AFFILIATED CONTRACTING

BEWARE! BEWARE! BEWARE!  It hurts me to write this review because I had actually recommended this company to others and a couple of people trusted me and wanted estimates from them.   The sole purpose is to make sure that no one else is deceived by them and ripped off, as I was.  I thought I was being careful and I called the BBB in AL to check their rating. I called and it was an A-, mostly due to the fact that the BBB didn't have that much info on them.  However, I didn't think to check in other states.  After my ordeal, I researched, and found the same company with Jim Christensen as President in OH and the BBB had an F rating for them.  Also, seemingly good, I had also seen the company's address on the internet and it was in Gardendale, AL.  Again, after this ordeal, I further researched and there were 3 addresses in Gardendale for Affiliated Contracting Consultants.  I rode out there and checked the addresses. One was an empty house, one was where Mike Moore and his family lived and where Dane was also living.  The 3rd address was a Care and Rehab Center for the elderly. The internet will show the address is Dean Lane, but I went and talked to the Rehab Center and confirmed with 3 people that the address is 420 Dean Dr.  As far as the work,   I was told that it was a father, son and father-in-law business so I expected 3 people to be working on the deck.   I also saw a Gardendale number listed in an advertisment as Jim's contact number so I assumed that he traveled from OH to AL, depending on where the work was. There were red flags at first because I thought Jim, who had been in business for over 30 years would be the one with all the expertise and I was expecting him to be on the job. When only Dane and Mike showed up, they were so likeable and just as the advertisement said, I was assured that Mike was a Master Builder, (no longer convinced. would like to see credentials) ,and knew what he was doing so I felt everything would be OK.  Everytime I had a question about something, the answer always sounded so good, and I trusted them and would just agree.  We immediately hit it off.  Dane even called me Auntie at times and they kept telling me how it seemed like we had known each other for years and that they felt like I was family, and I sincerely felt the same way.  At first, I bought them at least 4 cartons of their favorite sodas, diet Pepsi and Grapico.  Then when I found out that they loved sweet tea, I made them a gallon of tea every day or 2. I had a never ending supply of snacks for them throughout their time at my house.  Though, they were welcome to come in and out of my house to get tea or other snacks, I also got an ice chest and filled it with ice and drinks and put it on the porch so it would be readily available for them.   I took them out to eat one time. I cooked for them one time.  I sent food home to their families.  When they mentioned that they had to go and rent a pressure washer to do work at their own home,  I volunteered to call my husband and see if they could borrow his shop's pressure washer.  He agreed so we loaned them our pressure washer which they kept for 5 days since they didn't come to work Monday or Tuesday. I could go on and on, but the point is that as nice as I was to them and as much as I trusted them, Affiliated Contracting Consultants, Inc. would have been the last company that I would have ever thought would have scammed me.  So, please, beware and don't think that it can't happen to you.  Please learn from the hardship that they have put on me.   Very long story short, after Dane Christensen and Mike Moore continually spoke of their two year guarantee on all their work and gained my total trust, and based on their own words, convinced me that they wanted our families to get together and remain friends, long after their work was completed, I was absolutely devasated when the totally unexpected, happened.  Within a week of the screened-in deck being completed 4 or 5 screened frames blew out.  Before they were paid, Dane always answered the phone or immediately returned my calls.  However, after they were paid in full, he quit returning my phone calls, and his dad, Jim/James Christensen, who was in OH, got involved, for the first time, and he was the only one that I was allowed to personally, correspond with. Before he intervened, I spoke to Mike Moore, and texted and left voice messages for Dane for probably a couple of weeks.  Dane finally agreed  and put the screens back in and take care of some, (not all), of issues that the building inspector mentioned.  At this time, we spoke of a concern I had since the moment after I wrote the final check.  I was grossly overcharged and I thought it was an honest miscalculation on their part, that they would make right after they realized it.  I totally trusted them and knew they were going to do all the  other repairs on my home so the overpayment could easily be taken care of through labor cost on the other projects.  I told him that if he looked at the original invoice vs. his revised invoice, he would readily see what I was talking about.  Basically, I paid well over $2,000 more than the original invoice stated, for labor only, for them to replace 13 floor joises. I bought all the materials, myself. (pd. over $11,500 in all) Dane told me he didn't have to look at the invoice and that they had plenty of work to do at my house and he would make it right.  It looked as though he was going to do this.  He even ordered the materials, himself to fix my front porch and said that he was going to pay for these materials, when they came in.  Then, we went out of town for a family reunion on August 2 and when we returned home 3 days, later, we never saw or heard from him, again.  He never paid for or picked up the materials for the front porch.  He conveniently is in Chicago doing work, after I was promised that they weren't going anywhere and because they lived only 14 miles away, they could readily, be at my house to take care of any concerns.   To date, there is at least 1 leak in the roof; they still have not put the gutters on the deck which was suppose to be included in the cost; 12 more screens (out of 22) have been blown out and there are many other issues with the deck and many broken promises, not to mention the 2 year guarantee.  I was told by Jim Christensen that Dane was out of pocket and he was calling on his behalf so I was never allowed to talk to Dane. I have spent  over 4 months, going over and beyond, to be patient and to try to believe that Jim, was a person of integrity and that he would do what was right. My last email was from Jim Christensen on 8-10-12 in which he said that he would contact me within 7 days with a resolution for the screens.  I have not heard from anyone, since.  He seemed to have been just trying to buy time, leading me on like he was going to do something, and hoping I would disappear. I still have tornado damage to be repaired and I have had to put that on hold to deal with this.  There were so many compassionate people who came around after the tornado. It is sad to see that others have no remorse when they take advantage of someone else's misfortune.   For people who have gotten ripped off, know that you should file a complaint with the BBB, in various states, if applicable; file a complaint with the Attorney General's Office and Chamber of Commerce; give negative reviews everywhere you can, not to be vengeful, but to alert others in order to save them the grief that the victim goes through; call your local television stations and utilize their resources.  In Alabama, that would be 6 on your side.  Get an attorn