Rainbow International of East Central Kansas

Rainbow International in Junction City, Kansas (Rick Swango) was referred by my insurance company. When someone loses their house and belongings and their husband is deployed they really don’t want the hassle to look for someone to rebuild their home. This Contractor gave the spiel that he was prior service and his company emulates the Army Values. That could not have been further from the truth. Throughout the entire process excuses were given for substandard work and by the end it was evident (perceived) the work ethic of this company was to do as little as possible so had bigger profit. The nightmare with this contractor started when we walked through my "freshly" burned house and I noticed the smell of smoke and then saw some in what was left of the attic. He insured me that it is old smoke and even if it was smoldering such things are normal for up to 24 hours after a fire, he'd know, he was a fire fighter for some years. I did not let the fire department know because of that statement. That was my first mistake of many. I lost a ton of my parents and grandparents things because the house caught on fire again and since they are gone and I was the only one in the family that kept their things. Then I was told that I can put all my very important things in the left side of the garage so they can be picked up right away for cleaning. Things like very important family things I inherited, pictures and recipes. After the second fire the garage was inaccessible for us because the upstairs rooms collapsed into it. I was told by Rick ‘we'll hire a cleanup crew who would do the work by hand” it would cost a little more but after a few days I could get access to my garage and take these items out. On the first day of clean up I went to my property after work to find that the entire top floor had been pushed into the garage and skid loaded out of there into a dumpster. My most valuable and important items were gone. Second mistake I made. The list of things this contractor never cared about or looked at is 62 pages size 12 font. I can support almost all of them with pictures. I never saw this guy with a notepad, iPad, tape recorder or any other note taking device - other than in his office. He suggested some interesting things but most of them I didn't like, and so I told him this. Next day or a few days later either the item would be on the plan or the contractor put it in or he said "I thought we decided..." No, WE didn't decide, YOU were not listening again. I had to submit my list of paint colors, door handles, light fixtures, toilets, sinks, all those things at least nine times and by the time the house was done I had to switch light fixtures five times because they were not bought and then out of stock or discontinued. Plus, I STILL don't have all of what was on the list. My bathroom fans were $24 cheap of the cheap installed while what was picked out - and allotted by the insurance - were $88 light fans. We went shopping at a home improvement store to see what kind of doors and windows to get. I was told what I can choose and when I picked that price range of door it was too much so I ended up with what I had originally planned. I still don't have the storm doors he said I'd have. I don't have one basement window replaced even though I pointed to it and asked if that one would be replaced, too and he said ALL windows would be new. I had my kitchen designed by the Home Depot (the best decision I made in this whole process) and was told I better go buy it so it can be installed in time since he didn't have the funds to order it would hold up the house being completed. He said if we would buy the kitchen he will give us the money back when the bank sends the next check. He refused to give me the money when that check came in. Same happened with the stove, I bought it and he didn't want to give me the money for it even though he said he would when the check from the bank cleared. When we sat down to talk finances the first thing I was told was we owed an additional $35,000 to complete the house, this was on top of paying for the kitchen and the stove. This three hour meeting was over after almost eight hours and he owed me $11,000. Talk about an intended rip off! Receiving excuses over many issues throughout the entire process, the excuse for this one was that why we wanted a sit down to go over these items. I wonder how many people actually fall for not going over every single item and getting suckered into that. This was only the inside of the house, we never did touch the outside like the money he saved on putting on a different siding which ended up being cheaper than the original one we had. Not just the communication but also the way we were spoken of and to was very disrespectful. To call your boss and say "Yeah, you'll get a call from the homeowner, he's his usual self again" within earshot of the owner's son is just beyond disrespectful. To call the homeowner picky when he points out that there are patches on the wall where the paint is very obviously not covering right or trying to get an inspector pulled over to the side to influence his decision - all not very professional in my opinion. There were sub-contractors that stated they will NEVER work with this company again because of lack of communication and payment/ amount of payment agreed upon. The trades were happy that I showed up on the site every day because it took away the guess work they had to do as for where - for example - the sink or outlets were supposed to be. When asked to do a walk-through of the house we had found over 160 deficiencies, things like big globs of spackling on the walls and ceiling not sanded or painted, holes in the ceiling around the light fixtures, a huge bow in the wall, doors fraying apart, stair way banister falling apart in my hands, pits in the walls etc. They asked for us to put tape at the locations needing fixed so we did and on the next walk-through the tape was removed but the issue was not fixed. They had to be told numerous times before they would fix things. This did not get better until the Quality Control Team of the Insurance was notified and got involved. The contractor’s crew could not be trusted to tell the truth when they lied about putting insulation on the outside walls at the floor joists. They stated they did but when inspected they did not, the project manager was informed but the issue was not fixed and Rick was not notified. The way the gutters were supposed to run and be buried in the ground (as before) were never done the way we discussed. Had I not fixed them myself I'd have had a major flooding issue behind my house because they had a 30,000 ton machine crush the drains during the rebuild and we've had two major storms in the last week. I still am working on my landscaping because I refuse to have this contractor do any more work for me and rip me off any more. We were threatened with a lien on the property twice, once when the bank had money during the holidays and when the insurance had to send final payment. Both were informed and stated they would gratefully assist with all the legal matters toward this company if that did happen. I was told there were 57 other jobs while my house was worked on, mine being the biggest. It is tiring to write all this and agonizing to revisit the 373 days it took to build my house. I was told I'd move in on the 31st of October and I finally was in my house on the 9th of January. I have dealt with the Army for 23 years of my life, tons of deployments and none of it has prepared me what this last year has done to my family and I. During this experience my husband was deployed and could only help me by looking at pictures I was taking daily of the progress which saved us money and hassle. So as I said I have about 1000 pictures if not more and witnesses to support my review. I WOULD NOT RECCOMEND my worst enemy to go with Rainbow International Junction City. To all those who do use them all I have to say is good luck.

unknown

Very nice and professional. My roof was damaged by wind and my insurance company recommended them. Fell under my deductible. I don't know if the price was good or not because I went with them due to my insurance company recommending them. Overall I was very happy.