Jane T.
09/07/2014 12:00:00 SA
Ken Armstrong of Armstrong Innovations: FRAUD ALERT for custom kitchen and bathroom remodel. The old common contractor practice of fraud is alive and well, and I found it in Anthem, AZ. He's an underskilled laborer who took our money and hired another equally unskilled subcontractor, and together, they ruined all 3 of our expensive countertops. Ken's highly distracted and disorganized, and has enormous difficulty staying on any task, so he didn't, with us. He instead started something else, and never quite finished anything he started, but he had no problem asking for lots more money for his shoddy workmanship while overcharging by thousands. He kept and hid the receipts to himself, despite more than one request for them, leading to suspicion about his questionable business practices, since he already lied to us about his availability and about showing up for work, and he had covered the damaged wood he installed in our home with blue tape over it. He called this "custom design." We would soon discover that we had legitimate reason to confirm our suspicion was true, and to fire him, to prevent further financial loss. "It's no big deal" not to show up for work, he said, with a childish, unprofessional excuse, representing the best of what I saw of his business acumen. He's excessively arrogant about what he does badly, and he did it all badly. From the brown water discharge from my new plumbing he installed, to the white tile he poorly grouted and failed to correct, to the stone flooring he discolored with his dirty sealant, to the damaged and scarred wood he installed, to the pocket door he hung wrong per installation instructions he didn't read, to the countertop fiasco with no one using published installation instructions, resulting in uneven and unlevel and unusable surfaces, and to all other numerous issues he created for himself, he blamed his blatant installation errors on everything else BUT himself, offering faulty logic for his costly shortcomings, never admitting he grossly misrepresented his capabilities, and himself as a reputable businessman. He walked off our job during his subcontractor's countertop installation, so he could bid on another project. I watched as no level and no measuring tape was used, resulting in a sloppy countertop I can't use because of gross height and leveling deficiencies. "That's just crazy", he said, when I inquired about his need to measure the range for its custom height requirements in preparation for the countertop installation. Putting countertops on before putting cabinet doors on was one of his very bad judgments. "Trust me", he said about his countertop subcontractor, whose last name and business card he withheld from us when asked, so that we could follow up with our Silestone 15 year warranty that we will never see that he failed to produce for us after we paid for the material and the installation. While he was hired to work with us, he was evasive and unavailable. He offered us whatever we asked for in our custom design, then told us he had lots of experience with it, then left us completely inconvenienced with poor attendance, poor quality work, and failing to honor his word of being available to us for his assistance with our custom project. He offered to spend some of his contracted time picking up and delivering our tub, toilets, and larger purchases for us, but, he left us to do it for ourselves. He said that he would help us with design ideas and specific material selections for our custom design, but didn't, then rudely blamed us for delaying him, leaving us hanging and causing us further delays, such that we had to ask for the face to face meeting with him in writing, that he refused. He refused to guarantee his work, and then insulted us before asking us for 4500 more dollars the next day. He made excuses for the 3940.00 problem he created with the countertops, then walked away from the project. Completely abandoned with no contact for over two weeks, he left us with poor workmanship and leaky plumbing and no cabinet doors. He cashed our 5000 dollar check without depositing any of it. "When is Ken coming back from vacation?" asked one of his subcontractors, during the time period he was given to fix the identified errors in our home, while time ticked away towards his given deadline. His lack of integrity and ability to follow through with his approaching deadlines describe his style. You deserve to know in advance that he doesn't make his own cabinet doors, but he never told us that until just before he abandoned the project, when we confronted him about his poor quality work and asked for that face to face meeting that he refused. This dog is not worth the filing fee to take to court, but I'd love to show a jury the pictures and video of what he thinks is good work. Underskilled, unethical, and blatantly dishonest is what we experienced. Countertop subcontractor works for business whose license is suspended by ROC.
