I would like to start off this review by mentioning that I have never actually submitted a negative review for a company online before now. It is not my intent to damage someone’s reputation over one bad experience, however the facts below will hopefully explain why I am compelled to submit one for Eager Beaver. I do not want someone else to find themselves in the same position that we are in now. Below are a few bullet point facts about our experience. A subsequent detailed description follows. -We ended the work with Eager Beaver mid project. -We were told that we would need to sign a confidentiality agreement before receiving an anticipated partial refund on a $10,000 deposit. -After rejections were made about signing an agreement, the final invoice received actually totaled $11,765.81 taking a partial refund off the table. We were told the amount reflected 50% completion of the job. This is the charge for the labor of digging footer holes only. No additional work completed. Emphasis on the fact that we are being charged almost $12,000 for holes in our backyard. -We were threatened with a defamation lawsuit if we posted any negative comments about Eager Beaver or the owner. -We were informed by the owner of the company in the final invoice that a phone conversation was recorded without our knowledge or consent. -The facts above do not even address the original factors involved leading to our decision to end the project. We contracted Eager Beaver to replace the top boards of an existing deck that we had. During the replacement, Eager Beaver discovered that the entire deck beneath was rotten and not properly built. Instead of replacing the boards, we contracted them to demo the entire deck. This was a separate charge of $2400 that is not included in the cost to rebuild the deck. Due to the sudden timing of events, we put our trust in Eager Beaver that they could build us a deck at a fair price, with good workmanship, good customer service and in a reasonable time period. This anticipated level of care and service was verbally backed up by Shane, owner of Eager Beaver, and his crew. A month after demolition, Shane’s crew started the process of digging the footers in the backyard-2 days of digging for 2 men. Unfortunately the footers did not pass permit inspection due to some issues with the soil consistency and not being able to find solid ground. We do not blame Shane and his crew for this permit fail. In hindsight however, we do question the order of the next recommended steps. Shane recommended that we continue to dig for an additional two days at an extra cost of $2200. If this did not work then call a soil engineer for $800. In hindsight, we think the soil engineer should have been called in first and then an action plan determined. During this week, there was a great deal of confusion about the situation. I specifically had some questions on a few things and honestly was questioning if the project had become overly complicated for a handyman service that did not build decks with unusual circumstances involved. I was also concerned about additional charges down the road that could add up as a result of this inexperience. When I called Shane with questions and voiced my concerns, he told me that I was micromanaging the job and that his only point of contact should be my co-owner in the home, who happens to be a man. He specifically told me that he did not need to talk with me because I was not writing the checks. His boss was the man writing the checks. In fact, my name was on every check that he received. I was not proud of my immediate response reaction but as a woman who has worked very hard, co-owner of the house he was working on, and the person living in the home with 3 children, it was a tough, unexpected message to hear. Shane hung up and refused to speak to me. I did receive a written apology from Shane the next day and I apologized for the response that I had given on the phone call. Even with this, it was decided to end the job with Shane after the engineer’s report was received and the footers were able to pass inspection. We made a good faith deposit of $10,000 for the rebuild project weeks before it began. In the process of settling up on the deposit we had a few disturbing exchanges with Shane. We calculated a refund amount based on a work order he sent over to us. After we calculated the refund amount, he indicated that our math was wrong and that we were missing several items. He later sent a revised informal estimate with numbers via email that would have totaled very close to the $10k deposit. In his email he indicated that we would need to sign a confidentiality agreement before receiving a refund amount...in that order as he stated. He indicated that he would sue for defamation if there were negative remarks made about his company based on irrational behavior on my part. He indicated that it had been documented that I had provided a hostile working environment for his crew throughout the project. I have two texts from Shane stating otherwise and verbal confirmation from his crew that I had only been polite and easy to work with, with the exception of my response in the one phone call. In his final invoice, he stated that he had recorded phone calls with the co-owner of the property, which proved there was agreement about an extra charge for the footers. We do not disagree with this but it is disturbing that the phone call was recorded without knowledge or consent. All of these actions taken by Shane were intended to intimidate, scare and to keep us from telling our story. I understand the need to protect the reputation of a company, however these tactics are concerning and hopefully never used against another client in the future.