Where do I begin. Upon completion of the project, which I was initially told was a fixed price contract, Josh Trevithick (owner) decided to add roughly $2k to the bill claiming the install of 4 light switches took 6.5 hours longer than it should've. Ignoring the fixed price, the extra hours are due to the fact their employees got high at lunch and came back to meander around the house for seemingly no reason other than to rack up a larger bill. Installing 4 light switches should take 1-2 hours tops (including programming) and only about 20 mins for the switches themselves (ask any electrician). They stuck around for nearly a full day (were it not for them showing up 1.5 hours late and taking a 90 minute lunch). Now I don't care in the slightest if anyone gets high, or works at a snails pace, when I have a fixed price contract. But I absolutely care if I'm supposed to pay for this, especially at $225/hour. Why they needed 2 employees to install 4 light switches is also beyond me.
Next, they severed communication to my home camera systems, and didn't fix or resolve the issue forcing me to spend hours on the line with the camera company to reset the system and reconnect. Their solution was to tell me my camera system sucks and I should probably buy one from them. It didn't suck before I hired PA, it doesn't suck after I've fixed it. These are just more of the bottom feeder tactics employed by Project Automate.
Additionally, they decided to change product (added larger TV mounts) without any notice or request. I haven't measured the installed mounts yet, but I do suspect they may have easily just told me they're larger when in fact they aren't, knowing most customers would never question it. But either way, even if they did in fact install larger ones, it wasn't required for my TV's which all but 1 were sized for the smaller mounts (which you can get for less than half the price from Best Buy instead of purchasing through Project Automate). I also didn't realize installing a slightly larger mount would also cost an additional $50 in labor per mount, on top of the higher cost for each mount. Same 4 screws to install right? Yet more labor? Makes no sense. Keep in mind, this is after they first came to the house, saw all the TV's that needed to be mounted, and knew what products would be suitable in order to present me an initial quote. I was only notified of this unnecessary change in product when a final bill was presented.
Finally, I was told these extra "charges" could be waived if I decided to do more work with the company - specifically install blinds. Upon addressing all of the aforementioned issues, they were ignored simply asking when they could perform more work and how quickly they could get started on the blinds. Seems to me this is a practice they use to try and force customers into using them again in the future.
Next came the legal threats when I asked for the bill to be corrected. Instead, what they did was delete the old bill from the system, create a brand new one so I could never access the old bill, and the new bill has no detail in the line items, just a price, not associated with any of the claimed work. It may be worth noting, I work in music and technology, and generally speaking, I know how most of these things work. I can tell when I'm being fleeced (many in music use similar tactics), and this seems to be one of those cases. These guys are completely dishonest, and get away with it because most of the work they do is behind a closed Control 4 system, which people generally don't have access to, so they can lie and tell you anything to raise their price. Save yourself the headache and cost. Will never use PA again and advise you to do the same.
P.S. I NEVER write reviews. This may in fact be the first - certainly the first negative one I can recall. I have way better things to do with my time and just don't care enough. But when someone is this egregious and this dishonest, I've got to share my experience and hopefully help someone else steer clear of the headache. read more
