Shore Werks

What a great company! I called a couple seawall companies and none of them have the same type of friendly experience. I had Shore Werks install my steel seawall. They went above and beyond to make sure my yard looked better than when they started. Great company,great people, great quality!

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/08/06) */
The bottom line is that they breached the contract. According to the contract $2,400.00 was due to secure date and $2,400.00 was due at the start of work. They failed to pay the $2,400.00 after 3 days of our crew being there. I will...

address the other things she said, but she herself says we had a crew there for 3 days and that they only gave us $2,400.00.
Day 1 7/8/14 3 men and a backhoe
The reason the inspector let us continue working was because it is a simple over the counter permit issued at time of applying. We tried to get the permit that afternoon but were unable to get the insurance certificate because our insurance office was already closed...as she stated it was almost 5pm and the office closes at 4pm. Also, we needed her HOA approval which she also stated.
We also found out this day that we now had to dig out the dirt 6" down instead of pouring over the existing gravel. There was not to be any excavation involved This incurred a lot more man hours, however we did not make a change order and charge them.
Day 2 7/9/14 5 men
Our men worked all day long preparing the patio for concrete. We still couldn't get the permit because we didn't have HOA approval yet. However they are acting like it is our fault and that we should take money off of the project because of this huge inconvenience. There weren't any delays or difficulties due to us, there weren't any delays or difficulties at all. We were waiting on her. All the while continuing to prepare for concrete.
Day 3 7/10 3 men
Framed patio ready to pour
This day Mrs. [redacted] decided to drive all the way to McHenry...around 45 minutes to do nothing other than question our integrity even tho we continued to work while they didn't even give the whole deposit. She just was looking for any reason to ask for a discount. She found out we are a reliable contractor for a very successful seawall business...she still wasn't satisfied. This was the last straw for us. The constant overreaction and questioning about price was enough, but trying to bad mouth us to a contractor was unacceptable. We decided this small project was not worth the headache of this very difficult couple. We did the professional thing and told them to write a letter agreeing to us cleaning up their yard and our contract would be terminated. This women was still begging us to complete the project, we said no so she agreed to write the letter, probably knowing we were under no obligation to take anything away as they had already breached the contract. This cost us another day of 4 men and haul away. The unprofessional thing would have been to walk away, we did not.
What more do these people expect for $2,400.00. A machine alone is $150 an hour, not to mention all of the labor involved.
These people are acting like the permit was some big issue, it wasn't. We could get the permit anytime, and she in fact does have a permit It cost somewhere around $32.00. She went to pick it up before we went to complete the permit. We did not trust these people would pay us. They hadn't given the full deposit and were asking for us to take money off every day. I have texts to prove this, but it really doesn't matter. We took $2,800.00 off the initial proposal and were not willing to give anymore discounts.
The patio is still unfinished probably because they can not afford to do the work which is why they didn't abide by our contract and kept asking for money off.
The only difficulties these people have are themselves and we showed NOTHING BUT integrity in dealing with these extremely unreasonable people.
The insurance issue is ridiculous, we never showed any type of insurance, so how could it not be good enough.
Breach of Contract:
Day 1 - no $2,400.00
Day 2 - no $2,400.00
Day 3 - no $2,400.00
Our desired resolution is that all the contractors in the area know about these people so none of them are subjected to deal with these people who don't want to pay for an honest 4 days of work, its extremely insulting to people like us that always try to do the right thing.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2014/08/07) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
What Mr. [redacted] is failing to understand is that if he had gone to the Village of Huntley Development Services and attempted to secure a permit PRIOR to starting work on our property (as required by the Village of Huntley) we would not be in this situation. I gave Mr. [redacted] a plat of survey on May 15, 2014 so he could take it to the village to secure a permit and get approval and determine what the village code requires. If he had contacted the village any time in the 7 1/2 weeks prior to starting the job to secure a permit, he would have been informed we needed an HOA approval and we would have gladly secured that prior to him starting any work. The big picture here is that Mr. [redacted] failed to do the first thing required of him as a contractor, which per his words, "is a simple over the counter permit." During the three days there was work going on in our backyard, I was in contact with the village several times. The morning of 7/11/14, I was in the village Development Services department to let them know we would no longer be working with Shore Werks/Will [redacted] and the woman at the desk shook my hand and said, "good." She and another woman in the department proceeded to tell me that the evening of 7/10/14, Mr. [redacted] sent his daughter (they guessed she was in her late teens to early 20's) to the department to try to secure the permit without the proof of his insurance. They explained that Mr. [redacted]'s daughter was on the phone with Mr. [redacted] and was unable to understand what she was to draw on the plat of survey (that Mr. [redacted] has had now for 8 weeks). So, as far as the village told me, Mr. [redacted] was into the department one time on 7/8/14 just before 5pm. He never showed up after the HOA approval and never presented proof of insurance to be registered with the village. The Village felt Mr. [redacted] sending his daughter was completely inappropriate and unprofessional.
Mr. [redacted] may believe we "breached" contract. However, he never did what he was professionally obligated to do - secure a permit. He wants to blame us as the homeowners for all the hardships, but realistically, if he had just asked us to secure a permit for our property, we would have gladly done it and found out about the HOA requirements and that would have been taken care of immediately.
Unfortunately, I discovered after the job had been started illegally, without a permit, that Mr. [redacted] had no intention of getting a permit for the patio. When I spoke to him 7/8/14 on the phone after the inspector had been out for the first time he stated he had planned to just get the patio done without a permit so "save us some time" since our "patio had been done illegally originally." I explained to him that no, our patio done 8 or 9 years ago was done with a permit that I personally secured. The patio may not have been done well, but it was done legally.
He states that he didn't know he had to dig an additional 6 inches down and that required additional excavation and man time. However, at the time of Mr. [redacted] coming out in May 2014 to look at our existing patio we explained to him that we did not like that it sat above the grade of the yard. Also, because the new patio was going all the up to the house it had to be 3 inches below the siding at the foundation. This is a village code. Had Mr. [redacted] done his job as a contractor and gotten approval from the village with the plat of survey I gave him on May 15, 2014, he would have been aware of village code. It is a shame that a professional contractor did not do his job and find out what the Village of Huntley code was.
Mr. [redacted] is upset I went to [redacted] Unlimited to ask about him. I was honest with the young woman at the front desk and told her he started a job for us without first securing a permit. She was very surprised by this. She did show me some of his work on [redacted]. She then explained that her dad, [redacted], I believe, is the owner and often times, he has to "stay on [redacted]" to make sure he finishes jobs. She stated he will often take on too many jobs and unless [redacted] keeps on him, he has trouble finishing the jobs. This was concerning, but she assured me if I "keep on him" he will finish the job. At this point, with piles of large concrete in my backyard and half my driveway covered in dirt, and no permit, I was very worried about the job not being completed.
To address us trying to get the job to cost less: The original contract with Mr. [redacted] included extending our driveway to fit a third car as we have a two car garage and needed more parking. However, after speaking to the Village of Huntley on my own (since Mr. [redacted] failed to secure a permit) we found out we cannot extend our driveway beyond our garage. Again, had Mr. [redacted] gone to the village and found out what village code was, he would have known this. Since we could not extend our driveway, we did not want to spend the full amount for a smaller driveway. We asked him to decrease the price since we could not do the extension. He said, no. So, we asked what it would cost just to complete the patio job without the driveway and he told us a total of $3600. So, at this point, with no permit and finding out we couldn't do the full project we did not want to pay the full price. So, yes, we asked for him to discount the original project cost due to a the project size being decreased.
The first day of the project 7/8/14, the village inspector came out a second time in the late afternoon to see what had been done. There were no Shore Werks workers on the site and we had a very candid discussion about the project. The village inspector explained to me that because this contractor began a job without a permit he stressed we DO NOT pay him another cent. He explained that Mr. [redacted] was going to pour over an existing stoop, which was shoddy work and would cause cracks in the stoop within a year. He told me he explained to Mr. [redacted] the stoop needed to be chiseled down. It was chiseled down to about 80% of the original size the next day (so there was a significant amount of old stoop still existing). However, we had three other contractors out to look at it after Mr. [redacted] quit the job and all three said that it was poorly done and would cause us significant cracking over the next one to two years. They said good quality work would be to completely remove the stoop and put in a new one. With the other contractors as well as the inspector, we also found out the framed out patio was not pitched away from our house. If the concrete had been poured as is, the water would have actually flowed toward our foundation, which in itself is a problem.
Mr. [redacted] has stated that we were difficult costumers. He may believe that, but we feel that if a contractor says he's going to get a permit and do a good job, we have faith in his abilities. Mr. [redacted] repeatedly demonstrated a lack of integrity by
1) not attempting to secure a permit in 7 1/2 weeks time he had the plat of survey and a $2400 deposit.
2) telling me he was going to pour the patio without a permit because our original patio was done without approval by the village.
3) telling me the Village had trouble understanding the plans on the plat of survey, when in actuality it was because he sent his daughter into the village to try to draw the plans up after the job had already been started
4) refusing to finish the job because I had spoken to his employer and made him "look bad" when realistically he did that all on his own
5) refusing to remove the dirt from our driveway 6) accusing us of breach of contract when he started a job illegally. There was no reason to have paid him on the start date of the job as he never held up his end of the contract to do the job legally and with a permit.
I have pictures of the stoop that I described above as well as pictures of the dirt left in our driveway. I have pictures of the concrete left in our yard for 3 1/2 days and then smashed into gravel in our yard. I have the email that states Mr. [redacted] will secure and pay all necessary permits. I have a text message from him stating that the village was "struggling" with the "patio and driveway dimensions."
As trusting individuals, we did not think we needed to double check that as a "professional" Mr. [redacted] had done his job and gotten a permit. I am just thankful that the village inspector happened to stop by on 7/8/14 or who knows how this job would have turned out.
If Mr. [redacted] had gotten a permit, I would gladly say he can keep the $2400 deposit, but because from the time of the deposit on 5/15/14 until 7/8/14, he never went to the village, never did his homework regarding Village of Huntley building codes, never attempted to register with the village and did not secure a permit, I feel what we paid him is completely unjustified on his end. It was his decision to start a job and get men to work without a permit and his mistake to think he could have gotten away with it in the Village of Huntley.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2014/08/20) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Mr. [redacted] is threatening defamation of character however, the conversation I had with Miss [redacted] was in no way fabricated in my reports to the Revdex.com. I stated actual quotes from the conversation I had on 7/11/14.
He stated the contract did not have anything about the permit, and it did not, but his email did (please see p. 2 of attached).
His contract stated that at the time of the deposit (May 15, 2014) a start date would be secured. That did not happen.
On 5/23/14, a week after the deposit, I contacted Mr. [redacted] to inquire RE: a start date. I recieved a text from Mr. [redacted]: "We can talk Tuesday (meaning 5/27) and get a start date no problem." We did not get a start date.
After, again reaching out to him for a start date, I got a text 6/16/14 "It's going to be late June due to all the rain. I'll know by the end of this week a specific start." We did not get a start date.
I again, contacted him 6/23 RE:a start date and received "It will be week of 7/4." But it was not started that week.
I received a text on 7/1/14 stating "Can we do it next week right after the weekend because if we start tomorrow, we won't be able to pour before the holiday" meaning 7/4. That was the first time Mr. [redacted] attempted to give me a specific start date though he had our money for 47 days. Please see attached screen shots from my phone regarding these text messages.
I am only responding to this last rebuttal from Shore Werks because of the attached letter accusing me of fabricating information. I have been truthful and honest in all reports and my second report stated things I did not initially want to address (Mr. [redacted] stating he was never going to get a permit for the patio and my conversation with Miss [redacted] at [redacted] Unlimited), but felt compelled to after being accused of breaching contract and of fabricating information.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 13, 2014/08/28) */
Again, the [redacted]'s breached the contract, nothing else matters.
If Ms. [redacted] doesn't understand that rain plays a huge part in scheduling outdoor work than she obviously does not understand anything about our business which is displayed quite brilliantly displayed in her overreaction to the permit situation.
We have wasted a lot of time and money dealing with these very difficult individuals. We would rather spend our time dealing with our many happy and paying customers so we would like any further correspondence to go through our attorney.
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[redacted]
Mon, Sep 8, 2014 at 8:49 AM
Reply-To: [redacted]
To: "[redacted]"
[redacted],
Here is our attorney info:
[redacted]