Description of Work: Among dozens of contractors I've hired to do significant work in two homes I've owned, Meredith Home Improvements is the worst I've had to deal with. They surveyed our roof in July, and gave us a start date of August 31, with seven to nine days of working time. They began on September 28, and they finished one month later. | |The excuses for the delays were many. First, we heard, the roof was flat so we were placed on some sort of commercial jobs list, which is a longer list with more backup time. (I presume they noticed the flat roof when they gave us the contract?) Then, it was because they needed a core sample. They asked to do that in the first week of August, they didn't even show up for that until the third week of September. Then, in between the start of August and that third week of September, there was absolute silence and steadfast refusal to return any of our calls until September 23, and I only got a call then because I kept dialing random extensions at the company until a human being finally answered. | |Then, they said they'd start September 28. I took a day off work, they didn't show. Then September 29 in the morning. They came in the early afternoon. They began work, it started pouring rain, they said they could not come September 30 because of that, and on that day, quite literally, our roof started leaking in about five places where it had never leaked before. They came, did a partial job of trying to clean it up, and left with still significant leaks. We demanded they return, and we were told it would be a few days because they had a $100,000 job they really had to finish elsewhere. My wife was literally days from delivery, they were already over a month late, and this is what we hear from Meredith Home Improvements--we have more important clients than you. (When I brought this up later to a higher member of the company, he told me it was not true, and he further rudely asked why I hadn't moved past that point when I mentioned it a second time because it was not true. If not true why exactly did the project manager say it?). | |In any event, they then sealed the roof from the outside, and the subcontractor recommended at that very time we get new skylights. They were in the original contract. We told him that, and he said it was the first time he heard of it. We called the project manager assigned to us at Meredith, and he said he'd check the contract. Then he did, and he said not to worry, this was all on order. | |A few more days pass, and then the skylights arrive. We're told the subcontractors will come Monday to install them, but they don't. Then Tuesday, and they don't. My very pregnant wife is left on Wednesday to wait for them and scramble to deal with the leaking from the roof and call the project manager, because I can't take more time than I have off of work, having already lost two days of paternity leave from this company's seeming incapacity to adhere to an appointment. She does, and the project manager comes in, after driving over our lawn (why he could not park a hundred yards away I still do not know, but we'll have tire tracks all winter thanks to him) and scolding my wife for calling him about roof leaks. That's CONDENSATION, he says, not a leak, from the missing skylights. As if it matters when water is coming down what its source is. | |In any event, they did not finish until October 25 at 7 pm, and, let me emphasize, only then because we agreed with them that we would withhold $1500 if they did not finish by that date. Due to their repeated delays, we suffered numerous damages, including the development of black mold (which they claim was preexisting--let's assume that for argument's sake), damage to wood flooring, damage to lawn, missed work, stress at the time a baby is being born, which was not supposed to be near the time they had completed the work, etc. They acknowledge no error and indeed insist now the delays were due to the fact that we had skylights on special order. Which is the fifth excuse I think we heard, though I stopped counting, and in any event, it makes no sense because they knew the special order when they signed the contract, the project manager did NOT know about the skylights when scheduling the work, and in any event, the skylights arrived, and they still kept giving us the runaround regarding when they could show up to give the job. | |Truly a terrible experience, highly recommend that they be avoided.