American Fence Company

"The member contacted my office on 9/10 to get a free estimate. As always, we took his info and forwarded it to the residential salesman. The salesman called the member and scheduled an appointment for 9/17 between 3:30 pm - 4:00 pm. This time and date was chosen by the member. The salesman was at the members house at the time of the scheduled appointment but no one was home. He left his card in the mailbox with a note saying "sorry I missed you, please call to reschedule". On 9/18 the member called my office and complained that the salesman never showed up for the appointment. The office manager took his name and number and told him we would be happy to reschedule. His response to the office manager was not very polite and insisted that he did not want to reschedule. That same day at 1:05 pm the member called my saleman and left the following message on his voice mail (which we have archived for future reference) "Hi, this is The Member, and I found your card in my mailbox. I don't know why you left it in my mailbox, we never had a scheduled appointment and you must have been at the wrong house." Since we received a report in March indicating that we had problems with our timeliness and completeness of our response to requests for quotes, we have taken several steps including documentation of response times, double copies of schedules and followup phone calls to reduce and eliminate these problems. Although we are not perfect, we own up to our mistakes, correct them as soon as possible and make changes to our methods to improve. In this case, it is my belief that the member is in the wrong a should not have written the report that he did. I run a good company that receives 10 times as many compliments than we do complaints and 85% of our business is generated from referrals. We are one of the few if not the only fence contractor in the Cleveland market that does not use subcontractors and all employees are paid by the hour. I am not sure if one of my competitors is behind the writing of this bad report or if this is just a case of a vindictive member, but whatever reason, I take offense to the negative publicity. Thomas Tekesky - President"

"AMERICAN FENCE OFFERS FREE ESTIMATES DURING NORMAL BUSINESS HOURS ONLY. EVENING AND WEEKEND APPOINTMENTS ARE AVALIABLE FOR A FEE OF $35 PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. THIS ESTIMATE FEE WILL BE APPLIED AS A PAYMENT WHEN THE JOB IS CONTRACTED FOR AND IS COMPLETED. OUR COMPANY FIELDS SEVERAL HUNDRED PHONE CALLS EACH WEEK AND THE EVENING AND WEEKEND TIMES FILL VERY QUICKLY. SO TO ACCOMODATE THE POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS WHO ARE SERIOUS ABOUT THEIR PROJECTS, WE HAVE INCORPORATED THIS POLICY. THIS IS THE SAME POLICY THAT IS CURRENTLY BEING USED BY OTHER COMPANIES IN OUR INDUSTRY. WE ALSO REALIZE THAT WE CAN NOT SATISFY EVERY PERSON THAT CALLS OUR PHONE NUMBER NO MATTER HOW HARD WE TRY."

"AS PER OUR VERBAL AGREEMENT ON OCTOBER 7TH, 2005, THE REMAINING BALANCE FOR THE WORK PERFORMED IS $1900.00. THIS REFLECTS A 10%% DISCOUNT OFF THE REMAINING BALANCE OF THE FINAL INVOICE PRICE. THE 1ST QUOTE PROVIDED WAS FOR A REAR YARD CHAIN LINK FENCE AND A CHAIN LINK DRIVE GATE. THE 2ND QUOTE WAS FOR A CUSTOM ALUMINUM GATE ONLY. ON 8-8-05 YOU CALLED TO ACCEPT THE PROPOSAL AND ON 8-11 WE RECEIVED A DEPOSIT FOR THE CUSTOM GATE ONLY. AT THE TIME OF POST INSTALLATION YOU WERE NOT HOME. YOUR SON INQUIRED AS TO WHEN THE REAR YARD FENCE WAS TO BE INSTALLED. I TOLD HIM THAT YOU DID NOT APPROVE THE REAR YARD FENCE. HE ASSURED ME THAT YOU WANTED IT DONE. AGAIN THE TWO QUOTATIONS CLEARLY STIPULATE SEPARATE PRICES FOR THE GATE AND THE FENCE. YOU ASSUMED DIFFERENTLY. IN AN EFFORT TO EASE YOUR MISUNDERSTANDING, I OFFERED YOU A 10%% DISCOUNT. I AM FURTHER WILLING TO ACCEPT MONTHLY PAYMENTS WITHOUT INTEREST UNTIL THE BALANCE IS PAID IN FULL SINCERELY, THOMAS TEKESKY - PRESIDENT"