This was by far our worst experience dealing with any business.
I decided to give them two stars instead of one for a couple reasons. First the manager was very responsive/ apologetic/ polite, and secondly they did an OK job.
We got new quartz counter top and back splash, spent close to 10k on it. And I want to add, this is not a fake review as I have all the quotes/ bills/ payment proofs.
Price
- for the counter top they first quoted a price that was higher by over $1,000 due to a calculation mistake they made.
- their price after correction was still over other vendors, however they came down to within a few $100 and we decided to support a local business instead of going with a big chain.
- they quoted a price for the back splash, without giving a line by line breakup of the costs. The price was again higher than the big chain, but we wanted to support a local business.
- they made simple calculation mistakes on the invoices, which seemed to have been typed up in a word processor rather than computer generated. They over billed us by $100 in the last bill (which they corrected).
One of the bills calculated 6% sales tax at $6 for a bill of a few $ '000.
Customer service
- our counter top install was moved from morning to afternoon (on the morning of the install), but they showed up much later than the agreed time. There we no updates meanwhile.
- the installers said they will not do the plumbing re connection, which AAA had agreed to do. After talking to them they said plumbing will be done by another guy coming later. We also figured they had actually sub contracted the counter top install to a 3rd party.
- for the back splash install they did not arrive on the scheduled time/ day, when called they said the install has been moved to the next day. No one called to tell us that it has been rescheduled at any time. There was no email, no phone call. Again very poor customer service.
- installers came over the next morning, and started with removing the old tile. After the tiles were removed I got an email saying the tile removal was NOT in the price, and I will have to pay ADDITIONAL $200 for the removal. Later when I was driving, I got a call from their design consultant saying that I have to agree to the additional charge NOW. When I said I am driving, the installers have already removed old tile, and i will stop by later to figure this out, she was extremely rude and DEMANDED that either I agree to pay the charge, or she will call the installers to STOP WORK and leave.
We were expecting overseas guests who were arriving that day to stay with us for a few days, AAA knew that. There was no way we could have left it that way. They basically had us over a barrel, but the rudeness was shocking.
In the best case they forgot to add the charge to remove tile, which is their mistake and they should not hold us responsible for it. They did not break out the quote for us to have figured it out.
In the worst case they knew they can make an additional $200 because we needed the work done before friends came over that same day.
Quality of work
- the counter top installers did an OK job.
- for the back splash install we were told it would take a day and a half, but they rushed it to finish the same day. The installers first said they cannot grout the same day as the cement will be wet. They however did the grouting the same day, which did cause some tiles to move, causing uneven gap between tiles. They also did not pay attention to the quality of tiles they were using, there is a whole box of tiles left but they used tiles with spots on the back splash where the defects are in plain sight.
To summarize, we are not going back ever, and would suggest you take your business else where as well.
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