My wife and I hired Skylights unlimited to install 4 skylights. The owner visited our home and we we outlined the dimensions and the location of the skylights. He conceded that they are not the cheapest shop in town, but that there are more expensive people and that their quality was worth the cost. Before the project began an installer came to take a peek in the ceiling and outline in tape on the ceiling where the skylights would go. The installer arrived apparently unbriefed and proceeded to tell us a new plan that was superior to what we had already decided on. He was speaking too fast for us to digest and referring to my wife as 'the Mrs' repeatedly in her presence. When he left we were completely confused and were going to delay the plan. I spoke to the owner who defended his employee, but agreed to go back to the original plan. (I don't know why we got away from the agreed upon plan). After the 3 parallel skylights were installed I noticed that the pot lights between them were not aligned properly. One light was 4 inches out of line. I emailed the owner a picture and a conversation began. It was a Skylights Unlimited installer who fastened the pot light fixture and drywalled it out of alignment. The owner blamed our electrician, even though his own employee dry walled without measuring - or even giving it a decent look. I was disappointed that Skylights Unlimited tried to shift blame rather than get right over and fix it. As the project leader, I cant believe they didn't take over responsibility for the glaring mistake. When I told our electrician about the mistake he explained it was SU that drywalled the light in but offered to do the simple fix. Finally, Skylights Unlimited doesn't do the final taping and painting, so I hired a different contractor to tape and paint. He is telling us now that its a difficult job because the drywall that Skylights Unlimited installed isn't true and straight. Skylights Unlimited failed in consultation, execution, and follow up. I could never refer this company.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $12,000.00
- Company Response
Sir, I find myself rather dismayed by your review and have had to think quite longly as to how to respond. As the owner of Skylights Unlimited I would like to bring to light a few indiscrepancies regarding your recounting of this job.
The Plan:
It has been our company’s procedure to review the design (plan) of any new skylight installation, with our client, (which was explained to you) during our first meeting. It is only once we have removed some of the drywall from the ceiling, that we are able to determine the exact layout of the ceiling and roof structure. Once the structure is determined it allows us to determine what exact tunnel designs we may be able to offer our client. To date, this has been a very successful and much appreciated (by our clients) process. It allows our clients to be completely at ease with the final design of the job, before any framing work actually starts. In the case of your job, Ed discovered that he could do more flaring within the structure of your roof without incurring any extra working time or cost. This is one of the reasons our customers are by and far pleased with our service, knowing that we have given them as beautiful an installation as possible, within the existing structure available.This is why we had arranged with you, to be there on the first day of the job, so that you could leave on vacation the following week, knowing that everything would get built as you wished. In fact, I had confirmed with you to be there on the Friday, a few days prior. Unfortunately YOU WERE NOT THERE and left your wife to review the design with our crew for the day. Our crew went through a few design options, including actual positions with your wife and marked the positions on the ceiling. By 2 pm you had still not come home and your wife had left the house, so our crew left for the day. When you called our shop at 2:30 Friday afternoon, telling me that you were not happy with the positions, we discussed how all this could have been avoided had you been home, as we had agreed. Your only response was “Well I’m here now. Send the crew back”. As challenging of a working relationship that this provoked, our crew chief Ed graciously offered to return. My instructions to him were to design only according to exactly what you want, regardless of what any other beneficial options might be available. And Ed did just that.
As you represent this story, you keep saying spoke to “us” and said this to “us”, yet you were not there, so I am confused.
Your wife:
As for your wife being offended by the way she was addressed as the “Mrs”. No offense was intended and we apologize if she was disturbed by this.Potlights:
When you emailed me about 1 potlight being out of line, I did not blame the electrician, nor did I try to absolve our installers of any blame. In fact, I asked for the electrician’s phone number so we can arrange a resolution together. The next email I received from you was to say that the electrician had offered to rectify the situation himself. As our crew helped the electrician quite a bit through the installation of the potlights and the drywall work surrounding them, our crew would have been more than happy to work along with the electrician to rectify the error, but you did not give us the opportunity to do so.Taping and Painting:
It is true that we do not offer the services of drywall taping and painting ourselves. The reason is because this kind of taping is extremely unforgiving of any flaws. There is so much light coming through skylights that any minor flaw would quickly be detected. For this reason, we have always advocated the use of a professional taper and painter.In as far as the drywall being straight, you need to understand that when working with an existing structure the wood framework is not always perfectly true and straight, as such any drywall installed on this structure can easily have some minor imperfections. This is another reason that we recommend a professional taper.
In the end I would like to say that I am sorry for how things turned out, for the both of us.
Denis Charron
Owner
Skylights Unlimited