kaiser715
Doing hard time
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2006
- Location
- 7, Pocket, NC
Long post, but good to know if you are thinking of a carport.... (if you don't like long posts, go here http://frozen.disney.com/)
For my birthday, I decided to get myself a carport, 14x26 to use as an outside extension of my shop space.
I ordered it on July 25th. Local dealer said installation in a couple of weeks, and could be up to 4 weeks. The next day, made arrangements for my concrete guy to do a slab. Carolina Carports (from here on, I will just call the company "CC") called within 2 weeks, said they'd be there in 2 days. Concrete pour was to be the day after they called, and I didn't want to drill and drive anchors into green concrete, so I told them 1 more week before I was ready.
The next week, i called and told them concrete was done, and was ready. CC said install in about 2 weeks, they would call a few days before. 3 weeks later, no word. I called...they said 2 more weeks. I got to where I called every Friday to get an update, talking to the same "North Carolina scheduler" almost every call. She could never give a date...just "it will be two more weeks before we schedule that area".
Anyway...right at the end of October, got the call, they'd be there on November 3rd. They showed up that day, alright...just before 6am. My alarm had just gone off -- I wasn't expecting them until maybe 7. It was still dark outside.
When they arrived, they had to turn into the cul-de-sac across my house to turn around. When I first went outside (after they parked in front of the house), I saw that my neighbor's mailbox had been run over. I asked the driver about it...he said he wasn't sure, he could have hit it in the dark, but really didn't think he did. I let it go...but did spend over a hundred bucks later that day fixing it for my neighbor. That evening, I talked with another neighbor that saw them hit it, driver got out, looked at it, tried to stand it up, and then continued to park at my house.
(The next day, I found out that they hit another mailbox on up the street, and the homeowner fixed it himself.)
Back to the carport. They got done in about 3 or so hours (14x26, 9' legs). However, they came to put up a carport with 9' legs, total ridge height about 12'....and all they had was 6' step ladders. They asked to borrow my 8' step ladder that was out by the shop.
All done, I looked it over, wrote a check, and they were gone. Then I noticed that they left off some of the angle braces. I went in and called the company. They said they'd come back...in two weeks. I told the NC scheduler that I would like an exact date, what with all the repeated "two more weeks" I got before. That conversation ended with me telling her I was going to put a stop payment on the check, until the work was done. I called the bank, did the stop payment, and then called CC back to confirm that there was a stop payment on the check, and to call me as soon as they could schedule the work.
About 11/17 I get a call from CC's accounting department, wanting to know why I stopped payment on the check. Told him....he said there was nothing in the records about the incomplete work, etc. I called the NC scheduler back, she said...wait for a call in two weeks.
This past Monday, I called back. Told her (a new person this time, wonder why?) the problem....I wasn't even in the line for anything. Wasn't even in the computer under active jobs. They had no record of the job being incomplete. She promised to look into it, and called back the next morning, and scheduled for today, the 19th.
They did come, and got it fixed, and I gave them a new check. Just shy of five months for something that I expected would be in and done by the end of August.
And I was out a hunnert bucks extra and a couple of hours for the mailbox. That ain't over yet...working on a letter to them now. I didn't want to piss in the bed before everything was fixed right (I figured correctly that the same crew would be the same ones coming back for the repair).
Overall, the carport is great....and even with all the trouble, I'd consider ordering from Carolina Carports again. I figure all these carport companies probably provide about the same level of frustration, just in different ways.
For my birthday, I decided to get myself a carport, 14x26 to use as an outside extension of my shop space.
I ordered it on July 25th. Local dealer said installation in a couple of weeks, and could be up to 4 weeks. The next day, made arrangements for my concrete guy to do a slab. Carolina Carports (from here on, I will just call the company "CC") called within 2 weeks, said they'd be there in 2 days. Concrete pour was to be the day after they called, and I didn't want to drill and drive anchors into green concrete, so I told them 1 more week before I was ready.
The next week, i called and told them concrete was done, and was ready. CC said install in about 2 weeks, they would call a few days before. 3 weeks later, no word. I called...they said 2 more weeks. I got to where I called every Friday to get an update, talking to the same "North Carolina scheduler" almost every call. She could never give a date...just "it will be two more weeks before we schedule that area".
Anyway...right at the end of October, got the call, they'd be there on November 3rd. They showed up that day, alright...just before 6am. My alarm had just gone off -- I wasn't expecting them until maybe 7. It was still dark outside.
When they arrived, they had to turn into the cul-de-sac across my house to turn around. When I first went outside (after they parked in front of the house), I saw that my neighbor's mailbox had been run over. I asked the driver about it...he said he wasn't sure, he could have hit it in the dark, but really didn't think he did. I let it go...but did spend over a hundred bucks later that day fixing it for my neighbor. That evening, I talked with another neighbor that saw them hit it, driver got out, looked at it, tried to stand it up, and then continued to park at my house.
(The next day, I found out that they hit another mailbox on up the street, and the homeowner fixed it himself.)
Back to the carport. They got done in about 3 or so hours (14x26, 9' legs). However, they came to put up a carport with 9' legs, total ridge height about 12'....and all they had was 6' step ladders. They asked to borrow my 8' step ladder that was out by the shop.
All done, I looked it over, wrote a check, and they were gone. Then I noticed that they left off some of the angle braces. I went in and called the company. They said they'd come back...in two weeks. I told the NC scheduler that I would like an exact date, what with all the repeated "two more weeks" I got before. That conversation ended with me telling her I was going to put a stop payment on the check, until the work was done. I called the bank, did the stop payment, and then called CC back to confirm that there was a stop payment on the check, and to call me as soon as they could schedule the work.
About 11/17 I get a call from CC's accounting department, wanting to know why I stopped payment on the check. Told him....he said there was nothing in the records about the incomplete work, etc. I called the NC scheduler back, she said...wait for a call in two weeks.
This past Monday, I called back. Told her (a new person this time, wonder why?) the problem....I wasn't even in the line for anything. Wasn't even in the computer under active jobs. They had no record of the job being incomplete. She promised to look into it, and called back the next morning, and scheduled for today, the 19th.
They did come, and got it fixed, and I gave them a new check. Just shy of five months for something that I expected would be in and done by the end of August.
And I was out a hunnert bucks extra and a couple of hours for the mailbox. That ain't over yet...working on a letter to them now. I didn't want to piss in the bed before everything was fixed right (I figured correctly that the same crew would be the same ones coming back for the repair).
Overall, the carport is great....and even with all the trouble, I'd consider ordering from Carolina Carports again. I figure all these carport companies probably provide about the same level of frustration, just in different ways.
