Affordable Decks & Additions Inc.

September 10, 2015 This is our response to this complaint #[redacted]:  In order to fully understand what Mrs. [redacted] is complaining about would be to see the photos of her deck in question. Since those viewing may or may not see the photos she sent in we can try to give a brief description. The...

[redacted]'s are selling their house. The wooden deck has been neglected for many many years. Never had a sealer or stain put on it. The deck photos show severe mold on the railing posts, etc. The other photos of boards they wanted replaced showed that someone had tried unsuccessfully to power wash the deck. Those photos show that an incorrect tip on the pressure wand was used and the zig zag pattern marks on the boards are from that failure in pressure washing. Additionally a product called [redacted] was then applied and hence the deck's appearance. This is not a product we recommend.  We have visited the deck once before a few years back and she was informed by our production manager that the deck needed maintenance attention.  We do not or have we ever offered a lifetime warranty on a wood deck. As noted in this situation, the deck was never cared for and we would go out of business if we were to be responsible for lack of maintenance on wooden decks. As far as the communication with the office. Mrs. [redacted] did call our office and she was told those explanations. There are certain life events that do happen, some planned and some unfortunately not. Yes, there was a wedding and a motor cycle accident. And yes, one of our long time employees did die unexpectedly. Ridiculous excuses???? We think not and I am sure whomever reading this reply would agree. Honest, mostly tragic answers, not excuses.  She is also correct that she was told it wasn't life threatening nor would it ever be. What she left out that she was emailed back on Monday August 17 @ 3:01 pm (attached) addressing her concerns, warranty information, the photos that were sent to our suppliers, theirs and our feedback as to what the problem was. Clearly: mold, neglect to preserve the wood and failed maintenance. She filed the claim August 17, @ 5:50:02pm. She was indeed contacted via email as she hung up on the 14th saying she would be calling all of the radio stations if she didn't get a call back that night. Furthermore, it is ridiculous to think her deck will fall or anyone will fall off of it. There is nothing structurally wrong with the deck nor did the materials fail due to a result of our materials and workmanship. The negligence is solely on the homeowner.  In closing, our production manager did visit her deck on August 29th. He identified the same concerns as the prior visit and the severe mold. Mrs. [redacted] understood. He did replace a few post caps where the mold was very bad in order to save face and as a kind courtesy. It is our goal to make our customers happy. We are indeed a very professional company and have been for 30 plus years. We cannot be held responsible for customers lack of maintenance on their wooden decks. We highly recommend they do so. If any further information is needed, please contact us directly @ ###-###-####.  Respectfully, Jeff V[redacted] Owner  Affordable Decks & Additions, Inc.

We are currently working with Mr. [redacted] in addressing this issue. We will be replacing and/or adding a support post upon inspection set for 6/25/16. We are assured there isn't a safety issue and this will be corrected within the week as we have a crew currently working in his...

area. Respectfully, Affordable Decks & Additions, Inc.

Review: I had contracted Affordable Decks to build a deck on my primary Residence in 2009. The work was completed in 2009. One corner/area of the deck is starting to sag and lean, making it a safety issues. I called in July, 2015 and was told to email pictures to them, which I did. I have made >10 phone calls over the last 10 months to have the problem addressed and have always been told someone will be out to inspect the deck and correct teh problem. No one has ever come out and being re-assured numerous times that someone will. The provlem is now considerably worse and I find the deck unusable.Desired Settlement: I would like the deck to be repaired so it is no longer sagging and a safety issue.

Business

Response:

We are currently working with Mr. [redacted] in addressing this issue. We will be replacing and/or adding a support post upon inspection set for 6/25/16. We are assured there isn't a safety issue and this will be corrected within the week as we have a crew currently working in his area. Respectfully, Affordable Decks & Additions, Inc.

Review: Affordable Decks installed a deck on my house in March of 2013, the deck had several items that needed corrected. I found myself calling time and time again, leaving message after message. I was either told no one was available or more often, calls were never returned. I was told on several occasions that no one was available to perform the repairs because all the crews were out building new decks.In the beginning of July of 2013 I discovered several issue such as loose boards and an issue with the gate to the deck. It was well over a month before a repair crew was sent out to address the issues. In the process of repairing the loose boards, shims were added under the boards which caused the edges of several boards to rise above the surface of the deck. I brought this to their attention in August of 2013. Affordable Decks finally contacted me by phone on 10/21/13 (almost two full months later) regarding the repairs and discussed what the resolution would be. I heard nothing until 12/6/13 when I was notified that the repairs that were scheduled to be completed could not be done and they would keep me posted as to when they could reschedule the repairs. After waiting another three months without any contact from Affordable Decks, I again emailed them on 3/19/14 and asked when repairs would be made. On 3/30/14 I notified Affordable Decks that the deck surface developed a very noticeable slop (dip) over one third of the deck surface,a valley had formed and I was very concerned it may be a structural issue.On Friday 5/9/14 Affordable Decks arrived at my house unannounced to make the repairs. All but the slope was addressed. I was told they would speak to their engineering department to determine the proper solution/repair. On 5/20/14 they notified me that they were not willing to make any more corrections and they would not accept my calls or open any of my emails. They have cut off all lines of communication at this point and instruucted me to contact their attorney.Desired Settlement: My deck is only one year old and it now has a considerable dip that spans roughly 1/3 of the entire deck surface. According to Affordable decks, the dip is a slight defect that is within industry Standards. My only wish in all of this is to have Affordable Decks make the necessary repair (whatever that is) so that my family can enjoy our deck. I was promised that I would be completely satisfied with the deck and if I was not (for any reason) Affordable Decks would make it right.

Business

Response:

In response to complaint ID # [redacted], Affordable Decks completed a deck project for

Left a voicemail and email to site for estimate on porch roof.

After one week Received no response to either

Review: After trying to contact Affordable Decks over the past 6 weeks. They have given multiple excuses and reasons of why the can not send someone out to inspect my deck. We have a lifetime warranty with Affordable Decks and they are refusing to honor the warranty. I have emails from them saying since its not life threating they will get to me when they can. After three calls to them all ending with ridiculous excuses ranging from a motor cycle accident the first week, a death in the company the second week and lastly a wedding that they were closed for the day.

They have not returned my calls or emails of late and I getting extremely frustrated with them. They are not acting like a professional company and need to be reprimanded. Any help will be greatly appreciated, I rather not have anyone fall or my deck collapse because of their negligence. If you would like to contact us at we can be reached at ###-###-#### or via email.

Thank you,

[redacted]Desired Settlement: We want them to honor our warranty and at least a phone call back

Business

Response:

September 10, 2015 This is our response to this complaint #[redacted]: In order to fully understand what Mrs. [redacted] is complaining about would be to see the photos of her deck in question. Since those viewing may or may not see the photos she sent in we can try to give a brief description. The [redacted]'s are selling their house. The wooden deck has been neglected for many many years. Never had a sealer or stain put on it. The deck photos show severe mold on the railing posts, etc. The other photos of boards they wanted replaced showed that someone had tried unsuccessfully to power wash the deck. Those photos show that an incorrect tip on the pressure wand was used and the zig zag pattern marks on the boards are from that failure in pressure washing. Additionally a product called [redacted] was then applied and hence the deck's appearance. This is not a product we recommend. We have visited the deck once before a few years back and she was informed by our production manager that the deck needed maintenance attention. We do not or have we ever offered a lifetime warranty on a wood deck. As noted in this situation, the deck was never cared for and we would go out of business if we were to be responsible for lack of maintenance on wooden decks. As far as the communication with the office. Mrs. [redacted] did call our office and she was told those explanations. There are certain life events that do happen, some planned and some unfortunately not. Yes, there was a wedding and a motor cycle accident. And yes, one of our long time employees did die unexpectedly. Ridiculous excuses???? We think not and I am sure whomever reading this reply would agree. Honest, mostly tragic answers, not excuses. She is also correct that she was told it wasn't life threatening nor would it ever be. What she left out that she was emailed back on Monday August 17 @ 3:01 pm (attached) addressing her concerns, warranty information, the photos that were sent to our suppliers, theirs and our feedback as to what the problem was. Clearly: mold, neglect to preserve the wood and failed maintenance. She filed the claim August 17, @ 5:50:02pm. She was indeed contacted via email as she hung up on the 14th saying she would be calling all of the radio stations if she didn't get a call back that night. Furthermore, it is ridiculous to think her deck will fall or anyone will fall off of it. There is nothing structurally wrong with the deck nor did the materials fail due to a result of our materials and workmanship. The negligence is solely on the homeowner. In closing, our production manager did visit her deck on August 29th. He identified the same concerns as the prior visit and the severe mold. Mrs. [redacted] understood. He did replace a few post caps where the mold was very bad in order to save face and as a kind courtesy. It is our goal to make our customers happy. We are indeed a very professional company and have been for 30 plus years. We cannot be held responsible for customers lack of maintenance on their wooden decks. We highly recommend they do so. If any further information is needed, please contact us directly @ ###-###-####. Respectfully, Jeff V[redacted] Owner Affordable Decks & Additions, Inc.

Review: We had a deck build by Affordable Decks, and the workers used non-galvanized finishing nails, which rusted within a month of the deck being completed. We contacted Jeff V[redacted] who told us that he would have the problem corrected by the end of the summer (2013), which never happened.

We contacted the company again in early 2014 (we e-mailed, called the office, called Jeff's cell phone, and also texted Jeff), and, once again, Jeff said that he was really busy to start the season, but would make sure it got corrected -- we tried to be very accommodating, and told Jeff not to worry about rushing during the busy months but to please have it done by the end of the summer. 2014 came and went without the deck being fixed. I tried numerous times over the winter months to contact Jeff, but he would never return any of my messages.

In early 2015, we stopped by a booth that Affordable Decks had set up at the home show and talked to Jeff's wife, [redacted], and she said she'd have him get in touch with me. Again, Jeff did not call back. However, in early April, the Operations Manager, Dave, came out to see the deck, and he scheduled a date in early May 2015, on a Saturday morning, to come and finally fix the deck -- Dave was a no-show that day.

Finally, in late September 2015, after nearly 10 communication attempts (all of which went unreturned by Jeff), Dave called back to reschedule a date to fix the deck.

Now, it is October 10th, 2015, and Dave from Affordable Decks finally came out to fix the deck. I was unhappy with the work that he and his worker were doing, since it was damaging other parts of the deck, which I told him about, and his response was to insult me. In an attempt to avoid any other issues, I once again tried to call Jeff on his cell phone, and this time he answered -- however, he was very confrontational from the start of the call, and decided to pull the workers off the job less than 1 hour in.

So, after more than 2 years, we still have the same problems.

To summarize:

1. We've been extremely patient with Affordable Decks for more than 2 years.

2. Affordable Decks has not corrected a problem they have been aware of for more than 2 years.

3. No one from the company will respond.

4. We've been treated very disrespectfully.Desired Settlement: I want Affordable Decks to come back and fix the problems with the deck, the right way (without damaging other parts of the deck); which is all I've wanted for more than 2 years. And we would appreciate more professionalism on behalf of Jeff and his workers.

Business

Response:

Upon inspection of the deck in question the issue of the small pin holes could have simply been corrected by buffing the small areas and applying a color matching filler. This approach would be the industry standard corrective solution and could be completed by any semi skilled helper in a timely manner. Having completed 2 projects for said customer and knowing they are very particular, we felt a different approach was a better alternative for both parties. Instead of a repair of the post wraps, we chose to replace them with new product. This requires more skill and time, so scheduling was a little more restrictive. Through prior inspection it was determined the issue was purely cosmetic and not a structural nor emergency issue. The morning the work was being performed, the customer met with the crew and Dave the foreman explained they would be replacing the post wraps with new. This was agreed on and work on the railing began. Approx. 1 hour later said customer came out and inquired on how the work was being performed in more detail. The foreman explained he would loosen the rail styles and remove the wraps and replace them. At that time, he asked why the top rail wasn't being removed. It was not necessary to complete the work. The said customer became upset that he would not be receiving a new top rail. There was nothing wrong with it and the foreman assured him that he would be pleased once the work was complete. With that said customer went into the house and shortly after the workers could hear loud yelling and vulgar language. At this time the foreman's helper stated his concern of his safety as you could tell the yelling at a high volume was directed towards the workers making it a hostile situation. When the yelling stopped the foreman received a call from the office to inform him he should leave due to the angry phone call received from the customer and a potential confrontation that would not solve any problems (thinking possibly in a few days a cooler head would prevail) The rail was 1/3 removed when this occurred and the foreman got off the phone with the office and the customer immediately came out and sternly told the crew they were leaving and said sarcastically "I guess you are going to leave my rail in pieces?" The foreman explained that for the safety of his child and others he would install the new wraps and re secure the rail that was disassembled as long as the customer would refrain from anymore confrontation. At this time is is very difficult to subject any worker to this blatant harassment as we know for fact that this has occurred with other contractors. We sent out our most seasoned carpenter with 35 years experience in all phases of remodeling including but certainly not limited to trim carpentry. His experience, quality control and customer care skills are top notch and he was belittled and nervous of a possible physical confrontation. That said he does not feel comfortable returning to be ridiculed for trying to satisfy a customer that is indeed never going to be satisfied. We could have just buffed and filled the microscopic holes but we decided to replace all post wraps to the tune of $2,500 in materials plus labor. The customer probably wishes he wouldn't have been so rude and nasty as only one portion of railing was replaced and the rest are staying. If anyone would like to call our office, we wold be happy to answer any questions that you have regarding this.

Review: I've been waiting six months for Affordable Deck to come back and correct some issues. They were at my home about 10 days ago to inspect what needed done and said that they would return Saturday, September 28th to complete the work. They did not show up nor did they call to say they wouldn't be here. Very unprofessional.Desired Settlement: I desire that Affordable Deck make the corrections to this job in a timely fashion. I have just called them and now they have said they will be here this coming Saturday.

Business

Response:

To Whom it may concern, We, Affordable Decks and Additions, Inc., have completed this service to the customer’s satisfaction on October 5, 2013. If any additional Information is needed, please contact us at the number below.