Satinwood Construction Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 11, 2015/08/29) */
Thanks for contacting me regarding the complaint you received from [redacted].
I have been a General Contractor in Boulder and the front range for 40 years this year. I have dozens of satisfied clients and made nearly as many good friends...

through contracting remodels, additions, basement and kitchen finishes and custom homes over the years. I have done multiple projects for several of these people. I can supply you with pages of references if you like.
This client has been the most difficult I have had in all those years.
Let me give you some perspective on her complaint about the severity of the "damage" to her counter tops by explaining what I have been through with her in the last 8 months:
1-When we installed the Luxury Vinyl Tile, they selected for their floors, she complained that the edges weren't even and that when she washed the floors, she would cut her fingers and trip over them (less than 1/32 of an inch, which we were able to flush up).
2-They selected bamboo cabinets. They are made from bamboo plywood. Bamboo, like any wood, when made into plywood, has voids. Plywood, when cut, sometimes exposes those voids. When the upper cabinet doors were being installed they were leaning against the cabinets with the top of the doors visible. The top of those doors, when installed, would be 1" from the 8' ceiling - invisible. The owner saw a couple pinhole voids (I mean pinhole) on the top of the doors while they were leaning against the cabinets before installation.
After they were installed she had me take all the doors down to find the 2 pinhole voids (nearly invisible) and fill them. She did the same thing with the bottom of the lower cabinet doors, 4 inches from the floor, impossible to see - ever.
3-She used her smartphone, with the flashlight on,
to inspect all the interior walls. We "repaired" the drywall "flaws" she saw more than 6 times and then repainted the walls.
4- She used her smartphone flashlight and went over all the cabinet doors and drawer faces. I spent $300 fixing "scratches" that were usually impossible to see without the flashlight. She did the same thing with the bamboo counter tops. I spent $500 to have them refinished.
5- She insisted, for 3 months, that I replace a 2 x 12 fir board that was used as a tread on a single step in her garage ( 7" off the floor). It had a drying crack on one end. It was completely supported underneath on all 4 sides by a 2 x 6 frame. I put wood glue in the crack, screwed it together and put a vinyl tread on it. She still insisted it would break and she would fall.
These are just a small example of the over the top demands by this client.
Now to address her complaint about the counter tops.
She was unhappy with the seam at the 2 main pieces by the sink and cook top and the sill piece above that area.
We attempted a repair that was not acceptable to her. Subsequently we replaced 4 pieces of the original installation, at no cost, one at the sink and the one that made up the seam and went to the cook top.
I had the [redacted] regional rep out to look over the job and verify that the product purchased was of the top quality. She contended that it was an inferior grade. It is the highest quality they produce.
I never said she couldn't talk to the rep., I just wanted him to do an evaluation and report. Her behavior was so difficult for everyone that no one (the owner of the cabinet company, the owner of the plumbing comany, the owner of [redacted] Flooring, the owner of the repair company and her reps, etc.) wanted to be at the house when she was there.
There were some typical "scratches" -minor- nearly undetectable, spots on some of the tops,that we repaired. She got her smartphone flashlight out again and found the "horrors" she describes. Any "damage" that we caused was repaired except for one small spot that no one knows how it got there.
She refers to the visit by "[redacted]" - ([redacted], the owner of [redacted] Flooring, a company that has been in business for over 50 years in Boulder).
She had been insistent about him coming out to look at the job for a couple weeks. I told him about the project. He said that however I decided to resolve the issue would be fine. He didn't want to get into a he said - she said- three way problem. If it was acceptable to me it was okay with him. If I would have it in my house, (I would) then he was okay with it.
We agreed that an offer of an $1,800 refund, to maintain customer relations, was more than reasonable after having already replaced 4 pieces. To back that up, [redacted] thought she was a client that wanted "something for nothing", a situation he has run in to before.
He suggested that he would give her the full refund of $8,900, but he wanted his counter tops back. We offered her the $1,800 refund or the full refund if we could have our counter tops back in 1 week.
She called [redacted] at [redacted] and began speaking to him in a very aggressive manner. He asked her to stop speaking to him like that or he would hang up. She relented and he agreed to do a site visit.
At the site visit she started showing him the "damage" she was referring to. He was having trouble seeing it. She became aggressive again and he asked her to calm down or he would not be able to continue with the process. He was trying to explain to her that what she was seeing as damage was just white specks that were part of the product she had chosen.
She wouldn't stop yelling and he said "I'm out of here, I asked you to calm down and you can't".
His evaluation, after doing the site visit, was that she chose a product that she wasn't happy with and wanted a cheap way out. She picked the most unforgiving color of CaesrStone and placed it in line with west facing windows. The light reflecting off the counter tops is brutal and shows everything. After living with the tops for a few months, way more visible damage will be caused by normal usage than anything that existed before she moved in or during construction.
We are not going to pay for a bad decision she made in choosing her counter top material.
I have never had a complaint filed with the Revdex.com in 40 years of business. I regret that I have one now. One difficult client in 40 years is not a bad record.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 13, 2015/09/02) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
[redacted]'s response is absolutely not satisfactory.
Please read attached for all explanations.