My review today is not short, but I believe worth reading, as the devil is in the details. My complaint is about Giant Fence and Railings (GFR), which I am quite certain are owned and operated by the same managing people as Giant Doors. Both these businesses are located at virtually the same (aluminum products) manufacturing address in Vaughan, which I was able to find with an internet search.. I also found (what I believe to be) common ownership and management information via the internet. Unfortunately, only Giant Doors is listed as a Homestar company participant, so I am writing this review under the name of Giant Doors.
My experience was so poor with GFR, October/17, that I thought it important to share it with the general public (hoping to save them from a similar bad experience). Although I have done my best with due diligence re: connecting the two" Giant" companies, I recommend anyone considering working with either company, verify for themselves business connections between Giant Doors and Giant Fence and Railings.
Unfortunately, I discovered only after-the-fact that the reviews already written about Giant Doors on the Homestars website virtually mirror my own upsetting experience with GFR. Similar negative information is available from BBB. Unfortunately, I did not know GFR was probably a sister company of Giant Doors when I got involved.
GFR sent to my home an untrained and incompetent person to install my porch railings - an installation necessary following a serious personal accident, all of which was explained to GFR. I discovered far too late that the installer was a sub-contractor of GFR with the bulk of his work experience as an interior window blind installer, with only a few months experience working with GFR (as later divulged by the installer himself).
The installer showed up too late and wasn't able to complete the installation until after dark. I was unable to examine the workmanship until the next morning and to my shock, the railings were not upright (plum) and not installed securely (and not according to the original fully discussed specifications).
It is worth mentioning, I did provide a $500 down-payment the day the order was placed (which was 3 months prior to the installation). Because I wasn't able to see the finished work the night of the installation, I asked if I could wait until the next day to provide my final payment - either by credit card or cheque/mail. I was confronted (over the phone) with an unreasonable bully response from the installer's boss at GFR. He demanded a cheque be provided to the installer on the spot. I was quite intimidated by GFR’s aggressive tactics and I complied - assuming (or at least hoping) all would be fine.
Well, all was not fine, as I first discovered the next morning. I proceeded to cancel the cheque provided the night before and waited a couple of days while my bank confirmed the cancellation before calling GFR. I explained that I would be happy to provide a full and final payment once the repair was complete. GFR proceeded to berate and harass me with insults about how I was not an honest person and someone who was trying to get away with some kind of rip off. GFR then threatened to have portions of the railings removed until I paid in full.
This is when I got mad and suggested that I would involve the police if necessary. The point was, there was no reason to go to these extremes, when the railing could be fixed within a few days, followed by final payment. GFR’s argument was that the job was already complete and I had no right to cancel the cheque and that apparently GFR's two-year labour warranty would cover the situation. I obviously had a different idea of what "complete" meant and stood my ground.
GFR finally agreed to send the original installer back to repair the work. That was done a few days later when I could arrange a friend with construction knowledge to attend during the reinstallation. It wasn't until this reinstallation that it became more clear what little experience and trade knowledge the installer had with railing installations.
Long story short, I paid the installer - in CASH, as demanded by GFR before he would schedule the repair. To my dismay, the next day, I discovered that one of the railings was still not fully upright and I called GFR to ask to have that corrected (now a labour warranty matter). I tried reaching GFR (including the original salesman) many times over many weeks and as could be predicted (from all past problems of not being able to reach anyone at GFR) and as already demonstrated by the lack of customer care or service, all my calls and emails have been completely ignored. These people at GFR have no intention of fixing the problem. I am stuck having to find someone else fix it and pay for same. GFR’s labour warranty is not worth the paper it is written on.
As far as I am concerned, these people are bad news and I offer this sad story to help any other consumer avoid a similar bad experience (aggravation, disappointment and added expense) with GFR or Giant Doors.
