Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/03/2025

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On 3/5/2024 I signed a contract with Alpine for a 30X40X12 shop in *********** after finally agreeing upon a design and made an initial down payment to begin the work.Two months later on 5/12/24 "****" who worked for the business informed us that Alpine would not be able to build the structure as Weld County code would not allow it without an existing primary dwelling on the property. Emails were sent to **** asking for specific references of such code and these never received a response. On 9/27, I requested a refund of my deposit to **** as the project would not be able to be completed and he mentioned he would relay the info to the owner *****. A phone call to ***** on 10/24 occurred and he said he would get back to me within a week. On 11/4, ***** send a text willing to offer 50% of the initial deposit and a 5% discount on future projects. On 11/14 I responded offering $3,500 to ***** for his time as well as the engineered plans invoice ($1,100). To this point the $1,100 was the only cost incurred on Alpines part and we offered to pay over 3X that amount to simply get this over with. It is now March 2025 and this is still unresolved. ***** refuses to respond to any of our inquiries to get this settled and we would like to put an end to all of this.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 04/18/2025

  from: ***** ***** <*******************************************************************************************************>
  to: **********************************************************************
  date: Apr 18, 2025, 1:24 PM
  subject: *******- Complaint response

  Unfortunately, this complaint is omitting many important details which conceal the truth of this matter. In addition, the claims about lack of communication with our company are false. The saved email correspondence proves that. In fact, it was the customer who failed to reply to our communication attempts for months at a time.
  
  Originally, the customer reached out to us with the desire for us to quote/ build a barndominium with an attached garage/shop. After providing several different versions of designs and changing it multiple times at their request, it was finally decided to build the shop/garage as a standalone structure separate from the house, with the intention of building the house immediately after. 
  
  A contract was finalized for the shop and we began the engineering/ permitting phase. During this time we simultaneously continued to finalize the house design. This entailed spending several hours (approx. 30hrs) making numerous design changes, revisions, and changing the budget/estimate at the customer's request. All of this work was performed free of charge.
  
  When the permit for the shop was submitted to the *********** building ****** they informed us of a new requirement (specific to ***********) which stated that a PERMIT for a primary residence had to be submitted before OR at the same time as the detached building permit (see email dated May 14 and May 20 in the attachment "email correspondence 4"). 
  
  At this time several attempts were made with the customer to proceed by allowing us to submit the permit for the house (primary residence). We offered to just charge a permitting/ engineering fee for the house so that we could submit a primary residence permit along with the shop permit allowing us to move forward with the project. This would allow the customer the financial flexibility to pay the actual deposit for the house at a later date (when they sold their house). 
  
  After months of not replying to our emails or phone calls, we were finally contacted in September 2024 asking for a refund. In our contract, Article 16.3 (attached) it states that "termination for owner convenience- Contractor is entitled to payment for work executed, costs incurred, and reasonable overhead and profit".
  
  Despite this, and despite all of our attempts to provide solutions to continue the work, in addition to providing several hours of free design work, I still offered the customer a 50% refund, which they declined. At this time this matter is currently in litigation and my attorney has had discussions with the customer's attorney, and after reviewing all the relevant information, they have recommended that the customer cease their efforts of obtaining a refund as the claims are unfounded, mostly false, and a breach of their contract.
  
  I am hoping the customer will acknowledge the facts and take accountability for their decisions on this matter so that both parties can avoid even more unneeded financial burden that comes with attorneys fees and court costs. 
  
  To this day, I stand by my word and am still willing to offer the customer a 50% refund (minus the legal expenses they have incurred on my business), as well as a 5% discount for any future projects. 
  
  
  ***** *****
  Owner/ CEO
   
  Cell: ************
  *******************************************************************************************************
  ****************************************************         
  
   8 Attachments

  Customer Answer

  Date: 04/21/2025

  from: ******* Summer <**********************************> via ******************************** 
  to: *************************************************************************
  date: Apr 21, 2025, 10:40 AM
  subject: Fwd: Complaint ID: ********

  Good morning,
  We reject the businesses response.
  
  Please see below for our response and included are the 5 relevant attachments.
  
  Thanks!
  
  
  Contrary to what ***** has stated, nothing is being concealed with this situation as its actually quite simple. Alpine signed a contract to build a shop that they couldnt legally build due to permit restrictions and theyre refusing to take responsibility. In addition, there has certainly been a lack of communication on their part and the simple fact that it took Alpine 6 weeks to respond to this claim when the BBB requests 14 days, speaks for itself.
   
  ***** is correct when stating we reached out in hopes of getting a quote for shop and potential barndominium. We also reached out to a handful of other companies which also provided drawing designs, quotes and general information. These companies provided multiple renderings free of charge which is the cost of doing business. How is an individual with a set budget able to get an accurate quote without discussing and changing designs until something is agreed upon?
  
  When we signed a contract on March 4th 2024 to use Alpine, little did we know that they were unaware of what Weld County permitting required. **** who is an employee of Alpine was who we dealt with and he was excellent and pleasant to work with and we assumed everything was on the right track. Fast forward to May 11th and a phone call from **** stating we couldnt move forward with the project. See Alpine Attachment 1 for the email acknowledgements from **** admitting that he had just learned of the new permit requirements. Furthermore, **** could never direct us to any website or literature to show exactly what the county stated as a requirement for a detached building unable to be built prior to a principle structure. It was also acknowledged in the email that this permitting issue completely changed what we had planned and communicated to Alpine; building a shop before the house.
  
  ***** mentions that several attempts were made with the customer to proceed by allowing us to submit the permit for the house. That is certainly true on their part. We did not feel comfortable signing yet another contract that was dependent on our primary residence selling at the time due simply not having the money to proceed. With a volatile housing market, it wasnt in our best interest to sign a contract with no guarantee of this selling and not having the funds to cover what the contract signed. Once again, this was communicated to **** very early on in this whole process.
  
  ***** also states that after months of not replying to our emails or phone calls, we were finally contacted in September 2024 asking for a refund. See Alpine Attachment 2 showing that this statement is also false. This email clearly discusses communicated intentions from the get go all the way up until the permit issue arose and it was sent on June 25, 2024, months before ***** claims we reached out for a refund. Following this email, we talked back and forth in July and August with **** about Alpine building a house with **** agreeing that the shop deposit would appear as a credit item on the house estimate. Once this credit was applied it still wasnt financially feasible to build the house portion and this was communicated again on Sept 27. See Alpine Text 1 for correspondence.
  
  Finally in October, I reached out directly to ***** via phone call and text to once again ask for a refund. See Alpine Text 2 for correspondence. After 2 weeks, October 20th to November 4th, ***** finally offered a resolution of 50% deposit refund ($6,878.75) and I advised that this was inadequate and would not be accepted. See Alpine Text 2 for correspondence. The text I sent on November 4th received no response. An additional text was sent on November 18th that received a response two days later See Alpine Text 2 for correspondence. Its been stated by ***** that it was the customer who failed to reply to our communication yet here is another example of that very instance on Alpines part. I reached out once again via text to ***** on November 25th, which has still yet to receive a response nearly 5 months later. See Alpine Text 3 for correspondence.
  
  In good faith and with regular communication (as ***** denies) we tried to look at this from multiple angles to make it work and it simply did not check out financially. The plan was to build a shop and then a house if possible and neither came to fruition. Alpine claims we are trying to conceal the truth of the matter and thats simply false as can be shown from the above narrative.
  
  For ***** and his company to only offer a 50% deposit refund for limited work in addition to making derogatory comments towards people who were simply trying to support his business is precisely why we chose to file with the BBB and make other parties aware that may consider this business for their own construction needs. Weve done our best to resolve this in a good faith, equitable matter fair to both parties and they have refused.
  
  Respectfully, 
  ***** Summer

  

  Business Response

  Date: 04/22/2025

  I apologize for the delay in responding to the complaint Ms. ******* filed, but there are a couple important factors that caused this.

  I was recently in a bad accident and was hospitalized for a time. Secondly, the email I received from the BBB regarding the complaint went to my junk mail initially.

  As soon as I received a voicemail from ***** at the BBB I began addressing the situation immediately.

   

  As far as the rest of Ms. ******* last response, I will keep it short and simple. Obviously there are two very different viewpoints of what happened and there is plenty of hard evidence (text, voicemails, emails) to show the facts. The fact that this matter is now in litigation makes me believe that the BBB should withhold from making any final determinations about this complaint until it is resolved in court. 

  It should noted that we did not request or insist the ******* to sign "yet another contract" for building the house before proceeding with the shop. We simply asked for permission to apply for a permit on the house at the same time as the shop since that's what the county required. We continued to make several attempts to continue the project.  The bottom line is, the customer backed out of their contract because they didn't have the money (yet). Once the customer sold their house in September 2024, it was immediately after that when they started demanding a refund. Alpine Building Solutions did not cancel the contract, the customer chose to cancel the contract (after we incurred costs/time executing the prelim construction phases of the project).  And the contract they signed does not entitle them to a refund if they decide to cancel (see Article 16.3 termination for convenience). 

  Any further correspondence on this matter will be directed through our attorney. Thank you. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 04/28/2025

  Complaint: 23013181
  
  I am rejecting this response because: The "facts" that ***** mentions should be attached here if they were compelling enough for what he believes to be hard evidence. The narrative I provided shows exact conversations, timelines, and facts of what has occurred here. Unsurprisingly, ***** is once again kicking the can down the road (as has been the case since we asked for a fair and reasonable refund back in June).  

  The contract we signed was for the shop, which we had more than adequate cash to cover. ***** mentions "the customer backed out of their contract because they didn't have the money (yet)" in his latest response which is clearly false as he's trying to once again rope the shop (for which a contract was signed) and the house portion (for which a contract was never signed) together and they are both very clearly separate. Its a shame that all of this has even got to this point.

  Alpines own Terms and conditions directly from the estimate paperwork state the following: 9. Dispute Resolution: Any disputes arising from this estimate or subsequent contractual agreements will be resolved through negotiation and
  mediation in good faith between the parties involved.

  If Alpine would follow their own contractual terms and conditions as seen below in section 9, this could have been easily resolved. Unfortunately they have been unwilling to accept the fact that they could not meet the contractual agreements due to their admitted lack of knowledge of Weld County permitting codes, as noted in a June 2024 email from their estimator ****. We have acted in good faith for months and in June 2024 offered 3x more off of our refund than what they have actually incurred cost wise for our "project". They are repeatedly unwillingly and next to impossible to work with so we strongly reject their response.

  
  Regards,
  
  ***** Summer

  Customer Answer

  Date: 05/12/2025

  Better Business Bureau:

  I have decided NOT to participate in Binding Arbitration to resolve my complaint with ID ********. I understand that because I have decided to not pursue arbitration that BBB will close my complaint.

  We have a court date set for this matter and hope to resolve it then.

  Regards.