The President of V.I.P. Construction, had agreed to demolish, design and construct a kitchen for my husband and me. The "designer" he brought in was unable to provide a kitchen design, still we did eventually agree on a design, signed a contract in our home with V.I.P. Contruction in October 2012 and that the work would commence in January 2013. We signed the contract and gave V.I.P. Construction a 50% down payment in October 2012. In February 2013 cabinets were installed that did not match the design. The president of V.I.P. Construction had started out stating that he did all the work, but in fact V.I.P. Construction subcontracts out 90% of the work - the cabinet making, staining, electrical and plumbing were done by subcontractors. We're glad the electrical and plumbing were done by subcontractors, as anything V.I.P. Construction's staff (a couple of 18-year olds) touched, would go wrong. We insisted the wrong cabinets be removed; which they eventually were in March 2013. In April he promised in writing to have the kitchen completed by the end of May. In July 2013 (7 months since kitchen was demolished) we still had only cabinet boxes, partial electrical and partial plumbing. This was the case up to August 2013. The cabinet boxes have been stained on-site with a rag but the young 18 year old stainer stained over pencil lines on the boxes, and used the wrong colour stain. Due to lack of work/response from V.I.P. Construction, in early June 2013 we filed a complaint with the BBB. Numerous promises had been made in writing as to when the whole kitchen would be completed (in March we were told end of March, in April we were told end of May, BBB was told mid-July) which ended up being empty promises. After 7 months with no kitchen and no timelines provided (which wouldn't have been worth the paper they were written on), we considered the project abandoned and moved on with a new contractor. We're likely to have to take V.I.P. Construction to court to get back our downpayment.
Update end of 2013: This company is also calling itself VIP Custom Cabinetry and operates also in Saskatchewan.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $16,000.00
- Company Response
I would like to start with I'm sorry to hear that you feel this way and feel that you have been taken advantage of in anyway. This is not the intention of VIP, we stand by our work and are very proud of our name and reputation. Coming across this complaint is actually quite alarming and we were under the impression that we had settled any and all problems and/or differences yet clearly this is not the case.
We would like to address all of your problems that you have mentioned above to assure any forthcoming clients that there is no need for concern or hesitation when it comes to making their decision on whether or not to choose VIP with the construction needs in their home.
As any reputable home builder knows it is nearly impossible for a company to do 100% of the work without subcontracting. Especially if you want to have top grade work. We subcontract some of the work so that we have qualified people doing the work that they specialize in, for instance a trained drywaller probably wouldn't be up to par with installing plumbing. As for 90% of the work being sub contracted out it is just not the case period.
VIP has employees of all ages and each and everyone of them are more then qualified skilled tradesmen.
If anyone has any questions or concerns regarding any of the above statements please feel free to contact myself, Sebastien Martineau and I will gladly share any information needed.