How would you feel if, after paying a contractor more than $37,000, you were subjected to the following indignities? You are constantly harassed, by telephone and in writing, by a collection agency that threatens your credit rating. When you refuse to be bullied by the collection agency, you are served with a lawsuit, which you then have to defend. This is followed by a Settlement Conference, in which the Settlement Conference Judge strongly urges the contractor to settle its claim. Finally, the contractor agrees to dismiss its claim. After the $100 filing fee, the contractor comes out ahead a grand total of $113.48! (minus whatever it paid out in legal fees, etc.) to pursue its ridiculous claim. In the summer of 2012, we contracted with DBK to install two bathrooms (the demolition was done, and paid for, separately). There were key delays in completing the bathrooms. There were numerous deficiencies that required us to contact DBK on many occasions to come and fix. Here’s a sample of other problems. DBK damaged our guestroom wall by riddling it with holes. After considerable prodding, they reluctantly repaired the damage. DBK and/or its subcontractors damaged our floor by leaving a lengthy and deep gouge in the hardwood in the master bedroom just outside the ensuite bathroom. Not only did DBK not repair this damage, they refused to acknowledge that they were responsible. In addition, we had purchased a rainshower floor model from DBK that they insisted had nothing wrong with it. After we informed DBK that the rainshower continuously squeaks every time you take a shower, and seeing the problem for themselves, their response was that the only thing we could do is to replace the rainshower at our expense. We are not in the habit of providing reviews, let alone poor ones. We have posted one other review on this site, and gave the contractor a review of 9 out of 10. In closing, dealing with the owner and manager of this company was an extremely unsatisfying experience.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $37,000.00
- Company Response
Distinctive has been in business for over 25 years. We have 5 to 8 completed jobs per week. Our present survey rating is above 9.5 out of 10. This is on 14 aspects of the renovation and process.
In regards to the above review: There are always two sides to any situation. If any present or future customer has questions about the specifics of this mis-understanding, I am available by phone at 613-834-1796 ex 117. Dominic Manzo. General Manager of Distinctive Bathrooms and Kitchens. Please do call.
We have learned a lot from the above customer as we used to deal a lot with verbal agreements between project managers and customers. We now have everything in writing as some agreements made verbally and by e-mail were not respected and were dismissed in court and not paid.
The above damage to the guest bedroom wall above was planned and is due to a partly still un-paid extra to remove old cast iron piping in the walls. The only way to remove such piping is to use a saw-all to cut the pipes = this will do holes in the drywall on the other side as most blades are very long. We were to repair the drywall as part of this extra. This home was very old and was not made of proper 2x4 framing; it was made of bits and pieces of miscellaneous framing. We had to re-build most walls that we opened; this is where the mis-understanding was. We were to repair the drywall, there was to be an extra charge to re-frame as this was not something the estimator could have expected. It is not a construction companies’ fault that a home was built a certain way; if the state of a home requires extra and unseen work hidden in the walls; it needs to be discussed and charged.
The floor’s damage had been reviewed by: an employee, the project manager and the general manager. All employees came to the conclusion = the original floor varnish on top of the gouge was not damaged, scratched or altered. This had been done before the floor had been re-finished years before.
The rainshower purchased is perfect. Most rainshower attachments are designed to be level. If they are not level; water will not travel through them evenly and can create a noise. This specific model makes a noise if angled as it is designed to be level.