While attending the Minneapolis Home and Garden Show my wife and I came in contact with Exterior Design Studio and it's principle owner Mark Ritter. We were looking for a premier landscaper to overhaul our back yard ever since we moved in last June. At first Mark seemed nice enough and we agreed to meet with him later in the week for a first consolation.
Upon entering his office I notice the many photos on the wall, hundreds of them. It looked more like an art gallery rather than a working office, no designers drawing, no secretaryhell, I didn't see an employee in sight.
Our first meeting felt awkward and I should have used my better judgment before giving him $1,000 up front to come up with a design and drawing for our back yard. I could see the greed in his eye as he proclaimed to know what we wanted without us uttering a word. After the meeting my wife mentioned that she was kind of creped out by the way he would look at her.
Our follow up meeting was just as much of a disaster as the first. We arrived a little early and apparently Mark did not know that we had entered the building because upon entering we heard him screaming obscenities over the phone. I'm 54 years old and to be honest I think I'd heard it all up until that afternoon. Whom ever was on the other end of that phone got a tongue lashing that was so bad I felt embarrassedwe should have walked out right there - very vulgar, very unprofessional!
From the beginning our budget was set at $45,000 and Mark know this very well. When Mark showed us the design, the expense sheet was TRIPLE our budget! After arguing with him for several minutes we finally gave up and told Mark that we would not like to continue. He then shouted obscenities at us and told us that he was the expert and that he was the best in the business Best at what! I told him. I demanded my $1,000 back and he assured us that he would mail it the following week. That was a year ago!
Avoid this company at all costs! This man is at least completely crazy and at best a sophisticated con man.
0 comments