"We are sorry the client did not have a good experience. To be clear we certainly did not intend on wasting anyone's time, ours included. We did not feel comfortable providing a ballpark for the project on site, at the initial meeting, due to the nature of the work. While it was only a laundry room there was a reasonably significant amount of work including reframing, electrical, plumbing, drywall, cabinetry, a tin ceiling, crown molding, trim work and painting. We provided a CAD drawing showing the as-built plan and then shared a proposed plan. We also developed a design agreement with a budget. We did all of this at no cost to the client. We can certainly understand if someone decides a budget exceeds what they are willing to invest in their home or does not feel the price represents enough value to move forward. However, we feel to provide an F rating after a professional Designer shared ideas and a well thought through budget at no cost to the client seem a bit unfair."

"We are not sure where to begin with this member’s comments. This client contacted us in 1998 and we performed the work in 1999 and now in 2012 the client is choosing to provide a review, 13 years after completion! The project value was $80,674 not $100,000. We had a few items that required warranty attention which we addressed in a timely and professional manner. When we finished our work the member was very pleased to our knowledge. Moreover we are confused that if the member felt so negatively about Blackdog that they felt we deserved a “D” overall then why did they ask us to come back out to their home in October of 2004? Fully five years after we finished the original project the member asked us back out to the house regarding a zero clearance gas fireplace and built-in cabinetry project in their music room. While we did not go forward with the client on the second project, we can’t imagine why we would even be considered if we were as incompetent as the member suggests. At Blackdog we feel strongly that a 13year time span between work being performed and a review being written has a very high likelihood of including misinformation which it certainly does in this case."

"We apologize to the member for providing a less than satisfactory experience in the initial phase of the project however, we feel compelled to disagree with the ratings provided. We routinely discuss preliminary budgets on the phone. Assuming the project is reasonably straight forward and can be compared to a similar projects we have recently done then it is relatively easy to provide some meaningful budget feedback over the phone. We find this helps clients and Blackdog in terms of setting expectations and being more productive in meetings on site. In this case, despite the initial budge range being higher than the client preferred they still asked us to come out and look at the work which we were happy to do. On site we confirmed the scope and existing conditions of the main project and additional scopes of work in an adjoining room were discussed. We then provided an approximate budget range starting at $50,000 based on our full understanding of the project. We also offered to perform a more detailed estimate and proposal to confirm our numbers but, were confident that our numbers would not approach the clients initial budget of $35,000 or adjusted budget of $42,000. At that time the client did not see the need to have us do a more detailed estimate given that they already had lower numbers. We are confused by the clients decision to provide a "C" rating given that we were completely consistent from the first phone call through the initial site visit. We returned phone calls promptly. We communicated clearly. We were on time for our meeting and we provided timely budget feedback. The fact that another contractor provide a price $8,000 less does not make our price invalid or excessively high. Had we been hired to perform the work and then the client provided a report that gave us a "C" rating overall or a "D" rating on price then we would be accepting of the rating. We feel, however, that it is essentially impossible to provide a fair rating on price if the work was never performed. A bad rating on price implies that there was low value which can't be know without services being delivered. It is like saying a bottle of wine is overpriced without ever tasting the wine. Blackdog provides a level of professionalism, design expertise and service that very few companies in our market can even approach. We offer a 3-year warranty on all our work and have our own full time professional carpenters running our projects. We are committed to doing quality work on time and on a budget that delivers value to our clients. Lastly we survey every client we perform remodeling projects for and this is a link to a report that shows our cumulative results. www.guildquality.com/cr/Blackdog-Design-Build-Remodel/F49242792BQY/ Respectfully, David Bryan, CGR, CAPS President Blackdog"

"This member would not pay the final balance on a project we successfully built. We took them to court and received a full judgment in our favor. Directly after paying us in full, despite signing a release, the client got on Angie’s list and submitted this review. We have been in business since 1989 and during that time we have run into a very small percentage of clients who could not be made happy. We believe this member falls into that percentage."

"Our records indicate that this project was done in 1999!. The actual project value was $ 18,258. According to this member there were some issues on the project which Blackdog addressed. We have no other specific information regarding this 10 year old project but would be happy to address any open concerns this member has. Respectfully, David Bryan, CGR, CAPS President Blackdog design/build/remodel"

"TO BEGIN, WE(BLACKDOG), UNDER-PERFORMED ON THIS PROJECT. WE HAD A LEAD CARPENTER ASSIGNED THAT WAS NOT EXPERIECNED ENOUGH, AND WE DID NOT MANAGE THE PROJECT OR FOLLOW UP AS WELL AS WE SHOULD HAVE. WE HAVE SUBSQUENTLY MADE CORRECTIONS IN ASSIGNING MANPOWER TO PROJECTS AND HAVE STEPPED UP OUR TRAINING EFFORTS ACROSS THE BOARD. HAVING SAID THAT, THERE ARE A NUMBER OF INACCURATE STATEMENTS MADE IN THE ABOVE COMMENTS. WE CORRECTED ALL DEFECTS, LESS THE DRIVEWAY SEALING AND WOULD HAVE DONE SO, HAD THE CLIENT NOT SOLD THE HOUSE. A NUMBER OF THE ITEMS MENTIONED WERE NOT IN THE SCOPE OF OUR AGREEMENT. ADDITIONALLY, THE CLIENT NEVER PAID THE BALANCE ON THE CONTRACT DESPITE OUR EFFORTS AND WILLINGNESS TO CORRECT PROBLEMS. WE GAVE THE CLIENT GOOD REASONS TO BE DISGRUNTLED, BUT WE WERE ALWAYS WILLING TO CONTINUE OUR EFFORTS TO MAKE CORRECTIONS UP UNTIL THE CLIENT SOLD THE HOUSE. RESPECTFULLY, DAVID K. BRYAN, CGR PRESIDENT"