I wish someone would have warned me about Christbilt Metal Buildings prior to my purchase. I am only one of many upset customers you will find complaining about this company on this and other sites. Please take the time to view them all. Seems funds where retained from customers in Aug., Sept., Oct., and Nov. Of 2009. I hope we have saved any lose for Dec.
Many of those complaining have lost their deposits in full from $3,500 to $10,000. I paid for 1 building in full, 2/3 of another in the amount of $15K and have not received any thing more than 1 set of plans that cost $800, no delivery date or promise to deliver. Any time I request a delivery date I get verbal battering instead. He has suggested to others that he is retaining their deposits to pay for his legal defense.
As a business owner myself I always thought I was a good judge of character, I now am second guessing myself. We had priced out his buildings over a year ago. When we re-price the buildings again, he emailed us an offer too good to be true, 25% off the price. I took him up on his offer and ordered the 2 buildings. We paid for one in full, and the second one almost 2/3 paid for in the amount of $15K total sent to him. He stated I needed to get that into him by Friday as his engineer was leave for the rest of the month and it would delay our project. So we did. Later to find out that he plays the role of his engineer, of course without a license.
He received our check Oct. 5th. I emailed a week after to ask about our plans that per the contract we where to receive within 21 days, to find a totally different man on the other end. I offended him by questioning my order and the verbal battering began. He seems to enjoy this and is very good at it. He will say things to you and about you that even your worst enemy has not said to your face. Next thing you know you find yourself sinking to his level and you are calling him names back and wondering what the heck is wrong with this picture as "You get what you pay for" is ringing in your ears.
He offered to just send back my check, an offer I jumped on right then and there. I wanted nothing more to do with this company. He back peddled realizing I would not hang in there but would pay more to order from another company. He than would not agree to uphold his offer but started quoting all the fees he would charge me. I later got that in writing below that he would keep over $11k of our $15K.
I hired a male mediator to assist in the communication thinking maybe it was a male chauvinist issue and this would help everyone just calm down and complete the transaction. He sent him page after page of rude comments about me personally and ramblings, and has even attacked him personally. Male/Female doesn't seem to matter.
After rounds and rounds of battering emails (I have a book of these texts and emails sent from him with no response from us at all) we looked over his contract to see the cancellation fee was only $175. He addressed a restocking fee but does not state the percentage or amount. We all know about the disclosure laws. We thought it would be better to pay this fee, and the $800 for the plans already received and be done learning a valuable lesson. He sent us an email breaking down that if we canceled our order he would charge us and keep over $11K of our $15K. See this actual email from company:
I offered to cancel BEFORE we had completed engineering and supplied drawings. If there is a current cancellation request, it’s by the Buyer, not us. Of course cancellation is always an available option, but after having engineered a building, it’s not my first choice of remedy.
If the Buyer’s intentions are to cancel, here is the itemization:
• Entire cost of Building A would be forfeited: $5,997.03
• $175 change-order fee (paperwork) for canceling Building A.
• 8% ($479.76) of the total cost of Building A would be forfeited for an order canceled after engineering has been completed, allocation, scheduling, production disruption.
• $175 change-order fee (paperwork) for canceling Building B
• Given that the larger building, Building B, is the building that most directly influenced the pricing structure of steel and delivery that we offered the Buyer, canceling Building B would incur a forfeiture of 30% ($4,279.29) of the total cost of Building B for allocation cancellation, production cancellation, and logistics cancellation.
• Net refund for canceling both buildings = $3,893.92
We did not cancel but I wonder if this is not how it works so he makes money without ever providing any more than the plans he only charges $800 for. I'm just saying...
We have received one set of plans, when it turned out that the county required stamped foundation plans and we ordered them from him, he would not give us the 25% discount on these sets of plans. Stating again in writing that if I had ordered those with my original order I would not have gotten the offer for 25% off at all, and he can pick and chose who get the discount and who doesn't. But when a friend went on line and did the building pricing for a building with stamped foundation plans, yep you guessed it no change he got the same offer of 25% off. This we also have in writing. We also noticed he stamps his own plans putting himself out as the Engineer on stamped engineered plans, an item that is also being looked into.
Now many months have gone by and we can't get a delivery date for the building we have paid for in full. Or who the manufacturer is, as he feels this is none of our business. I'm not at all convinced I would have ever seen the building I have paid for in full now. But he has given us all a common bond to ban together.
If you have had the same experience with Christbilt, The Attorney Generals Office of Consumer Affairs would like to hear from you.
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