Home Improvement Man, Inc

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Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because you have to use your common sense and understand that if you are working in a new house why would you throw out brand new doors given the fact that George has plenty of experience and all he had to do was ask but he failed to do soIts clearly written in his explanation that the house is brand newWhen you are replacing MDF doors because of the mistake made by HIM then the right approach would be to ensure that the same exact doors have been replaced and painted as the original doors were but all he did was sent the doors over without paintingI dont agree that he was doing this for free because you have to own up to your mistakes and move onNow the french doors as far as I am concerned the job is not done because George should have inspected the doors and ensured that were in good condition before doing the actual work which he neglected to do soIn his explanation he mentioned it that the doors could have exposed to many conditions so the right approach would be to INSPECT and not continue with the workThe rule of thumb is always measure twice and cut once given the fact he has yrs of experience I shouldn't have to waste my time babysitting and navigate on how to do his jobAt the end of the day Barrons Lumber has agreed to replace the french doors with new ones and requested George to come back on site given the relationship he has with themAs of today George has not contacted or explained why he would not finish the job if he was going to be paid by the Lumber company as was instructed to me many timesNow going back to the installation, George indicated that he is done with the job but not quiet true since he still has to stain the hardwood piece and cover up the hole which was not made by him but is considered part of the jobI honestly think that if he is too worried about his reputation then he should be professional and come onsite and replace the French doors that he shouldnt have installed if they were damaged to begin withWhatever his labor charges are will be paid by Barron's Lumber and he is aware of it since he has or had a good business relationship with themAt the end of the day a business should never leave the customers hanging in the middle of the project granted I really like George and enjoyed working with him and never questioned anything he was doing except when certain things were not done right which is the typical natureIn fact if this job had gone right there were plenty of other opportunities that George and I could have worked on but at the end of the day he has gotten paid for the work he did but my job still remains incompleteI am even willing to pay him that extra $that he thought I short changed him onThanks and have a great day
Regards,
*** ***

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the responseIf no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]
Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because I am waiting on George to confirm whats listed below is OK before he can come onsite1) out of MDF doors dont have the bore cut out for locks so we need to correct that and install the dummy knobs on all doors which were originally taken out Bear in mind that this was the order he placed with Barrons Lumber directly so I trusted him to ensure everything would be right and assumed he knew what he was doingI just want to make sure that the MDF doors look like the way they were before it was destroyed through no fault of my ownIf the contractor is OK with it then we can agree and settle on a date for him to finish the job next week Thanks
Regards,
*** ***

August 3, 2015Dear [redacted],I have contacted the customer to schedule to work on the complaint items, 1) 4MDF doors need to be painted white 2) wood floor piece needs to be stained 3) Cover the big hole in the study room by the door frame. Now there are other items he wants me to do and saying they are part of the original price. How can anyone be expected to resolve a situation if the complaint keeps changing? I am willing to paint the 4 MDF 6 panel doors that I sent to his house, stain the wood floor piece and fix the hole in the study next to door frame to resolve the original customer's statement of problem.Thank you for your attention,George *S.Owner/Operator

August 3, 2015
Dear [redacted],I have contacted the customer to schedule to work on the complaint items, 1) 4MDF doors need to be painted white 2) wood floor piece needs to be stained 3) Cover the big hole in the study room by the door frame. Now there are other items he wants me to do and saying they are part of the original price. How can anyone be expected to resolve a situation if the complaint keeps changing? I am willing to paint the 4 MDF 6 panel doors that I sent to his house, stain the wood floor piece and fix the hole in the study next to door frame to resolve the original customer's statement of problem.
Thank you for your attention,George *S.Owner/Operator

July 23, 2015
Dear [redacted],
This letter is to respond to the above complaint. I would like to start by saying that I have been working in the construction field for 35 years, beginning as a carpenter moving through the ranks to an owner/operator of a successful small business....

I have an excellent reputation and I have never been reprimanded officially or unofficially in all these years. Therefore, it comes as a complete shock and disappointment that I have been put in the position to have to respond to this situation.The client who instigated this complaint contacted me in the early part of this year to install 4 door slabs he ordered at a focal reputable lumber and construction supply company. He indicated that the doors were going to take approximately 6 weeks to arrive and that the lumber company referred me as a contractor. The homeowner told me the house is fairly new and that he just did not like the quality of the doors he already had in those openings. I told the homeowner | could do the requested work and that my charges are based on time and material. He asked for the approximate time it would take and I gave him a verbal estimate that if all goes as usual it would take me about 1 hour per door. He agreed and called to schedule the job several weeks later when the doors came in.
Upon beginning the job, the first unforeseeable time-consuming issue I ran into was that the shrink wrap covering the door slabs would only come off in tediously small pieces. Usually it peels off in big sheets and takes only a couple minutes per door. We had been having a harsh winter and the doors must have gone through extreme temperature changes in their manufacture and/or transfer process. The second time-consuming issue I ran into was that the doorframes/jambs I was installing the slabs into had not been originally built correctly. This meant I had to spend extra time to get the door slabs to align, swing and chose properly. The homeowner was there from set up to clean up of the project and I kept him apprised of all stated issues as they arose. He seemed at the time to understand as he saw was diligently working on completing the project to both our satisfactions. (Let me say at this point in this letter, that at no time when I was working on the project did the homeowner request that I save and store the old doors in his basement for him. This fact is important below.}Upon receiving my 3/30/15 bill for $876.46 (broken down as $600 for labor and $276.46 for the hardware purchased for 4 doors), the client called me very upset over 2 issues: First, he indicated I overcharged him for labor because in my verbal estimate had told him it usually took me an hour to hang a door slab and the bill indicated twice that time charged. I calmly responded to this by reminding him of the unforeseen challenges I had encountered with the project and that he had been clearly made aware of them at the time. Second, he wanted to know what I had done with the original doors I had replaced. I told him disposed of them as part of the normal job process. For the first time since our initial phone conversation, he proceeded to remind me that he had wanted to save them via storage in his basement. I fully admitted to him that I had honestly forgotten, until that moment, of that piece of our initial conversation. I asked him why he did not remind me of it at any time throughout the job, for which he gave no explanation, I reminded him we had spoken on the phone several weeks prior to the start date and that he had to admit he was at least partially complicit in this oversight. He would not agree and despite my attempt to reason with him over both issues, he would not be persuaded and continued to rant on the phone at me. After total futility in reasoning with this customer, I made a business decision that I was under no obligation to make! I agreed to purchase him 4 new door slabs to replace the ones I threw out and took 2 hour's labor ($150.00) off my bill. He agreed to the $716.46 for services rendered and wrote a check on 4/22/15. As far as I was concerned, our business relationship was finished with this agreed to charge and payment.I am sure, therefore, you can imagine my surprise when this client called my Scheduler for me to come back to work for him again. He informed us that he had received the 4 door slabs bought him, plus 4 newly exchanged doors the lumber yard finally agreed to send him. He wanted to schedule me to come install them for him? He was told that I was too busy to schedule the job in the near future and should find another contractor. This was my Scheduler's polite way, per my instruction, of saying never intended to work with this client again based on our past dealings. No business should be expected to work with someone who is so intent on getting things for free! I let him get away with it once and was not going risk it with him again.The specifics of the complaint this client filed with you indicate his displeasure with paying for work he did not get completed. He lists them as: 1) painting 4 MDF doors, 2) staining a wood floor piece, (does he mean a threshold?), and 3) repairing a “big hole" in the study room doorframe. First if he is insinuating I made and left a “big hole" I can say with certainty this is not true. If I left damage behind, why did he not say anything before I left or was this never mentioned in any of our above conversations? If I am that kind of contractor, why would he choose to call me to do more work? I can assure you ! would never leave a home with damage I created and would be happy to provide corroboration regarding my professionalism from several long standing clients. As far as painting and staining, those were never tasks agreed to on this job at any time! If he has the gall to be referring to the 4 MDF doors I provided him for free, that was not included in my good will offer! I think I have made it exceptionally clear, if any one of us should have filed a grievance it is me for not getting paid for work I completed. There is no disputing that what he paid for was $150.00 less than equal to work completed. On top of that he received 4 door slabs, he was as responsible for having been thrown out as me, for free. As I said above, I was not obligated to make these concessions, but felt at the time it was worth more to rid myself of the headache this client was becoming than to my losing money on the job. Fortunately I have a strong and steady business and take solace in knowing that for this one bad customer, I have so many others I am grateful for hiring me over the years!Thank you for your attention to my side of this situation,George *S.
Owner/Operator

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]
 Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because I am waiting on George to confirm whats listed below is OK before he can come onsite
1) 2 out of 4 MDF doors dont have the bore cut out for locks so we need to correct that and install the dummy knobs on all 4 doors which were originally taken out.  Bear in mind that this was the order he placed with Barrons Lumber directly so I trusted him to ensure everything would be right and assumed he knew what he was doing. I just want to make sure that the 4 MDF doors look like the way they were before it was destroyed through no fault of my own. If the contractor is OK with it then we can agree and settle on a date for him to finish the job next week . Thanks
Regards,
[redacted]

July 23, 2015Dear [redacted],This letter is to respond to the above complaint. I would like to start by saying that I have been working in the construction field for 35 years, beginning as a carpenter moving through the ranks to an owner/operator of a successful small business. I have an...

excellent reputation and I have never been reprimanded officially or unofficially in all these years. Therefore, it comes as a complete shock and disappointment that I have been put in the position to have to respond to this situation.The client who instigated this complaint contacted me in the early part of this year to install 4 door slabs he ordered at a focal reputable lumber and construction supply company. He indicated that the doors were going to take approximately 6 weeks to arrive and that the lumber company referred me as a contractor. The homeowner told me the house is fairly new and that he just did not like the quality of the doors he already had in those openings. I told the homeowner | could do the requested work and that my charges are based on time and material. He asked for the approximate time it would take and I gave him a verbal estimate that if all goes as usual it would take me about 1 hour per door. He agreed and called to schedule the job several weeks later when the doors came in.Upon beginning the job, the first unforeseeable time-consuming issue I ran into was that the shrink wrap covering the door slabs would only come off in tediously small pieces. Usually it peels off in big sheets and takes only a couple minutes per door. We had been having a harsh winter and the doors must have gone through extreme temperature changes in their manufacture and/or transfer process. The second time-consuming issue I ran into was that the doorframes/jambs I was installing the slabs into had not been originally built correctly. This meant I had to spend extra time to get the door slabs to align, swing and chose properly. The homeowner was there from set up to clean up of the project and I kept him apprised of all stated issues as they arose. He seemed at the time to understand as he saw was diligently working on completing the project to both our satisfactions. (Let me say at this point in this letter, that at no time when I was working on the project did the homeowner request that I save and store the old doors in his basement for him. This fact is important below.}Upon receiving my 3/30/15 bill for $876.46 (broken down as $600 for labor and $276.46 for the hardware purchased for 4 doors), the client called me very upset over 2 issues: First, he indicated I overcharged him for labor because in my verbal estimate had told him it usually took me an hour to hang a door slab and the bill indicated twice that time charged. I calmly responded to this by reminding him of the unforeseen challenges I had encountered with the project and that he had been clearly made aware of them at the time. Second, he wanted to know what I had done with the original doors I had replaced. I told him disposed of them as part of the normal job process. For the first time since our initial phone conversation, he proceeded to remind me that he had wanted to save them via storage in his basement. I fully admitted to him that I had honestly forgotten, until that moment, of that piece of our initial conversation. I asked him why he did not remind me of it at any time throughout the job, for which he gave no explanation, I reminded him we had spoken on the phone several weeks prior to the start date and that he had to admit he was at least partially complicit in this oversight. He would not agree and despite my attempt to reason with him over both issues, he would not be persuaded and continued to rant on the phone at me. After total futility in reasoning with this customer, I made a business decision that I was under no obligation to make! I agreed to purchase him 4 new door slabs to replace the ones I threw out and took 2 hour's labor ($150.00) off my bill. He agreed to the $716.46 for services rendered and wrote a check on 4/22/15. As far as I was concerned, our business relationship was finished with this agreed to charge and payment.I am sure, therefore, you can imagine my surprise when this client called my Scheduler for me to come back to work for him again. He informed us that he had received the 4 door slabs bought him, plus 4 newly exchanged doors the lumber yard finally agreed to send him. He wanted to schedule me to come install them for him? He was told that I was too busy to schedule the job in the near future and should find another contractor. This was my Scheduler's polite way, per my instruction, of saying never intended to work with this client again based on our past dealings. No business should be expected to work with someone who is so intent on getting things for free! I let him get away with it once and was not going risk it with him again.The specifics of the complaint this client filed with you indicate his displeasure with paying for work he did not get completed. He lists them as: 1) painting 4 MDF doors, 2) staining a wood floor piece, (does he mean a threshold?), and 3) repairing a “big hole" in the study room doorframe. First if he is insinuating I made and left a “big hole" I can say with certainty this is not true. If I left damage behind, why did he not say anything before I left or was this never mentioned in any of our above conversations? If I am that kind of contractor, why would he choose to call me to do more work? I can assure you ! would never leave a home with damage I created and would be happy to provide corroboration regarding my professionalism from several long standing clients. As far as painting and staining, those were never tasks agreed to on this job at any time! If he has the gall to be referring to the 4 MDF doors I provided him for free, that was not included in my good will offer! I think I have made it exceptionally clear, if any one of us should have filed a grievance it is me for not getting paid for work I completed. There is no disputing that what he paid for was $150.00 less than equal to work completed. On top of that he received 4 door slabs, he was as responsible for having been thrown out as me, for free. As I said above, I was not obligated to make these concessions, but felt at the time it was worth more to rid myself of the headache this client was becoming than to my losing money on the job. Fortunately I have a strong and steady business and take solace in knowing that for this one bad customer, I have so many others I am grateful for hiring me over the years!Thank you for your attention to my side of this situation,George *S.Owner/Operator