Hinsdale Contracting

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2017/04/10) */ Re: [redacted] Toward the beginning of March, the [redacted] 's contacted me to give them an estimate for some projects on their homeThe job details included flooring and updating a bathroomI visited the [redacted] home to look over the job details in order to give an estimateThe [redacted] 's had not purchased materials for the updates on their home at that time, and I did tell the homeowners that I could save them some money on the materials by utilizing part of my contractor discountThe total discount was not discussed as even I did not know exactly how much that discount would be until the materials list could be presented to [redacted] and then estimated from the sales deskI did mention to them that it's usually around 10-12%When I received the price list from Lowe's, I was able to save the customer money, however, I am under no obligation to provide my full contractor discount, nor did I tell the homeowners that I would be giving them the full contractor discountThey were, in fact, pleased that they wouldn't be paying the full retail cost I did text an amount of to Mrs [redacted] so she and her husband could review that number and either accept or declineThey accepted and asked me to come by their home to receive a check for that amount so materials could be purchasedI also submitted an estimate for the labor cost and an invoice for the materialsThis invoice serves as a receipt to clients that I perform work for; as any contractor would provide an invoice from their business to their clientThe invoice for materials was in the amount of This invoice gave the [redacted] 's a 12% discount over retail costThe [redacted] 's were under no obligation to accept the estimate for labor or the invoice for materialsIn paragraph 2, line 4-of their complaint letter, Mrs [redacted] states that she didn't see an invoiceThat is falseI gave her an invoice, which, like I said before, serves as a receipt as wellClearly, I gave them an invoice, as they included it in the documents with the complaint letter that I received In paragraph of the complaint letter regarding the vanity, the client purchased the vanity top themselves, and I installed it for them on their bathroom cabinetThe vanity top was placed squarely on the cabinet and securedI explained to the homeowner that the vanity top was placed appropriately on the cabinet, and showed them why it appeared to look slightly misalignedThe reason it appeared misaligned to the homeowner is because the bathroom walls are slightly out of square, which is completely out of my controlI did not frame the bathroom, nor did I sheetrock their bathroomThe complaint letter in paragraph states, in parenthesis, "new vanity top, light fixture, ceiling exhaust fan, towel racks, new faucets, new shower-head, and mirror." The estimate sheet, which was not submitted to the Revdex.com by the homeowener, clearly states, "bathroom update, cabinet vanity, lights, mirror" not the other items such as ceiling exhaust fan, towel racks, new faucets, or new shower-headI did go ahead and install a sink faucet so they could use their new vanity at their request; however, I did not charge the homeowner for the sink faucet install In paragraphs and 3, regarding the grout color, I chose a grout color that matched the tile as close as possibleI wanted to get approval on the color before I began grouting the entire floor, which Mrs[redacted] did approve the color after I applied a sample area to small section of floorThere were no areas of missing grout, except where the baseboards cover the floor along the wall, which is standard practice I did provide a receipt to the [redacted] 's , as I do with all my clients, in the form of an invoice, again, as most contractors do for their clientsI am not required to provide my wholesaler receipts to my clients as no company/business doesAfter I explained this to Mrs [redacted] , she became enraged and told me that she would not pay for the labor costsHer husband tried to calm her, but to no avail as he told her repeatedly to go in the houseIn paragraph 4, the allegations of my character are inaccurate to say the least In paragraph of the complaint letter, the homeowner deceitfully obtained a receipt from [redacted] through a sales clerkThe receipt has the totals as my cost as a contractorThe claim that they "overpaid" because they're seeing the contractor cost is erroneousThey did not receive my full contractor discount; however, they did receive a discount, nonetheless, off retail costThis is the same concept as someone who walks into a retail store and demands to see their wholesale cost and then claims that the retail cost is "overcharging" themEither they agree to the retail cost or they don'tThe [redacted] 's agreed to the estimate/invoice I gave them, then saw my contractor discount price, and claimed I was "overcharging" themThe total of that Mrs [redacted] came up with in paragraph is also not accurateThe "estimate" of $100-$for mortar and grout is not accurate eitherbags of mortar and bags of grout are much higher than her suggested price The square foot estimate includes enough tiles to cover what flooring contractors refer to as "waste." What that means is, we have to purchase more than the measured square foot to account for tiles that require cuts, such as, along the wall, corners, doorways, etcThere are also consistently a few tiles that are cracked or broken in the boxes due to shipment from the manufacturer as wellThis is unfortunate, but it happens and is part of the process of tile flooringWe have to take that into consideration when purchasing the flooringThe [redacted] 's were not over-chargedIf they paid the retail cost of the tile flooring, they would have paid anywhere from 1700.00-for the materials as the online cost of the wood look tile from [redacted] is $sq ft and the 12" tiles online cost is $making a total for their square footage $1654.50, not including tax, mortar, and groutWith those numbers, it is clear to see that the total materials charged, including the tile, mortar, and grout on their invoice of is more than reasonable Obviously, I knew Mrs [redacted] was upset, so I offered to settle by reducing the amount owed on labor costs by taking off over of the original labor estimateIt was to be exact, which is sq ft offNot to mention, installing a sink faucet at no cost to themThe [redacted] 's agreed to this adjusted cost and settled by writing a check for the remainder of the labor costThere were no damages done- the allegations of damage to a sofa and drywall are not accurateWe performed a walk-through of the entire project; this includes the area where the tile was laid and the bathroom updates, with no appearance of damages and no mention of the sortThe sofa was even covered with a protective drop cloth during the duration of the projectFurthermore, the debris was hauled off their property and disposed of properly as wellIn fact, after the initial walk-through and before Mrs [redacted] became upset about the invoice serving as her receipt, Mr [redacted] asked if I would do more projects for themI would say, if they were unhappy with the quality of my workmanship, he would not have asked me to give an estimate for more projects to be done on their home The complaint letter uses words such as "boasting", "shoddy workmanship", and the other adjectives used is something I don't take lightly as an honest, hard-working business ownerI take pride in the work I do, as most of my jobs come to me by word of mouth and repeat customersAs a contractor, most customers appreciate learning about "successful jobs" and offerings of references of the person they are about to hire to do work in their homeI have an A+ business rating with the Revdex.com as well as excellent reviews from happy customersI try to always make sure my customers are pleased 100%, but realize that will not always be the case, with some, no matter how much effort is put into trying to make another happy customer Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 8, 2017/04/17) */ ***Document Attached [redacted] I have carefully reviewed [redacted] ***'s response to my complaintHis responses are nothing but falsehoodsHe claims he has an A+ Revdex.com rating, when in fact he is not rated at all by your organization He claims he did not mamaterials from store cost, but he did indeedI am including a receipt dated 3/15/from [redacted] that was emailed to me from their Customer Service Department (This receipt also has other materials that were not used on our project)He bought SF of the tile we requested for the family room and SF of tile for the bathroom, and spacers for a total of $(I estimate a total of $with tax for our materials)Figure another $100-in mortar and grout he purchased somewhere else or had leftover from another job, and we overpaid for materials by some $I am attaching all text messages I exchanged with Mr [redacted] to demonstrate how he (mis)represented he "saved about 12%" He charged us for installing SF of tile, when in reality the space is square feet (I had another floor installer measure the space and also told me that we would need to purchase 10-15% more tile than the total square footage of space, which comes out to 480.7-square feet of tile) He was to remove a [redacted] Bed which was bolted to the floor and remove the carpet and replace with tile, which was not completed There was no "final walk-through" as he also claimsBoth myself and my husband were in the basement with Mr [redacted] after he said he was finished, but when I asked for receipts for the materials, he became very inflamed, screamed "I knew you were going to be like this", called me a "psycho-bh", and stormed out of the basement and started removing the construction debris from his truck and throwing it on the groundHe also got a crowbar from his truck and threatened to tear out the floor if he was not paidIt felt like he had successfully used these tactics in the past to obtain payment for inadequate/incomplete services from people who questioned his unscrupulous business practicesWhich would explain why he did not remove the carpet/floor pad debris the day he and his two employees pulled it off the floor My husband did not "yell" at me to go inside, I removed myself from the situation as I observed Mr [redacted] become more and more angry and felt frightenedMy husband was trying be diplomatic and resolve the situation, so we were not left with a pile of construction debris in our driveway, but he did NOT tell Mr [redacted] he was pleased with his workNor did he offer to hire him again-there is absolutely no circumstance where this man would be hired by us again I am including photos of damage to the leg of the sofa, where he carelessly moved it, and the leg will require refinishingI am also including several photos of the improperly installed floor and damage to our dry wallThe improperly installed floor should be removed and replaced at Mr***'s expense We have spent $to have a plumber come and correct the improperly placed toilet and improperly installed sink faucetI have no idea how much we will have to spend to have the drywall and baseboards repaired [redacted] of Creative Hardwood Floors, LLC and Creative Home Solutions, LLC, conducts business illegally and unethically

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 9, 2016/08/10) */
Revdex.com COMMENT:Business called and stated: Consumer wanted an initial install with hardwood floors on their time frame was unable to do install which they knew from the beginningAll monies paid was for material not laborWe do not collect any
money for labor until job is completeWe talked to them 2-times through text at one point a week after proceeded to tell him I would be there in days he agreed and an hour later he called back mad
Saying it was unacceptable to install in daysI never ran off with any money
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 11, 2016/08/10) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
because he said would be there two weeks before to install and ignored us and did not respond till week later.So we asked him to come get product he left, and return money and he refuses.He never gave us receiptwe would like our money backeveryone else has return policy .plus never had to give money before job was done
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 19, 2016/08/19) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
We called him and the quoute was for to sand and redo our floorWhen he came July 7th, he looked at our floor and said he could not redo it , that we needed new flooringHe showed us sample and had us write a check for for him to be here that weekenddid not show up Tried to get ahold of him , finally week later replied through text had to put us off another week, then did not show up again.So we called company he suposably bought wood from they said that wood had been discontinued for a month plus he way over charged us by Swe figured out we were scammed and called someone else to come look at floorGuess what could be redone he lied to get more money from usWe would like to see receipt from where he purchased wood with our check to prove we were scammedPlease send us receipt, or come get wood and give check backNext Action is going to be court.,if we do not see actual receipt for our wood or come get it and give us our money.Please don't continue to scam people .Floor is resanded and looks beautiful from someone that was not a scam artist
Final Business Response /* (4000, 17, 2016/08/19) */
Revdex.com Comment: X-XX-XXXX Business called in and replied:
Anywhere you go you have to pay for the product and if you go to a big box store you also have to pay for the installationWe were in contact with you anytime you called or asked questionsThere is no returns you have the product there is nothing else we can do for youYou have money for the installDon't understand why you cannot hire someone else to come install itYou have what you paid forSorry my dates did not work for you

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2017/04/10) */
Re: [redacted]
Toward the beginning of March, the [redacted]'s contacted me to give them an estimate for some projects on their home. The job details included flooring and updating a bathroom. I visited the [redacted] home to look over the job...

details in order to give an estimate. The [redacted]'s had not purchased materials for the updates on their home at that time, and I did tell the homeowners that I could save them some money on the materials by utilizing part of my contractor discount. The total discount was not discussed as even I did not know exactly how much that discount would be until the materials list could be presented to [redacted] and then estimated from the sales desk. I did mention to them that it's usually around 10-12%. When I received the price list from Lowe's, I was able to save the customer money, however, I am under no obligation to provide my full contractor discount, nor did I tell the homeowners that I would be giving them the full contractor discount. They were, in fact, pleased that they wouldn't be paying the full retail cost.
I did text an amount of 1598.09 to Mrs. [redacted] so she and her husband could review that number and either accept or decline. They accepted and asked me to come by their home to receive a check for that amount so materials could be purchased. I also submitted an estimate for the labor cost and an invoice for the materials. This invoice serves as a receipt to clients that I perform work for; as any contractor would provide an invoice from their business to their client. The invoice for materials was in the amount of 1598.09. This invoice gave the [redacted]'s a 12% discount over retail cost. The [redacted]'s were under no obligation to accept the estimate for labor or the invoice for materials. In paragraph 2, line 4-5 of their complaint letter, Mrs. [redacted] states that she didn't see an invoice. That is false. I gave her an invoice, which, like I said before, serves as a receipt as well. Clearly, I gave them an invoice, as they included it in the documents with the complaint letter that I received.
In paragraph 4 of the complaint letter regarding the vanity, the client purchased the vanity top themselves, and I installed it for them on their bathroom cabinet. The vanity top was placed squarely on the cabinet and secured. I explained to the homeowner that the vanity top was placed appropriately on the cabinet, and showed them why it appeared to look slightly misaligned. The reason it appeared misaligned to the homeowner is because the bathroom walls are slightly out of square, which is completely out of my control. I did not frame the bathroom, nor did I sheetrock their bathroom. The complaint letter in paragraph 1 states, in parenthesis, "new vanity top, light fixture, ceiling exhaust fan, towel racks, new faucets, new shower-head, and mirror." The estimate sheet, which was not submitted to the Revdex.com by the homeowener, clearly states, "bathroom update, cabinet vanity, lights, mirror" not the other items such as ceiling exhaust fan, towel racks, new faucets, or new shower-head. I did go ahead and install a sink faucet so they could use their new vanity at their request; however, I did not charge the homeowner for the sink faucet install.
In paragraphs 1 and 3, regarding the grout color, I chose a grout color that matched the tile as close as possible. I wanted to get approval on the color before I began grouting the entire floor, which Mrs.[redacted] did approve the color after I applied a sample area to small section of floor. There were no areas of missing grout, except where the baseboards cover the floor along the wall, which is standard practice.
I did provide a receipt to the [redacted]'s , as I do with all my clients, in the form of an invoice, again, as most contractors do for their clients. I am not required to provide my wholesaler receipts to my clients as no company/business does. After I explained this to Mrs. [redacted], she became enraged and told me that she would not pay for the labor costs. Her husband tried to calm her, but to no avail as he told her repeatedly to go in the house. In paragraph 4, the allegations of my character are inaccurate to say the least.
In paragraph 5 of the complaint letter, the homeowner deceitfully obtained a receipt from [redacted] through a sales clerk. The receipt has the totals as my cost as a contractor. The claim that they "overpaid" because they're seeing the contractor cost is erroneous. They did not receive my full contractor discount; however, they did receive a discount, nonetheless, off retail cost. This is the same concept as someone who walks into a retail store and demands to see their wholesale cost and then claims that the retail cost is "overcharging" them. Either they agree to the retail cost or they don't. The [redacted]'s agreed to the estimate/invoice I gave them, then saw my contractor discount price, and claimed I was "overcharging" them. The total of 844.76 that Mrs. [redacted] came up with in paragraph 6 is also not accurate. The "estimate" of $100-$150 for mortar and grout is not accurate either. 14 bags of mortar and bags of grout are much higher than her suggested price.
The square foot estimate includes enough tiles to cover what flooring contractors refer to as "waste." What that means is, we have to purchase more than the measured square foot to account for tiles that require cuts, such as, along the wall, corners, doorways, etc. There are also consistently a few tiles that are cracked or broken in the boxes due to shipment from the manufacturer as well. This is unfortunate, but it happens and is part of the process of tile flooring. We have to take that into consideration when purchasing the flooring. The [redacted]'s were not over-charged. If they paid the retail cost of the tile flooring, they would have paid anywhere from 1700.00-1800.00 for the materials as the online cost of the wood look tile from [redacted] is $2.29 sq ft and the 12" tiles online cost is $2.19 making a total for their square footage $1654.50, not including tax, mortar, and grout. With those numbers, it is clear to see that the total materials charged, including the tile, mortar, and grout on their invoice of 1598.09 is more than reasonable.
Obviously, I knew Mrs. [redacted] was upset, so I offered to settle by reducing the amount owed on labor costs by taking off over 500.00 of the original labor estimate. It was 532.00 to be exact, which is 1.00 sq ft off. Not to mention, installing a sink faucet at no cost to them. The [redacted]'s agreed to this adjusted cost and settled by writing a check for the remainder of the labor cost. There were no damages done- the allegations of damage to a sofa and drywall are not accurate. We performed a walk-through of the entire project; this includes the area where the tile was laid and the bathroom updates, with no appearance of damages and no mention of the sort. The sofa was even covered with a protective drop cloth during the duration of the project. Furthermore, the debris was hauled off their property and disposed of properly as well. In fact, after the initial walk-through and before Mrs. [redacted] became upset about the invoice serving as her receipt, Mr. [redacted] asked if I would do more projects for them. I would say, if they were unhappy with the quality of my workmanship, he would not have asked me to give an estimate for more projects to be done on their home.
The complaint letter uses words such as "boasting", "shoddy workmanship", and the other adjectives used is something I don't take lightly as an honest, hard-working business owner. I take pride in the work I do, as most of my jobs come to me by word of mouth and repeat customers. As a contractor, most customers appreciate learning about "successful jobs" and offerings of references of the person they are about to hire to do work in their home. I have an A+ business rating with the Revdex.com as well as excellent reviews from happy customers. I try to always make sure my customers are pleased 100%, but realize that will not always be the case, with some, no matter how much effort is put into trying to make another happy customer.

Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 8, 2017/04/17) */
[redacted]Document Attached[redacted]
I have carefully reviewed [redacted]'s response to my complaint. His responses are nothing but falsehoods. He claims he has an A+ Revdex.com rating, when in fact he is not rated at all by your organization
He claims he did not mark-up materials from store cost, but he did indeed. I am including a receipt dated 3/15/17 from [redacted] that was emailed to me from their Customer Service Department (This receipt also has other materials that were not used on our project). He bought 500 SF of the tile we requested for the family room and 32 SF of tile for the bathroom, and spacers for a total of $844.76 (I estimate a total of $909.85 with tax for our materials). Figure another $100-150 in mortar and grout he purchased somewhere else or had leftover from another job, and we overpaid for materials by some $588. I am attaching all text messages I exchanged with Mr. [redacted] to demonstrate how he (mis)represented he "saved about 12%".
He charged us for installing 530 SF of tile, when in reality the space is 437 square feet (I had another floor installer measure the space and also told me that we would need to purchase 10-15% more tile than the total square footage of space, which comes out to 480.7-502.5 square feet of tile) He was to remove a [redacted] Bed which was bolted to the floor and remove the carpet and replace with tile, which was not completed.
There was no "final walk-through" as he also claims. Both myself and my husband were in the basement with Mr. [redacted] after he said he was finished, but when I asked for receipts for the materials, he became very inflamed, screamed "I knew you were going to be like this", called me a "psycho-bh", and stormed out of the basement and started removing the construction debris from his truck and throwing it on the ground. He also got a crowbar from his truck and threatened to tear out the floor if he was not paid. It felt like he had successfully used these tactics in the past to obtain payment for inadequate/incomplete services from people who questioned his unscrupulous business practices. Which would explain why he did not remove the carpet/floor pad debris the day he and his two employees pulled it off the floor.
My husband did not "yell" at me to go inside, I removed myself from the situation as I observed Mr. [redacted] become more and more angry and felt frightened. My husband was trying be diplomatic and resolve the situation, so we were not left with a pile of construction debris in our driveway, but he did NOT tell Mr. [redacted] he was pleased with his work. Nor did he offer to hire him again-there is absolutely no circumstance where this man would be hired by us again.
I am including photos of damage to the leg of the sofa, where he carelessly moved it, and the leg will require refinishing. I am also including several photos of the improperly installed floor and damage to our dry wall. The improperly installed floor should be removed and replaced at Mr. [redacted]'s expense.
We have spent $194.93 to have a plumber come and correct the improperly placed toilet and improperly installed sink faucet. I have no idea how much we will have to spend to have the drywall and baseboards repaired.
[redacted] of Creative Hardwood Floors, LLC and Creative Home Solutions, LLC, conducts business illegally and unethically.