I really hate to leave these kind of reports… If someone legitimately takes my money and does not provide a service or in some way steals for me then I am more than happy to let the world know about it. In this particular case Don from Auburn fence did none of these things however his behavior cost me dearly. I have no idea if these guys provide a quality product or not, what I do know is that my experience was horrendous. I wasted two weeks chasing a business to give them a rather large job and I was “jerked around” for my troubles. Here’s the story:
I bought a 5 acre property in 2013 which was completely surrounded by a split real fence. When a neighbor dispute broke out on one side of the property it quickly escalated into litigation and got very ugly. At the advice of my attorney I constructed a solid board privacy fence which was 6 feet high and just over 300 feet long. That was the first phase of the fence. The second phase of the fence needed to be 8 foot high because of the deep swale in the property and required a variance from our city because it was above the 6 foot maximum height. I would have gladly continued using the same company however by the time July rolled around simply impractical for them to come back to my property for at least a couple of months. I explained to the owner that I had to get this done now to avoid further escalation with the neighbor and he completely understood.
I did a search online and one of the first companies that came up was Auburn fence. It’s also noteworthy to mention that the first sentence of their website states that they have been building commercial fences for 40 years. Due to the size and scope of this particular fence this is considered commercial by our building department standards and require engineering schematics and stamped architectural drawings. All of which should be known by a company who does this for a living. I called knowing more than the average person, the previous fence company told me how much they would charge to complete the fence so I knew what a quality fence builder would charge. They refused to give me a quote over the phone even though every single fencing company in this country bases their estimates on linear feet. There of course other factors like terrain however this was a completely flat run in approximately 50 foot of incline which is child’s play to a professional.
My first interaction with this company was unpleasant, they refused to give me a number over the phone and so I offered to email them a copy of the estimate I had received so they saw exactly what the scope of the project was hoping they could at least give me a rough estimate before wasting anyone’s time. An hour went by, then two, and then a day, so I called back and spoke to a very nice lady on the phone who basically told me that Don had looked at the estimate and won’t go near that price so he just never bothered to call me back. In my opinion, that is such a lowbrow, unprofessional thing to do. If you don’t want the job but no I’m waiting to hear back from you please call me and tell me you can’t do it. I explained to the woman again about the neighbor disputes and how we needed to file a variance by 25 July 2016 so that it would be on the agenda by August 10. This was extremely important because we had a mediation date coming up with the neighbor and needed to be able to show them a plan to settle a dispute. If no party disputes the variance and we were able to come to terms on the cost of the fence we could put this matter to rest in my opinion.
I asked the woman if she would please have Don come out and look at the fence for himself with the understanding that it would be more expensive than the other company I was dealing with. At this point I really didn’t have a choice I just needed to get this done as quickly as possible. Several days went by and I finally got to get this guy to come by and take a look. He shows up and is incredibly rude, walks around in a huff as if his being at your property is just an inconvenience to him. Knowing that did not ask him over to make friends, I decided to table my disgust for this persons sophomoric behavior and just get an estimate to build the fence. It was at this time that I made it as crystal-clear as a person could that this was urgent and due to the variance deadline I had to have an estimate so we can file for the variance no later than approximately five days from that time. The building department even filled out most of the information themselves, all that was needed was a rendering and I would take it in myself with the payment for the variance.
This is the part that really irritates me and is frankly why I’m writing this report. As mentioned above, this was of an urgent matter; I need to be able to go into mediation with a settlement option for these people so that we can all move on with our lives (separated by a fence). He promised me, and yes he did actually give me his word that he would be back to me in one day with an estimate. Frankly, why does it take someone who has been building fences for 40 years a day to write up an estimate? He doesn’t know how much the materials cost? He doesn’t know how much he charges for his own services? Every other contractor did… Even my landscape architect came out and was able to sketch out a plan for me within one hour and hand me an estimate on the spot. In my opinion companies who require days to complete an estimate are basically trying to figure out how much money they can get out of you. They’ll tell you some BS about needing time to check on the price of lumber or what their schedule its nonsense. It’s like saying I don’t know how much is the cost because I’m not sure what the price of gasoline is… Everyone in America knows approximately what gas costs within a few pennies. If a guy building fences for over 40 years doesn’t know how much lumber costs that is a great indication to go someplace else.
I was in a bind and he was there so if it’s going to take 24 hours then so be it, I need this done and we would still have plenty of time to get it filed. I must’ve called his office three times in the next two days only to get them on the phone on the third day when he said “oh, I still have to put that together”. I was furious, this guy just wasted three days of extremely precious time and there was nothing I could do about it. Suffice to say he never got back to me and frankly I don’t care what his excuses. If he doesn’t like me, didn’t want the job, or any other reason he had an obligation to let me know. The only decent thing to do was to keep me posted so that I didn’t miss the variance filing. Today is July 28, 2016 and I did miss the file, Don at Auburn fence ever got back to me and now I have contracted with the old company to simply build the 6 foot fence (better than nothing) which is 320 feet and will complete the project. (700’)
Here’s what you need to know, I’ve run a business for 20 years not 40 but even in the 20 years that I’ve done it I’ve learned that you don’t treat people like they don’t matter. If you don’t want to do business with somebody make up an excuse that you’re too busy and tell them they need to find somebody else so they don’t spin their wheels with you. There is simply no excuse for this company’s behavior; it is bewildering to me how they stayed in business this long. The Internet changes things like this… It’s my hope that this report is seen by people that go elsewhere because they can’t be jerked around and have their time wasted like I did. If enough people like that slow down their business it will change their business practices and treat people with respect. I wonder how Don would feel if he had a leak on his hot water tank and the plumber kept promising to come over and fix it but never did? Or maybe if he was in some kind of a legal mess and went to another company which would help alleviate some of the issues and they worsened his situation? Would he appreciate it? Who knows. If you’re reading this report it’s because you’re considering building a fence and did a the search for this company… I’m definitely not saying not to hire them, I’m not saying that their materials are not high quality, I’m saying that my experience was awful and that I would not recommend this company.
Auburn Fence Corporation Reviews
I really hate to leave these kind of reports… If someone legitimately takes my money and does not provide a service or in some way steals for me then I am more than happy to let the world know about it. In this particular case Don from Auburn fence did none of these things however his behavior cost me dearly. I have no idea if these guys provide a quality product or not, what I do know is that my experience was horrendous. I wasted two weeks chasing a business to give them a rather large job and I was “jerked around” for my troubles. Here’s the story:
I bought a 5 acre property in 2013 which was completely surrounded by a split real fence. When a neighbor dispute broke out on one side of the property it quickly escalated into litigation and got very ugly. At the advice of my attorney I constructed a solid board privacy fence which was 6 feet high and just over 300 feet long. That was the first phase of the fence. The second phase of the fence needed to be 8 foot high because of the deep swale in the property and required a variance from our city because it was above the 6 foot maximum height. I would have gladly continued using the same company however by the time July rolled around simply impractical for them to come back to my property for at least a couple of months. I explained to the owner that I had to get this done now to avoid further escalation with the neighbor and he completely understood.
I did a search online and one of the first companies that came up was Auburn fence. It’s also noteworthy to mention that the first sentence of their website states that they have been building commercial fences for 40 years. Due to the size and scope of this particular fence this is considered commercial by our building department standards and require engineering schematics and stamped architectural drawings. All of which should be known by a company who does this for a living. I called knowing more than the average person, the previous fence company told me how much they would charge to complete the fence so I knew what a quality fence builder would charge. They refused to give me a quote over the phone even though every single fencing company in this country bases their estimates on linear feet. There of course other factors like terrain however this was a completely flat run in approximately 50 foot of incline which is child’s play to a professional.
My first interaction with this company was unpleasant, they refused to give me a number over the phone and so I offered to email them a copy of the estimate I had received so they saw exactly what the scope of the project was hoping they could at least give me a rough estimate before wasting anyone’s time. An hour went by, then two, and then a day, so I called back and spoke to a very nice lady on the phone who basically told me that Don had looked at the estimate and won’t go near that price so he just never bothered to call me back. In my opinion, that is such a lowbrow, unprofessional thing to do. If you don’t want the job but no I’m waiting to hear back from you please call me and tell me you can’t do it. I explained to the woman again about the neighbor disputes and how we needed to file a variance by 25 July 2016 so that it would be on the agenda by August 10. This was extremely important because we had a mediation date coming up with the neighbor and needed to be able to show them a plan to settle a dispute. If no party disputes the variance and we were able to come to terms on the cost of the fence we could put this matter to rest in my opinion.
I asked the woman if she would please have Don come out and look at the fence for himself with the understanding that it would be more expensive than the other company I was dealing with. At this point I really didn’t have a choice I just needed to get this done as quickly as possible. Several days went by and I finally got to get this guy to come by and take a look. He shows up and is incredibly rude, walks around in a huff as if his being at your property is just an inconvenience to him. Knowing that did not ask him over to make friends, I decided to table my disgust for this persons sophomoric behavior and just get an estimate to build the fence. It was at this time that I made it as crystal-clear as a person could that this was urgent and due to the variance deadline I had to have an estimate so we can file for the variance no later than approximately five days from that time. The building department even filled out most of the information themselves, all that was needed was a rendering and I would take it in myself with the payment for the variance.
This is the part that really irritates me and is frankly why I’m writing this report. As mentioned above, this was of an urgent matter; I need to be able to go into mediation with a settlement option for these people so that we can all move on with our lives (separated by a fence). He promised me, and yes he did actually give me his word that he would be back to me in one day with an estimate. Frankly, why does it take someone who has been building fences for 40 years a day to write up an estimate? He doesn’t know how much the materials cost? He doesn’t know how much he charges for his own services? Every other contractor did… Even my landscape architect came out and was able to sketch out a plan for me within one hour and hand me an estimate on the spot. In my opinion companies who require days to complete an estimate are basically trying to figure out how much money they can get out of you. They’ll tell you some BS about needing time to check on the price of lumber or what their schedule its nonsense. It’s like saying I don’t know how much is the cost because I’m not sure what the price of gasoline is… Everyone in America knows approximately what gas costs within a few pennies. If a guy building fences for over 40 years doesn’t know how much lumber costs that is a great indication to go someplace else.
I was in a bind and he was there so if it’s going to take 24 hours then so be it, I need this done and we would still have plenty of time to get it filed. I must’ve called his office three times in the next two days only to get them on the phone on the third day when he said “oh, I still have to put that together”. I was furious, this guy just wasted three days of extremely precious time and there was nothing I could do about it. Suffice to say he never got back to me and frankly I don’t care what his excuses. If he doesn’t like me, didn’t want the job, or any other reason he had an obligation to let me know. The only decent thing to do was to keep me posted so that I didn’t miss the variance filing. Today is July 28, 2016 and I did miss the file, Don at Auburn fence ever got back to me and now I have contracted with the old company to simply build the 6 foot fence (better than nothing) which is 320 feet and will complete the project. (700’)
Here’s what you need to know, I’ve run a business for 20 years not 40 but even in the 20 years that I’ve done it I’ve learned that you don’t treat people like they don’t matter. If you don’t want to do business with somebody make up an excuse that you’re too busy and tell them they need to find somebody else so they don’t spin their wheels with you. There is simply no excuse for this company’s behavior; it is bewildering to me how they stayed in business this long. The Internet changes things like this… It’s my hope that this report is seen by people that go elsewhere because they can’t be jerked around and have their time wasted like I did. If enough people like that slow down their business it will change their business practices and treat people with respect. I wonder how Don would feel if he had a leak on his hot water tank and the plumber kept promising to come over and fix it but never did? Or maybe if he was in some kind of a legal mess and went to another company which would help alleviate some of the issues and they worsened his situation? Would he appreciate it? Who knows. If you’re reading this report it’s because you’re considering building a fence and did a the search for this company… I’m definitely not saying not to hire them, I’m not saying that their materials are not high quality, I’m saying that my experience was awful and that I would not recommend this company.