ADVANCED METAL FUSION INC

On the plus side, Ron was able to come out the very next day. On the down side, the work wasn't performed properly (or according to my instructions), and when I politely asked him by email if he would come back out to fix the problem properly without charging me again, he refused. I paid quite a bit for this work and I definitely feel that I didn't get what I paid for. In his refusal he said, in part, "Your suggestion that I am somehow responsible for your decision and direction as to what work you wanted me to perform is baseless as is your suggestion that it should not be unreasonable to expect our company to work for no additional cost to you in order to remedy what is clearly an engineering issue." But again, it's not an engineering issue: Ron simply didn't follow my directions. I replied, pointing that out, but I never heard back from him. Here are the boring technical details: Prior to Ron coming out, I explained the problem with the posts and the remedy I was hiring him to do, in both words and an illustrated photo. Those instructions included that the angle iron should be welded to the post, overlapping it (either inside or outside the post). However, on one of the posts Ron said that because a joist was in the way, he needed to weld the angle iron in the other dimension. I agreed, trusting that he knew what he was doing. After his fix failed to stiffen up the post, he blamed the problem on poor carpentry and said it had nothing to do with the welding. After he left, I examined the joint he welded while having someone rock the post from the top (just as he did when he was working on it), and then I could see the actual problem clearly: The post flexed exactly at the joint he welded, because he didn't weld the angle iron to overlap the post as I'd directed. Even with the joist in the way, there was no reason to weld a useless butt-joint. And when seeing the butt-joint flex, it's incredibly obvious that that's the problem, and that the solution is simply to weld alongside the post (as I originally directed). When I pointed out Ron's butt-joint to my architect later he remarked, "That's just dumb." Also, on one of the bolts that Ron put through another post, he failed to put a nut on the other end (which I had supplied). Ron's charge was $85 for the site visit, plus $85 an hour, so he's certainly not the cheapest. (He and his helper were here about 4.5 hours, to fix the three posts.) But what stings is that I'll have to pay again to have the problem fixed, because Ron wouldn't fix the job that I paid him to do. Of course, I'll be hiring someone else to do the repair.

I called Ron, and we discussed the project. He was very knowledgeable about materials and techniques, so I took my urn and went to see him. He discussed different ways to handle making the ring, and told me he would much rather "overbuild" to make sure the rod never bent or gave way. Plus we discussed different methods of installation into the fountain wall. We chose stainless steel as the material, and Ron selected a very thick round rod. He completed the job in a timely manner, and contacted me when he was done. The ring looked great; very sturdy, with all components for installation in the wall included. My fountain guy neglected to add in the thickness of the gunite metal panel in the fountain wall measurements he gave me, so when we went to install the ring, the part going through the wall was just a bit short. I was upset and called Ron, hoping we would not have to start from scratch. He saved me a lot of grief by coming up with a solution over the phone that solved the whole problem!