I was referred to this company.
First impression: Professional and polite
Last impression: Cocky, arrogant and unprofessional.
I received a quote for their services and was blown away by the price for 2 decks. (even with knowing that the price of lumber has dramatically increased) Like standard consumer practice, I decided to ask for a second opinion on the price to ensure I wasn’t out to lunch on the cost of wood, labour etc.
After talking to one other deck company (similar quality), I realized I should give this company a chance. I decided to move forward with them but didn’t communicate my decision to them.
A few days later, I received an email accusing me of “sharing their drawings” with a company and they would no longer be offering their services to me.
I was surprised by this accusation.
The drawing WASN’T unique by any means. They inputted MY requirements, MY ideas, MY vision, MY yard layout into a deck software, slapped their logo/watermark on it and called it their own!?! I guess they’ve made their success off of taking their clients ideas and calling it their own. Just because I asked another company for feedback, no where in my request did I ask them to copy the exact deck.
No thanks. I'll move on, and won't lose sleep over this.
Thank you for making me smarter and allowing me to place MY money to another company that can deliver my VISION.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $0.00
- Company Response
Hello Stephanie: Thank you for your feedback. We take pride in our work, we pay our team well, and the prices of lumber have gone up significantly. We are leaders in our industry and have been satisfying clients for over 30 yrs. This is the first review we have had that does not reflect what we do, and we appreciate this feedback. We provide free quotes and spend hours on our drawings, and paying staff to implement special features to help create your vision, this takes a lot of time and energy. These drawings are owned by Decks Out Back. Like other businesses such as photographers, musicians etc, these images are intellectual property and not to be shared or copied. All 3D and Detailed drawings are property of Decks Out Back. Canadian Copyright Act applies. You did not ask permission to use it. You shared these drawings with another company to obtain a quote, we used our time to come out, to measure the site, so we could go back to design the job. We paid our staff to create 3D drawings and it takes time to get these plans together, a lot of time and energy. For a client to just share these drawings with another company to use the designs so they can quote a job does not seem fair to us, the company or our employees. The contractor you shared our drawings with to obtain another quote, forwarded your email to us. We are very happy you got another contractor to help you with your project. We chose to withdraw our proposal due to the unfairness of sharing our drawings to obtain another quote....drawings that help another contractor not to have to come out to the site, to take time to discuss the job, to take the time to make measurements, the time to make the drawings. The review does not reflect our work, our professionalism, and the time we take to have a respectful relationship with our clients. Again, we appreciate the time you took to leave a review as this has helped us place "guidelines on our information" when given to future clients. We will now have disclaimers stating our drawings are not to be shared in order to obtain other quotes. We are grateful for this experience as we see how we can improve the relationship with future customers.
I feel so sorry for you to exert so much energy to go to all our platforms to give us a negative review as we did not even start your job as we felt that this relationship would have been toxic. It shows with all the effort you are going to give us a bad review that we made the correct choice. You got caught doing something disrespectful in our industry, the fellow contractor reached out to us with his distaste that you would actually use our drawings to get a quote. I wish you all the best and hope one day you find happiness in your life and not bitterness. Regards Nancy