Amy Kiser

Amy provided a quote and timing for work in my home in October, 2016, has not completed the majority of the work nor returned my deposits as requested. It is now January, 2018 and she has not been back since April, 2017. Since she came highly recommended, I have given her over a year to deliver on her commitments, but she has not. I filed a complaint with the BBB after she stopped replying to emails. She emailed then that she would send me my deposit again, if I would remove the complaint, but again, has not sent the money.

Amy told us we needed to have the entire shower re-tiled. She gave us two options and we went with the pricier of the two, giving her a $300 down payment in May 2017. We thought we were being responsible homeowners by not being stingy on a problem that seemed pretty urgent- I mean, there was water damage and we couldn't identify the source! She proceeded to stall and reschedule all summer long. How urgent could this matter really be? When I became skeptical about the urgency and necessity of having a $1000+ job done I called in a second opinion. This second individual said we could use a little new sealant, but there was no need for a complete re-tiling and grouting of our bathroom. We went with this person who did the work immediately in a couple of hours. When I called Amy to cancel our service (that was never really scheduled in the first place) she took forever to respond to me. What followed was MONTHS worth of text messages. Amy never called me back- would only respond via text. She often blamed her delays on her travel schedule (she sure takes a lot of vacations for someone who never seems to work) or health issues. A few times she asked "Who is this?" as she clearly had not saved my number, even though she was wanting to communicate just through texts. She also blamed the delay on the fact that she had apparently already ordered the materials from her supplier and needed to wait for a refund. I literally wasted hours of my life trying to get $300 back. Finally, after she claimed to mail the check once and I never got it she dropped it off in my mailbox the weekend before Thanksgiving. That's November, so SIX MONTHS after we gave it to her and no work had been performed. I feel kind of silly because I know this isn't much, in the grand scheme of things. Others here have dealt with much worse, including other reviewers here on Angie's list have with Amy. But as a young homeowner who doesn't always know who to trust when it comes to getting things done, I will never hire her again. I felt so helpless and angry.

Amy was hired because her initial presentation was accommodating, professional, and reasonably priced, but primarily because she guaranteed us that the project would be completed before the birth of our child. We made it very clear that all work was to be completed before the due date, and she assured us that it would be. We also made it clear that dust control from the work areas to the rest of the house was very important to us. Work began 3 weeks late. Right away, I was concerned because "dust control" turned out to be some shabbily hung up plastic and painters tape rather than zip walls or equivalent as we had requested. Demo drug on longer than needed, but more serious issues did not crop up until construction started. It was immediately apparent that the quality of the work was very poor and, in some cases, was worse than one would expect from a homeowner do-it-yourself job. Everything you can possibly imagine including (but not limited to) mitering two completely different sizes of quarter-round together, terrible drywall and paint work, installing red oak to match white oak floors, very poor floor finishing, multiple examples of really bad carpentry work, and damage of existing gas grill during construction. In addition, the job drug on for months and continued well past the birth of our child until the job was ultimately abandoned by Amy. The worst part is that, after the birth of our child, the "construction" which often involved attempts to fix tasks that were botched on a previous visit, continued during the early months of having a newborn and trying to provide a quiet, safe environment for him. On 7/5/11, 2 months after the birth of our child and 2 months after the promised completion date, a member of Amy's team dry-sanded a large area in the reno space and released a huge amount of dust into the house, covering every item in the house and significantly exposing my wife and newborn to sheetrock dust. Cleanup of the house ultimately took weeks. In addition, all of the many delays were accompanied by the most extraordinary encyclopedia of excuses imaginable. Things happen and we are not uncompassionate folks, but the number of excuses was truly overwhelming. In the end, there were several parts left to complete and, after several weeks went by, I pulled the plug. It is always possible that others may have a different experience, but I literally would not hire her to replace a lightbulb.

The contractor walked out with only 50% of the work completed and we had already given her 50% of the contracted price. That is just so unexceptable to me. This left us in a horrible position. Electrical half done, no siding on addition, plumbing incomplete an unusable kitchen and a deck not completed. As well as water drainage issues in the yard and under the deck. We did recover and get the work completed ourselves but it was expensive and time consuming to get people in to finish the jobs someone else had already started. But the other builders we hired to complete the work really came through as well as the "city inspections" people as shocking as that may be :-)