American Holiday Lights

Their minimum charge was beyond our budget for this project

No contact with anyone about the project

Contacted American Holiday Lights for help in placing our Brite Ideas linkable lights up for the holiday season. Jon Parrish came out and met with me in person on November 29, 2018 and I explained the situation to Jon about what we really wanted to do. With my understanding and Jon having written into his bid that "Using Home Owners Product, No Guarantee) for lights not working I agreed and made payment and signed the bid for the work to be done as quickly as possible. Jon advised that the work would be done by the end of the following week. As of December 6, 2018 I had not heard anything and called to get an update on the project being complete. I was told either later in the day on December 6, 2018 or on December 7, 2018. At one point I did talk with Jon on Friday December 7, 2018 and Jon advised that he just found out that my gutters had screen covers and could they use nails right below the gutters in order to hang out lights. I agreed to this as long as the nails were not completely noticeable. This conversation was at about 1:30 pm in the afternoon and Jon advised that his crew was at my house and discovered this minor issue. I asked Jon why did the crew not knock on my door or ring my doorbell so that it would have been taken care of and Jon had no answer for that. Jon advised he would attempt to have a crew back out later in the day or on Saturday December 8, 2018. On Saturday December 8, 2018 I was able to contact Jon and Jon advised he would call me back within one hour to give me an update on when the crew might arrive. I attempted to contact Jon at roughly 12:00 pm, 3:00 pm and I believe at 3:30 pm and only got his voicemail. It was that last time I attempted to contact Jon that I realized that Jon was blowing smoke and that American Holiday Lights really did not want to handle my project. In my message to Jon I expressed this and advised I would make it easier for American Holiday Lights by canceling the project. I also called the office on Monday December 9, 2018 and made sure that they knew I was canceling the project and requested a refund of the $1, 090 I had deposited for the project. We finally received our refund on December 17, 2018. If you really did not want to handle this project you should have said no plus not taken a deposit for the work that was not going to be done. If you make a promise to return a person's call return said call and ideally providing a service window to your clients that would be helpful.

We really love our lighting and will use American Holiday Lights again. However, there are some opportunities for improvement. At first, the sales process was initially tough to get started. We placed 2 calls over a 2 week period in early November and never got a call back. I decided to try one more time and got an answer. The meeting at our home was scheduled quickly ... just a few days out. At the sales meeting, I presented my own lighting design, which was pretty much the final one in the quote except for an added wreath. When the order was written, the sales person made their own design. The sales design left off part of the roofline, which I noted at the time. I was assured that the quote included the additional lights and that it was just an oversight on the image. I insisted that he take my original with him as a reminder to update the image. Waiting game! There is not very good coordination with the install crews. Sales will tell you that they can't project a date. If you call, you won't be given a date. So, daily you hope to see someone installing lights! In our case the wait was about 2 weeks. I know these crews are working long hours in cold weather. No doubt, they're moving as quickly as they can. However, a call the day before -- or even while on the way to my house would have been welcome. The install crew was working off of the design image created by the sales person. Unfortunately, this was never updated as promised. I had to call the sales person who didn't seem to remember the issue -- but did talk to the crew so that I got the lighting I wanted. Installation was completed over 3 days. The crew comes and goes without any sort of notice, so you're not quite sure if they've missed something or they're coming back later. I called the office at the end of the second day because everything was done except that one tree was only partially lit. The office told me that maybe the quote didn't have enough lights in it and I got the lights I was promised even though it was only enough to light a 14' tree to a height of only about 6' up. Obviously, I didn't like that answer as I just relied on the estimate. We had asked if the light count was enough to look good and trusted the sales rep to know. A follow-up call from AHL confirmed that the installers didn't have enough strands to finish. The following day, the crew returned and completed the tree. I'm not really sure if we got more lights than was on the quote or if the original count was correct. To be clear -- we are very happy with the look of our home. The lights are very well spaced, providing a very professional look. The hassles were minor and wouldn't prevent us from using American Holiday Lights next year. Everyone I talked to was professional and seemed to want to get us the design we wanted. My only suggestion is that they improve their communication so that customers know when to expect them -- and perhaps confirm the order via email prior to the install, which would catch a mistake in the sales write-up like we had.

Excellent. Love it!

So far so good. Installation was done in a timely fashion, maintenance has been done in a responsive manner.

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