Northern Engineering Inc

On the recommendation of our architect, we agreed to have the lot of this small apartment building surveyed in preparation for upcoming renovation & construction to refresh and expand the building. When we discussed the work, both our architect and our construction partner indicated that the pricing for the work should be in the range $850-1000, and on that basis (max $1000) I agreed to the survey. The architect recommended Northern Engineering and contacted the company to set up the job. For some time (approx two months), I heard nothing from the engineering firm. Imagine my surprise when the first contact I had was an invoice for over $1,800--I hadn't even received the drawings! When I contacted the architect, I was provided with a couple of drawings, but expressed my shock at being invoiced for nearly double the amount we had agreed. The architect passed it off without truly addressing my concern. Now, having a bit of experience building, operating, and supporting companies (20+ years), this initial experience with Northern suggested to me that the firm was either poorly run or crooked ... or both. When I refused to pay and pointed out possible integrity problems, the owner of the company wrote a lengthy e-mail to me, in which he claimed he had decades of experience and was fairly priced. Again, I refused to pay anything more than the amount initially indicated. The engineering firm then attempted to add interest and other charges to the account over approximately a period of 2-3 months, and the purported charges ultimately reached over $2,000, yet I refused to pay for the reasons above. For a related job, I asked other engineering firms as well as Northern Engineering to submit competitive bids ... one of the purposes in doing so was to compare Northern's "competitive" pricing within the local market, which we hadn't done previously because Northern had come so highly recommended from our architect. When Northern's pricing came in, it was over seven times (>700%) higher than their next most expensive competitor, and this confirmed to me that something was definitely wrong with Northern Engineering's practices. The next time I was contacted for payment, I confronted them with my newfound information (exorbitant pricing), and they agreed to accept the amount originally indicated to me. Ultimately, I wound up paying $1,000 for the work. In summary, I'm told the work done meets the usual standard for local firms. The firm attempted to charge me about double the going rate for the work, but after a few months of going back and forth, they finally "reduced" their price to the amount I had originally agreed to pay. On the basis of my experience of their business practices in this episode, I cannot in good faith recommend Northern Engineering