Complaint Review: ARCHITECTURALRA RESOURCES

I have been in the construction industry for over 30 years. I met someone who told me about a company (Architectural Resources) owned by Gerald Buxbaum that was looking for someone with my experience in the window and door industry. I met with Gerald Buxbaum and he told me of his company and the vast product lines that he carried. He showed me portfolios of which he was especially proud of. There were three books that consisted of stone, millwork, and window projects that had been completed by his company, Architectural Resources. Oddly, while impressive photos were in the books, there seemed to be no real connection to me and potential customers of what exactly the “dream” within those books consisted of.

I was especially interested in all the moving parts related to windows and doors since that was my specific area of the business. I asked him if he had his own installation people and he assured me that he did. I asked him about the manufacturers of the window and door lines that he carried. All his answers to my questions gave the impression that he had a full product line of any product, at any level, for any customer. He did say that he had no aluminum frame window line. I told him that I could help get the company a product that could fill what seemed to be the company’s only void. I called a window manufacturing company that I had done business with, and Architectural Resources and Gerald Buxbaum had that line to offer even before my first day on the job, sometime in the middle of December 2022.

I did some due diligence and called some people in the industry to qualify my decision to come on board with Architectural Resources. I contacted a former employee of his and a couple of window manufacturers. Fast forward to the present and it became crystal clear that I did not nearly enough research.

The first red flag was a Google review regarding Architectural Resources relationship with a cabinet company who claimed in his review that Architectural Resources owed money to a very large and well-known general contractor in the area. I first brought the review to the attention of the only other office employee at Architectural Resources. His verbal response to me was that the review was accurate, and that the local general contractor was not only owed the money but also had a lien on Gerald Buxbaum’s personal residence because they were not paid, and that litigation was forthcoming. I then brought the review to the attention of Gerald Buxbaum who became visibly angry and was talking of suing the reviewer. He contacted his attorney and copied me (attached) as if to show a genuine and credible argument to combat the Google review and its reviewer. Gerald was able to get the review taken down, but as you can see by the email that I was copied on, there is no way to prevent consumers from sharing experiences they have had with a business.

From my own observations while in the office, there were two companies that came by (at different times) to retrieve their samples previously given to Architectural Resources for our customers to see. The first vendor manufactured mahogany doors. Gerald stated that the company was not going to be in his product offering by his decision. The second vendor was a steel frame, window company that Gerald said needed the samples to show an interested local party. Those samples have yet to be returned to the office.

While all this background noise was going on, I also quickly learned that Gerald was not truthful when he told me that he had installation companies to install the window and door products that I specialized in. As I was getting opportunities to quote projects, I immediately had to find window installation companies on my own to submit a complete quote. This caused me to appear unresponsive and disorganized to the opportunities I created in the field. It also made it obvious to customers that they would need to sign two contracts…one for material with Architectural Resources and one with an installation company.

Gerald became degrading towards me. He especially and repeatedly commented on my weight. He told me that he would not take me to local affairs such as chamber of commerce because of my weight. The daily communication between us while I was in the office became contemptuous or else, he would ignore me totally. It was becoming obvious that my stay at Architectural Resources was coming to its end. It wasn’t until I got the interest of my long time and loyal customer that the next stream of events secured my knowing that it was time to go. Gerald told the owner of this company that he felt that his projects were not within the high level that Architectural Resources was used to doing business with and told him to go to a lumber yard for his millwork. This builder constructs and sells estate homes that are in the millions of dollars and in private polo communities.

The final straw was when I visited one of the high-end builders that I had quoted some projects for. They had done some research on Architectural Resources and Gerald Buxbaum. When I went in to follow up on my quotes, I was informed of the lawsuit against Gerald by this builder and they would not be interested in doing any business with him or the company. I went to the clerk of courts website and there indeed was the lawsuit that is currently in the middle of litigation (Palm Beach County case #50-2022-CA-012826).

Lastly, Gerald relieved me of my duties on June 30, 2023, without honoring the signed contract that gave 7 days’ notice if he were to terminate our business together. I have since filed suit in small claims court.