The RockAway Company

"It was a pleasure working with Mr & Ms. [member name removed] on there insurance loss. We were able to get a higher class of roof shingles which did cost an additional amount of money to there job but in the long term will help them feel at ease during any future hail storms and will also help there home insurance policy as this upgrade was able to give them a cost savings of there premium. We look forward to any future work with this family."

"We are very sorry that the tile was discontinued. We found out the day it was supposed to be delivered that it was discontinued. It took the customer 3 tries to pick a different tile. This was the biggest reason for the delayed completion."

"Customer was an interesting man to work with. Before the project began he told us that he did lots of wiring and wanted to rewire his electrical box and phone line himself. We did remove the phone jack and Martin was supposed to redo the wiring. We did tape and bed over the jack opening. The problem with the solar tube was too many trees. We would have had to move the tube to the other side of the house. They knew this. The tile work was corrected to approx 1/16th-1,000th of an inch. It was a very, very small amount. Overall any concern he had was immediately corrected. A company’s reputation should not be on whether or not they make mistakes but on whether they do everything possible to correct them. This customer even stated that we did correct any issues they had. Their bathroom is beautiful beyond belief. It is a shame that Customer can only see the mistakes in his memory. His wife loves everything. If you look at the scoring he gives us a “D” overall when in reality it should be at least a “C”. When you look at his scoring it is not consistent with his comments. We finished on time, with extra work added by them which we worked into the project. We worked every day. We did only remove 170/SF of sheetrock when we estimated approx 210/SF which is one (1) sheet of sheetrock. We cleaned up every day and even had a cleaning crew do a final clean up at the end of the project. Their bathroom turned out so nice that we use pictures of it on our web site. We are sorry that we didn’t meet Customer’s expectations. Expectations can be a moving target at times. In the end we corrected all their concerns, did everything we agreed to do and more."

"-There was no place on Angie's list for us to indicate that there is a fee applied when a credit card is used. (They have since fixed that for us) Every customer is sent a letter after our first visit that indicates a fee is applied when a credit card is used. We have a copy of this letter that was mailed to the member on June 22nd. Also, as soon as a customer indicates they intended to pay by credit card we let them know of the 2% (not 3%) fee that the card company charges us that we carry over to the customer. - The 5-year warranty is a very important part of our business. We also do a one-year walk thru after completion. As for the letter of release, the State of Texas requires us to list a 2-year Release of Lien on the standardized form. - It is interesting to see that the very thing he had complained about, the masonry work, is the thing he liked the most about our work. Themember was very happy about everything until we pointed out the 2% fee from the credit card company. He watched everything we did as we were doing it. There was never a time when we have not reworked any of the work if requested and if it was possible. Again, we are very sorry about the member's unhappiness about the 2% fee. However, in this economy 2% of the job is approx. 35-40% of our margin needed to do a quality job and be stable. We have not exaggerated any of our claims or given the member less than a quality job."

"On our first meeting with this customer, the first thing she said to me was "I am from Minnesosta and I have a hard time getting along with men from Texas." We worked very hard to satisfy her. She changed colors and designs several times during the process. We are not perfect but we don't quit until we meet the expecations of our clients. Her carpet had stains from her 4 dogs. There was never any mention of pre-spotting and shampooing of carpet until the end of the project. Our understanding was that the carpet was being replaced after we completed the work. Our drawings are standard 1/4 scale, blue line, on 12' X 18" paper and was accurate to less than 1/2" at completion. It was very well labeled with measurements. In fact, her husband who is a patent attorney chose our firm because of our detail. The permit had already been pulled when she called. It had just not been through their final review process.We regularly go ahead and start the demo/tear process, because the first inspection doesn't occur until after the new framing, plumbing rough and electrical rough have been completed. There were many times when she would have strong outbursts towards all of us involved,even though we were doing exactly what she or her husband wanted. Her husband instructed us to contact him about finances and any changes involving money. She would get very upset with our staff when we did. Needless to say, we were very pleased to complete this project. It is beautiful, unique and very functional."

"This project turned out beautiful beyond belief. Our communication was challenging. One big reason for this is that they both traveled a lot during the project. We did make some small alterations for her during process. Unfortunatly, when the city inspector did our first framing inspection he red tagged their electrical system throughout the whole house.We also found extensive termite damage in the roof framing. We did have change order work which we presented to them in writing in advance of any new work started. They got several other bids on the electrical and reframing. Our price to them was at cost, so it was several thousand dollars less then their other bids including a personal friend. Needless to say, they were never very happy with us after that, but we did complete a magazine quality project to a house built in the 1940's. The hidden problem ended up costing them an additional $9,000 to completely re-do the electrical system and to completely re-frame the ceiling. This surprise additional cost was a very big, unpleasant "downer" to this project."

"We keep very detailed records on all our customers. This is the very first time we have heard anything about a leaking pipe. We know this Member is a widow. If she had called us directly we would have helped her. We have a two year warranty and send out customer response letters. We never heard from her about a broken pipe. This broken pipe occurred in February 2010, 5 years after the original job was completed. During this time period we had very cold weather, well below freezing. I'm sure she was very frustrated but she has old cast iron pipes throughout her house."