WHITE WAY SIGN & MAINTENANCE

Approximately 20 months ago the owners of my company wanted to get a new outdoor sign for the business. We accepted 3 different bid proposals including the company maintaining our current sign and evaluated all 3. After evaluating the 3 we chose to use White Way Sign. They were not the lowest nor were they the highest but their bid was thorough and included everything from removal of the existing sign to permits with the City. We have been utilizing them for service to our existing sign so after the review it only made sense, particularly since the bid was very solid. We then signed the contract and put down a 50% deposit in September of 2010. We new the permitting process would be quite lengthy(Chicago City Council) so we were expecting the project to be completed in 12 months. After 12 months and several inquiries we were told that the permit had finally been issued and that we should have our sign sometime within the next 60 days. Well 60 days passed and nothing happened. Several more inquiries and a few threatening emails to management and we were then given the update that it would probably be ready by the end of January 2012. I wasn't holding my breath so I reached out to my electrical contractor at the beginning of February 2012 who then contacted White Way to see what the hold up was as they wanted to make sure they could get it scheduled on their side. The electrical contractor was told it would be at least another 6 - 8 weeks which would then put us into April 2012. If you want to get a new sign or replace an existing sign this is not the company to use. As a customer, I am entitled to have some reasonable expectations of service and my reasonable expectation was 12-15 months. This is what they do, design, build, and maintain electrical signs. It is not like they were asked to do anything out of their line of expertise. If there were problems or delays THEY should have been calling me to let me know but instead they just sat in waiting month after month. I cannot wait for this experience to be over as I am too vested already to pull out, both in time and money. I am just writing this to warn others.