I had a bad experience working with Manuel and Quality Custom Curbing. Manuel missed our first appointment to give me a quote. I should have known that this was going to be a reoccurring theme.
He and his workers came out and leveled off the area in preparation to pour. They spray painted an outline and gave me hope that my curbing would be put in that day. Then, the list of excuses started.
On the first attempt, he broke a wheel on his trailer...ok bad luck I guess. Then 2 more cancelations due to heat. I live in a new construction track...I walk outside and I see the developer getting up early to pour concrete before the heat of the afternoon, all while I waited for Manuel to fit me into his schedule. Why am I pushed to the back of the calendar each time he had to cancel? I decided to have a different contractor put in sprinklers while I waited. Each time He was supposed to come out I would message him the night before to confirm just for him to tell me that he wasn't going to come out.
When Manuel finally came back out, he made some excuse that he could not or did not want to roll his wheelbarrow and curbing machine over the shallow trenches for sprinklers.
The final straw was his cancellation on his next appointment. He claimed that his wife was sick. I'm not sure if any of these reasons were true or if he just had other jobs and threw mine on the back burner. Either way, it doesn't matter. I hired him to complete this job according to the times he given me, and he did not do that. He just keep rescheduling me around other jobs he had. He was not able to complete the work in a timely manner!
Regardless of the fact that he had so many things "come up" along the way the day of or before he was scheduled to come complete my job, I tried to compromise with him since they did complete a fraction of the work and asked for a partial refund so I could move on to another company that could get the job done in a timely manner.
Manuel replied with "I don't work for free". I guess we can see the type of person that runs this company. I have been more than patient with him, and he needs to realize that his problems should not be projected onto his customers. I guess I learned a hard lesson. Don't work with unlicensed contractors.
I ended up calling The Curb Guy. He came out and successfully completed the work in a few hours on a day with the typical Riverside County summer weather in the mid-90s. Not much cooler than the external heat from the days Manuel cancels on me. He was professional, did a great job and followed through. I guess that's why he had multiple 5 star reviews versus the one for this company.
Response to the comment:
I was able to make an expensive glass of lemon aid with the lemons that this company was handed on the days the work was suppose to be completed.
I had to move on to another person because of the long wait and multiple cancellations with custom curbing. The licensed concrete guy was actually the same price for more concrete. I added a few things since he was able to come out and finish the entire job in one day.
So, I suggest using someone that is licensed. It's not worth the headache. And, no discount was offered for all the lemons. But, if he's offering a discount I will gladly take some money back for my inconvenience. In fact when I asked I got a nice hourly breakdown of how much he pays his guys. read more