I signed a “contingent” contract with Penguin Basements in September, 2018, and terminated them in July (losing my $2,000 deposit). The project was months behind schedule. The contract was hastily generated by Dave at my dining room table using software and never refined or finalized. Some things were not included (the contingencies – stair, underpin/re-pour, HVAC, staircase rebuild) and change orders were not forthcoming. A project manager, Allen, was assigned but I never dealt with him and we never discussed the project. At a site meeting in late June between Dave, Allen, and the HVAC technician, which I was told not to attend, the technician was not properly briefed and he ended up installing the replacement furnace against a wall that was slated for demolition. It had to be moved again at considerable bother to the technician during his busiest time of year. And the technician could not even prepare a quote anyway without meeting with me in person. It turns out Penguin will not subcontract under-pinning, so I had to deal with the underpinner myself. But then they would not subcontract the HVAC either! I wanted Dave’s estimate to include a quote for brick restoration and some pargeting. Instead he insisted on quoting for drywall and kept assuring me that the cost is about the same, which is absurd. Dave could not even give me a clear answer on whether retaining exposed brick in a basement was allowed under code, and I had to do the research myself (it is). Everything was a “wait and see” situation, or a future meeting or conversation, etc. Dave said several times that he did not want to make money on the job and only wanted to be able to take pictures of the final product for promotional reasons. Well this turned out to be consistent with the level of attention and diligence the project was given. Part of his response when advised that the services of Penguin were no longer required was that there was “no end game in this” for the company because they were “not even going to build walls”. Thanks for telling me ten months after signing me up. If the contract was not a good fit for Penguin it should never have been entered into. Altogether a very frustrating and negative experience.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $50,000.00
- Company Response
Thank you for your review. We have spoken to the all parties involved to get a better understanding of what happened. With projects of such a scope is that we price the renovation which generally includes our finish with all the components. With respect to projects that include engineered solution such as underpinning, a new staircase, or furnace relocation (heat/loss) calculations we either identify a budget for these services or an all encompassing "contingency" for approval from the client. The goal is to work through all the elements of the build, refer the respective underpinning trade or others directly and we support that with site meetings, phone calls, buildertrend messages, until the project is ready for framing. This keeps the project on budget and assists the clients in choosing those trades. We understand that the scope was adjusted throughout this process and the trades that we referred were chosen. Finally, when considering the build, there was a significant reduction to the scope of the finished basement, which made it less feasible to build for our company. Based on choosing the vendors, the consulting we supplied, site meetings, David mentioned that we had already completed and incurred thousands of dollars in time and he felt that the contingencies were met. We generally don’t hold any deposits if we can’t agree that it was warranted, so we apologize and the general manager will call you to discuss the $2,000 deposit.