Contract Killers

When my wife and I decided it was time to replace our wooden fence enclosing our backyard I began to price shop different companies in our area. The seemingly obvious choice was Amechi Fence in Turnersville. They were well known and had been in business for over two decades. But I’m not the type to just go with the first company that comes to mind or that is recommended. I like to price shop; if I don’t compare costs then I’m always left with this nagging feeling that I might have been ripped off. So I called around and got quotes from three other local fencing companies. All of these quotes came in a few hundred dollars higher than Amechi. I asked a couple of the guys I spoke with from those other companies why they were more expensive. The answers I heard ranged from the quality of nails used (saying that Amechi used cheap nails that would rust in a few years) to size of company (Amechi could charge less because of the higher frequency of work). One thing, however, was told to me be every other person I talked to: “You will not get quality customer service from a company like Amechi that contracts out all their jobs.” As much as that thought lingered with me, I decided to save the money and go with Amechi Fence. Over $3,000 later and a few scheduling push backs due to bad weather our new fence was installed (mostly) in mid-July 2008.

The fence looked awesome. So what if they hit the sprinkler system 4 times? So what if it was only 99% done? It was new and way better than the 20 year old dilapidated junker we had removed. All was right with the world…for about 2 weeks. The following 3 and a half months were torturous. As I write this on November 11^th, 2008 I look back and realize I have NEVER, EVER had such a horrible experience with a company. And I’ve had some bad experiences. I should have learned my lesson about using a company that contracts all its work out when I had multiple issues with a large cable tv/phone/internet company that gave me headaches close to those I am now having with Amechi Fence. Maybe this is, after all is said and done, a “shame on me” situation. Let me be clear about one thing here, I never will blame the contractor in this situation (which is why they will not be named in this article). This is purely a customer service issue, and whether or not your company decides to use contracted work should have no impact on the type of service you give the paying customer.

Early August came and I ended up calling Amechi three times to get someone out to finish the fence. You see, when they originally came out a small section was left undone because they ran out of materials. I also wanted them to take a look at the gate they put in because it wouldn’t close anymore, only bang into the metal clasp that was made to lock it in place. I mean if you struggled, and pulled up, and wedged….it would eventually close. At that point I was confident Amechi would make it right, I mean I had only had it for 3 weeks! The contracted installer finally came out after another phone call and installed the final section of fence. He took a look at the gate and determined the post was warped. No problem I thought, I’ll just get back in touch with Amechi and get a new post.

What happened next is painful beyond all measure. Since that day I have called Lou, a salesman at Amechi, 4 times. After I figured out Lou wasn’t going to get back to me or help, I started calling the manger, Bob Meeks. Every time I spoke to Mr. Meeks he assured me he would handle it and get back to me. That happened THREE TIMES before I finally let out some frustration. It seemed no matter what no one wanted to call back or follow up. On my fourth call to Mr. Meeks he agreed to come out and take a look at the fence. He did come out. Now we’re getting somewhere! Not so fast. Yet again I had to call him after a week and a half of not hearing anything. He told me he would personally handle it, that he would fax over the details to the owner right away. A week passed…nothing. AGAIN I CALLED. A few days later he left me a voicemail stating that the owner, Mr. Amechi, was out of town with their repair man, Pete. The message also stated that, “next week he would send out Pete to assess what needed to be done.” That was October 14^th. Pete never came. I called Mr. Meeks today, November 11^th. He said Mr. Amechi is out of town (is he still out of town, or did he come back and leave again, OR is that your answer when you don’t want to deal with a customer?) I hung up and decided to stop in the store to talk with someone face to face. Lou was there and said he would now personally handle it and get back to me. About an hour later the contracted installer called me and said he would come out in a couple days to asses the situation (wasn’t he already out once before?). 5 minutes after I hung up with him Lou called me. His basic message for me was that, “warped posts are not covered under warranty” and that, “he understands my frustration.” Really? Does he? From everything I gather the contracted installer will come out in a couple days, determine (again) what needs to happen and the materials needed, and then according to Lou, I will have to pay for the repair. Or the safe bet, which is that I won’t hear back anything for a week or two and have to call them back again.

There are two major problems here. First, the complete runaround from contracted installer to salesman to manger and back to installer again. I truly believe that having a company contract out work causes communication breakdowns that greatly impact customer service in a negative way. The responsibility should fall on the company, in this case Amechi Fence, to follow up and insure a customer is satisfied and taken care of properly. Secondly, the warped wooden post. It may be, as Lou says, “not covered by anybody in the industry.” I have to believe that if I ran a business I would replace a $50 (retail) wooden post for a customer that bought a $3500 fence. In fact, I just called a few local fence businesses and every one of them said that if a post warped within a few weeks of installation they would replace it at no charge. Maybe I should have listened to them all from the beginning. Stay away from companies that contract out their work. Unless of course, you sadistically enjoy having to go through these painful customer service issues.

UPDATE:
I received a call from Bob Meeks, the manager at Amechi Fence today. He told me that he spoke with the installer and the owner, and that they have agreed to cover all cost and material to replace the warped wooden posts. He went on to say that he thought a lot about it and realized that this had been dragged out way too long and that he was impressed by the patience shown on my behalf.

Well, the process was wrong, but the outcome was right. What an answer to prayer!