On Jun 2 we entered into a home Improvement contract #2831 with Guardian Windows and Siding, Inc, located at 1275 Glenlivet Drive., Suite 100, Allentown, PA 18106 with Noel Trinidad as their Sales Representative and Michael Salavatti as owner of such company. The contract (see attachment a) was for:
Install new Roof
Royal Colonial Siding,
New Fascia, Suffit Gutters and Down spouts
Capping on windows and doors
10 sets of Shutters
Scalloped siding on side of garage peak
2 New Garage Doors,
2 New headers on top of garage doors
Bow window,
Installation of Brick Face in Doorway and around Bow windows
Per the contract the price for all of the above was $30,390.00. When the contract was signed, we asked Noel if we could have some time so that we could replace all of the windows in the house, (their price was a bit high) and make sure that we had the funds - to which he complied. On or about August 25th we placed a call to Noel and advised him that the windows were in and that we had the deposit for the contract so that we may begin with work. On August 29th Noel came to the house, but at this time we made some changes to the contract. We had decided not to have them do our Brick Face or install the Bow window, but since we had a signed contract for a specified amount and materials had not been ordered yet, because a deposit had not been applied to the account, we replaced the brick face for a 33 by 16 pressure treated deck.
This transaction was monitored and approved at all times by Michael Salavatti, owner of GWS. A new contract was drawn # 2852, superseding the previous contract to reflect the changes (see attachment B) at this time; we countersigned the changes and gave Noel a $10,000.00 deposit Check # 564. At this time he said that we were looking at 6 to 8 weeks between ordering the materials and finishing the job, with an approximate time of workmanship of roughly a month from beginning to end.
By Mid September '05, I began calling Noel to follow up and I would get no response, I decided to call their Office at 610-759-9151 only to learn that the Office was closed until October, due to relocation. This information was never communicated to their contract holders. I kept on calling Noel, now to find out that his cell phone number was no longer in service, panic was my first reaction, but nonetheless I attempted one more thing e-mail to which a few days later I received a response to from Michael Salavatti and here was when my interaction with Michael really began. He apologized about Noel's number and gave me his (Noel) new cell number and reassured me that my materials were in order, but since it was such a large order it would take some time. October 05, November 05 passed with very little communication and no signs of the work to begin at any time. Numerous, e-mails and phone calls were made and the vast majority of them went unanswered.
In the early part of December 05, Noel calls me and tells me that he is in the process of ordering the shingles for my house but that he wants to make sure that the color is as I specified. He asked that I go to Home Depot and look at the different type of GAF branded shingles and select and that he would call me to confirm. I did as asked and I went to the local Home Depot and verified the color that I wanted. At this time Noel mentioned to order a dumpster for the debris, contrary to paragraph 13 of the contract that states that: Company will remove all construction debris from the job site
I ordered the dumpster from Raritan Valley Disposal for $650.00 which had to be paid upon delivery. Dumpster gets delivered and sits on my driveway for a couple of days with no signs of any contractors the dumpster was rented for 5 days and after that there was a $50.00 daily charge, I called Noel and left a voice message to this effect and mentioned that it would only be fair for them to pay if it went over days. The following day about 10 workers come to my property and without even checking to see if there was anyone home - began to tear my roof off. I was upset of the lack of communication but glad that construction had finally begun. One whole day of banging and they left the same way they came without any notice. The following day one of the workers comes to the house for us to approve the job, we were not home and my mom told them that they had to come back 2 days later when we had a chance to see the roof in the middle of the day we noticed what a sloppy job it was and I immediately sent an e-mail to Noel and Michael demanding for one of them to come to the work site and see the shoddy roof job first hand. Noel did come by, and agreed that it was not right, and he brought the workers back and it was rectified. The roof now was done! And another $10,000 check was given since they were beginning the siding the following week.
The following week (week of Dec 19th, 05) an individual by the name of Paul came to our house and introduced himself as the contractor that was to do the siding, we spoke over the phone, since we work days and we verified what he was to do, I verified that insulation would be placed on the entire house prior to the siding and so on, but he says the he was given no insulation, and that he knew nothing about it, he stated that the company was notorious for not providing the materials as specified on the contract. To this I answered that he could not proceed with the job without insulation, he then placed several calls and the insulation and the pallets of siding were delivered to my home. Since the onset Paul displayed lack of knowledge or ease of workmanship, but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He began putting some of the insulation up and then would leave, he would come back the following day for an hour or so and come up with another excuse and leave again, the holidays came and went, to which he would not work because of the holidays. The house was looking worse and worse, because there was not one finished wall from the three that he was supposed to cover, three weeks after he started! It took him almost a month to finish one wall, and to this, it was the garage doors wall, which cannot be considered a full wall. There was a light fixture that was to be relocated to in-between the two garage doors, and he put siding right over it! He began to cover the rear of the house, to which I had to put a stop to his work and call over to the Office and Call Noel, for them to come to the house once again and see the poor workmanship. And to remove Paul from the job because not only was he doing a poor job but he was harassing my sister all along. Once again they came to the house and had to agree with me and removed Paul from the job. A few days later (This is already January of 06) Michael, Noel and the sales person from the siding went to inspect the job and it was determined that it was defective material but when I approached Michael about everything having to come down, he said that the one wall was fine, it was only Selective pieces of the siding that were defective, this meant that Paul was out of the job and they had to reorder the material and I was assigned another contractor that was about to finish another job and would not start until a couple of weeks.By mid February of '06 the contractor starts going to the house on and off Michael has reassured me time and time again that they are working towards resolution, but I'm seeing no results.
I went ahead and started looking in the internet for agencies that would be able to help me get this matter resolved since it is obvious at this time that this company was not reliable; this was obvious by their ongoing broken promises and deceitful way of operating. While on the internet, I came across the Pennsylvania Attorney Generals website and the Crackdown on 17 fraudulent contractors: Michael Salavatti being the second one that they had listed. I immediately sent in a complaint because at that time I felt that I had been had. A couple of weeks later I received the attached e-mail from Mr. Salavatti, and we corresponded back and forth in such correspondence Mr. Salavatti, assured me time and time again, that he had done nothing wrong and that the complaint was unfounded. He promised that he would do good on the contract.
By late February '06, a secondary contractor (not affiliated with GWS) begins the Brickface of the house, GWS contractor, continues with the siding and he is doing a good job. I thought that he would be the contractor that would do the siding (w/gutters and soffits), install shutters, replace the garage doors and build the deck -well, in Mid March, he informs me that he is finished with the job, when asked about the shutters, garage doors and deck he informs me that he was not asked to do any of those things. Through all this the Brickface continues, brick by brick. Noel comes by the house to check on the siding and I pointed out that the Headers on the garage doors and the scalloped siding were never installed, to this he answered that nothing could be done about it now since the siding job had been completed. At this time I ask about the deck he (Noel) says that in about 2 to 3 weeks, the deck guy should be coming by to begin digging for the foundation, when asked about the permit, he tells me that h would take care of it. This would bring us to 1st week of April '06. The weeks come and go and no signs of Noel, or Michael or any other representative of GWS. Voice Messages go unanswered and I finally called the Hillsborough Township, on the fist week of May 06, to verify that a permit had been requested, thinking that perhaps it was a delay on that that had kept them from starting my deck, only to find out that a permit had never been requested! At this point I was beyond myself, why the lies and the misrepresentations?
I forward yet another e-mail to GWS, to which at this time, I was asked to meet with Michael to discuss the situation, at first I was skeptical but then realized that I had much more to loose if I did not accept. We confirmed and Appointment at my house on Friday May 12th at 6:30pm, Michael, Noel and us were to sit and discuss were we were at with this contract. On Friday early afternoon, I receive a message from Noel that Michael needs to reschedule, it seems that he forgot that he had to pick his daughter up from college that day, and we rescheduled for Saturday May 13th at 2:30pm. They show up at my house and the meeting was very brief, I told them that I was not planning on regurgitating on what had transpired, I wanted to focus on what was going to happen from here moving forward. At this point my brick face was complete and their job was no where near completion! The deck needed plans for the permit to be granted, and they had done none of it, and my wish was for the deck to be done prior to the summer starting. I was upfront and told them that I would not pay any additional monies until things were completed, they agreed that it would be a reasonable expectation, they also suggested that it would be best if they did not proceed with the deck (it was their decision), and just finish the odds and ends such as shutters and garage doors; based on what had been paid so far ($20,000.00) to this I agreed, but I also mentioned that I was giving them 10 days to complete the shutters, put in the garage doors and remove all their material and debris from my house, and they agreed.
I thought this to be a very amicable way of coming to terms with a situation, and I figured that with the remaining monies due on the contract, I would attempt to get a contractor to do the deck, I allow them the release on the contract and they do not have to deal with me anymore. We shook hands on this, it was a good compromise.
Eight days later, no signs of them again! I reach out to them and they say that they would be sending someone over that day to pick up the materials left behind, they make no mention of the shutters or garage doors, on the Ninth day I receive a call from Noel that the guy putting the shutters Tony would be over the next day to put the shutters up, Tony calls me directly the following day to tell me that he can't make it because it was raining (??) do not know where he was coming from because it was not raining in Somerset County. Tony finally shows up and puts up 3 sets of the 10 sets of shutters that he needs to install and says that he does not have the rest of the materials (at this point another complaint gets filed this time with the BBB via the internet), Tony and Noel stop by the house a couple of days later and finish the shutters this was approximately the week of May 29th. Still no sign of the garage doors, Noel says that Michael is handling and Michael does not respond to my e-mails or voice mails.
Since our meeting on May 13th, plans have been drawn for the deck, a permit has been requested from the zoning dept and the building department, plans have had to be revised a couple of times before final approval was given and $254.00 was paid for the permit. I have contracted a contractor that is charging me $11,500 for the deck vs the $10,390.00 that was due on the contract that is $1,110.00 more than I owed on the contract.in addition I've had to look into paying for 2 new garage doors ($1,300.00) and pay for yet another dumpster to cleanup the property from all the additional debris that were left behind by GWS see pictures.
Michael Salavati and Noel Trinidad have continuously misled us into believing that they are good law abiding citizens that are only interested in meeting their obligations and they could not be father from the truth, it has taken them 10 months to attempt and fulfill a home improvement contact and it is still not completed for Mr. Salavatti to consider his job complete is ludicrous. It is a shame that individuals such as them are allowed to con people out of their hard earned money with the promises of providing them with their dream renovation of their homes. They put people through a series of psychological games that inhibits peoples ability to coherently make sound decisions, because they keep the hope alive that perhaps they will do as they proclaim they would. People should not have to chase, harass, plead and demand from them to complete what they have contracted and are being paid to do. If they cannot fulfill their obligations in a professional and honorary fashion they should not be afforded the privilege of working with the public in what turns out to be a very personal and emotional exchange of services.
The above resume is only a quick synopsis of what we have had to endure with GWS as a contractor.in response to Mr. Salavattis's counter response, I beg to differ on his assertions. Ludicrous & unreasonable is what I call his explanations. If Mr. Salavati was as detailed and prompt in performing his contractual duties as he is in carefully formatting and detailing his written responses to defend his inadequacies as a contractor he would most likely not have as many unsatisfied customers. It is obvious that customer service is not his main concern.
Mr. Salavatti's pricing of the contract - after the fact and after it's been 6 months that he has had 20,000 of the contract amount paid - is as ludicrous as he claims my estimates are, I am not by any means a contractor nor do I claim to be one, so yes, I must resort to other professionals with a honorable track record to advise me, so as to demand my rights with sound precision and knowledge. When I spoke to Mr. Salavati about the estimates that I sought, I clearly explained to him that it was only to give me an Idea, an Average or/an Estimate of what the pricing could be. Mr. Salavattis' revelation of the pricing for the deck, the headers of the garage doors that there were forgotten, and the garage doors, is like what came first the chicken or the egg, these prices was never broken out on the original contract and I can also claim as he, how convenient!
Noel Trinidad nor Michael Salavatti when writing the contract, (see attached) ever broke down the pricing and only offered a bulk amount of $30,390.00. If Mr. Salavatti, after careful consideration and number crunching realized that he was off in pricing, It should not be at our expense. To insinuate if not outright accuse us of trying to extort this Make Believe company of their monies, as well as, say that he is taking a loss and are willing to walk away from money it is outright comical. The contract was for 30,390.00 out of which 20,000.00 were paid - $10,390.00 remain. For Garage Doors that he claims are 1,600.00 and a deck that he claims is 6,500.00 that is a total; $8,100.00.
When we went to request the permit for the deck that we are building ourselves, we estimated the cost to be $6,000 (materials only). We were denied this amount by the Hillsborough Township building department on the pretense that it is not within the Fair Market Value and was forced to raise that amount to a minimum of $10,000.00 for the size of the desired deck. So If Mr. Salavatti had to go through the same process for requesting a permit, I am sure that He would have had to go through the same process.
So, 10,000.00 for the deck (at a minimum $20.00 per sq. Ft) $254.00 for the permit; $650.00 for the dumpster that they were supposed to pay for, 1,600.00 for the garage doors, $400.00 for the headers that they did not supply totals 12,904.00 It sounds to me that he under priced this contract based on his numbers and is trying to squirm his way out this contract with the attempt of keeping his losses at a minimum. For him to claim that he is taking a loss at $20,000.00 received for a roof job and siding on or my house is crazy. Mr. Salavatti STILL OWES US the GARAGE DOORS based on the contract and what we discussed, we only agreed to allow them to walk away from the deck, only to facilitate our ability to expedite this process since it was obvious the GWS is not qualified to get the job done. I will not consider this contract complete since Mr. Salavatti refuses to do the garage doors and I am demanding he pays us back the $650.00 we had to pay for a dumpster to remove the debris from his workers, I will not allow this company to take advantage of us more than they have so far. As far as we see it and based on the signed contract - the only way that I will consider this contract complete is if the $1,600.00 are given to us to replace the doors.
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