Concept Renovations

The owner, [redacted] and his partner, are unwilling to negotiate a contract Seems to be his way or the highway We ended up not working with them due to their inability to negotiate and lack of professionalism throughout the process We requested quotes on Home Advisor and received a quick call based on the lead they sent from their scheduler, Nikki, who set up a consultation with JacobWe decided to give Concept Renovations a chance to remodel our 6'x8' bathroom based on the solid reviews on multiple sites (only one poor review on Yelp about inappropriate sexual behavior and the way it was handled by management) We had hoped this was an isolated issue based on the multiple positive reviews We had informed them early on we plan to start with the bathroom and then remodel the rest of the house and would like to use them if the bathroom reno went as planned Aside from the one poor review, there were multiple red flags that came up with communication that concerned us We agreed upon a price with Jacob at our first meeting and then he emailed over a proposal (titled it an addendum but no signed contract sent) We asked multiple times for a contract before the start date and were told by Nikki that files were locked in the office but she would attempt to sendAfter repeated requests, they were never sent and the next day Jacob said files can't be sent over email and that Nikki doesn't perform clerical work They also recommended we order items from Ferguson with their builders' discount and found they were 2-times higher than the exact same quality items from HomeDepot.com We even called the manufacturer to confirm both products were the same and were frustrated they sent to waste hours Once our orders were all squared away, his project manager, Avi, arrived with a demo crew of guys on the agreed upon date with the contract It was a standard California Home Improvement Contract that refers to the addendum (or the proposal) he sent over We felt pressured to sign a vague, one-sided contract while the crew was sitting outside waiting to start demo We ended up agreeing to postpone demo while we worked out the contractThey kept saying that we had to trust them and that they were getting good vibes from us which is very unprofessional He said "You probably don't want to hear this, but I could reno this bathroom with my eyes closed!" since he's done so many and rests on his reviews on all these home websites We wanted a contract to protect both sides from issues down the road as is standard when working with GCs He didn't want to budge allowing them to be vague and uncooperative if issues arise The job was verbally proposed to take business weeks (days) but the contract stated a whole month (business days) He built in cushion for his team so our job could push the whole month had they needed to accomplish other jobs We added a liquidated damages clause discounting the job per late day past the contract date Avi and Jacob claimed to be confident that they could accomplish the job in the allotted timeframe and if that was truly the case, they needn't have an issue with the clause as it solely rests on their ability I also detailed the proposal with all the verbal items they agreed upon and he said he could meet our timeline but the proposal stayed as-is Therefore, he was unwilling to work harder to manage and complete the job properly We gave him an opportunity review our updated contract and go back and forth letting us know what he didn't like All he responded was, "We don't usually have people ever alter our paper Again u obviously see our work and you know we aren't here to steal It's either you trust us and take the risk or it doesn't work There's a reason we have an A rating Never stolen a dollar." This is likely in response to adjusting the payment schedule They wanted 1/the cost after demo, 2/after plumbing and electrical (proposed to be completed on day 3) and then the last 1/towards the end I proposed a fairer schedule with ½ due after about half the job was complete, ¾ around the ¾ mark and the last ¼ upon completion TL;DR: Jacob and his partner are unwilling to negotiate a contract, unable to properly email full contracts so clients can review them before demo guys are waiting to come in, and aren't willing to work harder to get a small job done so they can land a much larger job He informed me, "Luckily I'm privileged enough to have enough work." Good for him Fully review his contract, ask questions, and negotiate when planning to work with Concept RenovationsWe were fair and kind throughout the process and he was unable to make us feel comfortable since he wanted leeway in the contract to not perform Although they may perform, there may likely be headaches and disagreements along the way since he is unlikely to budge and make the contract fairer and detailed for the homeowner