On January 22 my wife and I purchased a security screen door and window cover from Chavez Wrought Iron. We dealt with Mr. Alfred Chavez Sr., and the agreement was for $743.00 for both the door and window cover. Of which $350.00 would be paid up front and the remaining balance of $393.00 would be paid once the door and window cover were installed and to my satisfaction.
The door and window was installed approximately February 15th. I can vividly remember Mr. Chavez telling us how beautiful the door was going to look. That evening when my wife and I returned home from work we were extremely upset and dissatisfied with how terrible the door looked. The window cover was installed and was acceptable; the door however, was not.
The door was supposed to have a mother quail and three baby quails; it had them, but was very poor quality. The quality was so poor that the mother quail was to big for the box in which it was installed and therefore it was mounted at an angle, and it appeared that it was tripping and just about to fall. All of the quails were poorly manufactured. (Cut by hand, not professionally machined)
The painting was just as bad, it had runs and the wing cutouts were partially filled with paint. We promptly called Mr. Chavez Sr. And complained and he told us NO problem that his son Adrian would take care of having the quails replaced and be to my satisfaction. Several weeks went by and no word about replacing the quails. My wife and I went to The Saaba Home and Garden Show, on April 5th, and we ran into Mr. Chavez Sr. And asked him what was going on with the replacement, and he said he would take care of it. The next week his son called and set up to come and replace the quails. (Three professionally cut and one poorly cut by hand)
After the quails had been replaced I noticed that there were cracks in the stucco where they had mounted the window cover, also the person that had replaced the quails had rubbed something on the stucco next to the door in an attempt to cover something. The substance is a totally different color than my house. I saw the quails and all but the mother quail looked acceptable.
I called Mr. Chavez Sr. And told him there was still a problem with the large quail and he told me, that his son Adrian would contact me and drop off some quails for me to look at to see if they were acceptable, so we could finish and they could get paid. Adrian Chavez contacted me and we arranged to have him drop off the quails, in the evening, and if agreed, he could probably get them installed, so he was going to bring some lights to work by, and asked if I had a plug in the vicinity, of which I do.
Adrian Chavez was somewhat rude over the phone, so I called their shop and told them I still wanted to deal with Mr. Chavez Sr. About the replacement installation because of the phone conversation I had with Adrian. My wife and I waited and Adrian never showed up to drop off the quails to look at. At that point I told my wife this is too much and if they want the rest of their money they will contact us so they can finish the job.
From the time we signed the original contract until now has been over seven going on eight months and I had not heard from Chavez Wrought Iron, until August when I received a letter stating that my account was over due and that I was going to have a charge off if I didn't have the balance paid by 30th of August. I contacted Chavez wrought iron immediately to complain, because my door was never completed, and for them to contact me on my work phone. When I arrived at work the next morning I was rather shocked, to receive the voice mail that I needed to hurry up and get this resolved because they were still going to send this to a collections agency, if they were not paid by the 30th of August.
I was very upset so I went down to the shop. I spoke to one of Mr. Chavez's other sons, and expressed my disbelief and discontent with the whole process of dealing with them, and the problems that I had with the door. I was told I've been over there and it doesn't look that bad. At that point I was livid and told them to have their father call me so we could straighten this out. So I left them my work number and my work cell phone so I made sure that I did not miss the call from Mr. Chavez Sr. And I was told ok.
Shortly after returning back to my office I receive a phone call from Adrian Chavez, and my first question was why didn't your father call me, and his response was, he is retired now, taking it easy so he doesn't have to deal with these kind of headaches anymore, Adrian went on to say that he had talked to his father and his father told him he had left several messages at my house and I never returned them. I then told him it is a little hard to leave a message at my house when I don't have an answering machine. Adrian Chavez then tried to say that his father called and we didn't return his calls, which to me, means the same thing.
At that point I was not happy at all because I felt threatened, I felt that my opinion about the door and window cover I was spending almost $800.00 dollars for, was not valued, and that they were bold enough to flat out lie about leaving messages. The conversation continued and Adrian Chavez became even ruder so I told him to just come get the door and refund my money and hung up on him. I did not here from Chavez Wrought Iron, again until shortly after that, via certified letter. The letter stated that a note had been left at my residence. Is that like the phone messages that had been left that I had never returned?
Chavez Wrought Iron knew that my wife and I both worked, why didn't they contact us in the evening? And to add further insult, the FINAL NOTICE, that I received, stated The outstanding balance of $393.00 (three hundred ninety three & no/100) is six months over due, verbatim, will further attest to the manner I was treated via the telephone.
I finally was contacted from Mr. Chavez Sr., and we agreed to meet at my house on thursday 03 October 02. We sat at my dining room table to begin our conversation about the poor craftsmanship of the one unsatisfactory quail and the other problems from the installations.
At that point I started the tape recorder that was sitting on my table, and began asking Mr. Chavez questions. I first asked about the "Final Billing" notice and how insulting it was for me, the way they spelled it out on the balance and if this was the way they normally billed. His response was he did not know about the letter and that was not their normal way. Then I asked, then why did I recieve a statement in that manner. His response was that they are a smsll business and they do not know how to bill people. (just a note, this company has been in business for thirty-two years)
We had several more minutes of enjoyable conversation, in which I confronted him about the documented times in which his business tried to contact me. (Him knowing that my wife and I both work, their call times 9:15am-4:43pm)
We then proceeded to take a look at my door. We discussed my problem with the one quail, I was told that it was to contractors spec. Somewhere along our disscussion Mr. Chavez felt the need to stick his fat little finger in my face and shake it. I told him to get his finger out of my face, he stopped and then moments later he did it again and proceed to call me a JERK. (I'm serious you should here my tape)
Things calmed and we agreed that I would call him at his residence friday 04 oct 02. When I called I inquired to see the contractor specs for the quail, again another lie, now there are no contractor specs. He then began to belittle me by saying "Your a sick man", "Your elevator doesn't go all the way to the top", "Your one cookie short of a picnic basket." I'm just shocked and angered, because I'm not sure what I can do at this point. I really need some help.
This entire problem could have been resolved with simple customer relations and problem resolutions. Please help me to stop such customer abuses, because contacting the BBB has done nothing for me.
Walter
Tucson, Arizona
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