SoCal Stairs

"While the project did not go as smoothly as the vast majority of our projects do, I'd like to address some of the points raised by our customer. All of our stair and railing projects are finished (painted, stained, clear coated, etc.) on site (in the home) in order to achieve the best possible result. As a standard, we use drop clothes and plastic to contain the resulting dust, however, depending upon the layout of the stair/railing, there may be areas which cannot be completely sealed off/covered. Unlike cabinetry, windows, doors, etc., which can be assembled and pre-finished off site in many cases, stair and railing work is assembled, joined, sanded/fitted in the home, and therefore must be finished in the home. Homeowners are given advance notice that there may be dust (light) which travels beyond the immediate work area which requires light cleanup. Regarding rail alignment: the customer had a "fixed" (integral part of existing stair structure) post at a transitional point in his stair which made rail alignment more difficult than normal, however, this was resolved through additional communication at the time of installation to make sure the customer agreed with our approach to dealing with the unusual circumstances. Regarding caulking/trim: Several weeks after the job was completed, I received an email from the homeowner, letting me know that he had discovered an area where he felt additional caulking was necessary between trim we had installed and a dip in the existing wall it was installed over. He let me know that it was not of major concern to him and that the work could be scheduled to coincide with the next project of ours in his area. Within three weeks, we had taken care of the caulking issue. Several weeks passed and again I was contacted by the customer. He let me know that his wife was laying flat on her back near the starting step of the stair and that she noticed a small piece of cove moulding was not present beneath the starting step. I let the customer know that cove moulding is not normally used beneath the starting step, but that we would have our installer AND finisher back out to install and finish the small piece of moulding at NO additional charge if necessary to ensure his satisfaction. I let him know that it may take a few weeks to arrange the additional work. I had scheduled one of our installers to handle the fix within a couple of weeks, asking the installer to contact the homeowner directly to set the time of day for the stop. The installer who I had arranged to handle installing the small piece of moulding had health issues shortly after this arrangement was made and did not follow through on the scheduled stop to install the trim. I assumed incorrectly, having not heard back from the homeowner for weeks following the scheduled stop, that the issue had been resolved as planned. I accept full responsibility for failing to follow up with the customer to make sure it had been taken care of as planned and to his satisfaction. Again, after several weeks had passed, I was contacted again by the homeowner and was made aware that the issue was not resolved as planned. This phone call resulted in the expression of some frustration on both of our parts. I promptly made arrangements to take care of it, but it ended up taking more than one trip out. The issue was eventually resolved, taking much longer than should have been necessary, primarily due to communication errors on my part, for which I accept full responsibility, and for which I have apologized to the homeowner. We at SoCal Stairs take pride in our customer service and prompt, thorough communication. We could have done better in this instance, and the patience and understanding shown by the homeowner did not go unappreciated."