Jay was initially hired to install tile in my kitchen and offered to do the installation of new cabinets. He did a good job on the tiles and presented that he had over 10 years experience installing kitchens. A look at their facebook page seemed to indicate that expertise as well.
Jay insisted that he could install all the upper and lower cabinets in a day - he couldn't. He ended up installing the wrong uppers in the wrong place, then trying to move them - leaving holes along the new exposed side of the cabinets. He insisted he could fix the two damaged cabinets. He could not. When presented with the price for replacing the damage cabinets, he decided to send this text:
"I disagree however it's your kitchen. At this point the money lost for me doesnt warrent another visit. You can keep the other 50% which covers the cost of your new cabinets please find another contractor"
We have since found that base cabinets were not placed according to plan as well (eg. no room for 3/4 inch support between stove and dishwasher).
Jay, your negligence, impatience and bad attitiude has cost me a lot of time and money and has been a tremendous inconvenience for me and my family. Fortunately I found a great handyman who's been able to help me fix your errors and we've been able to work through the rest of the install. We will soon have a fantastic kitchen.
I regret having engaged you on this job and can not in good conscience give you any stars for your work. I would suggest anyone looking for a renovation contractor continue looking elsewhere.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $2,000.00
- Company Response
Hi Mark,
We are sorry you feel this way. This is the first complaint we have ever received. I would like to explain this situation. We walked into a reno that was haphazardly done by you, the homeowner. As your wife had mentioned many times in our meetings, this is a project that was ongoing for a very long time and your family was insisting you hire some trades to move it along. You needed help finishing up some of the details and that was where we came in; to complete some tile work, to install a low grade kitchen purchased at Lowes and potentially handle the mudding and taping (although you cancelled that item the day work was scheduled to be done with no notice or compensation for the labour we booked and lost wages for the two days). Not only did you SUPPLY the drawings which we based install on, but you didn’t inform us until install was almost complete that the drawings you provided were NOT THE FINAL DRAFT and hence where the mistake in installation occurred (homeowner was not present during kitchen install). You also failed to order all of the necessary parts for the kitchen, including gables to finish off the ends of the cabinetry. We offered to pay to add gables to your order, out of pocket on our side, in order to be able to move the cabinets which were wrongly placed in the drawing and rectify the entire situation in a way that there would be no visible disruption to the integrity of the cabinets after installation. We even booked a meeting with Lowes to rectify the order and to take the stress off you. Instead you insisted we purchase new cabinets, which were worth more than our profit for the entire job, and proceeded to place the order and send us the bill without discussing options with us first. As a result we were forced to forfeit our final 50% of payment to cover the cost of the cabinets, we just refused to continue with the install as our interactions with you were proving to be more and more unprofessional (other issues with the homeowner’s handy work included walls that were not square, drywall hung with over 1” gaps between boards, electrical outlets installed in your cabinets which is against code, all electrical done by the homeowner which again is illegal and you tried to convince us to do the same saying you “wouldn’t tell anyone”, the kitchen was designed so doors opened into each other, you insisted on having the kitchen mudded and taped after the cabinetry was hung? All decisions which go against the basic principles of construction) Our mistake was agreeing to try and finish a DIY renovation that was poorly organized from the get go, which is to be expected when design and execution are not handled by a professional. In hindsight, we learned a valuable lesson from this experience. We will never again agree to "help out” on a renovation where were cannot guarantee the quality of the work done before us, including design and orders etc. I hope you will look to a professional from the onset of your next big renovation idea, it will save you and those you associate with a lot of time and money in the future.