Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/13/2022

  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.

  Really disappointed with our Gate we had installed. We spent just shy of $20k for a double gate.
  
  The first issue is, it’s SEVERELY off center. None of the employees noticed. When my husband and I noticed they told us two different reasonings for making it off center. (The south side was going to wash out/ and the south side had a big rock they couldn’t get through??)
  
  To alleviate this, they refunded $1000 for us to widen the driveway (add 100 ft by 4 ft of additional rock, which come to find out was quite a bit more than the $1000 they refunded) to fit their gate mistake….
  
  Secondly we were told the gate would be hand painted, but it was actually spray painted, and they had to come back out twice to repaint areas that were missed (they did fix this but it took several weeks)
  
  Third, the South Gate was about 1/2 inch higher than the north gate. They said “we have a 1/2 inch clearance, so if it’s within 1/2 inch of each other we don’t fix it” We fought them on this, and they took the gate off and did fix it, but it was a huge fight. Who wants a crooked gate???
  
  The BIGGEST issue, is about 3 weeks after the gate was “finished” the South Gate is now falling inwards. The center of our double gate is now within about 1/4 inch of touching each other. And once they touch the gate will become completely unusable!
  
  We contacted them immediately (about two weeks after finishing the install) and they said they would “quote us” on fixing it. They wanted US to pay to fix the gate not even 3 weeks after they put the gate in. They are completely unwilling to fix their gate, and expect us to fork over another $ to straighten the gate that is about to be unusable.
  
  ABSOLUTELY NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY. THEY WILL LEAVE YOU HIGH AND DRY. THEY ARE NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO WORK WITH AND WILL FIGHT YOU THE WHOLE WAY. THEY COME UP WITH EVERY EXCUSE AS TO WHY THEY WON’T COVER IT, AND WILL SEND YOU A BILL TO RECTIFY THE PROBLEM. THEY DO NOT WARRANT THEIR WORK WHAT SO EVER!

  Business Response

  Date: 12/16/2022

  I was contacted by ******* **** in late August of 2022 in regards to
  installing a gate and gate opener at his residence. He wanted to have
  the gate installed as soon as possible. I told him the only way we
  could install a gate in the fall for him would be if he wanted to
  purchase the gate that we had in-stock. The gate had been fabricated
  for another client, but their project had been post-poned until the
  spring of 2023. After some discussion he opted to purchase the gate.
  It was wider than what ******* needed for his existing driveway.
  During the early discussions I offered to have the gate powder
  coated, but he declined the option due to the cost. The alternative
  was for us to paint the gate. I told ******* that we had painted
  gates with a brush in the past, but had problems with the paints
  failing. So when we paint gates in house we now use a primer base
  coat with a standard spray paint top coat. ******* told me this would
  be fine. He also told me at that time that the price was too high. We
  had openings in the schedule at the time so I agreed to give a $500
  discount to get the project on the books. I figured it would be
  better to have the guys working than not take the job.
  As part of the job
  we needed to install power from the nearest building to the gate
  location. ******* told me that the total distance was at most 125
  feet. I did not verify this until after we accepted a deposit for the
  job. The total distance turned out to be 200 ft plus an additional 30
  feet in the building. Since I did not specifically call out a
  distance on the bid, I did not add extra for this additional expense.
  It was a mistake for me to not verify the distance and record it in
  the sales contract. This is in no way *** *****’ fault but it is
  another discount they received on the total job cost.
  When we came to
  install the gate posts ******* decided to move the location to an
  area close to where the whistle under the driveway was installed.
  This is a more narrow part of the driveway and has been back filled
  with soil when the driveway was created. I recommended that we not
  install the gate there because it could cause problems due to how the
  ground was sloped on one side. In addition to the fact that the
  location was close to the creek bed. ******* assured me that the
  creek remained dry all year long and he could believe there would be
  a problem there. Before we dug the holes we marked the centers of the
  holes with paint and had ******* sign off on their location. *******
  even made the comment that he wanted to widen the driveway so the
  fact the gate was wider than the driveway was not a big deal. It was
  my understanding that because of this it was ok that the posts were
  set in that location. There was a large rock towards the bottom of
  the hole. The posts were shifted 6 inches from that center mark that
  ******* had approved, which because of *******’s comments about the
  driveway seemed completely acceptable. After we set the post’s
  ******* contacted me and said that we set the posts 2’ to far to
  one side. He made it sound like it was ***** who really had a problem
  with it and not him. I told him that I was will to cut the posts off
  and give a refund of the remaining deposit that was not used for the
  power wiring we installed when the posts were set. ******* told me
  that he did not want us to do that and that he still wanted the gate.
  Instead he wanted us to widen the driveway for him at our cost.
  ******* said that we needed to make the driveway correctly by putting
  down paver base first and then install gravel on top. His current
  driveway was made only by ¾ inch gravel. We know this only because
  we had to dig through it to install the gate opener. At the time and
  still I feel like we were set up by ******* to be made to give
  another deep discount on the project price. During this phase I
  finally said “Look we are not in the business of making driveways.
  What will it take to make you happy.” He replied with a $1000 off
  the project price. So I agreed, I felt that if I did not cave and
  give the discount he would be sure to give us poor reviews for what
  would appear to be negligence on our part. So I gave him $1000 off
  the project price.
  In
  response to the paint needing additional touch up coats. This is true. We paint the posts and gates on site after
  install when the customer does not want to powder coat the gate.
  During the initial painting, some projects need additional coats. We
  like to let the paint completely dry before another coat is applied. When ******* pointed out that the gate needed
  additional paint I
  offered to come out and apply more paint. He said not to worry about
  it. I insisted that we would come out and paint because it was part
  of the job. This conversation happened when I picked up the final
  payment in his office. He said as long as we did it before the
  weather turned to cold that would be fine. After having had the
  problems with the post placement I did not want another issue that
  could make us look negligent. That was why I insisted that we come
  out and spray another coat on the gate. It is also why we did not
  immediately come back out. The ****** live about 40 minutes from
  the shop so we waited until one of the service technician’s were in
  the area and went then.
  During the initial
  conversations ******* indicated that he wanted to have a free exit
  probe installed. This is a device that cause the gates to open
  automatically when a car passes the probe before the exiting the
  gate. I had originally recommended installing two free exit probes
  due to how the driveway was shaped. ******* declined and said he was
  sure we could make the one work for him. We went out twice to move
  the probe because vehicles were not tripping the sensor. The third
  time I was able to convince ******* to allow us to install a second
  probe at cost. This represents another discount in the form of free
  labor used to move the single probe and then add another free exit
  probe.
  After the gate
  leafs and gate opener were installed a couple weeks we received a
  call from ******* complaining about the alignment of the gates. I
  drove out and inspected the gates and agreed that it was too far out.
  At that time I thought it was our fault. One of the gates also had
  some twist in it. So I had our installers remove the gate to
  straighten it in our shop and then re-install it on site. At that
  time the gate leaf was re-installed and aligned to the ****** approval. In early December ******* contacted me again and said that
  the gates were out of alignment again and needed to be fixed. I was a
  little skeptical, but I went out to inspect. While I was on site it
  became apparent that one of the posts was shifting in place and
  allowing the gate to tilt downward. When we set posts, we dig a hole
  between 38 inches and 44 inches deep by 30 inches in diameter. The
  posts have horizontal steel welded to them and holes cut towards the
  bottom so the concrete will completely hang on to the post. The gate
  leafs only weigh 160 pounds each. This is a normal post install with
  lighter weight gates. Our company has not ever had problems with a
  post moving like this. For what ever reason the soil is not able to
  support the post. It could be the soil type, it could be the fact it
  is right next to the creek, but regardless of the reason additional
  structure is needed to stabilize the post. In ******* complaint she
  even acknowledges that the ****** were warned about the possibility
  of wash out on that side of the driveway and that it was the reason
  that the posts were placed where they were when ******* signed off on
  the paint layout. If I knew in the beginning this would be happening
  for sure, I would have included the additional structure in the
  original bid. Unfortunately I did not know this. I provided *******
  two options at cost to remedy this situation. A day after this
  ******* and ***** **** posted inflammatory statements and poor
  reviews. ******* made it clear to me that he did not want to pay
  anything to fix the problem and that he felt it was our problem.
  In conclusion, I
  feel that we have gone above and beyond to try and hold to “The
  customer is always right” mentality. We have gone out of our way to
  try and work with *** *****, but every time we do, it seems that it
  is met with more requests for free or heavily discounted work, and
  now to finally end with poor review postings when we would not
  continue to give in. The ****** have paid a total of $15,253.00.
  This is not a small sum, but also not the $20,000 ***** is
  claiming to have paid. If the extra free exit probe, the powder coat
  paint, additional length in wire, and the additional structure for the post were
  included then the price would have been closer to her stated amount.
  The additional structure needed to secure the post is $1350. This is
  my cost and in my opinion more than fair based on our experience with this job and now the poor reviews that the company will need to deal with.