AMERICAN FENCE COMPANY

My project was delayed two months, I was told this would be done by the time we moved in on December 1st.  I paid 60% of the project upfront in October.  Contracts were a week late in signing because the salesman had to go on vacation.  I was encouraged not to do a survey as it was a new development.  So they put the post in the wrong spot when they finally dug them for the first time in mid December.   I called Dan the salesman and was told it was my fault and they would not do anything.  It was not until my neighbor called and complained that I was charged me extra to move them.  They did not fill all the wholes back in yet charged for that.  When they finally did get the fence in, it is not straight, it is not level.  They have one section that looks horrible as they had to "patch" it due to the way the put the post in.  No one will call me back to fix the issue.  Dan the sales man is great until he gets your money then refuses to call you back or assist.  The manager will not call you back or try to help either.  WORST customer service ever! 

Everyone was great. The fence is beautiful and you should have seen our husky romping in her new yard. It was priceless and the workers were still cleaning up. They know how to get a fence installed quickly and professionally.

We had given a concise site plan of our property provided by the City of Ankeny so that the crew had exact measurements of our property boundaries (the alternative was to spend an additional $375 for them to do a pin locate. The site plan had information on the pins already on the sheet. The crew did not follow the site plan, and we found out a year later that the fence had encroached onto our neighbor's property by over one foot. We called American Fence to move our fence, and it ended up costing us $400 to make it so that our neighbor could tie into the fence. Fast forward to this year, one of our corner posts has become loose. When I called to see if they would fix it, they said that the warranty for craftsmanship was only for one year. I asked them how much it would cost to fix it, and they said $250 - $50 for labor and $200 for a trip charge. Crazy, right? I talked to the branch manager as to why the lopsided charges, and he responded by telling me, as the customer, that they're in the business to make money. Wow. I reviewed the warranty details, and it's so airtight that they are basically not responsible for anything after they complete the job. Based on the specifics of the warranty, my perspective is that they are not confident the quality of their work.

I've already recommended a neighbor to not use them to build their privacy fence... they will regret it. I urge the same for anyone who reads this review.

Dan was the salesman.  Joe and Jeff installed the vertical posts.  And one week later, Curt and Fernando installed the chain link and the 6' gate.  Dan was very responsive through the sales process and provided clear details about the schedule.  He stopped communicating with us after we raised a question about the difference in post heights.  The last contact we had with him was after the posts were installed and he told us of the final installation date.  The vertical post installation went well.  The posts were 30" deep at the corners and at least 24" deep everywhere else.  They were level and well lined up.  They were more uneven at the top than desired.  They told me this would be taken care of by the final installers.  Part II -- installing the chain link.  Several long scratches were made on the top rails during their installation.  I did ask them to replace one top rail section (and they did).  I viewed this as rather careless installation.  They were simply going to spray it with black paint to cover up the scratches.  Overall, the quality of the material is high.  The workers were friendly and knew what they were doing.  However, the attention to detail during installation was not what I had hoped.

We had used American Fence 3 years ago to replace our first section of fencing and now needed to finish the remaining 2 sections of fencing.  But were they still the same good company they were before?

Since I was a recent subscriber to Angie's List, I thought i would see what others thought.  There were 2 ratings - one negative ratring from several years prior and another that was a few weeks old and very positive.  So, I gave them a call.

They scheduled someone to come to our house less than a week later to measure and provide an estimate.  I received a written estimate and told that jobs were out about 4-6 weeks.  I signed the agreement, completed the paperwork and mailed it in.

Five weeks later I receievd as call saying that they would be out to one week later and wanted to schedule a manager to take one last look at the property top ensure everythign would go well.  The next day I came home to find that 1-Stop had come in and marked all of the utitility lines.  The very next day the manager stopped by as scheduled and remeasured.  He advised that because the gas lines came too close to a portion of the fence, 3 of the post holes would need to be hand-dug which added $75 to the overall bill.

As scheduled, the men started the job and quickly removed the old fencing and dug all of the new holes with the augur.  I got a knock on the door and one of the men asked if we had an irrigation system.  I told him we didn't and he indicated that he had hit some line that looked like irrigation.  I told him to proceed so they set the fence posts but left 3 of them uncovered in case someone wanted to look at the line and repair the one he hit.  They cleaned up after themselves, and let me know that they would be back in one week to add the rails and pickets, which would allow the concrete enought time to dry.  As an aside, since I was home at the time the holes were dug, i called the manager and alerted him to the fact that they used the augur on all the posts and had not hand-dug them.

That evening we alerted our neighbor to the fact that perhaps an irrigation system he had may have been impacted by this fence.  He said that the workmen had also been responsible enough to leave a note on his door alerting him of the same fact (I was very impressed!).  The next day the company called us and wanted to ensure that we worked things out with the neighbor before they went ahead and installed the fence.  We did and told them to proceed. 

One week later they arrived and again, quickly finished the fence, cleaned up after themselves, and were gone.  It was not until I later got outside to inspect that i noticed that although it was straight across the top, 10 feet of the fence did not come completely to the ground as I had requested.  Also, the broken picket was not replaced.

I called the manager and reported these two issues and he came out later that day to look at it.  The next day the men were back and quickly fixed the two issues.

NEGATIVES: They used the augur and didn't hand-dig the3 posts, a portion of the fence needed to be adjusted down, they had to come back to replace the broken picket, and I just came home from vacation to find the final bill with the $75 charge for hand-digging those posts.

POSITIVES:  Good quality fence materials and workmanship, great service and responsiveness to issues, ethical conduct with me adn teh neighbor, and I know we'll get that $75 charge resolved!

We found American Fence to be excellent to work with. A service rep set up an appointment for an estimate within 10 days. Did detailed estimate on site. Stated up front that it would be 2 to 3 weeks before work could be done because materials had to be ordered and jobs were booked in the order the materials were available to do them. That was fine for our needs. Job did take all day, as the holes for the railing had to be drilled 6 to 7 inches into the concrete. Railings are very sturdy - not bolted on. Fence stretching was done on the same day and looks much better than it did. Far more secure.

The quality of the fence was excellent and the company got the fence installed on the dates they promised but I had to wait a few weeks before they could schedule me. The problem came when they did not get all of the appropriate permits from the city even though the contract stated they would, eventually they got the city to approve the fence but is was touch and go. Because of their failure to get the right permits, I came very close to having to tear the fence down. I really liked the quality of the fence though.

Provided estimate and assurances of quality of work. The salesman took a rough estimate of dimensions using a wheel, and final/specific dimensions were to be done by "Project Manager". Unfortunately, it was a cold/blustery day, and he never got out of his pickup until he came to my door with his rendered drawing. I questioned the dimensions, and he (Bob) said they were all good/accurate. The fence was installed in a perfectly straight line, and the fencing materials seem to be quite good. However, in the 1st section of fence that had a 4-ft gate and 20-ft of fence. Rather than split the difference evenly, they set the fence at 6', 6', 4', 4' intervals. When I objected, they charged me $300 to reset the posts. Also, at 1 of the gates, they left an 18" square gap under the fence/gate. Completely defeated the purpose of keeping dogs in our yard. Very frustrating. Sent a letter to the President of the company describing our situation/frustration - never received any response!