Bancroft Home Improvement

I hired Bancroft Home Improvement in June of 2019 to construct a pocket door for my laundry room (cost about $1,000) and in July of 2019 to install cabinets in my kitchen and laundry room and shelves in all of my closets plus sundry other minor improvements (initial cost about $5,000). THE GOOD --Charley does excellent quality work. He has high standards and is a very conscientious carpenter. --As long as things are going well, Charley is very kind and honest compared to many contractors and genuinely tries to please. He is happy to do small favors if it is helpful and convenient. --His prices are about average—which is very good for such high quality work. THE BAD --Charley runs entirely on his own schedule and may or may not communicate his current status. If he says he is coming at 10 AM, that may mean anytime through mid-afternoon (but never 10 AM). He may say he’s on his way but take hours to get there. If something comes up, he may come after normal business hours. Or postpone until the next day. . This means that jobs may be done at odd hours or be put off continuously. If you want to know what’s going on so that you can coordinate your schedule, you will need to contact him. He will rarely contact you. He is fully aware that he is not punctual and has difficulty with communications. --Like many of us, Charley tends to underestimate the amount of time a job will take and tends to promise earlier completion than is realistically possible. --Cleanup is rarely complete. Charley basically tries to clean up his main work area and does a reasonable job of this, but you may well have to clean up after him in other ways. --Contracts are constructed to protect him, not to protect you. He may set dates for payments but no corresponding dates for work completion. Ambiguous items are subject to his interpretation, not yours. Be careful. THE UGLY --Charley may push for payment before he has completed the work. This can become quite insistent and/or nasty. Observe standard industry practices concerning payment. Never pay more than 50% up front. Document everything carefully in a legally binding form. I had a particularly hellacious experience with Charley on the second job (cabinets and shelves). As long as things were going reasonably well, Charley was a pleasure to know and to work with. We got along well, worked well together, swapped favors, and were generally kind to each other. Jekyll Charley was very considerate and helpful. (For example, I opted to do painting myself to save some money, and he was very considerate about setting up a convenient work space for me.) That changed when Charley started going through a string of serious difficulties in his life—90% of which were not his fault. To be fair, by his own accounting, it was the worst 2-3 weeeks he’s ever had. A new serious problem every day or two. That meant that he rarely showed up for work and the job kept getting put off. Communication about current status was rare and almost always prompted. This created difficulties for me because I needed to be at the job site to supervise him (assuming he was coming), but most of the work I needed to do was elsewhere. I was unusually kind, patient, and generous. I never nagged him about showing up or getting work done and made not only scheduled payments up front but small additional payments if I knew he was hurting for money. I understood that he was going through a particularly rough time and had no money coming in, I wanted to be helpful, and I trusted him to be fair and trustworthy in return. That changed two days ago when he asked for a particularly large payment (2nd payment and hopefully more) on a contract on which he had not yet started work. That set off red flags in my head. I got the money but only the 2nd payment (not the $1,000 he was hoping for) and did not pay him until he had made good progress on the job. He became very angry and abusive, made it sound as if I was being unreasonable and repeatedly claimed that this practice was normal in the industry. (Absolutely not true: no one is paid more than 50% before they’ve started work and most are only paid after they have finished.) He did good work on the job but was becoming grouchy, short-tempered and hyper-critical. The situation reached meltdown the next day. He was clearly desperate for money. He wore a severely stressed, glazed, hunted expression. Everything was about getting paid the rest of the money. Whether the job was finished or not. He became thoroughly hostile, off base, and abusive. All kindness went completely out the window. (Hyde Charlie put up shelves that needed to be painted without letting me paint them first. After all, he wasn’t getting paid for that!) If I said white, he said black. If I wouldn’t give him the rest of the money before the job was finished, he lashed out at me and became quite threatening and abusive. I started becoming genuinely afraid for my safety. In the end, the situation became so toxic that he would do anything to get out of there quickly, and I would do anything to get rid of him. In the end, Charley walked off the job. He wrote up a “new” contract (which neither of us signed) demanding full and sometimes high payment for items that were initially promised as favors or that were due to his own mistakes (and should therefore have been fixed for free). He deducted most items that were not done at all but demanded full payment for many that were only partially completed. By my reckoning (“old” contracts and verbal promises), he owed me about $400. By his reckoning (“new” contract), I owed him about $500. If I didn’t pay him everything he demanded in the “new” contract, he claimed I was trying to rip him off and threatened to take me to court. I ended up paying him everything he asked just to get rid of him. Even paid for one set of items twice. (“I already paid you for that earlier today.” “What do you mean?!?”) I am now left with a big mess. (Photos of “finished” cabinet installations attached. Scraps and dust everywhere but the floor. No fillers when fillers were originally discussed and included in the contract. Partially finished drawers and dishwasher panel. I especially like the one of the piece of scrap wood wanged across the sink to keep the dishwasher panel upright. Where is the sink supposed to go?) I will need to hire someone to clean up after him and finish all of those half finished tasks--and pay twice. At the end of the day, I’m probably out a couple thousand dollars that I can’t afford. (I am disabled and have no income.) If anyone else had done this, Charley would christen him a “********.’

They were a pleasure to work with, Charley showed up on time, did what he said he was going to do, did top notch quality work and came in on budget. couldn't have been more happy to have such a high quality job at such a reasonable price.