Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/29/2022

  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.

  We contracted with Ameridocks to build a dock and boat lift in February 2022. They said ******* days to start construction, we agreed on the price and signed a contract and gave a $500 deposit. They notified us in November they are withdrawing the contract and did not want to do the job anymore and refuse to refund our $500 deposit.They cancelled the contract not us, and are telling us our deposit is "non refundable".We would like them to build the dock as contracted or refund our $500 deposit

  Business Response

  Date: 12/30/2022

  In the time that ****************** signed his contract with us to the time that we were ready to begin his project, his neighbor constructed a dock that restricted ********************** ability to access the lift as designed at his request - using 2 of his existing piles in order to save money on the project. Knowing this, we cannot in good conscience proceed with the project as designed and as requested by ******************. We offered the homeowner several other design options and quotes, none of which were acceptable to him. The new quotes came in at higher price points because the layout would need to be moved to the other side of his property and would no longer be able to utilize his 2 existing poles. A larger scope of work equals an increase in price and ****************** expected us to provide him with a new option that came in at the same price as his original layout. Unfortunately, with the neighbors new dock in place that is not possible.

  ****************** expressed his wishes to proceed with the original layout, despite being un-usable. This would not make any sense and goes against our ethics as a licensed contractor, especially when we provided him with options for a usable design. 

  Ameridocks has already laid out over $500 (********************** deposit amount) on his behalf. A portion of this paid for his professional engineering plans which we have given to him. If he wishes to proceed with the plans, with a different contractor, these plans can be used.
  
  Additional fees that Ameridocks has accrued will not be charged to ******************. Per his signed contract, deposits are non-refundable.
  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 01/02/2023

   
  Complaint: 18657424
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  The original layout was created and designed by Ameridocks by ***************************. I did not create or suggest the layout. They expect me to pay for an unusable layout that THEY designed and want me to pay for engineering plans which will not work. If they have 30 years of experience, they should not have created a layout that *** not work if the neighbor does construction on their property in the future. This should have been explained and anticipated for.

  The new design they proposed as you can see is about 65 SQFT smaller than the original design. According to the original contract 2 additional piles (in the new layout) would cost $600 each. So the cost of the new layout should have been approximately $1200 more less the credit for a 65 SQFT smaller dock and less materials. As you can see the original cash price was $33,100 and the new revised smaller dock is $36,926. An increase cost of $3826.

  I have offered several times to work with them on cost for the new design, even offering to "split" the difference in cost for good faith, but *************************** refused to make any considerations.

  I have offered to pay the extra pile cost ($1200) if they credit some money for the smaller fixed dock, but still she denied working with us.

  She claimed that in the 9 months that they took to start the project fuel costs and lumbar costs have increased and that's why the cost was higher.

  The delay in starting the job was purely related to their poor planning or poor scheduling not mine.

  Despite our differences, I am still willing to come up with a reasonable solution in which both parties will be happy with.

  For example, if they credited me for 65 sqft of fixed dock and charged me $1200 more for 2 piles or increased the size of the floating dock etc.

  They can also refund my $500 deposit for failing to build the dock as they designed and cancelling the contract on me.

  If the design THEY created is non-usable then why do they expect me to pay for it?

   

  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************