B & K Fence Co

unknown

Don't walk, RUN from this so called "business".

I had a friend install an electric gate opener on my driveway for me. Lightening struck near my gate and burned out the circuit board that operated the gate. I checked on Angie's List and found Ben. He came to my house, looked at my gate and told me what parts I needed to repair the gate. As soon as the parts came in, I called Ben. He came out the next day, installed the new circuit board, corrected problems he saw including grounding the whole system to help avoid another lightening strike burn-out. Ben is very knowledgable about electric gate openers. He is very professional and reasonable in his rates.

We have used Band k several times and will never use any one else. In September 2011, Band K replaced the internal board on our gate system. The part maker gives a one year warranty. Six months later the gate failed to respond. Band K returned found the battery to be dead and noticed a light was out on the board. He replaced the battery and spent nearly 45 minutes checking the system out until he was satisfied the repair was complete. He stated that everything checked out to be functioning even though the one of the lights was out on the board. Band K gave me the option of getting the battery myself and told me who had the best price and he would forgo the service charge since he was in the area. I told him to make the repair. He charged $70 for battery and service call. Several days later the gate once again failed to respond and Band K responded the next day. He removed moved the board and handled the return with no service charge. The board was promptly returned and installed with no service charge. Band K has always been prompt and professional returning calls and on service appointments. He is quick to offer advice on things he sees that will help keep the gate functioning properly.

Mr. Smith's price quote was about the middle of the road quote. I chose him for one reason - he was willing to provide me with references - folks who I could call and ask about their experience with his work. (I was shocked that other fence companies were not willing to provide me with references - only addresses so I could go look at fences). The name and number he gave me I could not get in touch with - however I knew where their house was (in my neighborhood) and the fence looked good to me. He agreed that the fence would be constructed of treated wood - the posts and all. The fence that he put up is certainly not treated wood and some of the posts were warped. I asked for the gate to be put on the garage side but it was put on the other side. I was okay with them adding another gate instead of taking that one out and putting one in on the other side. The new gate that they put in did not have enough posts to hold it and within two months began sagging and could not be opened. The fence was attached to the siding of my house with screws (even I knew that wasn't right). I called Mr. Smith and let him know that the gate was sagging and it appeared that it needed two posts added - one at the end of the fence next to the house where the fence had been screwed into the siding and another one next to the gate opening. He did not understand what I was trying to tell him about the second post and I asked him to call me and let me know when he's coming and I'll meet him there and show him. I never got the call, but he did come and put the post next to the house in (which stopped the gate from sagging). But a post was not put in next to the gate opening - the fence without a post there wobbled back and forth so much that one very light kick to the gate would have smashed it in. When I called about this he said that he can't keep coming back for one thing at a time - that I need to let him know of these things all at once. The gate didn't start sagging immediately and then I did tell him about the second post at the same time I told him about the gate but he did not let me show him what I was referring to. The reasons I would not chose him again - he did not meet our agreed upon installation date, the new posts he installed were treated wood - the original installation of everything else was not (that's a big deal to me - we agreed on treated wood) and the way the second gate was installed - someone in his industry should have known better than to cut a gate like that without placing more posts. While Mr. Smith did fix the things that went wrong, the deal with the poor wood is the clincher. I felt a bit taken advantage of by the poor wood - something us single girls feel often when having work like this done. He did not listen to me which was evidenced by the gate being placed on the wrong side and the second post not being installed.