Smart Touch

The fine print of their contract stated in Section G that they charged $95 per man hour. They billed me at $135 per hour. They charged me for two $85 site visits (which were not detailed in the contract) and then added hourly charges. They overbilled the time the men spent working. Specifically, they charged me for 8 hours for one day, when one of the men was gone for at least 90 minutes buying basic tools he needed at Home Depot. He should have had the tools with him. The next day, a worker was at my house for 2 hours, but they billed me for 3 hours. They bumped up the prices of stereo equipment by over $1,500 above retail. Several times I asked what we could do to work together for a lower price and they didn't address. The owner declined to answer many questions I had regarding different brands after he recommended one brand on the phone and offered another brand in their estimates; estimates that were riddled with errors including the misspelled street name on which they use a Bethesda private mailbox address--not a store front. The owner copped an attitude when I identified errors, and then tried to make jokes to lighten the situation. The owner made new errors in revised estimates and changed item models without notifying me. When I asked about components, the owner said that "customers trust me and don't ask to see the products before buying them". For $2,000 TVs and custom speakers, I prefer to see and touch the products. I started out trusting SmarTouch USA, but this bunch, while friendly people, breached that trust. Based on their excuses, inadequate explanations, attitude, and sloppy work, I lost confidence in their abilities. I was very disappointed that they never responded to the complaint I made about the damage a technician caused by cutting additional 7" diameter holes in the ceiling without checking for joists first. I incurred time and expense to repair damages caused by this company's negligence. When I raised the issue about joist and ceiling damage a second time, the owner made inappropriate jokes about how he was going to beat his employees, but never addressed how he would repair or address the damage to a joist that supports a 55 year old cantilevered deck.