Big Jerry's Fencing LLC

CUSTOMERS BEWARE: We own a self storage facility in Parkton, NC and we paid Jay Aguilar a $15k deposit to increase the fencing around our property. Well he delayed us for months saying that he couldn't get the material (which we know was a lie because we own nearly two dozen facilities and were doing fence work at other properties without a "material delay"). Then after around 3 months of waiting for "material" he eventually just stopped taking our calls or responding to our emails altogether and basically "ran off" with our $15k. Yesterday when we threatened to have him arrested, not surprisingly he finally decided to speak to us.... well when my business partner talked to him yesterday, offering one last attempt to get our money back, Jay told my business partner "I don't have it"...meaning he spent our money on who knows what and can't give us our money back. Our attorney advised us to contact the Sheriff (as this dollar amount means it's a felony theft) and to have him arrested for theft, so that's what we're doing today. Customers beware... do not give Jay your money as it'll disappear and you'll lose it just like we did. Jay... I hope you enjoy getting charged with a felony!

I requested a quote in August and immediately received a phone call and quote, which was fantastic. I went ahead and paid my deposit and scheduled the earliest time available, which was over a month out and I was fine with that. The week of installation came and went, no call, no email, no fence. I called and was told it would be the next week, again no call, no email, no fence. I called again and was told it would be the next week, again no call, no email, no fence. I called again only to be told they would call me back by the end of the day with a date for the following week, yet again no call, no email, no fence. I've tried calling again only to be sent to a voice-mail that is full. At this rate, I just want my deposit back, but I can't get ahold of anyone to let them know to cancel. I guess I will have to call my credit card company and file on BBB.

They were very detailed oriented and did a great job.

I really wanted to love this company. It was referred to me by several friends and Julia was a sweetheart to deal with (I've been told she is no longer there). However, the experience turned out to be nothing but a big hassle, leaving me wishing I had went with someone else. The date of installation was pushed back several times. For some of those incidents, it was due to weather and this was understandable. However, there was a serious lack of communication - sometimes receiving an email 1 hour before the crew was supposed to show to let me know they would not make it and every other communication was initiated by me to confirm they were coming the next day - only to be told they were not. When the fence was finally installed, I was told that it would be a two day job due to the need to let the concrete set. Surprisingly, the work was completed in one day. It looked good initially, I was happy to have it completed, and I promptly paid in full.
The great look of the fence did not last. The and quot;planksand quot; began to separate from one another and the gate started dragging on the concrete. I contacted the company because one of the main reasons I went with them was their warranty on workmanship and it states and quot;LIFETIME guarantee of construction to be free of defects in workmanship...in the event that your fence is in need of repair, all repairs will be made within 30 days of notification.and quot; Unfortunately, much like my experience with the installation being pushed back over and over and over, the same happened with my repairs. It took well over the 30 days guaranteed to get the repairs done. When the crew came, they confirmed that the problem was that the job should have taken 2 days. While working, they also broke the cap on the top of the gate. I let the owner know and was told that this would be fixed. Weeks later it was not fixed. In fact, I was unable to get this fixed until I complained to the BBB, requesting a refund for the cap so I could get this taken care of by another company. Upon learning that the cap was inexpensive, I just went to purchase my own. Oddly, after I purchased my own cap, someone with this company must have come with the correct cap and replaced it while no one was home. However, even the new cap was not put on properly and has fallen off. We have obtained the appropriate glue supply after talking with another fence company and I am happy to say it is fixed.
Unfortunately, the and quot;planksand quot; are starting to pull apart again. Fortunately, the crew that came to repair this once already showed us how to fix this on our own. I do not wish to deal with this company or the owner again in the future despite the warranty.
When the fence isn't showing gaps, it is a beautiful fence. It is sturdy, in that our son has accidentally thrown basketballs up against it and it holds up well. However, the hassle of dealing with this company was certainly not worth the money spent.

Big Jerry is charismatic and charming and Julia is as sweet as pie, so it was especially disappointing how poor the communication, materials, communication, craftsmanship, and communication were. Lesson learned: likeability does not a good fence make.

OUR TIMELINE:

If you read the review prior to ours (from Mar 25) you will see that they came out 3 days early for that client, well, dear Angie's List Members, please note that you can just as easily be on the other side of that coin. We were scheduled to begin Mar 3, but the weather was bad for a week so we decided to start the following Monday (3/10) but they did not show because someone was and quot;illand quot;. They would also not be able to come Tuesday. Wednesday did not work for us, but instead of coming Thursday or Friday they said they'd start the following Monday (3/17). They did start that Monday, but they did not come again on Tuesday. And the weather again was bad. They told us they’d come on Saturday (3/22), and when I asked at 2:30p Saturday if they were still planning on coming I did not get a response. It turns out that had an easier vinyl job that they wanted to get to 3 days early (see previous Angie's List Reviewer). Big Jerry did apologize the following Monday (3/24) saying that he forgot about us. They did not come Tuesday (3/25) because of weather. They worked the following Wednesday (3/26), but they went home early because we asked them to stop when we saw that they were not putting the pickets up to our agreed-upon specs. My husband sent an email with questions that evening, and Big Jerry said he’d address the email, but never did. He also said that his crew leader asked for the day off so they would not be coming Thursday (3/27), but he'd let us know when they'd come back... although we never heard from him again. **UPDATE: We heard from them again after posting the review.

THE FENCE:

Many posts are not plumb -- although plumb posts were not explicitly in the contract, we believed that plumb was implied (see photographic evidence).

Many posts (possibly all) are not buried 24and quot; deep as per the contract (photo).

The spacing between pickets should have been more even (we believe that had the posts distance been set correctly in the first place that this would have been a non-issue). Big Jerry assured me that the crew would eye-ball the spaces and it would be a very small variance. This was not the case. We have spaces that range between 2.74and quot; and 0.45and quot; -- when the spaces should have been 1.5and quot; give or take. (photo)

The pickets were supposed to end at the bottom rail (we asked for a top and bottom rail) and they were attached all the way to the ground... like they might on a standard front picket dog-eared fence. (photo)

I was very clear that I wanted the pickets set symmetrically (mirror image) beside the front gate, and a half-hour later I found the pickets were put up wrong. (photo)

*We are upset, but we don't feel that we are giving an unfair review. We have taken photos of everything so that you can see for yourself if this level of craftsmanship is good-enough for your money (it wasn't for ours). We feel the price was way too high($17.50/ft) for the work performed and materials provided. We were very understanding about the weather, but we finally did have to specifically ask them to tell us when they were coming and when they weren't because we felt left in the dark (to be fair they did acknowledge that they were being slack about that and they said sorry, although it kept happening). And they certainly get an and quot;Fand quot; for professionalism since it's been over a week since we've heard from them... I assume they quit.

*Will have photos up shortly. (this is a new computer and I'm still figuring it out)

I contacted Jerry after asking my neighbor who installed his fence and I am so glad I did. After scheduling an appointment with Julia in the office, both she and Jerry came out as scheduled and provided us with an estimate, which was by far the lowest of four (4) estimates I received. Prior to them coming, I read the reviews on Angie's List (which I rely on heavily because I'm from out-of-state and a new homeowner) It was a no brainer to go with Big Jerry's Fencing (BJF), a decision I do not regret.
Installation was delayed due to the rainy weather, which I totally understood. BJF gave me a discount in the price because of this...not expected, but greatly appreciated. Installation was scheduled for a Tuesday, BJF came out 3 days earlier and installed my fence in 1 day.
I hope my neighbors ask, because I will happily recommend and quot;Big Jerry's Fencingand quot;

It was excellent. Courteous and very punctual service to get back to me. Big Jerry came in person, as scheduled a day before, and the nickname is well deserved. A very nice fellow that was very honest about what he knew and could do: Unlike most contractors that always say yes when you ask if they can do something.

Anyways, he had his stuff together: he walked the backyard area's perimeter, identified the issues w the stumps (I had to get them removed as they were pretty large stumps) and made all the right questions, had a contract all set, reassured me of all the proper issues and steps that would follow, having received my full reassurance by phone he had already called the utilities to mark the property, had me send all the documents for permitting by email to his staff(Julia); who acknowledged instantaneously. I had already seen a preliminary contract emailed to me at that point; and they send an updated on immediately. Since then, I already received the drawing of the fence on the survey and all the updates one could wish for.

The work started the day before it was originally schedule w a courteous call announcing it... The crew was obvious competent, and on the task.
They quickly realized there were some large, hard rocks inches under some areas that would require a jackhammer: I'm a field architect so I knew it was a correct assessment. But they continued working on the other post and getting things done. The jackhammer was a item noted in the contract as potential extra cost for this area, and it cost $350 for the 6 postholes that required it (these were big rocks that could not be avoided by shifting post positions. These were extremely time consuming hard minerals! But the work went on. We got rained out a couple of days, but 3 days of actual labor did the trick; even w extra heavy posts, board on board picketing, 3 sandwiching rails, 2 gates in a sloped area (1 double), and the need for hammering hard rocks 3and quot; under the surface to a 2' depth! It was some serious achievement.

At all steps, their office staff(Julia) contacted us to give us advanced notice of what was happening. That is the kind of professionalism you don't usually expect from a fence company, but Big Jerry provided!

I recommend Big Jerry without reservations.

Overall I would definitely recommend this company to my friends. I had a great experience with them and they were very professional.

Everything went very smooth except for the few days it rained and they couldn't work. It was done when they said it would be and we where absolutely pleased with the results.

I was pleased with the installation of the fence. I was not pleased with the process of ordering the fencing materials. They actually had not ordered the correct one. I had three different delays because of the fencing material not being in or not being the right. The work of installing the fence was very good. It was the lack of attention to order caused the delays.