Viking Construction

We agreed to pay Viking Construction $1,000 for the purchase of a set of custom house plans so Viking could offer a firm quote to build (which they had estimated to be $350,000). Basically they charged $1,000 to quote a price to build a house. Terms were if we liked their quote and moved forward with construction, the $1,000 would be applied toward the purchase cost. If we did not like their quote, we would receive a full set of plans for the custom house (which had been quoted earlier to me through the architect @ $960.00). It seemed like a reasonable win/win situation. After adding all costs, Viking's quote came in over 10% higher than their original estimate, and way beyond our budget. Instead of receiving the set of custom house plans, we received a 5 page set of generic plans which could be purchased for far less than $1,000. When challenged on this, Viking said there were additional printing costs to supply sub-contractors with plans so they could quote. Viking also stated they never had any intention of securing a set of custom plans - unless we decided to build. Since they didn't live up to the agreement and provide a set of custom plans, I suggested the honorable thing to do was to provide a receipt for the generic plans and refund the balance. Viking never responded and subsequently cashed our $1,000 check. While I may be rationalizing somewhat, it could be said our $1,000 was well spent to avoid doing business with this less than honorable company whose business practices are questionable. Hopefully our experience will be incentive for you to be extremely cautious if dealing with Viking Construction.