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Been there, substandard door at a premium price that leaked and the locking mechanism never worked right. Installer didn’t want to know, manufacturer didn’t want to know, wouldn’t even look at it, a local business as well.  
Everyone saw that useless article get ripped out and replaced by a different company, at my cost of course.

I can &$@# up my house for less than it would cost me to have someone else to &$@# up my house.  
 
I just do most things myself now. It means I get to learn how to do a lot of things, and I typically pay 50% less even with all the mistakes I make along the way.  
 
Having said that, I'm sorry about your experience. It is unfortunate and not fair.  
 
Edited by JosephC, 2022-03-03 18:21:36

We have a very similar story. We hired a flooring company to refinish our wood floors in our old house. They were wonderful at the start, very quick to respond and come do an assessment. We gave them a downpayment and booked an approx date.  
He started over 6 weeks later than he was supposed to, but we were happy to just get it done.  
And then it took 3 weeks instead of the one that he said! And we found out he was going to another job nearby at the same time as ours so it wasn't 3 weeks of work or anything.  
We had trouble finding out anything about the progress while he was working here. We had to completely empty our house for this and were living at our in laws with our 2 kids. The original date was in Oct. and he came at the start of December!  
And then he didn't do all he was hired to, like refinishing the baseboards. He gave us a small discount for this but it was all after the fact. AND we paid extra (1400 extra) to get the stairs re-finished and he didn't do the backs, and had banged them up with his machinery worse than they had been before (no discount given)... so to this day it looks awful when you look at them and stings. He finished right before Christmas (like 3 days before) so it took a week or so to get ahold of them about fixing these things, and they never got back to us. We tried a few more times and of course should have stayed on it but I hate being confrontational.  
The company moved that same year to another province as far as I know is still there. It was awful.  
We paid a ridiculous amount because we wanted to have the beautiful hardwood of our over 100 year old house restored, but I certainly wish we had just put fake stuff down for now, it would have been much cheaper.  
The filler stuff between the boards has mostly come out since then too. I'm not sure if this is typical or not but 5 years later I can say we still feel like idiots that we hired him.  
As I write this I'm pretty disgusted by it all. I wish there was something we could do but we basically decided to be the bigger people. It's pretty tough to swallow with the amount we paid though.

to my last message. We hired some other wonderful companies during our renovation so I didn't lose all trust. This experience (and a few other less severe ones) make us appreciate the good ones that much more and I recommend the good ones to people all the time.  
I don't know what to say other than eventually you will joke about it, sometimes you'll still be mad about it.. and it is there karma in the end.  
Cheers to the good ones!

The major flaw with your plan is how do you choose the good ones from the bad ones ?  
I guess you lay down your money and take a chance . Kind of like a roulette wheel. Some times you win, Some times you loose !!! You can't always go by some one else's recommendation !!!

I’d take lots of pictures and take them to small claims court and call the better business bureau on them too. They’re there to help

I'm this instance the BBB is a harmless no toothed dog. As for small claims it's an idea that hasn't been thrown out. The worst part is the owner did the installation. Then refused to fix his mistake. Disgusting behavior

This companies inability to admit mistake and fix them. Cost them a minimum of $50,000 because we had the quote us on a substantial renovation. Obviously they don't give a rats arse about customer satisfaction. After all they did get paid so who cares. Eff them. I hope they go under

I am a very small contractor who totally feels your pain and dissatisfaction!! Everyone has the ability these days to voice and post their issues “freedom of speech “...... any and I mean any contractor big, small or as I call some “ trunk slammers” need to be called out for shit work and not meeting contractural agreement. Take pictures, keep your documentation and post the names of these contractors.. if history keeps repeating itself and the word is out it will only wean out these sub standard contractors.

It is a hard spot because there is multiple factors, being such an old house yes it is way harder things arnt as level and square as they should be. So if your not willing to fork out the big bucks and start from scratch and jacking, leveling, and doing things proper then it could be a challenge. However any of these things should be talked about before hand. Also depending on how bad we’re talking you should be able to get a pretty damn good job with the tools and wisdom now a days. But at the end of the day I know people that you have talks with on which way you can go upon things and do stuff and what’s the proper things to use and buy but everyone wants the cheap price nowadays and don’t want to pay the good contractors the good prices to do things properly. Not saying your wrong but it ain’t allways the contractors either.

You are not wrong, in one way. However-you cannot blame the homeowner if he talks with a contractor about the job and that contractor does not even mention that he will have to jack up one corner and reinforce the whole thing-not all owners know all the work that is necessary to prep the home properly for the renovation. You expect the estimate to i:nclude everything necessary to do the job properly. I know ideally we should get 3 estimates and choose from there, but the reality is it is not always easy to even find 3 contractors willing to take the job, never mind come "now" and give an estimate so you have 3 estimates a together to compare.  
 
I came close to getting screwed over on a project-the contractor I hired seemed knowledgeable and reputable (apparently at one time he could be counted on? Not so much more recently) but then he had delay after delay in starting the job, then kept disappearing for spells in between his brief work periods. I thought my money was gone for sure (sizeable deposit paid to buy materials). The work finally got done about 3 years after it was supposed to be started, and it was a good job thanks to the fact that someone else did the work (paid by the first contractor). I was lucky.  
 
My original guy got taken to court by someone who hired him after I did-i don't know if she ever got her money back or not. Small claims court can get you a judgment, but that doesn't mean that you will ever collect the money you are supposed to get.

That is exactly why I said those things should be talked about before hand and I also do I wasn’t blaming them but it also happens to be the customer at portions of the time aswel. The sad thing is everything is just hear say on either ends unless proved with written agreement. But this is why most good contractors won’t/ or shouldn’t even touch a job unless the home owner agrees to do it right and not try to save money by cutting corners. What I was getting at was like you said get 3 quotes well that dosent mean anything unless you know how to read those quotes, you need to compare apples to apples. Just because handy Andy has the low price, dosent mean handy Andy is going to do the same job or use the same materials as red seal journey man joe and vice versa. A lot of customers want the low price that’s what I was getting at. It’s very sad but with things like this it can be a real lose lose for either party, you really need to know what your getting into and what will be done ie do your homework. Also I know a lot of people try to save the money from inspectors but they are also there to help you as much as possible in some cases.

The BBB, as a non-governmental, non-profit organization, do not fine or otherwise “punish” a shady or incompetent business. They provide ratings and information on businesses to help the consumer make an informed choice.