NORWOOD CO

This is a small company and that is one of the reasons I chose them. However, it is a husband and wife team and the wife can be very difficult to communicate with. Once all the paperwork was signed she was our main contact as the project manager. She seemed to take my normal inquiries as criticisms and so would often become defensive and out right rude. Communication was not frequent or forthcoming. There were numerous delays on the project- the six-month build turned into an 18 month build. Some of the delays were obviously out of their control (weather, skilled labor shortage, etc.) But they would not communicate WHY there was a delay until I reached out to them to ask for a status update and it would take a few days before I heard back (I work in an industry where 24 hour response time on calls and emails is expected so I admit that my standards are high.). I want to be completely fair; the house is lovely and well built. The landscaping was horrible: the property was not properly graded and the lawn was not properly installed, the sump pump emitter was placed ridiculously in the middle of the back yard; but the house itself is great. But the process was made so much more difficult because you are dealing with a project manager who really does not understand customer service or how to speak to a client. Just one of many examples, we had a $400 set aside for an electric fireplace. I received a bill, with no explanation, stating that she had purchased a fireplace for over $1200 and asking for the $800 difference. When I questioned this, the project manager responded with a rather rude 1 sentence email saying I should have known that the fireplace would cost more than $400, no further explanation. When I finally was able to get her to simply explain to me WHY she chose this particularly expensive fireplace- I was understanding. But that entire conversation should have happened PRIOR to the purchase rather than receiving an unexplained bill asking for $800. (In the end I refused the fireplace, I found the same exact fireplace for less than $600 online and paid $100 to have it installed). I could go on for pages about the difficulties my husband and I had interacting with the project manager, but interacting with her, the unexplained delays, the horrible landscaping, the surprise bills are the reasons I am giving them a rating of C.