS. read more