SHOWCASE RESTORATIONS & CO INC

I hired Showcase Enterprises (f/k/a Showcase Restorations) to do monthly lawn maintenance, for which they required a contract. In fall and spring they did a good job and showed up for the majority of their scheduled services. However, in summer, they were supposed to show up every week to provide lawn maintenance, but they have consistently shown up only once every two to three weeks to provide this maintenance. When I called the first time to complain that it had been over two weeks since my lawn has been cut, they informed me that they had in fact cut the lawn the week before (it had not been cut). From this complaint, they agreed not to charge me one visit for that month. I thought that this call would resolve the problem, but nothing changed in their service schedule. I sent an e-mail detailing my concerns about their service, and after a week with no response, I sent another e-mail terminating their service for nonperformance. They responded by informing me that according to the contract, I had to give them 90 days notice to cancel service, and that basically the reason that they were missing visits was due to rain. Interesting since one of my friends uses them, and she is able to get her lawn cut once a week. They also attached an invoice for July to the e-mail charging me the full $205 fee for the month, despite the fact that they only show up for half of their scheduled visits. I would highly recommend that whoever you get to do lawn service, do not sign a contract or you will be stuck like me. Showcase could have solved this problem with good customer service, but they chose not to. They did do a good job on the lawn when they showed up (hence the B grade for quality), but because of terrible customer service combined with the fact that they will not abide by the terms of their own contract, I cannot recommend them to anyone.

On our first meeting with Nicolas Wilson, of Showcase Restorations, he was very professional. He listened to what we wanted and made suggestions for alternatives, some of which we used and some we did not. We were scheduled to move in three weeks. We told him we understood that the bathroom may take time to get in the tile but we needed to have the repainting and lights done before we moved in. He said the schedule should not be a problem and he would get an estimate to us the following week. Thus began our problems with Mr. Wilson, on the day he was originally supposed to give us the estimate we did not hear from him. When we did talk to him, we rescheduled for the next day, but we did not hear from him the next day. Finally, the third day we got the estimate. We signed off and he said they would be able to start the following week on Monday. That would have been fine because it would have been enough time before we moved in on that Saturday to finish. They did not start Monday, he said they would start Wednesday, I told him that was unacceptable. He said they would start Tuesday. They began painting on Wednesday. We were informed that it was taking more time and paint than usual due to the condo never having been primed. Friday we were told that a crew would be in at 8:30 Saturday to finish up, which was fine because we were not planning to move in until the Saturday afternoon. We showed up at 12:30. The crew was still there. I asked when they arrived and was told noon. To keep from being redundant and overly long (much like the amount of time it took to finish our bathroom), I will summarize the rest of our experience. Repeatedly, if we were told a time and day work would be done, it would not be met. When we got communication from Mr. Wilson it was sometimes rude or lacking in response to questions posed. We were never sure when a person would show up to work on our condo, once they came in on a Saturday, unannounced, while my wife was in the shower. When they tore out the old bathroom they did not remove the debris immediately, instead it was left in our master bedroom. Once it was removed, weeks later, they scraped walls, dented our entertainment center, and left a trail of detritus through our condo and down the stairs and out to where they parked their truck. Little to no effort was taken to keep dust from entering the whole apartment. We had to watch them every step of the way because Mr. Wilson had no oversight. Tiles were placed cracked; the shower bar was installed poorly (moisture inside and loose), the grout in the shower was sloppy and not cleaned up, the garbage disposal did not have the dishwasher drain plug removed (I had to do it myself), the shower handle was put on upside down and does not match the color of the fixture it is attached to, the plate that shows the direction of hot and cold on the shower handle was installed crooked (we were told it would be at our expense to fix it), and the sink leaked the first time we used it (we paid $80 to a plumber to fix). In the end, we did receive a small discount, of $600, on the work, but it is little consolation for having deal with the delays and mess for nearly two months for what should have been two weeks? worth of work. Mr. Wilson is able to portray a very professional manner when necessary. Do not be fooled. This was a horrible experience. One that I am still finding faults in.

Over the two years, I have made numerous complaints and the response to each was an excuse instead of an apology. My house is now for sale and twice we have held an open house with the yard looking so bad that my realtor complained. Most of the sod they laid has died under their care. Their idea of maintaining the flowerbeds is to take a weed eater and cut down the weeds as long as they are not close to any other plant. One area of my sidewalk is never cleaned. A jasmine on my fence has been trimmed once in the two years and then only as a result of a specific complaint. The lantana is allowed to grow so large that it rests against the side of my house and damages the paint. Air potatoes are rampant in two of my flowerbeds. I've just fired them and I should have done it a long time ago.

It was ok in the beginning. They did an adequate job in beginning but it deteriorated quickly. They charge way too much for the little bit they did do. A good example of the kind of work they do is a few weeks ago I was outside when they arrived. I was upset about my grass and told them as they got out of the truck that if the blades were not sharp to please come back another day when they were. They looked at me, said ok and left. They went to the next block over and mowed that lawn. They did not ask me any questions nor did they offer any kind of apology or explanation. It just felt that no one really cared about the job. I have a new yard company now and the difference between them is like night and day. I am sorry I kept Showcase Restoration as long as we did....a waste of money.

They worked for me a couple years and the quality of the service got so bad that I terminated them. They would not even answer the phone and return my calls. They did not do a good job the past few months and some days did not show up when they said they were going to show up.