Coral Bliss Taylor from Calgary

Service Master restored my townhouse well, and the place looked good once they were finished, but they made some serious mistakes, seemed to me to take very long to get the job done, and had communication issues. They drywalled over the fresh air intakes for my furnace, which I had to point out to them and ask them to fix. They fixed the issue quickly, but this oversight seems quite serious to me, and really made me question their competence, They didn't bother fixing many of the other issues, for example, they mounted the closet doors crooked, and didn't paint the tops of any doors. Walls had lots of nicks and things like that. So, a decent job in the end, but not great. Finally, They took several months to reconstruct the interior of my small townhouse, which really seems very long to me.

RNS Kitchen and Bath did an ok job in my house. The resulting renovation looked good, came together well. But, there were some issues getting finished. I initiated the project by explaining that I wanted to get it done as soon as possible, and with as little time spent on my part as possible. Despite this, I had to run around town choosing fixtures (even though I chose the default option for nearly every one), which took forever. They didn't end up starting until early October, even though I had contacted them and started the project in May. The next delay was not their fault, I had a house fire after they had demo'ed the old kitchen and bath, and moved in some of the new cabinets. But they tried to collect a lot of the money at that point, despite having done very little of the work. Also, once the restoration company had finished restoring the rest of the house (insurance didn't cover kitchen and bath because they were not present at the time of damage, having been demo'ed but not rebuilt), RNS took their sweet time getting back in to finish the work. In the end, they spent 2-3 months delaying due to communication errors within their own company, while the job itself took only about a week to complete once started. This was despite the fact that I had kept them up to date continuously on the other contractors progress, letting them know a few months before hand when they should be ready to start again. They were not ready at all. Finally, once the work was done, some counter tops peeled. But they came back and fixed the issue. I wish I could have had a better experience, since I like to support small local businesses, but unfortunately, they had too many problems getting the work done.

On Side is one of the worst companies I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. They cleared my home after it a house fire. They also listed and valued the home contents for insurance purposes, and stored the contents they deemed salvageable. In every possible instance, there were major problems that were so outrageous that they managed to be the worst part of what was already a very difficult situation (that is, my house burned down, and the worst part was dealing with On Side). First, they ignored many of my instructions about what was to be thrown away and what was to be kept. For example, they disposed of priceless heirlooms and kept a useless dryer from the 1970's, and other junk I had said should not be kept or restored. Then, they tried to charge 14'000$ for their service, which seems to me a massive over-valuation, since renting a dumpster would have cost about $1000. Not to mention, they had done the job poorly. Finally, they charged $500 a month for storing the useless junk they had kept (despite my instructions to the contrary), even though a storage place in the same area (NE Calgary) costs about $100 per month. When I objected, they threatened to throw away my things. When I then went to pick up my things, even though I didn't yet have a permanent home to put them in, they tried to charge me to throw out the things I didn't want to keep (which they should have done as part of the original service). The whole experience was horrendous. I feel sorry for anyone who has to deal with them.