Lifestyle Group Residential Remodeling

"Three quick points we would like to make in response to this report. First, this report is submitted a year and a half after we interacted with the member. Second, as the member stated, they did not engage us to complete the work and this review is related to the design process only. We simply did an initial design and gave them an idea of price for all of the details they asked of us. So, as you can imagine, when you are just starting the process as they were and you want to see what it costs to do the best of everything, it can be a bit of a shock. In this case, our request was to blow out the wall to the dining room. We were asked to price the installation of a brand new kitchen in a small space with high end quartz countertops and a fancy tile backsplash and they wanted to carry the flooring through to the dining room where they removed the wall. So, it does not surprise us at all if they pulled back on those details and spent $10,000 less... as long as everyone understands that the project was definitely not the same as what we were asked to price originally. You might say, "Well, how do you know that?" Our polite response would be that anyone who did the same project we originally priced for that much less got to "pay" for the opportunity to do that project. In other words, they lost a lot of money because at $10,000 less... that would have been several thousand dollars out of their pocket just to complete the work. We were projected to make less than $5,000 toward overhead and profit on this project in the first place. This leads to our third and final point. We have always been a very highly rated company on Angie's List. We have earned a total of 28 Angie's List Super Service Provider Awards. We have completed over $19,000,000 in remodeling for Central Indiana families. Companies don't earns that much business by coming in $10,000 higher on a $27,000 project. And, they definitely do not get the opportunity to do 7-8 projects for families over the years, getting called back repeatedly because of the type of partner we are. It is true you get what you pay for, but on a project like this that added value might cost you $1,000 more than a competitor... definitely not $10,000. And, one other point... it is all in who you compare to. We know of companies that are many, many thousands more than us on every project. We love to compete against them! Conversely, we can't compete against the guy that works out of his truck with his buddy helping him. And, we are very open in explaining to potential clients that we don't try to compete in that world. So, your partner selection process on a project like this end up being about what you are looking for in a partner and it is a combination of cost versus value that ultimately drives your decision. Give us a call if we can be of help to you in any way related to your potential project. We are happy to answer any questions for you about this report or any other you see."

"Finally, a real report submitted in a timely manner on a project we actually completed. We love this client and we believe her when she was being very honest when she gave us "B" grades across the board with a "C" on punctuality. Now, we didn't like getting "B's" when we were in high school or college as we always strive for "A's", but we recognize some teachers are tougher with their grading methods than others, so we accept that this member said we are above average in our performance according to her high standards. This was a big project... it actually ended up over $86,700 when it was all said and done with changes and adds to the project. It is beautiful and in a couple of weeks you will be able to see the before and after pictures on Houzz.com because once the client finishes her decorating, we will be going to take final pictures. This is a great lady and we believe she was honest in her assessment. Now, from the service provider side, we have to defend ourselves a bit in that some of these delays were caused by additions or changes to the project and unique selections that had to be custom made... and then in one case, remade. We did an all painted glass backsplash and when it was installed the first time, the client did like the color she selected, so it had to be entirely remade... and it took a long time. A very long time. That led to the punctuality grade. We readily admit that, but it was a unique element that wasn't something we commonly do on a daily basis, so a bit of a learning process for us to overcome as well. When you do a large project that affects much of your main floor living space as this one did, you get to a point where you honestly just want you life back. We get it! We tell clients all the time, no matter how much you like us, you will be ready for us to just go away. Then, a year or two later, you call us back and put yourself through the process again in another area of your home... once you recover of course! We've had a handful of tough reports in a row, but we honestly don't consider this to be one of them. And, again, we don't like "B's", but sometimes when you take a tough class with a tough teacher... or you have a long, involved challenging project like this one was, you will just take a "B" and work to get better for the next one. We will say this in conclusion, as this project came to a close earlier this week, this member brought the final check to the office and gave us big hugs and thanked us. We had very good discussions about her thoughts on our company. She is really good about giving constructive feedback and she said something we would want every potential client to know. She said, "I do know that you really do care." That's really important. We aren't perfect and we do make occasional mistakes, but we do our best to make them right because we care very much! Thanks again to this member for taking the time within days of this project to submit a fair report... but please know we still don't like getting "B's"!"

"Just a quick note on this one... we pride ourselves on being very honest and very consistent. So, anyone who reads through our reports will come to see that we comment frequently on the age of reports. It is our belief that if a member submits a report within a few months of the interaction we have with them (up to even as long as a year), then that seems to be a reasonable enough amount of time to review us as a company and we understand the intent of the member is to help other members make good decisions about the selection of a remodeling partner. However, far too often recently, reports are popping up that in most cases are several years old and they are being generated by the Angie's List Call Center representative who is asking to take a phone report. This to us is completely inappropriate. The age of these reports is diluting their value to members looking to hire a good partner for their project. Facts are inaccurate and the details get lost. In some cases, we know for a fact we have literally been confused with another company because they simply could remember and thought we were someone else they had out. MOST CONCERNING TO US AS A SERVICE PROVIDER... every single one of these "old" reviews that you read and we reply to were provided by members who only asked us to complete a design for their space and we never actually did any work in their homes. If you read the reviews, you might think we did a project for them, but we only helped them with design ideas and understand potential cost of the project. So, while this is an "A" report and we appreciate it, we don't believe this 5 year old report is any more appropriate than any of the other reports more than a year in age. We also think if we didn't take a moment and point this out, we would be hypocritical in only raising our concerns when someone gave us negative feedback. We try to do things the right way, so we felt it was right to raise our concerns about this nice report... although we thank the member for her nice grade. By the way, this is precisely the reason you would want to consider us as a partner for your project. We will be polite. We will be honest. We will admit when we make mistakes and do everything within our power to correct them. We will bend over backwards to try to make you happy. And, we honestly don't care what you spend, so we will do our best to help you get what you want. These traits make us a very good partner."

"We think the husband is a bit confused with this report. It was a little difficult to follow and we think he was asked questions to generate a report by a phone service rep from Angie's List because he didn't seem to remember much. Honestly, that is because most of the interaction we had was with his wife. Our interaction with this member took place actually a year and half ago, so it isn't surprising that the details are a bit "fuzzy" to him. It seems he remembers some elements, but he doesn't seem to remember that we met in the spring of 2014 and then did design revisions for the client and provided them on June 24, 2014 based on all of the conversations in the second visit at our office. We just this morning saw a statistic that we are an "A" rated company on Angie's List with 588 reports submitted. On occasion, we don't seem to meet the expectations of a member here and there (and we aren't particularly happy about 3 straight non-A-rated reports). Whether it be not hitting the budget they had hoped for... or wanting to see something different in the design, we seem to be on a role of disappointing results of a few members. But, we always are willing to revise designs for clients and we always try to show every opportunity for cost savings. It's interesting, because when we get a "less than ideal" grade from a member, it always seems to be a report submitted more than a year later. It doesn't seem to be that we did such a poor job that they feel compelled to submit a report right away, but rather it comes as a random report submitted in some cases literally years later and we struggle to understand the value (and accuracy) in that. We would politely ask that you please look at our entire body of work and look at many, many pages of reviews for us. We have a large volume of reports... definitely more than most. And, you can imagine, if we tell someone something they don't want to particularly hear about budget or recommended use of their space, it is pretty easy to throw out some negative comments without recourse. But, we are very comfortable if you read all the reports, you will see what the people who use us for the work think of us. We work very hard for every member from the beginning of the process. If you see a negative report, there is a good chance you will see a response from us. If we make a mistake, we will admit it in the response. And, if we didn't make a mistake, we will defend ourselves. We may care too much, but please understand we care. We try to do a good job and we care about our reputation, so we will defend it. Thanks for reading and please don't hesitate to call us and ask any questions about your project or our process in helping you with your project. Have a great day!"

"We have a very difficult time understanding this review. We have done this for 16 years and that is long enough to understand that there are all types of people in the world, but this client was really nice... or at least we thought so prior to this report. We really don't even know what to make of this one. It was clear that the client had no idea what the project would cost when they asked us out, so not only did we price what they requested, but we also provided several cost saving options so they could understand the opportunities they had to reduce the cost. Additionally, we had everything completed on time and exactly as we said we would. In fact, Stephanie was at the house for the first visit prior to the arrival of the wife, so they could have at least given an "A" for punctuality, right? Well, guess not... We had nice conversations in the second visit at our office. We even received a very nice email that thanked our designer, Stephanie, for all of her efforts. Then, this negative report pops up. These reports happen from time to time and they are always frustrating to defend or reply to. What can we possibly say? We simply ask you to reach out to us if you have a project where looking for a good partner is high on your list. We trust you will be capable of judging for yourself. We've completed over $17,000,000 in remodeling projects for great families and earned Super Service Awards from Angie's List every year since 1999. We will help you to the best of our ability. Have a great day and thank you for reading our reply."

"This report was submitted for a project we looked at literally 4-1/2 years ago. That's not a mistake. Not 4-1/2 months ago, but 4-1/2 years ago! We can confirm the member paid $75 and not the $50 stated in the report. Additionally, just for the benefit of potential clients, there is no such thing as a 15 minute estimate, especially when you are designing a basement as we did for this member. When we account for the 30 minutes of drive time, 1 hour and 15 minutes at the home with the member discussing the details and measuring their entire basement, 3 hours of design, 1 hour and 30 minutes to estimate, 1 hour for the second visit plus 30 additional minutes for revisions... that comes to a total amount of time dedicated of 7 hours and 45 minutes specifically for this member in an effort to earn their project. And, this is an average investment of time that we as a company make for most members with significant projects such as basements, kitchens or larger bathrooms. So, when we read that it wasn't in-depth or personable, you can probably imagine our disappointment. However, given the 4-1/2 year passage of time, it is not entirely surprising that these types of details might have been lost. To be clear, while the grades aren't terrible and we are indeed bothered by the comments, we actually are more frustrated in this case with Angie's List rather than the member. We are certain from recent experiences that the member simply called for another referral for a different service and Angie's List, in their effort to generate reports for shareholder statistics, asked the member about their interaction with us 4-1/2 years ago. Then, the member, likely having very little memory of the interaction, gave a few "off the cuff" comments that were translated by the customer service representative of Angie's List and put in the form of a report for you to read. We would politely point out that there is no company in any industry that spends almost 8 dedicated hours of time working for a client that wants to be defined as very average. We certainly apologize if the member felt this way, but our effort in every interaction is to exceed expectations. We have 16 straight years and 28 Angie's List Super Service Provider Awards to support our track record of exceptional service and would hope these efforts on a daily basis would more accurately define the client experience."