We wanted to do a Greenhouse addition at our newly constructed home of less than a year. From ServiceMagic.com, we found Stan Silver from Premier Design Builders Inc.
We contacted Stan and let him know that we were looking for something in 20-25K range. His estimate was around 30K. We insisted that it cannot be more than 25K. He threw a 27K offer with patio as an extra! We agreed and signed the contract for 27K and paid him 30% of it on 08/16/08. He said that the Village had to approve the plan and according to his estimate, the project will be completed by 10/14/08, latest.
From now, the trouble started. He hardly answered phone calls thereafter during September and whenever he did; he claimed he was busy with other projects and that 'Village' was taking a long time to approve our case. All this time, we were giving him the benefit of the doubt. Finally he called back on 10/10/08 to say the Village had finally approved and blamed them for the delay and vanished for a week.
We were happy that atleast the first stage is done. Then came a bombshell on 10/23/08, that we had to shell out additional 20% according to conform with Village requirements. We were a little flustered and told him that we would like to back out of the project. He said that since they were already in the middle of construction of the greenhouse, we cannot really back out. We 'gave in' to his demand. He got the check for 20% (totaling 50% = 16K) the next morning, ie 10/24/08. His men came the same day and did a total of 1.5hrs of work which included taking out our wooden deck (steps) and little bit of digging in the backyard area. We expected the work to go uninterrupted. After repeatedly calling Stan, he said that since his men were busy with other projects, they could not come sooner. They came on 10/31/08 and brought in trucks and bulldozers and damaged our landscape considerably. When my wife stopped and asked them whether they would fix it, they did not understand English properly and asked us to contact Stan. My wife contacted Stan but he did not take the call. This was a major flashpoint for us.
We raised this issue with him over email and phone but his take was this was "inherent to the type of work done and all proper precautions were already taken" But, there were absolutely NO precautions taken to either mark the sprinkler heads or use plywood underneath when bringing in any heavy equipment or trucks. After we raised complained, his men used wheel barrow on 11/05/08 when they came to work to complete laying the concrete, the same day Village inspector had come to oversee the work.
Then Stan and his men went missing for nearly three weeks! In the meantime, we contacted the Village to see if they might help in this case. They were very helpful and let us know they will send the Village inspector to take a look at the damages. Coincidentally, the same day the inspector came on 11/18/08, Stan also sneaked in to our backyard and when the inspector asked to speak with him, Stan refused to speak to somebody without his license although the inspector had his license but by the time he showed it, Stan had already driven away in a hurry.
Stan subsequently called and let me know that his men would come the next week. His men turned up to do the deck the following Tuesday, 11/25/08 and completed it on the same day. I was now thinking that the work indeed would be completed. But then, he called up on 12/3 in response to my email about some damages to the water drain that was caused by his men. He hung up the phone when asked for reasons for delay and when I disagreed to his demand that we take care of fixing the sod according to Village's requirement for providing Certificate of Occupancy.
Based on our experience, We will never recommend this contractor - Stan Silver with Premier Design Builders IL to anyone.
Very UNPROFESSIONAL, UNFRIENDLY, damaged adjacent property and refuses to fix it, makes indefinite delay. The project was started several months ago, he took half of our payment, the project is not even 30% complete, refuses to give reason for the delay and not proceding further. NEVER GO THROUGH THIS CONTRACTOR!
Unprofessional, Delay, Project Incomplete, Landscape damage, Poor Workmanship, Fraudulent, Lack of accountability, Arrogant, Domineering attitude, Lack of proper communication, Remorseless, Non-fulfilment of contractual obligations and terms, Sudden Cost Increase.
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