Patsy K.
07/03/2012 12:00:00 SA
For starters, Doing one job at a time like their website claims, is absolute crap. I lost count of how many times Lucy & Tom (master plumber & proj mgr) actually told us they had too many jobs to keep up with & were so busy; I really need to get over to this one in Westlake Hills, so yours HAS to be finished tomorrow even though there were SO MANY problems left unaddressed! We chose L&M based on the reviews & photos on their site & regret it. To be told straight to her face that this is not a job we want to take photos of for our website by Lucy herself blew my roommate away & proved their true work ethic. She wasn't talking about design, colors, etc. the work is so poor & shoddy she didn't want to take credit for it! Fortunately, I work in Facilities & have had many opportunities to share the experience with other coworkers & industry professionals and refer them elsewhere. I will be the first to say my roommate's house has a lot of problems, its run down, but this bathroom was remodeled by people who didn't care about their workmanship & its abundantly clear in the photos taken the day Tom left after arguing this was as good as anyone would do. 3 times my roommate had to demand the painters come back because they did such a crappy job. If you saw it yourself (contact me, I'll be happy to share pictures & offer better referrals), you would think my friends painted it & say, man, yall should have hired some professionals! On the tub, there were two different colors of caulk used. It's messy & my roommate confronted Tom about it several times-he told her it was the best they could do & anyone who does this would have the same results. You can barely push on the shower wall but hear it cave in, stick to the hardy plank behind it & pop back up. She pointed that out too & Tom actually told her don't worry it's glued down real good around the edges. I'm not takin' it off now! Seriously?! I will give credit that they came up w/some solutions to the walls being uneven around the vanity & chose good quality parts, but the actual work they did is just embarrassing. We feel like we were ripped off in the worst way & taken advantage of since we did complain repeatedly, send photos of our concerns to Lucy & were basically bullied into backing down because they were just too busy to deal with our small project! When Lucy came & did the initial quote my roommate told her she didn't want it painted or tiled and that money was an issue. Lucy pushed & insisted on including the costs in the quote anyway-we asked for a breakdown & couldn't get one; Lucy guaranteed we'd be happier having them do it. We both really wish we'd not backed down to her bullying & done it ourselves! Tom again said after the 3rd time the painters came back that nobody would cut a line straighter than this! There's paint on shower walls (he says, well, just scrape it off Um, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have to scrape it off!), paint running over the line where the tile meets the wall, door frame/ceiling look horrendous. But L&M will no doubt be quick to tell you they use contractors for that & can't control them...Lucy had to come out herself to fix some plumbing issues because they were so busy (doing one job at a time HA!) that she couldn't get her go-to guy to come do it for her. He had to come anyway the next day. Nobody who visits sees that work though, they see the tacky paint lines, the messy caked on caulk that's different colors, the gaping openings where the side panels of the shower should meet. You can't convince me water's not getting in there like Tom claimed. There are huge gaps where two of the walls meet that weren't caulked at all, much less in different colors! L&M overcharges for the quality, doesn't care about their actual customers wants/requests & steamrollers you into paying for what L&M will get the most money for, adding on extra things you specifically said you didn't want while talking down to you like you're a complete moron until you give in & agree stupidly thinking that, as professionals, they must know best. They rush through jobs without taking care of the things that are most noticeable cosmetically.My roommate actually asked Tom point blank: Tom! If this were in your home, would you leave it like this? he sheepishly said, Well, no I wouldn't so she said, ok, then don't expect me to accept it in mine! She complained & let him know she was not happy, she'd already emailed Lucy several times about concerns, including photos (we still have the emails too) & everytime it was just pushed off. They made her feel so inferior that it just became easier to get them out!Having the messes & carelessness fixed doesn't even matter anymore but we are both making absolutely sure to share this with everyone we meet & let them know this is not the place they want to take their business to. I'm glad I've had the opportunity to keep at least 4 people from taking business here simply by showing them the photos.