Steel City Stair

Review: Mr. [redacted], Mgr. of Steel City Stair agreed to build two sets of stairs in three weeks for our new home project. We sent him a check #2068 for $800 as a down payment for this service. He cashed the check on June 18, 2013 as seen by the supporting document. I contacted Mr. [redacted] on July 8, 2013 and spoke with him. This was after the stairs were late in being delivered. He told me that he would look into this and get back to me. I have heard nothing from him since that time. I have called his business number, toll-free business number, cell phone business number, home number (as it is listed under his auctioneer's business as well as the email address), and left many messages for him saying that it is very important and imperative that he return my calls because he is holding up our home building project. We cannot finish electrical work or have the home inspected so we can move forward with the building until our stairs are in place. I also sent a message to his email address, on the business facebook page, and we have stopped by the business address where my husband spoke with a female holding a baby. He asked the woman to have Mr. [redacted] call him and she said she would. We stopped again today and although no one answered the door, the blinds moved, showing there was someone home. His business address and home address are one in the same. We left a handwritten note in the screen door. We also left more telephone messages on many occasions. I am very upset that Mr. [redacted] refuses to contact us. Once after calling three business numbers one after the other, I received three calls back from the same number where no one would speak but were silent on the other end. I later found out this was his business cell phone number where the calls came from. This business is unreliable and the manager is neglecting us as his customer. He is keeping us from finishing our new home, which is being built to accommodate my disability.Desired Settlement: An immediate call from Mr. [redacted] to discuss this matter. Immediate delivery of our stairs which are now a month overdue or an immediate refund of $800 (Cashiers Check) so we can hire another business to make our stairs.

Business

Response:

Dear Joyce Palmer Edwards,

I am responding to the claim made against Steel City Stair by Mrs. [redacted].

I met with Mr. [redacted] at the home construction site to measure for interior stairs. I showed him where the stairs from the first to second floor would end, when I measured from the basement to first floor I showed him that the dimension was 6 " taller. I explained that there would need to be an additional tread run added or the stair would be out of code. At that time he expressed that he understood. I also explained to Mr. [redacted] that local building codes over ride national/BOCA codes. The stairs would be built to run and rise code. I gave them a price of $1,560.00 with 50% down and the balance due upon delivery. Mrs. [redacted] called me that same day and gave me the go ahead and asked where to mail the deposit. The check of $800 was received shortly after.

Mrs. [redacted] was present when I delivered the stairs on August 1st. She informed me that she had no check with her so she would mail the balance to me, and I trusted her intentions to do this. By August 13, no check had been received so I called and inquired about the payment, informing her that I had already paid for the stair. I was then informed that they were holding the balance of $760 until their home was inspected. If there is a problem with where the stair lands it is a home construction problem because the stairs were built to rise and run specifications. The stairs were built and delivered as they were told they would be and I question that their motives are really to get out of paying for the product I provided them with.

*Side Note Mrs. [redacted] has made accusations that I refused to answer or return calls with them. I can provide documentation that Verizon has been here on numerous occasions to try correct the phone line issues and it was finally resolved just today, August 21.

*Side Note I should also mention that before the stairs were delivered both Mr. and Mrs. [redacted] showed up at my home and proceeded to pound on our door yelling "I know you're in there" while our daughter and new born baby were alone in the house. I believe this is considered harassment. Our daughter was so frightened that she almost called the police. I made several phone calls to them and received no answer or acknowledgement. If Mr. [redacted] is acting as general contractor for his home construction, then it is his responsibility to be sure his carpenters are building the structure to code.

Our company has measured and built stairs all over the US for over 25 years, ranging from $1,000-$100,000+ and never had a complaint issued by a customer. We take pride in and are complimented for the customer service we provide.

Steel City Stair

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

Let me first note the attachments that I have included for your review. One is the invoice, which is not dated by Mr. [redacted] from Steel City Stair. Secondly the envelope in another attachment is attached. The last attachments are emails which I sent to the Revdex.com between my original complaint and the answer from Mr. [redacted]. Please note that the one letter has some misspelled words (autocorrected by computer) which I then fixed and immediately resent you the one that I would like you to consider. I am resending these just so you can see that both copies of my information were sent and to please disregard the one due to autocorrecting.

To get into Mr. [redacted]'s answer to my complaint, when [redacted] met with my husband on the construction site, he was clear with Mr. [redacted] that he did not understand any building codes or other codes associated with building stairs and that is why Mr. [redacted] was there to ensure that his product would meet all applicable codes. Mr. [redacted] at no point in time ever explained any differences between rise and run national codes or BOCA Codes versus local building codes. Had he done that, we would not have contracted with him to build stairs that may or may not pass our local building code inspection. It would have been foolish for us to spend $1,560 on a product that would not pass our local building code. My husband deferred to Mr. [redacted]'s expertise to ensure that his product would pass any and all code. He assured us it would.

In Mr. [redacted]'s note about showing my husband where the stairs from the first to second would end, it appeared that that would be the correct placement for those stairs to land, however that was left to Mr. [redacted]'s expertise. At no point in time did Mr. [redacted] ever go down to the basement to show my husband where those stairs would end. He merely measured from the main floor down and said there would be one additional step.

Further, when I met with Mr. [redacted] on August 1, 2013 when he came to the deliver the stairs to our building site, he apologized for his not getting back to me, noting squirrels in his telephone lines, his daughter's new baby, and an employee leaving that was the cause for the delay. I told him to send me a bill, which he said he would. This bill was not sent to me until 13 days later. His bill does not list a date either, however we did receive the bill by Tuesday, August 13 via USPS. Because of the issue with the stairs being questionable, my husband and I called Mr. [redacted] during installation and asked for his thoughts, because he did not provide the blueprints/drawings which he agreed to provide with the stairs.

As for actually deliver of stairs, we agreed that they would be delivered in the third week of June and my husband communicated clearly to Mr. [redacted] that we needed a timely delivery of his product to meet our construction timeline. He agreed that would not be a problem. I called Mr. [redacted] after the first deadline had passed, spoke to him and asked about the delay, and his response to me was, "I will have to call down there and check on them. I will get back to you." This is when Mr. [redacted] started with squirrel issues, telephone problems, and such. He knew he was to call me back and let me know what was going on. There are many ways, including stopping at the house, to get a message to us. We could not contact him nor did he get back to me. It seems quite unlikely that someone who is running a business would permit the telephone company to have long-term service problems with their business phone that would result in a loss of business. Furthermore, Mr. [redacted] had other ways to make contact with us, including his cell phone, which is not connected to his landline.

After Mr. [redacted] agreed to return a call to us and update us as to the delay, my husband went to his business address after many attempts by phone and email and facebook, etc., at [redacted], [redacted]. When arriving there, it appeared that he was running his business out of his home. My husband knocked on his door and eventually a young lady answered the door with baby. My husband asked her if Mr. [redacted] was there and she said no, he was out at the store. He asked when he would return and she said she did not know. My husband then asked her to ask Mr. [redacted] return a call to him, which she said she would. After receiving no phone call back from Mr. [redacted] that evening or the following day, my husband and I returned to Mr. [redacted]'s business address and my husband knocked on the door while I sat in the car. No one answered at the door, but the blinds moved, and I alerted my husband that there was indeed someone at the window. My husband noticed an open window and politely asked once again that Mr. [redacted] return a phone call to him, then he left a note in the door with his contact information. If Mr. [redacted] does not want customers showing up at his place of business, he should consider renting an office so that family and business life can be separated. At no time was my husband ever impolite, threatening, or rude in any way.

While my husband is acting as the general contractor for our home, he relied on Mr. [redacted]'s experience and knowledge to build a set of stairs that would fit the existing building and meet all applicable codes. If he has built and measured stairs for over 25 years as he claims, he surely should know the local building codes or find out these codes for any set of stairs that he is building for any customer. We are not making the claim that the stairs will not pass inspection, but that we are holding payment until such inspection has been done and approved.

During construction of our home we have dealt with many contractors and suppliers and have always paid our bills on time. To date, Mr. [redacted] is the first contractor that has not met all the promises that he made representing Steel City Stair. Due to Mr. [redacted]'s failure to communicate and failure to deliver his product on time, he has made us skeptical of the quality and the ability of his product to pass inspection. Once the inspection is complete and the stairs pass inspection, he will be paid immediately.

Regards,