MICHAEL HOWARD FENCING

VERY BAD. LARGE CRACKS IN STUCCO. FIRST TWO YEARS, MANY PROMISES BUT NEVER SHOWED WHEN THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO. RARELY CALLED BACK. STUCCO KEPT CRACKING. FOUND OUT THEY DID NOT SEAL AROUND THE DOORS OR WINDOWS PROPERLY. ENTIRE EXTERIOR IS SATURATED AND NEEDS TO BE TORN OFF AND REBUILT. HOME GREW MOLD, KIDS GOT SICK, WE BECAME HOMELESS. THEY STOPPED FIXING IT. INSURANCE WON'T COVER IT, SAID ITS FAULTY WORKMANSHIP. THEIR ASSETS ARE SPREAD OUT SO SUING WOULD BE THROWING GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD. THIS COMPANY PLACED MY CHILDRENS LIFE AT RISK, DESTROYED MY LIFE SAVINGS, WHICH IS ATTACHED TO MY LAND, AND MY RETIREMENT. NOW I HAVE NO HOME WITH TWO KIDS. THEY SAID THEY WERE BONDED. THEY AREN'T.

Jamie, the salesman was nice enough, but the communication is awful. I have been waiting for a return phone call for over one month for the completion of my back yard fence or at least an update . Every time I call the office the receptionist tells me (Jamie) is either not available or he wont be back in the office until another day. Most salesmen have there own cell phone that you can call directly. Or you can call the owner. I found it kind of strange that I couldn't call either of them directly. Every contractor that I ever had do work on my house gave me there direct phone number. I even had to go to the sight in person because I was so tired of being told by the receptionist that he (Jamie) wasn't available. They didn't waist time cashing my deposit check or cashing the second installment check. I went with this company because they offered a better price. I would have rather paid more from another company and avoided all the stress. My front fence looks nice, but the guys they had install it were very unprofessional. I will never use this company again .

I am not too happy with them. They put in a fence for us a while ago and when we needed a repair, they were great; they came out and fixed it straight away. Now when one of the gates’ bottom rails is rusted, I have been trying to get them out here but they do not return phone calls. I called them early mid May and I had an appointment scheduled for the end of May but they did not show up so I e-mailed the pictures to them but still did not hear anything and I have called them several times. It sounds like they do not want to do the job and they are just ignoring me. Originally they were fine and also when they did their first repair they were fine. I understand that Howard is not there anymore and it has fallen to another gentleman named Bob, who is doing things and is in charge of the fencing wing now. They say they will call back but they do not. I have called them about fifteen or twenty times since the end of May trying to get an appointment set up and trying to get an estimate. As far as I am concerned, their service is deteriorating. Their price was fair; they are not the cheapest but they are not the most expensive either. Initially their quality was great. They came with a motto of standing behind their products and doing the service. They also put signs on the fence saying to call them if we need anything but I call and nobody ever bothers to call me back time after time. I am looking for a new fence repair person now.

The repair that they did was excellent and the new fence that they put up was excellent. No problems. They did it at a timely fashion. They were efficient and got it all done in one day and everything was tidied up and I have not had any problem with it since. They are very professional. When I looked them up and called them for an appointment, they said they were coming out they came out and the person that came was very knowledgeable and direct to the point. I am very much satisfied.

A sales person came out to do the estimate. He measured the area. He finished up and left without letting me know he was done or telling me how long it would take to hear from them, or how long of a wait it would be from the time the contract was signed to installation. A month after the signed contract was sent in we still had not heard from them. Several calls were made to the company to find out what was going on. The receptionist was rude and treated us as though our questions were bothersome to her. We had a deadline to get the fence finished, so we tried to rush things by threatening to take our deposit back. The man we spoke to was not bothered at all by this and said we could come and collect our money at any time. They did end up coming out and finishing the job just before our deadline. The two men who came were nice enough, but each morning started with them urinating in our back yard. They also left cigarette butts and an empty cigarette box in our yard. The fence quality is fine, although the posts do not go far enough into the ground. The bottom rail is about two feet off the ground. The installers complained that the ground was really rocky and they would come back with a jackhammer the following day. The next day they did not have the jackhammer and continued the backbreaking manual labor of breaking up the ground with iron posts and shovels. I don't think they were given the proper tools for the job considering the type of ground they were dealing with. We never complained about any of this to the company. We were just glad to be done with the project. The initial estimate/length measured was spot on. The bill came promptly after the job was completed.

They required a down payment before the work began, they forgot about me and I had to call them several times. They know what they are doing, but there was no attention to detail in this instance. The fence was Wolmanized; however, the repair and the gate were not.

Company representative (William R. Poston) showed up for a free estimate for fencing. After obtaining all measurements and providing brochures, representative stated that he would give us an estimate the next day. After receiving no estimate or phone call over the next week, I called the office to request my estimate. The office rep (a female) told me that my representative was not in and someone would be geting back to me shortly. A week later, still no call or estimate. If you want to waste your time, call Michael Howard Incorporated for fencing!

On the week of July 29th, I finally reached Robert by phone (after leaving >7 messages) and indicated how upset we were. He appeared very confused about what was ordered, what was left at the job site, etc. He assured us that he would try to get something in place before we left for vacation on August 2nd (so our dog sitter could use the fence). On August 3rd, Robert came and put up white chain link fence in place of the gates tied off with zip ties. On August 13th, another worker showed up (also unannounced) to construct the driveway gate. He could not complete it because he was missing a set of hinges. On Sunday, August 26th the same worker came again (unannounced, on a Sunday!) and finished the driveway gate. We asked him to have Robert call us. The same worker came on Sept. 16 and finally finished the side gate. Despite promising my wife a credit on the phone, Robert would not accept a 5% discount. It took almost 3 months to finish what should have been a 3 day job.

THE FIRST JOB WORKED OUT OK AT FIRST. ABOUT YEAR LATER THE FENCE AND THE ELECTRIC GATE WAS RUBBING AGAINST EACH OTHER, AND HANGING UP. THEY SENT A GUY OUT AFTER TWO WEEKS NOT BEING ABLE TO USE THE GATE AND KEEP THE DOGS IN FROM GETTING HIT BY TRAFFIC. THEY WERE VERY SLOW IN GETTING OVER TO FIX IT. THE LARGER JOB WAS A NIGHTMARE. THEY SENT ME THESE GUYS THAT LOOKED LIKE THEY JUST GOT OUT OF PRISON, MOTHER F***ED ME TO MY FACE AND WANTED TO FIST FIGHT ME IN MY OWN BUSINESS! JUST BECAUSE THEY SENT ME INCOMPETENT PEOPLE 4 THAT THEY HAD TO REDO ALL THEIR WORK. THEY SENT ME THIS UNSTABLE GUY NAMED JOHN THAT BELITTLED ME IN FRONT OF MY EMPLOYEES AND REFUSED TO LEAVE WHEN I ASKED HIM TO GET OFF THE PROPERTY. I CALLED BOB, THE OWNER AND HE SAID HE HAD PROBLEMS WITH JOHN BEFORE. HOWEVER HE NEEDED THE HELP. THEY TRIED TO TRICK ME BY PUTTING UP A THIN GOUGE RESIDENTIAL GRADE FENCE WHEN IT SHOULD OF BEEN COMMERCIAL. THEY JACKED THE PRICE UP AT END. STAY AWAY AS FAR AS YOU CAN FROM THIS COMPANY!!

If they cared about customers they would have followed through and sent me an estimate. No estimate sent = don't care about customers. Their sloth caused me to wait a month before getting another estimate. Fortunately Allegheny Fence not only sent the estimate quickly, their installer wanted to work on Sunday and Monday evening so I didn't have to miss work. You do the math and decide which company is better.

After numerous phone calls, and a discussion with the gentleman who looked at the job, I never received an estimate for the work. If you don't want the job don't keep me hanging. This took six weeks of my time. I finally gave up and now the job is done (in two weeks from phone call to completion) and I would never call Michael Howard Fencing again.

The sales associate worked with my wife over a period of weeks to get the fence "spec'd" out. This was especially difficult for him considering we were not yet local at the time. He showed us a variety of styles and helped us make our final decision. They even built us a temporary dog run until the new fence could be installed. Workers finished the job in 2 very hot summer days without complaint and to spec. They were nice guys who kept a low profile and worked hard. We are very pleased with the end result.

THE PERSON WHO CAME TO DO ESTIMATE MAY HAVE BEEN IRRITATED BECAUSE I WASN'T SURE ABOUT THE EXACT LOCATION OF THE FENCING. BUT WHEN WE DISCUSSED IT, HE GAVE SOME SUGGESTIONS, & I SAID OKAY, THAT SOUNDS GOOD, WRITE UP AN ESTIMATE. HE SAID HE WOULDN'T CALL, BUT WOULD SEND OUT A PROPOSAL WITHIN A COUPLE DAYS. I NEVER RECEIVED THE PROPOSAL OR ANY OTHER CONTACT FROM THE COMPANY. IT SURPRISED ME BECAUSE THEY HAD DONE WORK FOR ME TWICE BEFORE & I HAD PAID IN A TIMELY FASHION, SO I THOUGHT THEY MIGHT HAVE WELCOMED THE BUSINESS. I NEVER DID GET THE FENCING DONE, IT WILL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL SPRING NOW, BUT I CERTAINLY WON'T CONSIDER CALLING MICHAEL HOWARD TO DO THE JOB. IT WAS RUDE NOT TO RESPOND, & THEY JUST WASTED MY TIME & THEIRS BY COMING OUT TO THE HOUSE.

THE COMPANY OFFERS EXCELLENT SERVICE, GREAT PRICES, EXCELLENT INSTALLATION AND CLEAN UP.

THE SALES PERSON MADE PROMISES. THEY SAID THEY WERE GOING TO CLEAR THE FENCE LINE. THE WORKER SAID IT WAS NOT INCLUDED. HE DID NOT NOTICE UNTIL HE SAW MY ESTIMATE. HE HAD TO USE OUR TOOLS SINCE THE COMPANY DID NOT PROVIDE HIM WITH ANY. THE COMPANY KEPT MY DEPOSIT FOR A MONTH. THEY KEPT IT UNTIL I CALLED THEM TO SCHEDULE THE JOB. THEY NEVER CALLED BACK. THE DEPOSIT WAS FIFTY PERCENT DOWN.