Vision Quest Builders Inc

This was the single worst experience we've ever had with a contractor. Initially, the contractor, Conrad Snow, seemed knowledgeable and experienced. We discussed what I wanted, and the contracts were written up. For the living room, I showed him a photo and stated, "This is what we want." He replied,"We can do that. It's pretty straightforward." The initial date set for work was October 7. When I called to confirm, Conrad told me that it would have to be postponed to October 9, because he needed more drying time for the living room shelves. I said I had contractors coming the following Monday to sand floors and begin painting in several rooms of the house. I also noted that I was having a guest come that weekend, was planning house cleaning that afternoon, and was generally concerned that Vision Quest complete on time. Conrad told me his team would come in at 8:00 am and finish by 2:00 pm. On October 9, the team was late, arriving at 8:30 am, and Conrad apologized, saying that 395 was backed up. After introducing Ricky, his team leader, Conrad left. At one point, I walked by the living room shelves and noted a large gap between the wall and the shelving unit. When I asked about this, Ricky snapped,"It's not finished yet." He offered no explanation of what would be done to address this gap. I decided I would talk to Conrad later. At 12:30, Ricky announced that his team could not finish the job that day, because the measurements that had been taken initially were not accurate and the pieces they had would not fit. After he left, I inspected the shelves in the living room and the family room. The living room shelves were to have had crown molding, but also molding in the middle section (top of the cabinets), and base molding -- per the picture I showed Conrad. None of these were present. The pieces of wood were simply square and flat. In the family room, the shelves were also to have had molding at the top. This was actually included in the contract, but was not present at the end of the day on October 9. When I spoke with Conrad that afternoon, he said that he had not realized that I wanted the living room shelves to look exactly like the photo. He thought the shelves looked better plain. I noted that this was not what I had requested, and that he had not discussed any deviations from the photo with me. I thought the shelves looked like IKEA units without the molding details, as they were white in color. He agreed to add the molding, but rather than being cut (or lathed) into the wood as I had expected, all he could do at this point was glue on molding. The end product clearly looks glued on, as there is a visible seam between the main shelving units and the molding. My mistake was assuming that showing him a picture and stating that it was what I wanted was sufficient. I should have made sure that the molding was included in the contract for the living room units. On the other hand, the moldings were included in the contract for the family room and they still were not done, and had to be glued on later. During this conversation (afternoon of October 9), I also raised with Conrad my concern about the gap between the wall and the living room shelving units. Conrad told me that they would caulk the gap and then paint it over. He also said that by asking Ricky questions before the job was finished, I was "managing" him. Therefore, Ricky was understandably defensive. After all, Conrad continued, Ricky was an "artist," and artists were temperamental. This seems a very strange definition of "management" and a rather unprofessional way to respond to a legitimate customer concern. I reiterated that I had other contractors coming in on Monday the 12th, including painters who needed the shelving work to be done so that they could paint the adjoining walls. Conrad promised to send his team the next day (Saturday) at either 11:30 or 1:00 pm. My husband waited at home all day from 11:00 am on, and no one showed up. There was no communication, no phone call, nothing to let us know they would not be coming. Sunday night, October 11, I got a call from Conrad. He said that his team did not work in the rain due to insurance reasons, and that he should have called, but he was dealing with a terminally ill parent and he forgot. He further stated that if we had "any empathy," we would understand what he was going through. As both myself and my husband have dealt with terminally ill parents, we were sympathetic but still wondered how the job was going to get done. I proposed that VisionQuest come back later in the week, after the floor sanders and painters we had lined up to start work on Monday had finished their portion of the work. The painters would have to come back again after Vision Quest finished the shelves, but they preferred that to delaying their schedule further. Conrad responded that his team could be in by 7:00 am and be done by 9:00 am on Monday morning, so that the sanders and painters could get started on their work on time. He also said that his team was used to coordinating with other contractors, so this would not be a big deal. Finally, I asked if they were aware of our discussion about the molding. Conrad apparently could not remember discussing this on Friday. He snapped that he was dealing with a lot of things, and could not remember everything. In the next sentence, he said I should "trust him." I replied that it was difficult for me to trust him, if I was not confident that he actually had heard my requests. He said he would make sure his team brought the molding. On Monday, October 12, his team showed up at 7:00 am and went to work. They spread their equipment all over the living room floor, as they had done previously. It was not possible for anyone else to work in the room. At 9:00 am, I asked Ricky when they would finish. He said he needed at least another hour. I was frustrated, but did not know what else to do. I asked our sanders and painters if they could wait. They were also frustrated, but agreed to wait an hour. At 10:00 am, Ricky was clearly not done. He said he would need until noon. Our painters sent three of his four-member team home. Our sanders reluctantly waited. Ricky and his team left at 11:30 am. Understandably, our sanders and painters were very irritated by the delay. When my husband and I inspected the shelves, there were numerous issues. The family room shelves were to have 7 shelves per unit. VisionQuest had left only 3 per unit. The heating vent cover from next to the living room shelves was missing. They left a strip of crown molding unpainted. There were no doorknobs on the cabinet doors. And, worst of all, the shelves -- both upstairs and downstairs -- looked awful. They had damaged paint, chips, and poorly covered nail holes all over. You could also see cracks between different pieces of wood that were not smoothly fitted together. My husband had pointed out that they had not delivered the right number of shelves. Ricky said they would cut some more. However, it was not clear when they would come back or whether they would be repairing and repainting all the chipped, damaged areas. We received no communication from Vision Quest, so at 9:00 pm that night, I left a message on their machine, running through the issues and noting my unhappiness with what had occurred that morning in terms of Ricky and his team running far over 9:00 am, and delaying the start of work for the other contractors. I proposed that Vision Quest come back the following Wednesday, the 21st of October, after the other contractors finished their work. The next day, I took refuge in my local library while our painters and sanders took over most of the house. When I left the library in the evening, I had several messages from Conrad asking me to call him. He had also left a voicemail on my home answering machine, saying that he didn't understand how his team had gotten in the way of the other contractors. He also said that they didn't "do" doorknobs. I was surprised that a built-in shelf-maker wouldn't do doorknobs, but as I had not thought to specify it in the contract, I let it go. I called Vision Quest, and left a message saying that I would be at a conference until 2 or 3 pm the next day (Wednesday), and would be unavailable by phone until then. When I called Conrad the next afternoon, he was very defensive about his team having caused any delay, stating that he had told his team to finish working and move promptly when I asked them to. They were supposed to move from the living room to the family room. Unfortunately, he had not shared this plan with me. The painting crew was scheduled to start painting in the family room, and I could have told him that having his crew move down there was not a possibility. I had understood that they were simply supposed to be done at 9:00 am. Conrad then became verbally abusive and raised his voice. He said, among other things, that I had "berated" his crew and asked me who I thought I was. I ended the call. As I had only had three exchanges with Ricky and/or his crew (already described), I concluded that my "berating" his crew referred to the fact that I was not happy with their performance or timeliness, and had expressed my disappointment to Conrad. My response to the question about who I thought I was, had I thought him capable of listening, would have been that I was a customer paying for work to be completed in a professional fashion. Conrad later called back, and left a voicemail demanding further payment and stating that I had given no indication I would pay him. Of course, he did have a signed contract, which stated that the remaining payment was due upon COMPLETION of the job. I would have thought this indication enough. He then threatened to put a lien on our property unless he received payment in a couple of days. A disproportionate number of our friends being lawyers, we were able to verify immediately that he was on very weak legal ground. By no means would an objective observer look at the state of the shelves and conclude that they were complete. We took lots of pictures and also had numerous eyewitnesses, and would have had no problem winning a case in civil court, given the state of the project. In the end, my husband and I decided that we simply did not want anything further to do with Vision Quest or Conrad Snow. We laid out minimal conditions for full payment -- satisfactory delivery of the remaining shelves for the family room and the return of our heating vent. We decided to pay someone else to complete the repair and repainting of the shelves. Even with these minimal conditions, Conrad directed Ricky to demand that we hand over the check for the remaining balance before Ricky installed the shelves. We showed Ricky the clause in the contract that stated that the balance of the amount was due upon completion, and that we could not consider the job complete until the shelves were actually installed into the shelving units. Ricky said he understood, but he worked for Conrad. He tried to reach Conrad, and after failing to do so made the decision to go ahead and complete the installation. After he finished installation, we handed over the check for the remaining balance. We hope that this detailed report will help other Angie's List members avoid a similar experience.