Would you believe that we’re getting the cold shoulder from the Porch People?
Can you imagine that phone calls or e-mails aren’t being returned---by anyone?
That after almost two years a brand new porch with what was supposed to be constructed of high quality lumber is severely splitting.
And I can’t get a return phone call?
To add insult to injury now the “answering service” is picking up.
This must be a bad dream. Is someone pulling my leg?
Perhaps I’m overreacting. Perhaps they have a European mentality about vacation and they’re taking the month of August off.
Or perhaps we’re getting the shaft.
And if we are getting the shaft do they think that I personally don’t have every step of this process documented five ways to Sunday?
They have to know that I have every e-mail and every contract about our business together.
That I will go to the department of Consumer affairs and the news papers at the drop of a hat.
I hope I get a return phone call soon---like before the end of business on Friday.
If not, I’ll consider the gauntlet thrown down and it’s on like donkey kong.
You’re not taking $90,000 of our money and giving us substandard work.
I don’t think so.
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- Urban pioneer and frustrated condo owner who wants to experience most of what Chicago has to offer. This is my tale of woe as my neighbors and I deal with the business of running a condo association that has been left in a shambles by our developer.
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3 comments:
Jeez, but I would JUST NOT BELIEVE you are being given the shrug by a building contractor.
I'm being sarcastic, of course, since building and reno contractors have a well-earned reputation as the scummiest people on the planet, topping even mortgage brokers and hedge fund managers.
Almost everyone I have ever known, in 4 cities, who had any sort of work done, or God Forbid, had a house built from scratch, has multiple horror stories to tell. It is almost never a good experience. In fact, I can't think of even ONE good one, just ones where the job was small enough it could be cheaple redone. Friends in St. Louis who got a lien slapped on them after they fired a contractor off the job for exceptionally shoddy work, and he left the tools at their place, then claimed they stole them. Another acquaintance in PA who had a 3000 sq ft house built about 30 years back, and had to move the hot water heater and furnace upstairs because the basement flooded every time it rained. They later had to vacate the house because the floors began to sag badly because of insufficient support. My mother's new roof had to be redone after 3 years and she discovered that they had not put flashing around the chimney, causing leaks and mold, and had left two old roofs on the house underneath the new one. I could repeat horror stories for days.
Oh, and did I mention the safety factor? At least four women in the Chicago area have been murdered by people who came to do work or install something. Low-grade construction jobs are often the first stop for ex-cons just released from the slam.
I think about stuff like this when I contemplate buying an "as is" that "needs work">
Can you get the porch inspected for more proof of the problems?
It's interesting on the Porch People website how they say they serve "North Chicago" and the north suburbs. Has their website always said that?
I think maybe they have gone out of business. Not uncomon in Chicago. Hooked up firms doing shoddy work then disappearing. Talk to any city worker. They will tell you!
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