Carnell, Sutton, & Assoc Construction Group

On 5-30-12, Sam Sutton of CSA was contracted to do the repair work on my home from a large hail storm. He was very positive, assertive, and made us feel like he had our back and would do the best job possible for the insurance money we had available to cover repairs. He boasted that they did top notch work, would do it in a timely manner, would clean up after each job, and would be punctual and if not able to be punctual, they would be in contact to let us know when they should be expected. What we got from CSA, unfortunately, was the opposite. Sam assured me he would be present during the time the insurance adjustor was here doing her accessment of the claim. I was given an appointment with an adjustor and promptly let Sam know. The adjustor came, and Sam was no where to be found. I finally got in touch with him and he quickly sent over his associate Ester, which I appreciated. After the assessment was complete, Sam arrived and was able to sit down with the adjuster and I and go over everything. He was 100% clear on her assessment and what was going to be allowed and not allowed. 2 days later, I received the initial check from the adjuster and I met up with Sam and signed over the ~$9000 check and gave him the detailed documents of the adjustor's assessment. Sam said that he would be able to do everything that need to be done with the allotted insurance money. Sam then informed me that he would be going on vacation for the week, and we would be first on his list for the roof starting the next week. Roof: A week and a half after we were anticipating hearing from him, I got a text at 10pm the night before, asking if they could do the roof the next day. We agreed and they started on the roof bright and early, which was great. Around noon I noticed it was getting very hot in the house, and I assumed that is was because the roof was off. After the roof was complete and the workers were gone, it had just gotten hotter. I called an AC repair person ($89.95 service call), that came out at 5pm, and were informed that one of the roofers had nailed into the copper line, draining the freon and overheating the compressor. Repairs were quoted at $1600. I immediately called Sam and he was very apologetic and said he would take care of it and would send his AC guy out first thing in the morning. In 100 degree heat, we were extremely irritated, but realized that sometimes these things happen and were happy that Sam was eager to fix the issue and please us. By 10am I still had not heard from Sam or the AC guy. I called and texted and finally got a hold of Sam and he kept giving me excuses and putting off the time. By 2:30pm, Sam and the AC guy showed up. Sam was very apologetic, and even came with a $25 gift certificate to Outback Steakhouse. It was was a nice gesture, and we appreciated it. He also reimbursed me for the service fee I paid the other company. The AC guy was very nice and informed me of a few issues that he took care of on top of fixing the initial issue. By 7pm, we finally had working AC. He told me that our copper lines were shorter than 'factory' and that if by the next day or so if we noticed it not cooling correctly to call him and he would come back and tweak the freon. 2 days later, it was cooling, but was off by about 5 degrees so I attempted to call him and email him, with no responce. I informed Sam about it and he said the AC guy would be back out. He never was. So we will be contracting another AC company to come out and fix the issue, as soon as we can afford it. Windows: The day we first met Sam and agreed to have work done, he patched up the broken window as well as the skylight. We appreciated that he was willing to do that for us. A week or so later, Sam had his fence people come out to take a look at what would need to be done about the fence, and had them measure the window that would have to be replaced. Apparently they measured incorrectly. A few days later at 8am, the doorbells rings 3-4 times in a row and it was the window guy. I had no advance notice that someone would be coming, but I let him in the backyard and in the house to do the measuring. I was told it would be a few days and the window would be ready to go. Each time I was told this, something was wrong and he had to come out 3 more times (each time WAY too early and unannounced) to measure the window. The window was never fixed. Gutters: With no prior notice, one day the gutter guy showed up to get measurements and talk to me about paint color, etc. He seemed very professional and I was pleased. The next day (again, with no notice) he quickly got the new gutters up and they looked good. Unfortunately, we had to clean up after his mess. He left several large pieces of guttering in the bushes and in the grass, as well as leaving the porch covered with a fine, black, sandlike material. We didn't feel the need to make a big stink about it, we just cleaned it up and moved on. Skylight: We were told several times that the skylight would be installed and it kept getting put off. Finally Sam said it would have to be done sometime when it wasn't so hot otherwise it might not stay securely. We completely understood. Eventually Sam came himself and installed the skylight. We have had no problems so far. Fence: The fence was the biggest mess of them all. We were told it would be 2 day job; they would start early morning, take down the old fence and set the new post. 24 hours to set the posts then put up the new fence. Sounded simple enough. This was a huge deal because not only were we without a fence (and he have a dog) the 3 other neighbors were without out a fence. The supposed 2 day fence job last from Tuesday to late Friday evening. They claimed one of their workers injured his ribs so Wednesday there was no work done. I don't want to say they were lying, but I think they played up the injury to Sam, because we spoke with them after they wrapped up on Tuesday evening and everyone was fine. Friday was the worst day, they were hot and tired, and basically doing a poor job and letting things slide. They stomped and ripped up the neighbors plants, hammered in nails straight through the board in to nothing, split several pieces of wood, left large chunks of dirt and cement all around, the list goes on. Not only were the physical problem an issue, the workers had attitude from day one. By the end of the afternoon on Friday we had had enough and were expressing our feeling IN the house. They overheard and when we stepped outside, we overheard them insulting us and being very unprofessional and offensive (I will not repeat the vulgarities that were used in reference to us). When they were confronted about the job being supposedly done, one of them puffed up his chest and raised his voice as to want to start a physical altercation with my husband. We informed Sam and requested he come out to see what a horrible job they had done. He claimed he would never work with these guys again, and would take care of the job and get it done right. I didn't hear from him for a few days, then he finally informed me that the SAME guys would be coming out the next day to fix the fence, that was Monday the 23rd and I haven't heard from Sam or his people since. We had to hire another company to come and repair the awful job Sam's people did. It is costing $400 out of pocket. The new fence company informed us that the work done and the materials that were used were sub-par and that the slats were not quality and the posts that were used weren't fence posts, they were landscaping posts. Final invoice: Sam was very aware that money was tight, and the insurance money that was allotted was what I had to spend on repairs. He assured me that very little money out of pocket would be required. I had a hard time getting the final invoice to the insurance company, but when he finally did submit it, he claimed $15,000 over the original estimate. Insurance allowed $15,000 and he claimed he put in $30,000. The insurance company called me and told me this was not going to happen and that they would release the original agreed upon depreciation check to me, and nothing more. They tried to call CSA through 4 different phone numbers, several times, unsuccessfully. I am unaware if the insurance company has been able to talk to him regarding this issue, for he won't return any of my attempts to contact him. All in all, my experience with Sam Sutton and CSA was an absolute joke. Their sloppy work and hack business practices were completely unacceptable. One of the biggest problems, other than the sloppy work, was the fact that they were never punctual, and he was very lacking in regards to responsiveness. I had to basically track him down and hound him every time I had a question or issue. Sam knows how to talk the talk and make you feel like he has your back every step of the way, when in fact it was the opposite. He is full of the best excuses and apologies and can turn even the worst circumstance into something good, but there is a point when all that is just pointless, and you just want to see good, quality results. Today is August 3rd, and as of July 23rd, Sam Sutton has ignored all of my phone calls, texts, and emails. I am left in the dark as to what we do now. We have hired our own fence company and window company to finish up the repairs. Save yourself the time and struggle and avoid Carnell, Sutton, and Associates and their awful 'business' practices.

Our roof blew off in March causing interior damage to our living room. Carnell, Sutton was quick to come out and sign the contract for work. Our insurance paid out ,and we sent the check to the mortgage company. The contract stated that Carnell Sutton would do the work in the scope of loss (roof, floor, ceiling, wall - all replaced approximately $15,000 total). Carnell Sutton does no work without 1/2 of the scope of loss per their contract. Our mortgage company only releases 20% at a time. It took a very long time to get the money. During this time, our roof had to be retarped. The last time they retarped it, they did it with tar paper and staples, that quickly blew off. This caused additional damage not covered by the initial scope of loss. They repeatedly told us that the tarp would be repaired. We had signed a contract (our mistake) that locked us in for the 40% of the scope of loss so we could not seek other options. To further aggravate the situation, we had a blue tarp on our roof and no sign in our yard - causing multiple contractors to knock on our door daily. We asked for a sign many times - each time excuses (none with me, out of stakes, etc). Their suggestion was to post a note on our door. Finally on June 8th we had the 20% from the mortgage company and the 30% out of our pocket to make up the 50%. James (one of the owners) came out to pick up the checks and stated he would be out in two days to fix the tarp (there were more storms to be in the area that week), and that he would have the sales person (Esther) send us an invoice by June 11th. WE ended up tarping our own roof because they did not show up or call/return calls, and we STILL have not received an invoice. After the check cleared our account, they did do the roof. The subcontractor did a pretty good job - making us glad that they had not put a sign in the yard. We had two neighbors actually knock on the door to get the contractor name - we advised them not to use them because of the poor communication. We had requested an upgrade from the insurance allowance of three tab shingles to dimensional shingles. We sent a text to the sales person for what to order expecting response and confirmation (signed off upgrades per their contract). We did not receive any confirmation. When they installed the roof, many changes were made, which may have been upgrades, but were not authorized by us, and we still do not know how much they cost. We requested timberline natural shadow shingles and received timberline HD shingles - not much difference in appearance or warranty - but from the research we did, the HDs are more expensive. All of this would be minor or inconvenient, if they had continued work. We have not heard from this company since before the roof was installed except for one returned phone call and one email from the sales person (Esther) - each giving excuses(busy in Oklahoma, owner son injury) for why we did not have information or that they needed more money from the mortgage company (no amount given and no contact made by them to the mortgage company). A week after roof installation, they sent out an unknown subcontractor with no prior notice to measure for sheetrock (the company already had the dimensions). We allowed the subcontractor to measure, but he had no information about time table of work. We have not heard from the subcontractor either. We have heard absolutely nothing from anyone in this company in 13 days, have had no information on continuing the job in 19 days. We were hard pressed to get the mortgage company to release a refund for the $4600 that we paid out of pocket - luckily, they did. We have sent registered mail and filed a report with the Better Business Bureau, with no response. The amount of money we paid them is in excess of the work we received - we think - we still have no invoice.

This company contacted us after we had search metal roofing on the net. They came out and would not give us a written estimate. They showed up for the adjuster meeting the next day and after they found out what the insurance was paying they said they didn't even have enough money to pay for the materials to do the repairs to the house. They were on their phones the whole time that the adjuster was here talking about their son and his medical problems and talking with doctors and other people on their phones. They were suppose to do the roofing, siding, and skirting on our home, and their AC guy was suppose to put in a new AC unit. After they say the check from the insurance they got in their truck and left. I called the AC guy and he did not even know how much he was charging us. He then wanted us to take $3500.00 cash and meet him up North and give him the money. The man had never even been to my home!!! After that Ester, the sales manger called us and said that they needed to walk away from the contract that we had signed. Then she proceeded to tell us that we owe them 25% of the Loss Statement from the insurance which would have been $2,750, but due to my husband being a disabled veteran and me being disabled, and having a special needs child, then we would need to pay them $400.00. We later got a call from Sam, and he wanted to know why we were backing out of the contract. I informed him that we weren't they were. We have not heard another word from this company, other than we need to pay them. Do not do business with them!! If they will try and ripe off a family like this who knows who they will ripe off.