steve

Found Lemon Tree Landscapes here on Homestars and was impressed by the reviews. I contacted them for a quote in late March to remove and replace the sod at the front of my home. They gave me a quote that was competitive and we decided we would go ahead with the project. The date of the project was scheduled for early May on a specific date. That day came and went and nobody showed up. I sent them an email and their response to me was that they were behind by a couple of days but would call me the next day to re-book. I was completely fine with that and understand the beginning of the season is busy. I waited three more days and sent another email. They never got back to me after subsequently sending three more emails and we're now at the end of May. I called the phone numbers on their website and eventually got through to someone. They had my information and told me someone would call me tomorrow. No call. We desperately tried to book the project with anther company and was advised it wouldn't be until the end of summer. I committed to Lemon Tree and they left us high and dry. Fortunately we contacted a company who committed to mid July. They called us and advised they had a cancellation and could be at my place the next day at 9am. They showed up at 9am, completed the job in four hours and left no trace of them being there other than a fantastic looking lawn. The price was competitive and their communication was great. Lemon Tree I'm not sure what happened. Not sure how you get 10/10 and then leave a customer high and dry with no response. I committed to your service and you left me scrambling in the end. I felt I needed to write this as it was the appropriate thing to do.

Hired Those Repair Guys to complete a main floor over haul. Met with Albert who gave us the standard contractor lingo of how he doesn't like to work for free, does it right the first time and stands behind his work with his warranty. We decided to hire him and it didn't take long to realize this company is certainly made up of amateurs and not contractors. Not only do they not like to work for free but they don't like to work while getting paid. This job was suppose to be completed in two months and actually was completed in 4 months. He decided to take a 3 week holiday in the middle of the project. No respect for our living situation. The main floor is 1100 sq/ft. We had Albert install a new washroom. The tiling work was horrible and non symmetrical in the shower. There is silicone caked all over the shower due to faulty measurements. Asked him to redo some of the tiles that were popping but did little to help over all. Installed a bathtub and freestanding faucet that drips onto the lip of the tub. Again, due to faulty measurements. We had all the doors replaced none of which close anymore. They are all on an angle striking the jambs. The openings were re-framed and the doors were new. Brought in a contractor who said they need to be taken down and re-jammed. We had the flooring replaced with hardwood from carpet. Approaching door frames and vents the measurements fell short and filled with wood filler to compensate for poor measurements. Received faulty excuses as to why this happened. The reason we see it happened is because these guys choose to converse on their phones while measuring. We removed the carpet from the stairs to be replaced by hardwood. Well, they actually installed strip hardwood and nosing on the stairs and not stair treads. The strip flooring failed immediately after it was installed. Demanded that it be removed and replaced with the proper application of stair treads. Albert tried to bill us $1200 extra for the removal and installation of the new tread. It was their incompetence that thought this was a good idea. We paid for all material costs, the entire $2500 in wood and nosing was simply discarded. At no point did a tape measure hit the floor to determine how much material was needed. We ended up with so much excess hardwood. The flooring company wouldn't take it back because it was a custom order. Albert simply told us to put it online to sell it. Easy to say when we paid for it. We had a contractor come in and quoted us almost $10, 000 to fix the mess left by Albert and Those Repair Guys. There was never any quality assurance throughout the entire job. Once final payment was obtained he never turned back. He refused to address any issues with his work siting we owed him the $1200 worth of work on the stairs. We absorbed thousands of dollars worth of extras simply due to his negligence. We are writing this to assist anyone contemplating using Those Repair Guys. Do yourselves a favour and hire professionals. Rest to sure when something goes wrong Those Repair Guys will run the other way. The home was butchered. We are currently in the rebuilding process with a professional contractor who employs finish carpenters to reframe and rehang the new doors we need to re-purchase. As you can see from the photos some of the these doors were planed to fit the horrible framing job and cannot be reused. This includes replacing Jambs, stops, trim and baseboard. They will also be recutting the floor vents as they are all different sizes. We will be ripping out the shower wall and have it done professionally as we can no longer look at the slop of shower caulking and the unsymmetrical tile setting dominating the eye line. We are on the hook for thousands of dollars due to Albert and his crews incompetence. This was suppose to be our dream home. Does this look like a fictional story? The bill was paid in full, completely. I threw out $3500 in excess flooring ordered by Albert. Am I getting that back? Incompetent measuring was the standard with these guys. On time, on budget every time... Complete fail. I would move on as well Albert however we are straddled with a 17 year debt to pay for your incompetence and lack of leadership and integrity you have for your own company. These photos are a depiction of the product Albert was proud to deliver to us after spending $100K. Notice the doors were hung with not a single shim? Couldn't even bother to router the hinges. They all fell into the jambs and couldn't close. We just threw out $1200 in trim and doors just to repurchase new ones. On a final note, during the re-demolition we did get the homophobic note written on the back of our new trim in the bedroom. We simply refuse to pass that photo along to anyone in any credible forum. That was not expected but not surprised. Just a class act through and through.

Found Consumers choice at the annual home show. Their sales staff were very informative and offered us a seamless appointment and consultation with Francis who was our sales representative. Francis came to our home and took inventory of our present windows and their condition. He explained to us the various options available regarding products and pricing. Francis was very knowledgable and left our home having armed us with the ability to make an educated decision on our needs. He was extremely polite and at no point did we feel pressured to sign on the dotted line. After shopping around with similar product it was evident that Consumers Choice was definitely the winner. One quote came in close and we called Francis who was more than happy to give Consumers Choice the edge. We were offered various flexible payment options which should suit the needs of everyone. We scheduled an install date and due to being December suffered a few delays due to bad weather. Consumers choice kept us in the loop with their revised schedule. The installers arrived and it took 3 days to install our windows. Two of them being large bays and one of them had to have the frame completely rebuilt. The installers were amazing and it was all done while we were at work. The weather was miserable outside and when we got home from work it appeared that nobody had been inside but we had new windows. Great installation. We also opted for the downspout change and gutters with the leaf guard system. All workers were great and the installation looks amazing. All the folks in the back office were always polite and made you feel like part of a large family. I would recommend Consumers Choice windows to everyone and in fact already have. Thanks for doing a great job. Steve and Patty