First Fence Inc

My wife and I contracted with First Fence to replace an older fence that was damaged during a storm. James met with my wife and went over what we were looking for, especially with regards to our eye to safety for our two dogs, Caymus and Onyx. Both dogs love to run, they chase squirrels, each other, and even just running for it’s own sake. However, Onyx is the dog that has zero chill. She lives to run. Suffice to say having a fence was important for us. James has a busy schedule, but even so he worked hard to get back to us as quickly as possible. The crews, once we got scheduled, were quick and efficient. The first day they had all the posts in, and they knocked out all of the planks the next. I was working, so I took a very quick look around, and completed payment. That Tuesday evening, the day the fence was completed, went fine. The dogs were able to run and enjoy themselves. Wednesday after work though, is where the trouble began. We let the dogs out to run and enjoy themselves, and started dinner. About ten minutes after letting them out, they wanted back in. We let them in, and one of the dogs had a ~2 inch gash on her flank. We rushed her to the vet hospital, and hours later, finally had her home around 2am Thursday morning. She had multiple stitches for two weeks, a drain for five days and because she loves to be so active we have had to keep her sedated and only take her outside on a leash, the opposite of the reason we had a fence installed. I investigated Thursday morning, and found multiple nails in the fence boards that missed the 2x4. Given that our dogs have run wild in that yard for two years with no injuries and no changes, other than the fence, we are forced to conclude the improperly installed nails resulted in the injury to our dog. During the initial investigation, we found several other issues with the fence. There were the nails that missed the 2x4s, one of the Fencemaster metal posts was beginning to rust and two of the coverboards for the Fencemaster posts were shoddily installed. We did not initially seek recompense for injuries, only requested that the Fencemaster post be replaced, and the coverboards properly installed. James was very responsive to our request to have the fence completed properly, and promised to put in a work order on October 25th 2024 to have it corrected, and that we should hear from scheduling on Monday or Tuesday. Between the weather and how busy they are, we did not hear from them that next week, so I reached back out to James, who again was excellent and said he’d lean on scheduling and we should hear from them on Monday, November 4th or Tuesday November 5th. We did not hear from them, so I reached out to the office on both Wednesday, November 6th, and Thursday November 7th, requesting to have someone call me about my quality and communication concerns. While some may say “It’s just a dog”, we are concerned that this may happen to a child and wanted to make sure the owner and leadership were aware of what happened. At time of posting on Friday, November 8th, we have received no call, we have requested multiple times to speak to someone that has some level of power to effect some change and correct this situation and have not heard from anyone. In totality, I would not work again with First Fence. James was excellent and the teams mostly did good work, outside of some previously stated missed details. While mistakes happen, we are all human, it is what is done in the wake of mistakes to correct the mistakes, that shows the integrity of a company or individual. First Fence has shown us that once they receive payment, they believe they are done. I would encourage the crews and the crew heads to take special care that all nails are sunk correctly, posts are not rusting, and cover boards on an incline are cut correctly. I would also encourage future customers to carefully inspect the fence for any quality concerns before allowing loved ones to freely roam, or final payment is made.

Great! First Fence installed a length of fencing for us several years ago and I called them to repair an older section installed ten years ago by a different company. They were prompt, honest and did a terrific job!

I had a tree removed and a fence panel needed to be removed and replaced. I also wanted to remove 2 sections of wood fence replace with Vinyl. Everything was handled perfectly and don according to the schedule that we wanted

From the quote to the finished job, everyone was courteous, cooperative and helped me anyway possible. They kept us up to date on the status of our project. We had an all-around excellent experience with First Fence. We would recommend to anyone.

First Fence did a great job from the beginning Sales portion to installation. They were very responsive from the beginning.

First Fence is an outstanding company. They came when asked and gave a very comprehensive assessment and fair price estimate. The technicians were on time and did an excellent job. I am extremely satisfied with the work and I highly recommend First Fence.

We definitely, without doubt, would never recommend First Fence. From the initial sales guy to pricing to customer support their communication was awful. We simply just wanted a fence moved. The initial sales guy told they could have it done in 6-8 weeks 'cause they were really busy. Twelve weeks later we were still waiting. Then ..... once they arrived and started ..... the job was finished in less than three hours.

The came to for the estimate and gave me some kind of proposal.The quote the gave me was way higher They have minimum $500 requirement that you have to pay regardless of how small the work is. They wanted $1100 but I didn't refuse that price and I used the proposal JAMES TROUT emailed me for permit application but the proposal they gave me didn't have any detail of the planned work and the village department told me it didn't include the detail of the planned work. I emailed James and called him to let him know what the village requires but he NEVER replied and did not reach back to me. This just shows how unprofessional First Fence Company is! I don't recommend this! Total waste of time and so unprofessional!

Jesse came out to give us a quote for a back yard surround PVC Spindle Top fence. He showed us and left with us an Ever Guard brochure. We had done measurements and drawings showing gate location and orientation. He returned a quote some weeks later. It lacked some important specifics such as whether they would follow the grade, and no mention of the fence manufacturer which I expected to be Ever Guard. He also indicated 284 LF when the actual length was 182 LF. Not careful with important details, which required my time monitoring the accuracy and completeness of the quote. We then had numerous issues with the installation. The posts were not set in concrete. Various elements of the fencing were left scattered throughout the yard at the end of day 1. The driveway was littered with dirt from the post hole spoils falling off the truck and left that way after day 1 and after completion on day 2. Many of the spindles had been pushed through the base railing, breaking it, sections of spindles were misaligned, substantial portions of the spoils were spread about beneath the fence rather than removed from the site. Communicating these issues took lots of time. We understood up front that gates would take time to be custom cut. But when they were delivered they much shorter than the fence leaving a wide gap at the base in order to align at the top. Two additional visits were required to fix the spindles. Most importantly, there are detailed manufacturer instructions for spindle top PVC fence installation online that if followed would have avoided the spindle problems. These manufacturer instructions specify setting posts in concrete.

I thought it was going great. But their office staff is very rude and condescending, especially Tracy. How this person works in customer service is beyond me. Too much material was ordered, an extra post and they were reluctant to refund me. They will charge you for every little thing, but if material is not used, good luck getting a refund. Once they install, if you have an issue as I did good luck getting someone out to fix it. This company was recommended to me, so the terrible service was a surprise to me. I will not recommend this company and I have been asked. I just say, you don't want the headache of working with them, look elsewhere.

The fence was installed very nicely. My only complaint is how much my yard was trashed in the process.

The fence install was completed a couple years ago and that went fine. My salesman Jon was great. He is no longer there so I was assigned to Eric Anderson, who at first seemed okay. I’m loud for a small job and he asked for pics. After I sent pics, I never got one response back. The least he could is tell me that they can’t do it! He’s ignoring my emails, which is very unprofessional and why would I hire them again if this is Joe I will be treated. I can’t reminder exactly but I believe I spent over $6k for my fence and there was a minor issue, which they did correct. But with Eric’s unresponsiveness, I’ll be taking my business somewhere else. And I’ll definitely stop referring First Fence to anyone else.

Horrific customer service. Extremely arrogant and condescending. If you do not live in the city of Hillside expect to be treated and talk to as someone who doesn't matter. In my first conversation I was told they would not consider my business, they only had time for repeat customers. I thnk her for her time and hung up. She used caller ID to call me back and stated how dare I hang up on her. Then she hung up on me.

They were on time and did a wonderful job. Meet all our expectations and then some! We are very happy with our new fence!

Politely explained that they are working 3 months out and are only working with existing customers. Which didn't help.

Excellent work---Eric did a terrific assessment and had several very good suggestions that we followed. The job was completed quickly, neatly and thoroughly.

Unbelievably smooth project. Everything should be this easy.

The fence looks absolutely amazing! The entire process was smooth and installation was completed in one day! I would definitely recommend First Fence to anyone looking to install a new fence.

Eric came out and provided an estimate for our new fence installation. He arrived within the timeframe that was scheduled. He took all necessary measurements and answered all my questions. He was very knowledgeable and offered some ideas about the layout. I had the estimate later that same night. His estimate was within range of another estimates. Very easy to work with.

I moved to my house in Elmhurst 4 years ago which has an existing fence. Part of my fence blew down so I reached out to multiple fence companies about repair options. Of the companies I reached out to, First Fence was the only one that got back to me and had a consultant on site that day. When they came back for the repairs, the team was very professional, cleaned up and was as if I never had an issue to begin with. I highly recommend using First Fence and will only using them personally moving forward.

We’ve used First Fence for two of our homes and have been equally satisfied with both outcomes. They’re timely, professional and their quality of work is always so impressive.

It went great. I will admit that the project did get delayed but it was due to weather and their inability to work outside with cement. They really did a GREAT JOB! I don't normally do reviews but they earned it.

Super professional and efficient company. Salesperson came out a few days after my cal and I had full quote in less than a week. We were able to schedule then installation quickly and the guys showed up on time and worked quickly. We used first fence for our first house and then again 7 years later. We had them back out for a couple maintenance issues and it was never a problem, always super responsive and quick to resolve the issue. Definitely would recommend them. There’s a reason you see First Fence on so many fences in town!

Warning. Unfortunately this went from a great experience to a terrible one fast. They cut the end of a drainage pipe so that they could put a post in front of it. Then dumped concrete. Yea not good. This backed up my drainage and cause damage for me and my neighbors. They say that oh it was hidden and we aren't liable and that stuff like this happens all the time. They drill into stuff and cause damage and its not their problem. Well in this case it was a visible pipe at the end of my property. It actually looks like they cut the pipe so that they could put the post in flush. If the post hole digger had hit it wouldn't have been perfectly flush. Just bone headed laziness.

It went great! They got everything done in one day. I would highly recommend them to others.