Paul W.
03/11/2017 12:00:00 SA
I contacted Regal Bath & Kitchen for a remodel of my master bathroom. Let me start off by saying that I am actually happy with the quality of work that was performed. 90% of the remodel work was performed by an employee by the name of Eric who was professional & courteous the entire time he was in my home. The reason for the low rating was the Project Manager Rich was easily the rudest, most dis-respectful, & stand-offish Contractor that I have ever worked with. The remodel started off simple enough, pricing wasn't too bad, Rich did try to mark-up the Tile needed for the project to make a profit on it. Pretty typical for Contractors to try that, it balanced out when I told him that I priced out the Tile from their supplier & I knew how much they were paying for it, & I had selected a bathtub that was higher than my allotted price included the remodel estimate, so it evened out. The real issues started when some mold & termite damage was found under the old shower when it was demo'd. Rich did not want Regal Bath to take care of it, I'm guessing that he was worried about legal liability, but he did not have any info on Contractors to do this kind of work & I was left 100% responsible for taking care of everything without any help or direction from Regal Bath after giving them a $4000 deposit to start my remodel, & literally all the work that they had done so far was demo the old shower & tub. So after I called around & had a multitude of other Contractors in my home giving me estimates on the damage repair, I found out from a mold treatment company that per the EPA guidelines if the section of mold is less than ~10sq. ft. then anyone can take care of it. The mold was only on a section of my linen closet that was being demo'd to make room for us getting a bigger shower. After telling Rich this & texting him a link to the EPA info, he still had no intention of finishing the demo. So I demo'd the linen closet & treated the mold myself. Since I was wasn't about to pay for something that I had to do myself, I asked Rich how much he was charging me for the closet demo...$100 he claimed, I knew that he was full of crap, but in the interest of moving forward, I told him to make it $200 & just let it go. The Termite damage was repaired by another company who does damage restoration as well as remodels. So after 3 weeks of no progress on my remodel & my fiancee & I sharing a bathroom with our teenage children, Rich was ok with someone else signing off the repair work & progress could be resumed on my bathroom. After about 5 days worth of work, Rich was demanding another $4000 or the work would have to stop. I told him that the last I gave him $4000 the work DID stop on my bathroom, & I had plenty of other Contractors in my home who do remodels & they were wondering why he hadn't taken care of the repair work himself. I suggested a reasonable payment schedule to him of giving him $2000 the next day, another $2000 when all of the tile work had been completed, then dividing the final payment in two increments: one when the glass for the shower had been ordered & the last after it had been installed. Rich then lost his temper & proceeded to cuss me out saying that he didn't a s*%t what other Contractors said...& so on & so forth. He changed his tune when I didn't back down & told him that he could walk away from the project if he wanted to & that I would just hire someone else. He agreed to my proposed payment schedule & gave me a fake apology for cursing & losing his temper. I just wanted my bathroom done, so I agreed to let it go. They were also supposed to leave me the leftover Tile that I payed for once the project was complete, Rich had one of his guys pick it up knowing that I requested that they leave it, my guess is Rich wanted it for another project to maximize his profit. Some of the Tile was returned when I asked about where it went, but not all of it that was leftover. Even with all of that, I wasn't going to leave a negative review, I was willing to bygones be bygones & part ways on a friendly note. The final straw was when Rich came to pick up the final payment for the project. I gave him the final check & everything was paid in full, he shook my hand & proceeded to leave. I closed my door & was walking away when all of a sudden Rich rang my doorbell again. With a bad attitude & a complete change in demeanor, Rich claims "That check wasn't for the right amount, you are few thousand dollars short!!!", so he is accusing me of under paying. I told him that it was the correct amount & he needed to think about it for a bit, I had to recite all of the payments that were made to him. Then with another complete change in demeanor he says, "You're right, my mistake". Seriously...know how much money someone owes you BEFORE you go to collect it. So I would definitely Not rehire Regal Bath, just from my experience dealing with Rich. He either has some issues, or tries to take advantage of customers if they'll let him.