Ace Fence Builders, Inc.

We hired Ace Fence of Burlington to build 90 feet of wooden (cedar) privacy fence. It took about 3 weeks from quote to complete. They did it in two stages: Set posts on a Wednesday, added pickets on the following Monday. It's a solid fence. We are very happy with it. This is the third job Ace has done for us over the last 18 years. First, they did 300 feet of chain link and 400 feet of farm wire when we first moved onto this property. Then, they came back to complete repairs to the chainlink when an ice storm dropped a tree on it. Now, they were back to do the privacy fence. Obviously, we recommend Ace Fence.

I called Ace Fence Builders on a Monday afternoon for an estimate to repair an existing chain link fence that had been bent on top by falling trees and to install about 30 linear feet of new fencing with a gate. The technician John met me at the property within about 25 mins to look at the job and give me an estimate. We had a lengthy conversation about the repairs -- John explained there were 2 ways to go: (1) to replace the bent top rails with new ones, or (2) to cut out the bent sections and install a "sleeve" that connected the remaining ends. I told him I wanted a lasting fix and he assured me that, even though option 2 was less expensive than option 1, the sleeve was just as strong and would fix the problem. He gave me a price of $775 and said they could do the work the next day. I agreed to the price he gave with no negotiation and the schedule. John called me the next day around lunch time and said he was finished. I told him I would come to the property in the late afternoon to check out the job and -- if everything was ok -- I would pay them. When I went out to look, everything seemed fine, except that one of the sleeves was making a "v" with the existing piece it was attached to -- it was in the middle of two posts and was clearly not straight. I called John the next day and he agreed to meet me at the property to take a look. This is where it got bad. John explained that he had to tie the existing fence mesh (it's always the previous guy's fault, right??) to the new sleeve and because it was not installed correctly and vines were growing through the mesh, it was pulling the sleeve down in that spot. I asked him what needed to be done to fix that and he told me the mesh was pulling it down and would have to be replaced, saying that I would have to pay more money, another trip fee, etc., because they didn't price to replace the mesh. I told him I'm willing to pay more for additional materials, but I didn't think I should have to install the approximately 6 linear ft of 4 ft high mesh or pay a trip fee as if it was a new job because he had seen the state of the mesh before he priced the job, I was relying on him to tell me what was necessary to repair the top rail, and he never mentioned that what he was recommending wouldn't work or that additional work would be needed. Then -- get this -- he told me that he quoted me a price to replace the top rail and that I never told him that I wanted any of the mesh replaced! I was shocked and said that I asked him for a quote to repair the bent rails (in fact the quote says Ace will provide me with a "fixed top rail") and that he was supposed to be the expert in doing that, not me. I asked him did he expect me to know the best way to actually repair the fence so that the top was straight and then to tell him how to do it, and he tells me "We just put up what you ask for -- it's like I don't tell people how to put their pants on, it's common sense." Unbelievable. I paid the bill and told him to leave, that I would hire a fence company that knew what they were doing to repair Ace's repair. I have remodeled several homes in the past few years and worked with dozens of contractors in various areas. I have had good contractors and bad contractors but I have NEVER had a contractor tell me that they didn't do the job right because I didn't tell them how they should do it. I will never use this company again and will warn others about Ace's incompetence.