ALLEN KITCHEN AND BATH

We searched for a while to find the company we thought would be best to renovate our master bathroom. We picked a winner when we selected Allen Kitchen and Bath. Joe came to our condo and looked over the jacuzzi we wanted removed, the shower we wanted moved, the vanity we wanted replaced. He worked with us at his office to plan the details. He stayed in touch as the project proceeded. Clark, the lead carpenter and main contact for the work, was superb to work with. The new finished shower – no door, very spacious, great fixtures – is a delight to use. The look of the bathroom is beautiful. We are so happy that we chose Allen and so grateful to Joe and to Chad and their team for making this all happen.

WARNING: HIRE AT YOUR OWN RISK: TWO NONFUNCTIONAL BATHROOMS AFTER ALMOST ONE YEAR. Today's date April 26, 2020. It is too bad that I had to check one star. There should be an option of no stars. I signed my first contract with Laree ***** on January 29, 2019 and paid her $19,000. The demolition began on May 14,2019. Today is April 26, 2020 and my two bathrooms and one dressing area are nonfunctional. At this point I have paid Laree and Gary ***** owners of Allen Kitchen and Bath, ***** ** ********* **** **********, WI 53045 a total of $79,000 and two nonfunctional bathrooms. The whole remodel has been a disaster where there is no electrical, no plumbing, no countertops in the master bath. ( I paid directly to KG ******* for the other countertops in the dressing area and master bath myself), no toilets, no sinks, no shower door or side panels, no running water, exposed electrical wires that are hot (I had to hire an electrician to take care of these wires, no base boards (I had to pay someone else to remove and replace base boards because Laree ***** didn't have any of these removed after 9.5 months; ruined banisters because they failed to protect them; ruined threshold, ruined wood around the windows; ruined storm door and front door; Ferguson supply company has most of the Kohler products and robern mirrors because Laree won't release them unless I pay her 97% of the total bill upfront. Scratched tile floors because they failed to protect them and workers; holes in the walls and ceiling. Orders parts that are different from the contract and upcharges almost 100%. The cabinet doors she shows you in the design center are beautiful but what you get is manufactured junk. I had to have them made by a professional cabinet maker. Can you imagine living in this mess for over 11 months! Important emails go unanswered. Site work increases exponentially without any explanation. Laree ***** tried to cover up $9,000 in credit card payments for over two months. She told me she keeps good records and that I made a mistake. However, I provided proof from the credit card companies that I had paid her an extra $9,000. Hadn't I kept good records,it would have gone undetected and she would have an extra $9,000 to float her business .Laree apologized for the error 2.5 months later. Be careful, if you have the contracts rewritten. They are written in her favor and she will throw you under the bus and you will need to hire an attorney. I don't know what to do at this point and that I why I hired an attorney. The only way I will get my bathrooms finished is if the contracts are dissolved. According to WI State Law, Laree ***** was required to have a completion date written in the contracts otherwise this could go on indefinitely, which it has.. There was no completion date written on any of the contracts. Laree has made my life miserable and I am always stressed out. What recourse do I have? If I take it to court, she probably has too many creditors and I wouldn't have a chance. I really would like to dissolve the contract and hire someone else to complete the work. Laree *****;extorts money and has not done her job completing the remodels. There is no excuse for not completing the remodels. My bathrooms are nonfunctional. Jennifer,the City of ******** Assessor was a my home and told me I could not sell it in the condition it is in and that was back in December, 2019. My assessed value has gone down over $60,000. They are very savvy and they will take you to the cleaners. They have an excuse for everything. Imagine, they want 97% paid upfront or they won't finish. If I pay the 97% upfront, the remodel will never get finished anyway. She and her husband Gary should be ashamed of themselves for extorting money with no intention of completing the remodels. Hire Allen Kitchen and Bath at your own risk. They order products and supplies and when you check prices, you will find that they upcharge anywhere from 39% to over 100%. You will truly be sorry and out a lot of money. During the month of late January and early February 2020, the only work that was done was 3 pieces of small tin were dropped off in the dressing room. I HAD TO HIRE AN ATTORNEY BECAUSE ALLEN KITCHEN AND BATH DO VIRTUALLY NOTHING OTHER THAN EXTORT MONEY. Absolutely, unethical, unprofessional, incompetent, and unresponsive.

Unprofessional, incompetent, unresponsive, and unethical. Used our project money to pay their overhead business expenses instead of for materials for our project. DO NOT do business with them.

It was a terrible experience. Over the years, I’ve completely remodeled four full bathrooms, several kitchens, and two powder rooms in my primary residence or vacation homes. My experience w Allen Kitchen and Bath was by far THE worst remodeling experience in 40+ years and I strongly urge all readers to avoid this company. They had to completely redo the bathroom twice and even messed up the second time around, requiring yet more work. I asked three independent and reputable contractors for their opinions and they just shook their heads. I considered legal action but became too exhausted to pursue it. Some highlights were that owner (and responsible contractor) did not adequately vet subcontractors, never showed up to examine or review work until I refused to pay per contract, and utterly failed to oversee project. Bad tile work, bad electrical work, bad plumbing (failed city inspection), sloppy pairing etc.

Terribly! Allen Kitchen & Bath (AKB) started our bathroom remodel in January 2014. The project was a miserable disaster. Product was delivered late. Product quality was sub-standard. Products were installed incorrectly. Workmanship was amateur. No attention was paid to detail. The carpenter was poorly trained, sloppy, and dumped construction garbage in our yard. AKB management was unresponsive to our complaints yet they harassed and threatened us for payments. The tile job in the tub/shower area was so bad that in June 2015 we hired a different contractor to tear out all the tiling and completely redo the tub/shower tile. In short, AKB left our bathroom with more problems than what existed before they started their work. We reported our problems to News 3 Investigates and to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (complaint #566803). A volunteer with News 3 worked our case for 18 months but her repeated calls to AKB were mostly unanswered. The WDATCP (Consumer Protection) issued a Warning Letter to AKB stating that AKB was not in compliance with two State Laws. So here is our warning: If you choose to do business with AKB you should expect numerous problems, poor quality, disrespect and deception. You can also expect that your only real option for recourse will be a legal one. Save yourself the time and headache - - don’t ever set foot in the Allen Kitchen & Bath showroom.

The job was to start in September ,however, it was not begun until the end of October.
This did not particularly upset me. 
What did upset me was that I had to go into the store multiple times to receive any type of answer as to when my job was going to begin. i was always greeted graciously in the store and assured that everything was going to be fine and then nothing....

The problem was that they all were so nice to me and then nothing happened as to any indication as to when the work was going to begin.
i finally walked in one day and was going to request my 50% down payment be returned to me. Their  phones had been "down"
and I really felt that they might be out of business......

So finally the work begins, and the worker who removed the vanity and drywall was nice to work with.
The electrician did not listen to my instructions as to where to place the new wiring for the lighting over the vanity. The wiring was placed in an incorrect position. The plumber was nice to work with....
I had to run into the store so many times to ask when the next step was going to begin that I felt like i was a crazy woman.

Now the plumbing and the wiring are complete and correct, so the drywaller installs and repairs the drywall.
Three hours after the drywall was done I receive a call from the plumber. He tells me that he has to move the plumbing because the electrician called him and it is too close to the electrical wiring. The sad little plumber came to my house at 6PM.
Appearing very overworked, I couldn't take my anger out on him. He made a big hole in the brand new drywall what else can I say.

The vanity was installed with some major pieces that were ordered by mistake...
The counter was installed but the holes weren't drilled for the faucet.....I left the faucet, had the plumber draw instructions on the faucet box....for the person to come back and drill the holes for the faucet....He came and drilled the holes incorrectly.
i had to hustle up a new faucet to accomodate his incorrect holes....
They were going to send a new counter top ..... But, that would take weeks .... So, I solved the problem with different faucets....

A ton of junk layed in our garage from the installation of the vanity ..... We called and exploded that they needed to come and pick it up.
they did pick it up....We received a discount on the counter...very begrudgingly.....

This whole process took 2 months and was completed on Christmas Eve !

Please excuse the English above if it doesn't read correctly. 
Explaining all of this leaves me exhausted )  :

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We desperately needed our bathroom re-done.  It is a plain, 1972 full bath - nothing fancy.  We shopped several remodelers and chose Allen Kitchen and Bath in part because they made it so easy!  Other remodelers wanted us to go to multiple places to choose flooring, tile and plumbing fixtures - sometimes specifying the day of the week we needed to go in order to meet with their preferred sales person.  We didn't have that kind of time or flexibility.  Allen Kitchen and Bath is much more customer-centered and is a one-stop shop.  We were able to decide on everything in one visit to their showroom, with Joe's help, and they had a great selection of options. 
The quality of the work was top-rate.  The tradesmen showed up when promised, did a great job and were respectful of our home. Joe ensured that the punch list was completed to the last detail.  We love our new bathroom and would use Allen Kitchen and Bath again - next time for our kitchen.  
We highly recommend them!

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I felt their estimate was fair. They were on time. The work was very well done. They were very good at cleaning up after themselves and communicating with us and making sure what they did was good. We checked several places and their estimate was reasonable.

They were here promptly and did the job. When they were complete we were not happy with one part of it. We called and they came back out and fixed the concern without any complaint.

They have a good salesman and designer. It was the best design and the price was right. They let us do a lot of the work to make it affordable; we did the demolition, drywall, painting, etc. in preparation to their arrival. They promised it be complete in 3 weeks.
they started a half week after the formal, agreed upon start date. Work started well and then efforts fell off with days of no shows. Work virtually stopped for a period with no communication, no explanation. Turns out the cabinets were delayed. Cabinet installation ... Contracted pieces were missing or incorrect
(missing: on door spice rack;
incorrect:
one cabinet was not what was contracted for, they installed it anyway and then took out the cabinet guts and put in a wire rack, not at all what was described to us.
The valence over the sink was too short and the one they EVENTUALLY installed was the wrong style.
Corner cabinet shelves badly marred and had to be replaced.
In order to install the flooring, they took off doors as was expected. But then, they wouldn't put them back on because it wasn't in the contract.
Part of the contract was additional matching trim (base and casing) to complete the three bedrooms. It took weeks and weeks to get the trim and then is wasn't the agreed upon quantity. They then supplied additional, but it was the wrong style. They replaced the trim that was the wrong style with trim that was the right style, but the wrong size. The finally got it right with the last fix.
It just felt like they didn't want to do anything unless they HAD to. It felt like we had to push them for everything.
In the end, the overall look was what we wanted, but the completion date for the contract was many weeks past the three weeks we were told at the outset and that not without a lot of pushing on our part.

We wished to update our kitchen and bath prior to putting the house on the market.  Since we were not living in the house at the time and needed to put it on the market quickly, we were relying on Allen to perform the job dependably and on time. This they did not do.
We initially consulted with one of Allen's designers, who was  responsive to our needs, produced a fair quote, and promptly scheduled the work to be completed within 4-6 weeks. The counter top was delivered and installed on schedule, but the bath tiling was delayed a couple of weeks due to the contractor not showing up for days on end, and the back splash was delayed another couple of weeks due to the non-delivery of the tiles, forcing us to  to order different ones. We were never informed of any of the delays until we asked, and workmen showed  up at the wrong work site three times.  In the end, we were pleased with the quality of the work, but the lack of reliable project management was totally unacceptable.

This was an extremely negative and frustrating experience for us.  We were fooled by the beautiful showroom, smooth product selection process, and detailed timeline and contract that outlined for us when we could expect our job to start and finish as well as when payments would be due.  Start time was to be the end of October 2011 and both bathrooms were to be done mid November noting that it could be as long as the first week of December (allowing for unforseen delays). 

Long story short, the project began late and is still not completely finished as of March 2012.  The company seemed unable to cover an unexpected absence of one of their employees.  Their staffing problem became our problem.  No one person seemed to be in charge of our job.  Coordination and communication seemed poor between workers.  There were many "no-show" days with no explanation.  There were days when workers showed up only to find they were unable to work because products were not delivered and unavailable for pick-up.  There were times that workers showed up but could not work because other work needed to be done before they could do their piece.  Wrong products were delivered and installed.   After mid-November we had to start being specific about when the house was available because of our personal schedules.  Clearing a month to allow as much access to the house during the expected timeline was an effort the company did not seem to value.  The company tried to satisfy us by giving us anticipated dates that were continually pushed back.  It was obviously more than a staffing issue as they struggled getting the products ordered to the house.   Despite the fact that the timeline was far exceeded, no effort was made to help speed up the process in any way.   All we ever heard was "we're doing the best we can" and "the part is not here or the supplies are not here".

Note that all the above occurred during the remodel of the first bathroom only.  Two bathrooms were to be done by mid November.  Because of the lack of progress, lack of response from the company, and no end in site for completion of the first bathroom we decided we did not want them to work on the second bathroom and were able to cancel that job from the contract after paying a restocking fee.  

 During the last 2 years we have had our roof, siding, gutters and floors replaced or updated by various companies.  The work was completed on time and problems were dealt with quickly, often on the same or next day.  This is in stark contrast to our experience with Allen Kitchen and Bath.

As of today, the bathroom although functional, is not completed.   We are still waiting for touch up work to be done as well as "delivery" of a missing part to our shower door that once again did not arrive .

The estimation process was good and advised the payments will be segregated into parts, which sounded good.   They started the job well and things went on well, until the 2nd installment.  I was out of the country and they used to contact my son-in-law, as well as keep in touch with me via emails.  They kept harassing for their payments every now and then, also kept irritating my son-in-law for the same.  I made a final payment to them only after an inspection.  The job was fine, but was disgusted by their customer service.  I will not use their services in future.

The sales person was very responsive to coming over to the house to see what we wanted completed.  The problem was that the toilet we had was in a color no longer available.  We did not know this until we got to the show room to review our contract.  The sales person said we could try finding one on line.  Gee, I thought that was there job!!!  Anyway, we found a toilet on-line and proceeded with the work.  We were told it would take a day.  The good news is that all of the work took about a day; the problem is that the materials they were suppose to have "on hand" were not readily available.  The work crew came back on 3 different days to complete the work.  The work though, was superb!! Very high quality workmanship; which is why I would use them again.  HOWEVER:  the toilet order was cancelled.  We are now left with a vanity top that cannot be easily matched in a color for the toilet I like.  I would have much preferred having the sales person either order the toilet for us and then we would have figured we could not get it; in which case we would have ordered a different color for the vanity top OR suggest we not pick out and order a  color for the vanity until we knew we could get the toilet.

We discovered a master bathroom shower leak shortly after moving to Madison and moving into the house. We visited Allen's showroom and were impressed by the displays and found a shower tile that we liked a lot, and we met Julia who helped work up a bid for the work. We liked the idea that it was a one-stop-shop...they contracted out everything for us. And they also had a price guarantee. We agreed to the work, and they began a few weeks later. Installation took only about a week or so. Contractor was easy to deal with. Cleaned up after each day and didn't make too much of a mess (however, did manage to track in some grout on the bottom of his shoe, and got it on a few things). Only snafu was that the hot/cold got switched, and the plumber came out promptly to fix once we notified Allen. In hindsight, I realize that I've probably overpaid for such a small job. However there is a price to pay for the convenience aspect that Allen has...

This went terrible. They stated a start date of 4/14 and a finish date of 5/28 for which with less than one week to go they were not finished. They were not done going into July. Since then over a dozen tiles have cracked and over 40% of the grout is stained or has cracked and flaked out from between the tiles. They came out and replaced 10 tiles and many of them have cracked already. We have called and submitted a better business bureau complaint to which they will not return our calls and they did not respond to the better business bureau.