Complaint Review: American Vinyl Fence Company

We had a vinyl fence installed last June '00. The fence was fine til Jan 01. It started falling down and the company was called to have him come and look at it. He did not come out to look til almost a month later. In the mean time we had to bunge cord the fence section together that had fallen down onto the ground. He told us the reason the fence fell down and was coming apart was because "we weren't watching it." As time went on he came out and put screws on some of the sections to keep them together saying that is what "the manufacturer said to do."

The fence now has gaps ranging from 2" to almost 5" in places. We chose this particular fence because we had small dogs who can squeeze them small spaces. This man recommended this fence solely based on the size of our dogs. We chose the style for esthetic purposes. We continued to call him to come and fix the fence b/c the gaps were still there and posts are leaning. He refused to do anymore work saying there wasn't anything that he could do and he couldn't help the size of dogs that we bought.

We had another fence company come out and give us an estimate and to tell us exactly what was wrong with it. This company gave us a written estimate saying that this American Vinyl Fence Company had "poorly installed the fence" and gave us a list of numerous items that needed to be done to properly install it. Since we were armed with the evidence that he did not properly install the fence we filed a suit in small claims court to sue him for the repairs (over 2 grand).

We went to court and lost the case b/c the other fence company representative refused to testify in court for us. The judge said he couldn't look at the estimate b/c they can not cross examine a piece of paper. In the meantime, Mr. Mc Natt said in the court room that we had a bad storm and the wind knocked the trampoline into the corner of the fence and that resulted in the black mark on the corner of the fence. (the trampoline frame is gray) He also stated that we had bad erosion all over our yard and that is what caused the fence posts to slide down and cause the gaps in the fence. In reality he did not put enough concrete around the posts. We don't have any erosion in the yard which was also verified by the other fence company. The house and lot was new when we moved in and the grass hadn't grown in fully yet when the fence was installed.