PCI General Contracting

Not good.  Note this company is one and the same, from the customer perspective, of 180 Kitchen and Design.  I became so angry reading other reviews because they were right on, and I am sick that I didn't follow my husband's advice and get more bids... sorry I didn't actually call the people on his"reference list". I agree, Jeff disappeared shortly after the work started except to pick up checks.  Most of the workers were good, some not (tiling, flooring...).  Had the same issue with the granite, a large slab of it "gone".  We bought the slab. He knew we wanted the large leftover piece for our coffee table....gave him the measurements, showed him the table.  Gone.... and he said that's normal practice.....customers don't get the "leftovers" Really? Because I'm pretty sure I paid for that whole slab, and the remaining piece was 40 X 62 inches......a sizeable piece, of expensive. granite.   Charged us 28% fee for electric work that we had done during the job, that had nothing to do with the job!  Was a separate job....but for some reason the electrician submitted our private work to Jeff as well as the contracted work.  Also..... sprung a $1200 "designer fee" late in the project, after he insinuated he would throw in the designer time, given the high cost of our job.  Did not notify us when we went over budget.......thank goodness his (ex) designer did!  He talks a good talk and had me totally fooled, I must say.  The job still isn't done........a lot of finishing things, tho the kitchen is functional.  However, I don't want him back in my house again, so we will hire someone else to repair the torn up fireplace/bricks, seal the slate floor and backsplash.  It's a beautiful kitchen......their design was good and I chose beautiful materials.  But he wasn't what I paid a PREMIUM for........careful supervision, attention to detail, knowing what's available/new.   The company, I believe, will eventually fail due to these issues with what feels to me to be a dishonest, or a sneaky/ under-the-radar way of treating his customers. Perhaps it was just really bad communication.  All I know is, I would never, ever hire PCI/180 Kitchen Design, again.It was an expensive lesson for me.  

******Update 3/20/13 Just saw his response for some reason!  Ridiculous.  I don't blame anyone for work not done when they can't possibly do it if I haven't picked out a light, fan, etc. But fireplace never repaired; floor never sealed (we ended up doing that ourselves)....I have pictures of unfinished work (that are unrelated to me picking out a light).  But regarding the "5 months" after granite installed asking for the piece?  That's funny, because I have a dated message on my phone from 10/3/12 regarding the size of the slab and what size I needed for the table. THE GRANITE HAD NOT BEEN INSTALLED YET.  That I know, because he sent me a picture of the cut granite slab STILL AT FABRICATORS'S on 10/4/12.  ***So we requested it at the time of fabrication and BEFORE installation.***  That's a bit different than 5 months after the install.  Not sure why he would lie about it, except not being able to take responsibility of messing up.  I would've been disappointed but understood, if he'd just said 'sorry I messed up', but he continued to weasel out of any responsibility.  Do research, get several bids before you have work done.

I hired them in the first place after seeing a remodel on Channel 6 news that they did.  I saw them again at a home remodel show, where I first started talking to them.  They were conveniently located to my home, so I thought Jeff Pense (owner) could come check on the project and his workers periodically - that was the main reason I hired him.  Unfortunately, the only time I ever saw Jeff was when he collected money or came to drop off equipment.  One problem that I had is that he did not send an electrician out to my home first, knowing that I have an older home.  After they got into the remodel, the electrican said I needed a new panel to hold all the outlets safely.  This was an extra cost at the end of the remodel that he is trying to charge for.  I felt like he should have had the electrician come prior to making his bid. A second major issue I have is with the granite.  He has a design consultant that works for him; she, myself, and a friend, went to pick out granite together.  This was supposed to be included in the bid.  I picked out a slab that I liked. The design consultant ensured it was within the allowance for the granite.  We took the slab to make the backspalsh and tile.  About a month later, Jeff told me that the granite was $1,400 over the allowance, which really upset me.  At the time I picked it out, they should have told me I was over budget for the granite.  They sent me to another granite place with the same consultant, and we explained to the associate at this store, the allowance that I could spend (of about $3,300.00).  He assured me this was within my allowance.  A few days later, Jeff told me that this second granite was over my budget, and that this time, I would have to pay the extra amount because he had already purchased it.  Jeff said the granite was within my allowance, but the fabricator was charging more than my allowance. When they brought the granite to my home, I noticed there were noticeable, long marks on the countertops.  The fabricator told me they could buff the marks off.  When I came back home, the marks were, in fact, gone.  Several days later, I was cleaning my granite island and saw the same marks on a different counter.  It occured to me that they must have just turned the countertop so that I wouldn't notice the marks until it was too late.  The design consultant came to bring my final paperwork - Jeff didn't even come.  My balance that I owed at the end of the project was $4335.00. However, it said that I owed about $11,000.00. At that point, I paid half of that amount, and I pointed out the marks to her, and we couldn't get them to come off.  Jeff came over because I was disputing the extra $6000 he is trying to charge me. At that time, I let them know that I wanted the marks gone, but they are still there. After that, I found there was additional granite slab that I paid for, but that I did not need. I was supposed to get that to use how I wanted. However, I never got it and I was told that it was broken.  I told Jeff that if I was going to pay additional, that I wanted the rest of the granite that was mine, but now broken.  Since then I have received a certified letter from collections for $5,486.82.  It gave me 30 days to pay this.  A lot of these overages that he is charging me for were never "okay'd" by me, like a door to the garage and storage pantry shelf.  He should have told me these things were going to cost extra, since they were not on the $50,000 bid that I signed.