The Combined Group

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Let me begin by saying that with a sick mother and sick brother in two different institutions, I do not have a lot of spare time.  This is why I am angry.  I spoke to Carlos early in the week and arranged for him to come out to my mother's house today (Saturday) because I work during the week.  He told me he did not normally do estimates on the weekends, but understood my predicament and agreed to come out on Saturday at 2pm (today).  I found him to be very pleasant and was very pleased to have found someone who would make an exception for me.
I called him Friday afternoon (I was under the impression the phone number I had reached him was his cell) to confirm today's appointment and left what I thought was a message, as I never received a recording and just received a "beep" after several rings.  I tried calling him again this morning and received the same outcome.
Well, I had an earlier appoinment this morning and rushed over to my mother's house by 2pm as agreed.  I waited until 2:30pm and left, as I knew by that time he would not magically appear.
This left a very bad taste in my mouth and think it is a very unprofessional way to run a business.
A courtesy phone call would have sufficed.

Contacted 2 times in 6 months never had the courtesy to call back. Why are on this web site if u cannot handle business ? An F goes to Angie's list for continue keeping this company in their site and making waste my time.

I used The Combined Group several times while remodeling my home.  Carlos, the owner and his guys were super professional and offered great service.  They did my kitchen, bathrooms, tile floors, baseboards, painted, demolished a guest house in the back.  GREAT job!  I would use them again in a heartbeat.

The job entailed:

1. 1.-  do knock down ceiling on entire house
2. 2.-  crown molding on entire house
3. 3.-  fix whatever wall imperfections
4. 3.-  install new lights (2 rows of 6) on living room
5. 4.-  install new lights (four) on family room
6. 5.-  widen two closet doors
7. 6.-  rebuild one bathroom now and one in a couple of months
8. 7.-  fix stucco on the entire outside of the house, prime and paint
9. 8.-  replace tankless water heater and re-wire for bigger capacity

Jose was very professional and courteous. However after some many days waiting for an estimate and having none, we hired someone else for the job.  After he left, I have not received one phone call or one email from The Combined Group.  If this is how they behave trying to win the job...

Never answered my request for a quote.

Communication with these guys was tough. I tried to get a price quote and was promised a quote. I really had to chase them around for it. This was just a pre estimate, when it finally arrived it was high. $200k plus for 700 sq ft of addition. I figured this was a very rough estimate and wanted to get them plans to enable a real quote. When I sent them the real plans, I never heard back after many emails.

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Living in the Central Florida area and selling a home as well as looking for contractor in Miami is a very stressfull cituation. I decided to join Angies List to find a reputable contractor. On my first call i was able to get in contact  with Carlos at The Combined group. Carlos was prompt in giving me an estimate and working with me because we where in the middle of a closing. We agreed on price and more importantly on time of completetion. Carlos was there with his crew sending me pictures as he was progressing with work since i live in Orlando area that was my only way to see what was happening.  I would highly recommend the Combined group.

I called for an estimate on two bathroom remodels and was told someone would be back in touch with me later in the day. No one ever called me back.

I called initially and spoke with Jose.  We made an appt. for which he showed up promptly.  All went well.  A second visit was made by owner, Carlos, to ensure accuracy.  The price was a bit higher than what I budgeted, though, so I've had to break the project down a bit.  However, I will contact them when I am ready to begin the construction phase.  I will provide an update to this review when I get to that phase of the project.  I definitely like what I have experienced with The Combined Group thus far.

Contacted this morning and spoke to a male  and explained I needed to have hurricane impact doors installed and wanted an estimate.  The man gave phone to another man and I repeated what I needed.  I was told he was going to have to call the office and find out when they would be able to come out for an estimate.  He said he would call back in 20 mins.  Never heard back.  Not a good impression.

Carlos came three weeks ago to estimate the cost. We followed up with him a few times and he never called us back to provide the estimate.

No services were provided. See our explanation above.

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its looking good

I called Carlos Sotolongo earlier this year to get an estimate on transforming my formal living room into a bedroom.  The interview went extremely well and he told me step by step how the work would be done.  He answered all my questions without any hesitation and spent a good amount of his time being thorough (i.e. measuring, taking notes).  Since we decided to wait a few months I asked Carlos to come as the time got closer to come ease my hesitation on creating this room.  Without any hesitation, he came back and we went through the whole process again.  I felt very comfortable with my decision on picking him as my contractor. 
Our construction began on March 11th.  I expected it to last about two business weeks.  The room was finished in about seven business days, faster than I expected.  The employee Willie, was fantastic.  He was the only one working in my home; from start to finish.  He kept the work site very clean and made sure everything was picked up throughout the day and every evening before leaving.  He was concerned for my children as well as my self and did everything in his ability to keep the dust to a minimum; which I didn't expect or ask for.  He was very accommodating to my schedule and worked extremely hard each day.  Willie has a wealth of experience and it shows in his final product.  The room looks like it has always been there.  It matches the rest of the house perfectly and we couldn't be happier.  It was well worth the money.
Carlos was available at any time during the entire process.  All I would have to do is call him however I had absolutely no need consult him.  Willie handled everything professionally and had answers to my questions.
I was very nervous about doing a construction job however I was pleasantly surprised.  I highly recommend this company.  If I have to do something again, I will definitely be using The Combined Group.

Everything went very well.  If there were ever any concerns that I had Carlos resolved them and knocked money off of the bill.  The paint job was excellent!  I am very happy with all of the work and will reccommend Carlos and the Combined Group.

It is the evening of 12-12-12 at Miami Family Medicine. Guests are arriving, the wine is flowing, and hors d'oeuvres are being served. There are many people here tonight but the guest of honor is definitely Carlos Sotolongo, owner of The Combined Group. Simply put, if it had not been for him this day would not have happened at all.
Our story started on April 2011 when we decided to open Miami Family Medicine. It was a huge undertaking, so we interviewed a lot of contractors. However, something we did not do was to look on Angie's List, which turned out to be a huge mistake. Long story short, we ended up choosing Victor Elbeze from Prestige Decors and Renovations, someone who turned out to be one of the most incompetent contractors we have ever met. He started our clinic in August of that year and for the next 11 months proceeded to lie about just about everything and delay the work for months on end. Things became so bad that at one point we thought about just walking away from the project altogether. That is, until we found Angie's List and gave Carlos a call.
From the moment we met him, he quickly transformed a nightmare into a beautiful dream:
- He started by pouring concrete all along a nasty trench left by Victor within a week of signing the contract.
- He did this even before receiving his first payment. 
- Unlike Victor, he never asked for money ahead of time or increased charges after job was agreed on. 
- He provided receipts for all materials.
- Gave suggestions for finishes to complete the look I had in mind.
- I had initially wanted wood floors but he recommended commercial grade vinyl.
- I must admit I was not sure about it at first, but when it was done it looked beautiful.
- Throughout the project, he was very detail-oriented, and a complete perfectionist.
- Willing to redo something at no additional cost if he thought it wasn't done right the first time. 
- He always responded to calls and emails on the same day.
- He was very hands-on and always came to the job site, even on short notice.
There is no way we could ever write everything that he did right for us in this review. It would seriously fill a book of a thousand pages.
All we can say is that as we were having a toast with him at our grand opening, all we could do was smile. We highly recommend him to anyone reading this, and give him 5 stars all the way. In addition to Miami Family Medicine, we also own Miami Real Estate Realty in Brickell and we plan to send all our clients in need of a contractor to The Combined Group. 
Thank you again, Carlos!
Alicia Coker, MD
Marc Marchello
Denni Jordan
Miami Family Medicine

The first thing I realized was that Carlos was a top notch salesman. He was not only polite and very professional but extremely enthusiastic about taking up the challenge. He immediately understood what i wanted and suggested some creative ideas which certainly helped enforce the theme I was looking for. The thing that impressed me the most was his willingness to listen to me change my mind NAND my plans as we went along. If I wanted something different done he always found a way to make it happen. And even when I changed my mind about something that had been done he was always there to calm me down and help me change it with the least amount of fuss or bother. He is a man with integrity and true to his word. Not to mention very comfortable to talk to. His crew is first class. Although all but one do not speak a word of English. I found that for the most part hand signs were fine but if I really got stuck I just put in a call to Carlos and he would take over by talking to his men or coming over to see what the problem was. By the end we felt like we were saying goodbye to family. It is imperative to say that the work was as professional as I have ever seen. If I were forced to criticize anything, it would be the same old criticism the everyone has....that the timing of the project went over by a little over two weeks and I would have liked a phone call in advance if they were not going.to make it on a particular day. But compared to all the other positives these are very picky complaints. I would recommend them over and over again .

Rony showed up at the agreed time and was very pleasant. Will have to wait and see.

They never responded.

Carlos provided us with a very thorough estimate to remodel our house. He was punctual, professional and I would strongly recommend him to anyone looking to remodel his or her house.