Appleby's Ornamental Iron

Bad workmanship and would not return to fix locking mechanism.

Did a fine job. Very professional, would use them again.

Well done.

What follows is lengthy, but I urge you to read it if you are considering contracting with Appleby?s. I had never had Appleby?s perform any work for me before. However, I have friends who have had many security doors, gates and fireplace grates fabricated and installed by Appleby?s and the work has always been impeccable and the customer service top rate. Appleby?s seems to be fairly expensive compared to other companies but I was willing to pay a little more to get quality work and good customer service. Appleby?s has recently changed ownership. Ed retired and sold the business. I assumed that the quality workmanship and service would continue to live up to the reputation. I was wrong. What follows is the saga of my experience with Randy, the new owner of Appleby?s. I contracted with Appleby?s on April 25, 2014 for security doors for the front and back of my house. The total for the two doors was $2000. I was told that they had a little bit of a backlog, so the doors would take about 6 to 8 weeks to fabricate. I was willing to wait. They required a $1000 deposit at that time. Eight weeks later, on June 18, I had not heard anything from Appleby?s, so I phoned them to find out the status of my doors. I spoke with the owner, Randy. He said that he had no record that I ordered doors. I told him when I had placed the order, what I had ordered, that I had paid them $1000 and gave him the order number. He said that the gentleman who I had dealt with had left the company, and then he started telling me about how his records had gotten screwed up because of it, etc. He called me back the next day and told me that he found the order and that he would put it into fabrication the next day. He told me that it would take 2 to 3 weeks. After 3 weeks, on July 9, I hadn?t heard anything, so I called Randy again. He said that they hadn?t been able to get to them yet, so it would be another 2 or 3 weeks. I told him that I was a bit unhappy that it had been more than 2 months and they hadn?t even started. He blamed his employees ? said they weren?t getting things done when they were supposed to so he was getting behind. I told him that how he runs his business is of no interest to me and, in my opinion, blaming his employees is not a valid excuse to give to a customer. On July 30, after again not having heard anything, I called Randy again. He said that the doors were in fabrication but weren?t done yet. I expressed my displeasure that it had been 14 weeks since I had given him my $1000 dollars and had nothing to show for it. I told him that I didn?t think it unreasonable to expect that the work would have been done in three months. He said nothing. Didn?t apologize. He promised me that they would be done within a week and we agreed to have them installed on Friday, August 8. I called Randy on in the afternoon of Wednesday, August 6 to confirm installation of the doors on Friday. He told me that they would be there at 9 am. I took vacation from work on Friday, August 8 to be home for the installation. At 8:30 am, Randy left me a voicemail stating that they wouldn?t be able to install that day. He had done a ?quality control? inspection Thursday afternoon and found that his guys had not painted the screens. At this point, I was pretty upset. I had taken a day off work and he didn?t have the courtesy to call and cancel when he knew that they wouldn?t be able to install my doors. Instead of talking on the phone, I decided to drive to the business and speak to Randy in person. When I met him in the office, he once again blamed the problems on his employees. I told him, again, that that was his business, not mine. I also told him that I was very disappointed in the poor way that I was being treated and that for all of the inconvenience and delay, I would hope that he would provide some consideration when the installation was finished and we settled up the account. He offered nothing. He promised to finish the fab and install the following Friday. Again, I would take a day vacation to be at home. The doors were finally finished and were installed on Friday, August 15, 16 weeks after I had ordered them. The doors had the wrong kind of screen in them. After 16 weeks, they had fabricated the doors incorrectly. I called Randy and told him. He looked at the order and said, ?Looks like we put the wrong screen in them?. He said that they could come back out and remove the doors and change the screens. I decided to only change the front door. The doors were to have privacy screens, which was important to me on the front door, but not necessary on the back, so I decided to cut him a break and only have him redo the front door. We agreed that they would come by Wednesday, August 20. He said they would take a few days to fix and paint. I told him that I would be unavailable the following week, so we agreed to re-install the doors on Friday,September 5. I called Randy on the afternoon of Thursday, September 4 to confirm. He told me that he had other big projects and no one was available so nothing had been done on my doors. I had it. I told him that I could care less about his other work. It had been 19 weeks and I didn?t take his having other work as a reasonable excuse for ignoring me, unless they had been also waiting 19 weeks. He said, and this I found to be the most telling thing, ?they were important jobs?. I told him that I just wanted the job to be finished, and be done with this whole mess. The door was reinstalled on Wednesday, September 10. They expected payment in full at the time of installation. I called to clear up a small mischarge on the bill and suggested to the office manager that in the interest of good faith, they should take a little bit off of the bill for all of the delays, inconvenience and the several days of vacation that I had to burn only to have them be a no-show. She said she would talk to Randy. I called her back and she said that, no, they wouldn?t do that. The positive thing that I can say is that the installers did a great job. They were professional, courteous, and went out of their way to make sure that I was pleased with their work. They deserve to work for a better boss. So the whole project took 20 weeks. Never did Randy so much as apologize for the inconvenience, nor did he give me the impression that he really cared that he had performed so poorly. His only excuse was to bash his employees and blame them for his poor business performance. The really sad thing about this whole episode is that the doors are beautiful, but I will never do business with Appleby?s again because I was treated so badly, with such disregard, almost bordering on contempt. There are many companies in Tucson that do this work. My recommendation is that anyone considering this type of project contract with one of the other companies. You will have a much better experience. After having read the owner's response, I feel compelled to add to my review. Once again, he accepts no responsibility and blames his employees. As for the statement, "now I respond much better...when I am being yelled at" it is a ham-handed, not so very subtle insult directed toward me. I should point out that never did I yell at him - I treated him as I would anyone who has been contracted to do a job and is not delivering. I was firm and businesslike, but not willing to be condescended to - which is what he was doing in his dealings with me. I feel that a contractor should respond professionally during any business dealing, and I reciprocate.

I'm in the process of using them again but the last time I used them was 8 months ago. They were very good, helpful and professional. They sent a person out to assist the job the same day I called them. I was amazed. They actually completed the work within 3 days. They're local. I know someone who works for the company that's how I came familiar with them. They did a professional and very clean installation. The price was a little higher. Absolutely, I would use them again. In fact, I'm already using them. They're in the process of repairing a gate for me. I was so confident in their work that I called them back again.

unknown

Fine.