AUTHENTIC CABINETWORKS LLC

We wish someone would have warned us about Authentic Cabinet Works and its owner, Andre Plante.  We?ve actually never been members of a Homeowner review site before?and definitely not one where you have to pay to see or write reviews?but our experience was enough of a pain that we felt like it was worthwhile to join, if only to save someone else the trouble that we?ve gone through with this company.  
We had a horrible experience, never received the cabinet we hired Authentic Cabinet Works to build for us (in spite of the fact that we paid 50% of the cabinet?s price up front), and ultimately ended up having to sue Authentic Cabinet Works in small claims court.  It was a major hassle and an extremely frustrating experience.  After it became clear to us that Authentic Cabinet Works was not going to be able to build the cabinet we hired it to build, we tried to compromise to resolve the dispute short of going to court.  That did not work, though, and the company and its owner, Andre Plante, told us that we would ?let a judge sort it out?.  We largely won our case against this company (the Court ordered the company to pay us half of the amount we had paid Authentic Cabinet Works up front, so it was not a full victory?and of course we still don?t have a cabinet), but, as of this writing, it still has not paid us the judgment that the Court ordered it to pay.  This statement by Authentic Cabinet Works that a Court should decide?and the company?s failure to pay us in spite of what the Court did decide?exemplifies our experience with this company.  A little more detail is in the paragraph below, if you are interested:  
We hired Authentic Cabinet Works to build a cabinet for our condo back in the winter of 2014.  Authentic Cabinet Works missed the initial deadline for finishing the project and never ended up completing the project.  We had a really difficult time working with this company because it felt like Authentic Cabinet Works never understood any of the details or specifics about the cabinet.  Every time we emailed with the owner about the cabinet, we found ourselves having to start over and discuss aspects of the cabinet that we thought we?d already talked about?color, furnishings, fixtures, etc.  It felt to us like Authentic Cabinet Works was not paying any attention to the things we had said during our months of emails, phone calls and meetings.  In addition, it seemed to us like Authentic Cabinet Works could never keep track of any of the details about the project.  It was really frustrating to have to constantly be having to go over the same ground.  We tried to be patient, we communicated about the same aspects of the cabinet numerous times and we were even ok for a while with the company finishing the project later than it had said it would finish.  Eventually, though, it became clear that Authentic Cabinet Works was not going to produce what we hired it to produce.  We tried to come up with a compromise, but Authentic Cabinet Works was not interested in compromising.  After we suggested that the company just return our downpayment (and that it could keep what it had built thus far), the owner wrote, ? there is no scenario where I would ever refund any money for work that has been done?.  So we ultimately felt like we had no choice but to go to small claims court.  That was a pain too and, since Authentic Cabinet Works still has not paid us our money back, we are now stuck having to enforce the judgment against the company in collections.  That is also a major hassle.  We just can?t say strongly enough what a terrible experience this has been.

We have a fairly small condo, and storage space is a challenge. We had a very large, empty wall in our spare bedroom/office with 9 foot ceilings, that simply cried out for built in cabinets. We described to Andre generally what it was that we wanted, how we intended to use the space, and our storage needs. He designed cabinets that were truly customized specifically to our needs and included some very clever solutions to some of our storage dilemmas, including a cupboard to house several guitars and a pull out drawer that hides two printers and a paper shredder. I was somewhat concerned that the scale of the cabinets would be overwhelming in a small windowless room, but to my surprise the cabinets actually made the room look larger. The attention to detail that Andre put into the cabinets is stunning. He actually matched the wood grain on the cabinet doors so that they are mirror imaged and all of the cabinets and drawers have soft-close mechanisms.  Andre succeeded in turning a small, dreary room into what is now our favorite space.
The price was comparable to, or slightly lower, what we had been quoted for a much less customized set of cabinets. The project was completed on time and on budget. We could not be more pleased with the quality of the service that we received and are already considering additional projects that we would love to have Andre work on.

Overall the look of the kitchen cabinets achieved what we were looking for. However, appearances can be deceiving. While our contract allowed 60 days for build and install, this ultimately ran at least a week late. While Andre was always responsive to questions and concerns, we never felt confident the communication was clear on both sides. Obviously, not entirely the fault of the contractor. We had several finished dimension issues, with the base cabinet height built below spec relative to the apron sink. Once installed, the sink sat higher than all surrounding cabinets and three off the counter install. This was fixed with shim pieces and finish trim pieces to fill gaps.

The most glaring issues with the finished product were a corner base cabinet that was constructed on site since the scale would not allow an assembled cabinet through the door passages. It's not a completely enclosed box , with the back crafted on site and only partially completed before counters were installed. Further, there were screws misfired through three places along the Fridge revealed side panel, that are very visible scars. The cabinet maker refused to rebuild the panel, rather attempted to sand, patch, stain and reseal. This didn't correct the flaw, so 'footballs' (gouges) were carved out of the areas and he attempted to correct offsite, then glue up the plugs. Now, this looks worse than the first attempt, especially with the unmatched stain and clear coat. Its bad enough that we've considered having someone out in an attempt to cut a veneer for the whole panel piece to cover. There are pieces of cabinet edges and door backs that were poorly sanded before coatings applied, leaving a rough finish. The clear coat(s), clearly show bubbles and drip marks in quite a few places. There were several cabinet edges that were visible (Fridge panel edges, dishwasher adjacent bases), and yet unstained or clear coated. We handled this ourselves afterward.

The final payment was demanded in advanced of what the contract stipulated was complete. 3-4 cabinet doors, dishwasher panel, and drawer fronts had not been installed, no crown, toe or trim hung,  missing hinges, rear mounting screws that weren't fully driven, etc. We paid and parted ways at that point.

Frankly, we wouldn't steer people away from working with Authentic Cabinetworks, and we believe Andre has a great sense of design and skill. We just felt our expecations were not entirely met.

The cabinetry was satisfactory for what I paid for it, but they were two months late which I wasn't pleased about.

The process with Andre was perfect from start to finish. I emailed him on a Sunday and anticipated I would call him during the work week. He beat me to it by calling me first thing Monday morning. Coincidentally he was going to be in my area so he asked in he could stop by our house and look at the space where we wanted the custom designed mud-room built-in. My husband and I had a sketch and some photos of what we had in mind and shared those with Andre. Based on what we showed him he added some great elements that we never thought of, had great suggestions, a "can-do" attitude and overall --- he completely listened to us and completely got it. I felt like he knew exactly what we wanted and he was able to verbally (and then in a sketch) share with us his understanding. He met with us a few times to make sure we were all on the same page with the design and style. He gave us a time-frame for completion and the job was done exactly as he had estimated (time and dollars). He is a very talented cabinet maker and designer, has a passion for his work, has fair prices and is extremely punctual. It doesn't get better than that! The result is a wonderful custom built bench with coat/backpack hooks, shoe cubbies, and overhead cubbies for a family of five. And the piece looks like it has always been in our 1930's home.

Overall, it was a really nice experience. Andre worked with us to discern what our needs were and also offered some very good suggestions that worked with his strengths. All of the items he built were of very good quality and have a distinctive, custom-built appearance, which is part of what we wanted. It was a lot of fun to go through the design process and work together to create the pieces to our specifications. Andre uses computer-driven machinery to create intricate carvings and he was able to incorporate that aspect into our pieces as well, giving them a unique and artistic look. To his credit, he has been very busy, and that did lead to a completion date that was somewhat later than we originally anticipated, but he did his best to complete them as soon as he could.

Our overall experience with Andre was fantastic! We have a smaller kitchen and it was important to find someone who specialized in building truly custom cabinets. We had several individuals and companies give us bids however none of them could offer us a design/build solution for our space without the use of filler pieces. In our search for a company we are so glad we found Andre on Angie?s list; he was the only person that walked in and said, ?I can make anything work for you, you tell me what you would like and we can figure out a solution that fits your needs?. There was one very important detail we wanted with our cabinets and that was inset doors. It may seem like a small detail however, we needed to maintain the integrity of our older home and it was important to have inset doors on all of our cabinets. Every company we interviewed said they couldn?t do it or it was too complicated, or it takes a ?special? carpenter to do it. The only person who said they could do it; no problem, was Andre. Andre was superb! Andre was the ONL Y one who didn?t try to steer us into other directions because he didn?t need to. He?s truly a ?custom? cabinet maker and displayed confidence and professionalism. Before we chose to go with Andre, he invited us to his shop to see where he builds the cabinets. He provided us with many references; this included names, numbers and pictures. He didn?t try to hide anything from us and was very upfront about everything. After agreeing to go with Andre we agreed on a contract which included start and finish dates. He was exact on the time frames we agreed to. He was also available for us to call him anytime. I was so impressed with the fact that every time we called him he would answer. If we happened to get his voicemail (very rare) he would call back right away. I was so impressed with his promptness and reach ability. Andre takes pride in his work and it shows (pictures included). He provided accurate quoting on pricing and install details/steps along the way. I thought dealing with the kitchen cabinets was going to be a big headache; I was completely wrong. It couldn?t have gone any easier. If you are looking to have some cabinets built or any woodwork built for you I would seriously give Andre a call. We have some other cabinets that need to be built in the future and I take comfort in the fact that I finally have someone I can trust to build with quality. He as so very easy to work with and it?s going to be nice to have a finished kitchen that?s functional!! I recently installed all of the appliances and they fit exactly within the openings he built for us. The fit could not be more perfect. We had provided him with our appliance dimensions and he was right on the money. Overall, this was a great experience for us and I will be recommending Andre to anyone I know who needs cabinets built. He's a true artisan who has passion for his work! Our cabinets are absolutely bea

Andre was great to work with. He had good ideas and drew up plans so we could get an idea before hand. We met a few times to discuss and make changes and come up with new ideas together. He listened to what we wanted and what our needs were. Once you decide on the specifications he is quick to get everything completed.

We were very happy with the whole process from start to finish. Andre was great at providing ideas and options for everything from the wood-choice to the style of cabinet. Our kitchen remodel had some very strict constraints with respect to appliance placement and Andre did a great job at designing a beautiful and very functional set of cabinets. The cabinets were completed on time and the installation was very quick and professional. Additionally, Andre provided us many ideas for countertops. In retrospect, we should have had him do the bamboo butcher block counters that we ended up doing with another contractor. Andre is great to work with and very professional. He is always available for questions and verifications throughout the design/build/installation process. We will use him again in the future.