Design Build Specialists Inc

"This is a classic case of the husband and wife not being on the same page. The wife had one set of ideas and we worked up a budget based on those ideas. The husband, who I was never able to meet with, had other ideas. We never completed the process and ended at the budget. To infer that my price is 70% higher than someone else is misleading. Apples and Oranges. 18% of my budget was for the tile subcontractor alone. In my 30 years of remodeling in Marin these are the beginning tales of what does not end up well for clients. Notice they have not completed the project yet and I would guess they are doing some sort of a time and material contract. I hope this is all not the case they have a good experience in the end."

"Member- Thank you for your feedback, I appreciate your taking the time. As you can see from some of the other feedback not everyone appreciates honest assessment. One of the below comments was a 30K bathroom that the client wanted to us to do because they appreciated our service and reputation, but then were actual mad at us and wrote a bad review, for not being able to do it for 13K. They ended up hiring an unlicensed guy and had a bad experience. As the saying goes" you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink". Anyway I appreciate your comment. Let us know if we can help in any way. Mark Labourdette- Owner"

"Member- I am sorry we were no able to meet your needs. We discussed your project at length today and came to the conclusion that we could have been much better at explaining the cost of your unique design ideas so you could make the informed choice as to if that would work for you. Sometimes I think when the client choice is way out of line with the stated budget we fall into the trap of making the choice for you and try to steer the client to options that fit their budget. This is wrong because I have learned over the years that budgets can double and triple if we can get you excited enough about the design idea. The principle is “If the value of the idea exceeds the value you place on that amount of money you will do it”. We have done some pretty amazing projects when we have remembered this principle. Again I apologize for my team (Bill and Summer) not giving you this option. Mark Labourdette- Owner"

"We apologize that we were unable to respond to the needs of Member. We received his email on a Monday requesting an " interview...Fri b/w 10:30 am - 11:am until Sat noon…I will be scheduling other contractors for these days as well”. This was an exceptionally busy time for us and we were not available to meet. While we understand that we had no appointment or commitment to Member, it was our mistake in not responding that we would not be able to meet with him on short notice. In order to improve our service to all of our clients and potential clients, we met as a company and reviewed Member’s e-mail communication and re-committed to our standard of returning all client communication, phone calls and email alike, the same day received—including potential projects who have demands we cannot meet. On a personal note the fact that a potential client we did not meet and made no commitment to can give us an F is the one part of Angie's list that I find difficult to accept."

"Every week we talked about this client and every week it was the same thing- " I called and left a message and no return call" so I am flabbergasted at this feedback- Bill Johnson & Summer Vanagas , who met with them, will be back on January 3 2012 and will see if there is any additional information. The plans and estimate for the bathroom were completed a few days after they meet by me ( Mark Labourdette, the owner) and are in front of me now so I don’t understand what happened but will follow up ASAP. I apologize profusely to the member for whatever breakdown occurred."