Michigan Fence
Harrison Township,#2UPDATE Employee
Wed, September 24, 2008
We went out to Andrea's house and set her posts on April 26, 2008. She called a few days later to check when we had her scheduled to hang her fence. We told her that we were waiting on her second payment. (Our terms are 1/3 down, 1/3 when posts are set, and balance upon completion) Andrea and Mark (co-owner of property) said that all the posts weren't set yet and that they had some concerns regarding the gate on the left side of their house. They said that the gate was suppose to be an "out-of-square" gate. First, we were short 1 post due to a layout change. We were originally supposed to tie on to the existing fence on the right side of their house which resulted in the need for an additional post. In regards to the gate, we had our salesman, Bill, call them to go over this since this is not on the contract. After a week of deciding the gate situation, we called them and said that we will make the "out-of-square" gate at no additional cost, but we need your second payment to hang the fence. They insisted that we set the 1 post before they will make the second payment. We tried to explain to them that we can set that post when we hang the fence. They still wouldn't make their second payment. So, we revised our terms to rectify the situation. We told the customer that we could go to set the post and hang their fence if they will give us their second payment when we arrive and make their final payment when we are complete. They agreed to this. We told our crew that the customer was going to be giving you two checks today. We went out to the customer's house and completed their job. Our crew was given two checks, but they equalled the second payment (this comes across as the customer trying to scam us, but we gave them the benefit of doubt). We called the customer to inform them of this and Andrea told us that she had to pay with 2 different accounts and will pay us when she has the money. We waited a week to let her get some money together and called. We proceeded to call 11 times leaving a message everytime with no return calls. We filed this in small claims on July 21, 2008 and a court date was set for September 12, 2008. A few days before court, Mark called to try and settle out of court. He wanted an additional $200-$300 off. We explained that we don't think any additional money should be taken off. He received a product; it's installed correctly; and we didn't charge for the "out-of-square" gate ($75 charge), the extra post ($30 charge), or the interest for the last 3 months ($36) and court costs. We told him that we would need full payment to settle out of court. He did not pay so we went to court. Mark and Andrea argued their case in court and we received judgement on this case for full amount of final payment plus court costs. Case No. US08-11198. We still haven't been paid to this date.