Company Response

“I have been in renovation contracting for over 30 years. I am licenced, responsible, and fully qualified. I am known for my honesty and high standards of quality. I invite people wanting to know what my company and I do to go to our website. Under “About Us” on the website is a brief bio of me. Under “Qualifications” is an article from Canadian Contractor, where I am a featured contractor. My qualifications and approach to renovations are detailed there. I further invite people to look at the variety and quality of our completed projects. Because I respect and listen to clients and then carry out what they wish, I can work with those whom other contractors would find difficult—but not always. The cabinet doors for Mr. L. tried my patience and his. Mr. L. is right that the custom cabinet doors made by the cabinet company did not meet his standards. Nor did they meet mine. I returned them to the cabinet company. Once the mistakes in manufacture had been made, Mr. L.’s and my time expectations could no longer be met, since one cabinet door had to be remade and the others fixed. It takes from 4 to 8 weeks for custom doors to be made by manufacturers. I allow for that timing when planning projects, but sometimes kitchen work must be delayed when custom cabinets or cabinet doors fail to arrive in good order at the right time. Mr. L. and I needed to work together to get his project finished to the standards that we both expected. Mr. Little did not want his cat to go into the cabinets, and the old doors could not be used. Mr. L told us not to take the new doors away to be fixed when he and his cat were living in his apartment. We worked with Mr. L.’s summer schedule, when he and his cat spend time away. I scheduled to meet Mr. Little’s needs not to have the doors off the cabinets during those times in the summer when he and his cat returned to Toronto. Now we were in the very busy renovation season. My carpenters were all occupied, but as soon as Mr. L.’s doors were ready, I pulled a carpenter off his job to pick up Mr. L.’s doors and install them. When we unpacked the doors, we discovered that one door was faulty. Mr. L. and I were now feeling frustrated. He didn’t have his new cabinet doors, and it was taking a lot of my time to negotiate with the cabinet company and with Mr. L. to suit his schedule. I was determined to complete his job well, and I thought we were working together. As soon as the correct door was delivered, I took a carpenter from another job to install it. The job is complete and the doors now meet our standards. Mr. L.’s email to HomeStars was hurtful and unfair. His emails to me have become inflammatory. He says that if I expect to be paid, I will have to sue him. That is not the way I do business.”