Wasatch Front Fence

From the beginning this job was painful from the customer's point of view. in March of 2013 we had Wasatch Front Fence install over 100 ft of chain link fence and a 6'x12' swinging gate for $1200. The project lead, Rocky, was professional and gave us a great price and did very professional work. We knew we would be moving in a year, and the fence would need to be removed (it was a rental property) and so they didn't do anything that wouldn't be easily removed. All in all, this first experience with them was great and was why we chose them a year later to remove the fence and then finish some fencing at our new home. When we contacted them this year, we were put in touch with Jason who took a look at what we wanted and quoted us at $2,299.60, which he gave us (I believe) a 15% discount for being return customers/military discount. This seemed like a reasonable price compared to other contractors, and thinking how well the job had gone with them the previous year we decided to go ahead. As we had a set date to move out of our rental, Jason assured us the job would be completed on time. We also have two large dogs that needed to be boarded during the time of having no fence, so it was essentially costing us more money every extra day the job took. This is when the problems began. Jason effectively "forgot" about our job. We understand retroactively he had some personal issues going on during this time, and that is completely understandable in my book. After the week of missed work time, he called and apologized profusely for his mistake, and that he was going to give us the removal at the old house ($150) for free. I asked him about the materials from the old house and he said my wife had told them "If you can use it go ahead but we just need it out of here". Upon discussing this with my wife, she said she did tell them if they could use it to go ahead, (meaning, if anything is salvageable for our next job at the new house use it) but we never discussed having it just taken and scrapped. Jason said "don't worry, the fence and gate were practically brand new (and about a $1000 in materials) and I couldn't imagine them getting rid of them, let me check with the crew and we will have it delivered to you." This was on Friday, April 25th. He told us the job would be completed by Wednesday, April 30th if the weather held out and allowed sufficient time for the cement posts to dry. If it rained, they would finish no later than Friday, May 2nd. Bottom line, they never showed up this week to complete the job. This required us to keep our dogs in boarding for another week while they failed to hold up their end of the bargain. They finally showed up on Monday, May 5th and "finished" the job. I say "finished", because where we had asked for graduated wrought iron fence they put up a piece of chicken wire, and where there was supposed to be a 5 foot vinyl gate they had installed a 4ft one. Jason called and asked what we thought of the job. I expressed my concerns to him and he said let me talk to my guys and we'll come out and look at it, he said "sometimes they tell us the job is done but there is still some minor touchups to be finished." To me, it sounded like an excuse but he came out and replaced the chicken wire with the graduated wrought iron fence we had asked for. He then called and let me know unfortunately the crew had "taken the old fence and gate directly to the scrap yard, and we really make no money when we do that." I told him I couldn't believe they would take a barely brand new $500 gate and just scrap it, but he reiterated this is what happened and that your wife told us to do that. I told him what she said and he said "no, I remember the conversation as if it was this morning, that's what she said." Knowing how frugal my wife is and the fact that we had discussed what we were going to do with the fencing, I have a hard time believing his side. Lastly, I asked him about the 4 ft gate. He said the project lead had decided that we would have less waste material if we went with a four foot and that it is still big enough to fit any industrial size lawn mower through it. I asked him, "Isn't this something that you should involve your customer in making the decision?" He said, "well, what do you want me to do, rip it out and put in a five foot?" I told him I couldn't afford to put my dogs in boarding anymore and that he would have to come up with some way to further compensate us for the mistake, otherwise we want the five foot fence that was clearly agreed upon and written on our invoice. He told us he would see what he could do and give us a call back. When he called back he told us he'd give us another 10% off the total price, which at this point I was ready to just be done with dealing with them. I told them that was fine. All in all, the entire second experience with Wasatch Front Fence was disappointing and recommend anyone who is looking for someone to solve your fencing needs to keep searching. The other disappointing factor of this job was that they actually did great work, but the customer service and complaint resolution tactics they used leave a lot to be desired. To me, it felt as though Jason was still trying to squeeze every dime out of the project (the old fence scrap, 4 ft gate, lack of graduated wrought iron) even after it was clear they weren't living up to their side of the deal. A 10% discount on top of the original discount is nice and good enough for me to pay to be done with you, but it's not going to encourage repeat business when it feels as though you don't want to sacrifice your bottom line to ensure the customer is satisfied.

They were to repair a small portion of a fence. They broke a sprinkler line in the process of setting post. The did not report the breakage and covered it with concrete. I didn't notice until lawn started to die. I had to have the portion of the fence removed in order to have the repair done. They accepted no responsibility and weren't very nice about it. My daughter was going to use them and steered her away from them. It took $500 to repair the damage.

In the end, this fence is literally falling down less than two years after it was installed. The owner / contractor, Anthony Salazar, does not back up his work, and does not keep his word. At the conclusion of his visit to our home in mid-June, 2006, to inspect the fence, he told us that he would send by a salesman to bid on fixing the fence. After about one week passed, I called Anthony Salazar (801) 809-5043 to get an ETA on when his salesman would be coming by. He told me that the fence had been built more than two years ago (not true) and that I was on my own. He then hung up the phone. To back up, we live in a hilly neighborhood. We, and all of our neighbors, have a retaining wall at the back of our property. In the spring of 2006, we noticed that the south part of our new fence (attaching to our neighbor's fence) was falling down. In early June, I noticed part of the fence flapping in the wind, like an open gate would. But there is no gate there. I called Mr. Salazar, who agreed to come out and inspect it. About two weeks later, after missing several appointments, Mr. Salazar did finally come out to inspect the broken down fence. Wearing "iron-man athlete" style sunglasses and taking multiple lengthy calls throughout the inspection, his first action was to shake one of the posts while looking in my direction, as I stood in the new "gate-less" gap, where a fence section had stood before. As Mr. Salazar shook his shoddily constructed fence, I "shook" my neighbor's fence, constructed at the same time as ours, and it did not budge. Apparently Mr. Salazar was demonstrating to me that the problem was that we lived on a hill. Living on a hill was not an issue for our neighbors on both sides of us, both of whose fences are rock solid. His next excuse was that the fence posts weren't deep enough. I agreed. And then I asked him why his employees had used posts too short? He said that it was our fault for not requesting them. I then asked him if it was customary for his customers to design their fences and supervise his employees on how to do their jobs. He then seemed to be saying that it wasn't possible to build a fence in a hilly neighborhood. I asked him if this was the first time he had ever built a fence in a hilly neighborhood. If not, I asked, then what is the reason that your installers used posts too short? He then segued to his fourth and final excuse, which is that it was my wife's fault for having put 1"x6" gardening strip in front of the fence (to arrest soil erosion.) He said that these strips and the dirt behind them had pushed the fence over. Interestingly the photos I just took show that these strips don't even touch the fence and never have. Again the question must be asked, has he never before built a fence in a hilly neighborhood, and if he has, why did his crews fail to design it properly? In short, this man is an unethical dealer who did very shoddy work and who slithered out of his obvious responsibilities. Stay far away.