Complaint Review: American Garage Builders Inc - Sun Prairie

Since American Garage Builders inc. have withdrawn their Angies-List membership (no surprises) I have no option but to write here.

I signed a contract on May 22nd with BILL WESELA. Bill is a 'self described' project-manager but in reality is simply a shyster salesman who couldn't care less other than his commission and your signature on a check. He will show up to your initial sales appointment in boots, jeans and pick-up-truck. After you sign the contract he will show up (to a construction site) in shorts and flip-flops in a topless audi - just to rub-it-in how much he couldn't care less --- yes, unbelievably this is absolutely true.

The bid was the lowest that I had received, although it was all I could afford. The bid was for a 24' x 32' detached garage and I paid the deposit (before the flip-flops). The drawings for the garage were for a 17.5' high roof with a long gable-clip (to match my house) and 12 inch soffits. I ended up in LATE OCTOBER (contract was for a 2-3 week project - which in actuality took nearly FIVE months) with a 15' high roof (not a penny of compensation) with no clip to speak of (not visable from less than 100ft away), and six inch soffits. The slab was poured too close to the lot-line and the soffits had to be halved (to six inches) as a result.

The concrete work was utterly ridiculous; CHRIS from PEROW CONCRETE poured the slab in the wrong location and out of square, with the middle of the front curb FOUR INCHES from where it should have been. He also poured the slab with the sides exposed - with traffic-bond migrating outwards. Not to mention re-bar exposed and a curb poured on top of a pre-cured slab with no mechanical fixings. He promissed to come back and grade my yard by way of compensation -- despite repeated voicemails left, he never returned phone-calls or showed up. Do not trust PEROW CONCRETE - hire at your risk.

The pre-fab structure arrived, dimensions were clearly not checked prior to leaving the factory or erecting. The front of the garage was four inches wider than the rear. The "Master-Carpenter" was 20-some year old "John" with a team of seemingly day-cash college-buddy "handy-men". They seemed to "pull-in" the walls to try to match the slab. Three of the four walls were MILES out of plumb - and despite repeated complaints, not to mention the ignored instructions of the business-owner Tony Young -- the north wall is still to this day miles out of plumb. I begged and pleaded with "John" (the master-carpenter) to fix mistakes, but he simply could-not-care-less.. The siding still is overlapped in both directions, siding does not overlap the slab, and huge gaps between the garage doors and the curb. John just couldn't care less - that was when he bothered to even show up.... seemingly hungover with Red-Bull can in hand (then disappeared around the block and parked)

Needless to say -- THE GARAGE FAILED INSPECTION, Inspector said that the qualility was, (and I quote)"absolutely disgraceful". The only stipultion under the UDC is that the structure must sit solidly on top of a concrete foundation. But since the garage is detached, it falls under the header of "Shed" and does not have to comply to the UDC (Building code, to you and me). The inspector could not (under the law) write a single citation. These shody shysters can get away with building utter, utter (yes twice) crap and smile...and they know it ahead of time. 

After having the owner of the company TONY YOUNG come out and inspect, Tony assured me that all of my concerns would be corrected, and offered me "Tyvek" house-wrap by way of compensation. The tyvek was stapled on, but was never taped and not even attached to the gabels, an utter waste of time. The siding was still put back overlapped both-ways. NONE of my concerns were addressed correctly, and after having idiots come out to correct things only to make them worse.. I ended up saying enough-is-enough and exhaustively writing the final check, 

TONY YOUNG is the owner of this company, and despite his misplaced-emotional claims to honor the legagacy of his heritage - he clearly hires the absolutely cheapest possible bottom-of-the-barrell-sub-contractors and cheesiest of salesmen. The man seems to be either aloofly detached from his business, delusional or without a care in the world other than his bottom line. All this at the expense of hard-working regular folk like you and me, who pay their taxes and just expect a fair job for a fair price. This seems to be clearly of no concern whatsoever to Mr.Young.