Design's by Cortez

I hired Benjamin and paid him in full. Years later and many excuses, he stopped responding to text messages and stole my money. Please do not hire him.

Avoid Designs by Cortez ? Benjamin Cortez Cost Me Thousands and Disappeared I hired Designs by Cortez, owned by Benjamin Cortez, to draw up plans for a home addition. He completed the design and submitted it to the City of Ontario?but the plans were full of code violations. The city rejected them, and when I reached out to Benjamin for revisions, he completely disappeared. No returned calls, no replies to texts?just radio silence. I had no choice but to bring in a new engineering firm, who told me the original plans were so flawed they had to be redone almost entirely. That cost me an additional $9,000 on top of what I already paid Benjamin Cortez. This was a total bait-and-switch. Benjamin took my money and left me with a mess to clean up. The lack of professionalism and accountability was beyond frustrating. I would never recommend Designs by Cortez to anyone. Save yourself the stress and hire someone reputable.

All Im going to say is after reading all these (1) star reviews on this guy, he did exactly what they said. He was very prompt in the beginning, came out and took measurements with his phone, which were completely wrong and that I had to retake and send to him. The city planning techs were confused on his Architectual plans that were submitted because he did them in some random order. He told me I need some BS solar plans done even though I have existing solar and after I paid the guy, I followed up with the city and found out I didnt need them at all. he hasnt responded back to me or the GC that referred him. I feel like all the good reviews he has on here must be from family members or he paid for because its been terrible. Please read all these (1) star reviews and stay away from this guy.

Do not hire this guy!! He does not know what h is doing!! He started off great, returned calls and was very polite. He called you to remind you when it was time to collect a payment. When the plans had to be submitted and corrected, he was nowhere to be found. I would call and leave messages and even threatened to show up at his work to go over the plans. He would say he was on vacation, on another call, at a work site and would promise to call you bac which he never did. I would call to follow up on corrections, and he would say that he had made the changes and submitted them. I was told by the city and plan reviewers that he did not know what he was doing and was wasting my time. The agency that was reviewing the plans had to help him finalize the plans because they were so bad. He tried to charge me extra for an engineer that was already included as part of the contract and then held the final signed plans hostage until i paid him the additional charges. I finally had to threaten to sue in order to get my plans submitted and finalized. My contractor had to make changes as he went along because the measurements were off and when he tried to contact Benjamin, he ignored my contractor calls. To make a long story short a project that should have taken 4-6 months took almost 2 years and cost me almost twice as much because of all the delays. Save yourself the headaches and stress of dealing with this charlatan!!

This Guy is absolutely horrible. He started out fine. He returned all of my calls, and answered all of my questions. But, after receiving three of the four payments, and when it was time to submit the plans and start working toward obtaining an approval, everything started to go downhill. He stopped returning my calls, he sometime respond back to my text messages, he did not respond to the city in a timely manner when asked to make corrections to the plan. Angi had to step in to get him to respond back to me. After over seven months of lack of communication, failure to perform, and failure to provide services under our agreement, it was time to terminate our contract and try to get my money back, and the money the city did not return to me. We agreed to an fairclaims arbitration, and I WON. Waiting on the refund.

I'm very pleased with Mr. Cortez professional work. Very quick feedbacks, Great communication skills. I had no idea about my project, he made it easier.

Benjamin has been very helpful, respectful and quick to return all my calls and even take the initiative to call me when he has an update or question on the project. Can’t wait to get plans submitted! I highly recommend him.

He was good in the beginning he was very prompt at the beginning when asking for money, but after the 3rd payment now he is now returning my calls. He claims that he turn in the plans to the city but after 2 months I have checked and he drub it the plans. And now he will not return my calls.

He started off as a man with a good work ethic but when it comes to the most important step in the process, he falls short. Not communicating with a customer is the worst thing you can do in any type of deal. Lack of communication & no response at all to calls or texts.

The gentleman took his time to listen to my needs and was very honest in his assessment. He knows his craft and I really enjoyed his availability. I had a problem with a past architect but not with Mr Benjamin, he answered every call and answered every text. I hope to work with him in the near future.

He is a very honest person and responsible.