Walpole Woodworkers - Walpole

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We purchased a new mailbox and were hesitant to purchase the installation. We have been burned in the past by businesses who have failed to follow up as promised until we call and call again, and we were mentally prepared for another such experience. Walpole Woodworkers far exceeded our expectations. They called to schedule the install within two days of the purchase and had the mailbox installed within half a week of purchase. It looks beautiful and they took away our old mailbox and broken pole. The shopping experience was also very positive - we were treated well and shown various options at different price points, without any pressure to buy. Very satisfied.

This company has absolutely horrible customer service.  When the mailbox was first put up we were not home to inspect the installation.  The mailbox was crooked.  It took apx 3 months for them to agree to fix the issue since they had to wait until they wee :in the area".   After apx. 5 years the mailbox support simply broke and fell off the post.  The post was not rotten in anyway and was a defect in the wood.  Their answer was to offer a 10% discount on a new support.  I am still fighting them on this however based on my experience so far i do not expect much from them.

Update:10/21/2013.  escalated this up to Vice President of company (Sid Tildsley) as well as emailed predisent of company Louis Maglio.  Sid personally stated that they would not do anything to assist in this issue.  This company had many opportunities to supply proper customer service and failed at every oppurtunity and at every level.

Sales person showed up at the wrong house and our neighbor brought him over. We described the job and he took forever to provide an estimate.
Salesman also complained about how overworked they are and kept telling us about the much bigger jobs he is doing in the fancier areas of CT.
 
Seems our job was too common for Walpole as we never heard back despite numerous emails. Eventually, we received an estimate for the wrong thing and he never corrected the error and we never (four months ago) heard back.  
If you are an upper middle class family in a modest home, don't waste your time bringing them in. We got the distinct impression that they are only interested in the big jobs for wealthy people.
We also brought them in to look at a job at our New Jersey Home. Basically the same thing happened.
We are VERY disappointed in Walpole.

This experience with the sales person was so bad that we will not be calling them to complete the estimates

Poor in every respect. Design, quality, responsiveness to concerns.  Big picture, the installed fence is not similar to the original in several very important respects. When we brought our concerns to the attention of the sales person with whom we had contracted, we were promised that the manager would call us the next day (he didn't) and that someone would call to schedule a time to come out and address one of the specific problems (no one called).  Instead, Walpole immediately charged our credit card for the remainder of the contract. We are disputing the overall bill.  Below are details regarding this irresponsibly poor work:

• The longest section of the new fence is 13? shorter than the original! This creates two problems:  #1) There is now a large gap beneath the section of the fence that has become 13? longer to compensate for the shorter section, which no longer parallels the upward-sloping terrain.  #2) An electrical outlet that had been next to the fence now stands 13? from the fence juncture where it was originally positioned.  It is now visually conspicuous in an unattractive way as well as vulnerable to being struck or damaged.  The wires leading to the fence are now also exposed, which is unattractive and makes them vulnerable to damage.
•  We expected the spacing of the slats to be approximately the same as the original.  However, the new fence has much narrower spacing (2.5? vs. 3.5?) The result is that there is very low visibility through the fence. One can see space/light only by standing at an extreme angle.            

• We also expected the wood to be of comparable quality. Yet it is barely one half the thickness of the original. The contractor who recommended Walpole (who is now very embarrassed at the recommendation) exclaimed ?I?ve never seen a fence with such thin wood!?         

• Finally, even the small stuff was of low quality: the fence latch is noticeably less attractive than the original (it is made of a roughly surfaced, unpainted metal rather than being painted black), and was installed carelessly (a side of the bolt that holds it in place is exposed).  It also does not work smoothly (requiring much more effort to use).

To add insult to injury (forgive the cliche but it seems apt), the workers (who were friendly, I'll give them that), did not put the patio furniture they had moved back into its original position, nor did they clean up adequately. 

DON'T TOUCH THIS COMPANY WITH A 10-FOOT (WAL)POLE!

Exremely poor quality installation. Also, some materials not as represented by salesperson. At time of this review, gate has developed serious problems.
Walpole got off to a bad start by installing the gate without permission on a day no one was home. Immediate problems: 1) the two gate pieces were not aligned with each other 2) a sizeable gap at center (between the 2 gate pieces) defeated the privacy purpose 3) too much space at bottom of gate made it possible for someone on the outside to reach under and easily lift a bolt to enter. A delivery person did this within days of installation. The bolts were supposed to add security. 4) strap hinges not flat and as a result the gates had too much play in them 5) one of the bolts was not aligned with its ground pipe making it difficult to use 5) latch not firm but moved around 6) color was supposed to be off-white, it was white. 
Asked Walpole to correct problems. Each time someone came to work on the gate, it seemed something got worse. Too often, correcting one problem led to another. Walpole employees at the Farmington, CT location (where the gate was purchased) were rude and insulting.
At the time of purchase, the saleman said Walpole dips all wood in the customer's choice of stain before installation so that the stain penetrates well. He said the color is intended to fade rather than peel off. Within a few years, the color on one post peeled off to reveal a greenish-blue beneath the white. The same post eventually developed many cracks. (See photo.)
Walpole's poor installation of the bolts created cracks in the asphalt that have grown worse over time.
Most serious, both posts are rotted at the bottom, seriously compromsing the gate's integrity.  (See photos.)

See above

They did a good job.  Their customer service was great.

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We have been here for 20 something years and we had known them that many years.  So we trusted their name.  They have been around for that long time doing good work.  One person was not very responsive.  We will use them in the future.

Their price was about double of another company I found on Angie's List and it looked as though the quality would have been the same.  I didn't have the work done because of the price.

Walpole Woodworkers installed a mail box for us about 18 months ago. After a few months the door did not shut properly, and I called for a repair. They did repair it for free, but the repair just barely made it functional. The problem recurred, and I called again this fall for a repair. My first 2 calls got me nowhere. Finally, in frustration, when I called a 3rd time I noted that I am a member of Angie's List, and I would be happy to report on how appropriate or inappropriate their repair service is. Guess what? I got a promise from their employee Beth that it would be taken care of. She came through - the repair was completed the very next day, and I received 2 phone calls as well. One call told me the repair crew was on the way, and then Beth called again later to say that the repair was completed. Again, unfortunately, the repair makes the door or lid barely functional. The best lesson I got out of this is to mention being a member of Angie's List at the least opportunity.

Great quality, too slow, too expensive.

I called Walpole because I wanted a custom job and they have a good reputation for doing such work. I was very disappointed with their customer service. The salesman sold me the job and then basically disappeared. I had to repeatedly call him to come out and do a template so the job could begin. He never followed up with an installation date and, again, I had to badger him to give me information. The job was over a month later than promised and when the installation guys came out with the fence they began to install it incorrectly. When I pointed this out they explained that the salesman should have prepared the site for them with flags marking the installation area. I called the salesman's manager and told him about the problem. The installation guys had already wasted over an hour and a half and were going to be unable to do the second job they had scheduled for that day. The manager told me Walpole was going to have to "eat" the extra labor costs so I shouldn't complain. I found that remark very unprofessional. The salesman got in touch with me a few days later and wouldn't acknowledge his mistake. He actually told me he hadn't been informed of the installation date. Passing the buck is not what I expected from this expensive, high end company. I was very disappointed with the process in general and wouldn't recommend them. The fence is beautiful but it was agony getting it.

Great.

I chose them because of their excellent reputation and they sell top quality products. They delivered excellent customer service and the staff was very knowledgeable. The installation staff was on time and professional. The price was high.

The rep from Walpole came right on time, and stood out in the rain discussing the fencing project for nearly an hour. I really appreciated the ideas he suggested, and was looking forward to receiving the promised estimate. However, after receiving other quotes within two days, I waited a few more, then called Walpole to see when they were going to send me the quote. It is now over two weeks since my phone call to them, and no quote has ever appeared, nor have they called me with prices. This was especially odd given that they need 5 or 6 weeks lead time to start custom-making the fence sections, and I was looking to have the project done 6 weeks from when I had them come out. Don't people need business these days?

We asked for cedar and we picked out a style. The workman who came did a very good job and spent the entire day completing the project with both gates. We do have a disappointment. We were disappointed with their promptness. The salesman gave us an estimate of about two weeks for starting the project, however it took about 5 weeks for the project to actually start. Upon checking with the workman, we found out that 5 weeks is a normal start time. We were disappointed with the salesman for not being more straightforward about the start time. We were interested in the shorter time line and it turned out to be a lot longer. The rest of the employees here were very professional and pleasant to deal with.

They were very professional and attentive to our needs. They were just wonderful and the workmanship was very good too. A little expensive but money well-spent.

While expensive, the service from Walpole Woodworkers is worth it! They were able to provide custom spacing, so that the space between the square pickets matched the spacing of the spindles in my front porch. Unlike some other companies, WW is able to contour the fence to the landscape, so that there are not big gaps at the bottom of the fence that our dog could get through. They even offered to install a temporary fence while we waited for the custom fence to come in. My only complaint is that the temp fence was supposed to be installed in the two weeks following our initial deposit, and instead, it took closer to four weeks and a few phone calls. But overall, we have been extremely pleased with our WW experience!

I called, and had an estimate faxed to me that same day for the work, as I selected the post and box out of their catalog. I was told it would take 2 weeks for deliver and installation, and was pleasantly surprised one night a week later to see my new mail post and box installed.

THE PRICE WAS EXPENSIVE FOR A SIMPLE REPAIR. THE SALESMAN WAS QUICK TO COME OUT, AND GIVE A QUOTE, ASSURING ME THAT IT WAS A SIMPLE JOB, AND HIS WORKERS ARE IN THE AREA OFTEN SO IT WOULD BE DONE QUICKLY. 4 MONTHS LATER, AND MORE PHONE CALLS THAN I CAN COUNT, THE WORK WAS STILL NOT DONE. THE PEOPLE ON THE PHONE TRIED TO BE HELPFUL BUT OFTEN DIDN'T RETURN MY CALLS. TO WAIT 4 MONTHS FOR A SIMPLE JOB IS JUST RIDICULOUS! WHEN I WAS ABLE TO GET IN TOUCH OF MY ORIGINAL SALESMAN HE WAS RUDE, AND TOLD ME THAT THEY WERE WORKING ON A $10,000 JOB THAT WAS MORE IMPORTANT, AND THAT THEY WOULD GET TO ME WHEN THEY HAD TIME. WHEN THEY FINALLY DID SHOW UP THEY DIDN'T CALL TO NOTIFY ME, LIKE I HAD ASKED. ONE DAY I JUST WALKED OUTSIDE TO A FIXED GATE, AND A BILL IN THE MAIL. I WOULD NEVER USE THEM AGAIN.

THE COMPANY WAS EXTREMELY UNRELIABLE, AND DIFFICULT TO WORK WITH. WE PAID FOR EVERYTHING IN AUGUST AND WERE TOLD SOMEONE WOULD CONTACT US IN 2 TO 3 DAYS TO ARRANGE FOR DELIVERY. WHEN NO ONE CALLED, WE CONTACTED THEM, AND SET UP A DELIVERY TIME FOR THE FOLLOWING WEDNESDAY. AFTER WAITING SEVERAL HOURS PAST THE AGREED UPON TIME, WE CALLED. IT TOOK SEVERAL CALLS TO GET THROUGH TO SOMEONE ONLY TO BE TOLD THERE WAS NO SCHEDULED DELIVERY FOR US THAT DAY. A SALESWOMAN TOLD US THEY WERE HAVING PROBLEMS WITH THE MANUFACTURER, AND THAT THEY HAD NO IDEA WHEN ALL THE PIECES FOR OUR ORDER WOULD COME IN. WE HAD TO CALL THEM REPEATEDLY FOR 4 MORE WEEKS (AND THREATEN TO CANCEL OUR ORDER) BEFORE THEY FINALLY COMMITTED TO A DELIVERY TIME, AND DATE. WHEN THE TRUCK DID FINALLY SHOW UP, THEY DIDN'T HAVE THE RIGHT SIZE COVER FOR THE SAND BOX. THE DELIVERY MAN SAID HE'D BE BACK WITH THE RIGHT SIZE THE NEXT DAY. HE DIDN'T COME FOR NEARLY 2 MORE WEEKS. THEY ALSO OVERESTIMATED HOW MUCH SAND WE NEEDED.

THE CONTRACT FOR WORK WAS SIGNED IN JUNE AND THE WORK STARTED 60 DAYS LATER.