Appleton deck renewal

The owner came out, Mark and gave me a quote to redo the deck. We picked out a color and he explained the process. I understood it fine and it seemed that it would do fine as the layers of stain the previous owners put on needed to come off. He kept saying how expensive the stain is and if it cost that much it must be good. After I gave him a deposit I got a call saying we will be there in the next few weeks to do the work. The one day people show up and took all my chairs and a table off my deck and set it in my yard. They never let me know and my babysitter was not happy that she was surprised by people showing up, didn't even knock on the door. The finish was done and it looked like they advertised. We moved the items back on the deck and paid the balance due. Then the next summer the finish came off. As it rained out more came off. Called them and no messages returned. Went online to fill out a request for service link, no response. Then one day out of the blue I get a call from someone, says they are the new owner and had my name on file and wanted to know if I wanted my deck redone. I said that they did my deck and explained the problems with it. He said sorry, and they had some quality issues back then and things are different now. He offered to redo the work at zero cost. I said sure, when will you do this. He said he will call be back when he would redo the deck. No calls. I called him back, he said he was driving in heavy traffic when I finally got ahold of him and it was unsafe to talk so he would call be right back. Guess what, no call. Left messages, no call backs. Avoid this company, the new owners are worse than the old ones. Scam service and terrible quality. I wanted a temporary fix it up approach until we do hardscape and this made it worse.

The estimation process was what I expected. The estimator (owner) gave good information about the service and the products used. Seemed a little odd his young son accompanied him during the estimate. The boy assisted with the estimate but I wasn't certain that he actually works for the owner. The price estimate seemed high but I would reserve judgement until comparing with other service providers.

I live in the Village of Allouez, Green Bay, WI. I have a small 180 sq ft deck off my living room that is about 20 years old and needs attention. Saw a flier for Appleton Deck Renewal. Called around the end of April - 920-268-1015- and got a guy, Mark Busnelli, I think the owner. He said he would come in a week, look it over, and, if no one was home put a quote in the door. On May 2, while on my way to a meeting in Madison, my wife called me on my cell and told me Mark was there and explained the process. It involved strip and clean, and an internal deep seal. The words on the flier, "never seal your deck again" were selling points. He gave a price for this work at $1365. It was a lot of money, I thought, but I just wanted it done. My wife gave Mark a downpayment check of $500, which, of course, he subsequently cashed a couple of days later. The work was scheduled for just the strip and clean before Memorial Day. The person who does the work, Curt, called later in the month to say he was not going to meet that deadline. He did at some point call and say it was tentatively scheduled for June 11, on a Monday. On June 7, or 8, I called Curt and said there was more work involved with the deck than just cleaning and sealing. Boards needed to be replaced, along with steps. I told him I was canceling the work. He told me I had to call Mark, which I did. I asked for my $500 back. He was short with me and was not sure of who I was or what I wanted, since he was at home. I told him I would email him and refresh his memory. I did that right away. His office, a Dee, responded to my request for the return of my $500 this way: "Cancellation Policy:You may cancel your order at anytime just notify us in writing. You MUST call us first then send us a Registered Letter to us within 10 business days of your scheduled start date. We will charge a processing & handling fee equal to 25% of the project's total contracted amount." There was no special ordered material involved. His man was going to come to use my water to clean the deck. I wanted my money back. He has refused. His cancellation policy is ridiculous. Even if I had done everything timely to cancel, it would still have cost me $341.25. I even offered to split the difference, pay him $250 for his trouble. He has not acknowledged the offer. I have contacted BBB and Consumer Protection. I'm not sure about his product, but his cancellation policy is something people should be aware of. In the meantime, I continue to try to get my money back.