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Terrible experience.
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Horrible!!! My wife and I unfortunately chose Planet Home to remodel our kitchen. Once we started we felt we were trapped in contractor hell, starting with the high pressure sales pitch from the "Project Manager" and the hand written contracts which did not end up covering anything but the basics. Everything else became another contract. In the end we signed 8 contracts. We ended up $26,000 over the original quote. There are dozens of things I could complain about, but here are our bigger complaints:
1) The constant lying and making up stories by the project manager. He lies like any bad salesman, but the lies are calculated and rampant. There were the big ones: the need for re-wiring the whole house (see below), or quoting $9,500 to fix a French door (that originally cost $3,000 installed), or the constant feeling trapped into another contract for the extras ($800 for glass and mirrors in a few cabinets, in which they put "fun house type" plexiglass mirrors). And then the small lies: appointments that were made that were never met, lying about the delay of items (he made up stories that were easily proven wrong when we ask the workers), or the promising to be on site to supervise his, mostly incompetent, workers and saying that something is covered in a contract, only to later say "no that is an extra cost" and then he would pull out another hand written contact.
2) Feeling forced to rewired our entire home because we were told our wiring was "old and dangerous." This was for $20,000. Since then other contractors AND the city inspector said that rewiring of the house was totally unnecessary. We should have gotten a second opinion.
3) Their blueprint, or design drawing was improperly measured. Thus, electrical wiring and gas pipes were cemented into the middle of our kitchen, and when the island cabinet was put into place over the pipes they discovered that the pipes are in the wrong place. The stove did not fit, until they tore up the concrete and moved the pipes (twice). Even cabinet doors would not open without running into door handles on adjacent cabinets. Really.....? When we asked them to change this, they acted like we were asking for something ridiculous. Then they blamed us for the resulting holes, "Well you asked for the hinges to be moved." Confronting the project manager on problems, again and again, resulted in a general stance that we are unreasonable. What !! Cabinets that open? Mirrors that don't look like fun house mirrors? Electrical plugs that work?
4) The workers varied in skills and language abilities. Most were Spanish speaking, others are Ukrainian, or Israeli. It was rare to be able to talk to a worker and have them understand us. The so-called "Designers" were a joke. The primary designer, did not speak English but he was the only person who could use the computer design program. He came with a chain smoking Caucasian woman who repeated back to the designer in the same words that we used as if she was translating. Other workers showed up one day to work on a project, and then a different, less talented crew showed up the next day to finish the job. There was no one to guide them and if we were not home they would do the wrong things. The order of work was also poor. One day they patched and painted the ceiling, only to have electrical people come the next day and cut more holes in the ceiling that later had to be patched and painted. The general quality of work was substandard. We were not asking for the world, we just wanted tiles that are not cracked (20+ tiles in the back-splash were cracked upon installation), paint that matched, the holes that were made all over the house to be filled, and it would have been nice if, as the project manager promised, they would clean up after themselves. We found chalking guns and masks left out on the lawn and in the street, trash piled for weeks in the kitchen and garage, and our drive way is now stained and discolored with paint and left over buckets of water mixed with grout or dry wall. Not to mentioned that they all smoked and left butts all over the front of the house.
5) The Final Invoice, which we never received directly, showed $6,000 of “extras” that were above and beyond all the previously contracts. Extras like $2,700 for the “design” of the kitchen cabinets from the imbecilic designer. And $1,200 of “additional work.”
I could go on, suffice to say, we would recommend that you do not fall for the high pressure sales. Expect a typed contract fully explaining what will be done, and when, and what you will be expected to pay for. Think about it before you sign, and get other bids. We learned too late that neither the project manager nor anyone else was a licensed contractor on our project. Planet Home uses the contractor’s license of an Anis Cohen, a 70+ year old man who does none of the supervision.
MOST IMPORTANTLY: do not fall for the financing that will be offered. This is how it works. They bring in a home loan company that promises great rates. But the loan will not be done until the project is complete. Why? Because they kept adding to the loan. When we signed the contract for the home wiring (yes, we were stupid), I stated that I should call the loan guy to raise the amount of the loan, and the project manager stated, "I will call him." Why would a project manager call and talk to the loan guy? This was the first time the whole thing felt like a big scam. Stay away from Planet Home Remodeling.
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