I hired Dodds to replace the rear door in my garage, to install weatherstripping, aluminum capping on the frame of the front and rear doors, and an aluminum bottom retainer with rubber for the front door.
Ive called Dodds office and was given the date and time of the visit of the sales person/estimator. I got a day off, but nobody came at the appointed time. When I called Dodds office, they told me that they forgot to give the sales person my request. Finally, the sales person/estimator arrived. He gave me a written quote with the total amount, without prices of each type of work. Luckily, I wrote down his verbal quotes for each job. When Ive put his estimates together it turned out that the total amount in his quote exceeded his verbal estimates.
I had to make several phone calls to make sure he adjusts the total.
When the technician (Zaza) came over to complete the installation on the appointed day, he started by asking me how to install the capping. I told him I'm no expert in garage door installation and suggested that he calls his project manager. This caused Zaza an inexplicable outburst of indignation.
Zaza spent 8 hours in my garage. His work was unsatisfactory.
- Weatherstripping was not finished;
- For some reason the keypad was installed too high, which made it difficult to use;
- Zaza damaged one of the wooden beams;
- The screws used by Zaza to install the bottom retainer with rubber were longer than necessary and ended up sticking out on the other side. His work caused cracks on an expensive custom-made wooden door. That door was not new, but he could avoid causing additional damage. I've asked him why he used such long screws. He told me he had only that length.
When I pointed out all the mistakes, Zaza called us poor clients that he had never met before. And he left with a proud look.
Right after he left, the garage door refused to close. I don't know if it was a mere coincidence that the mechanism broke down after Zaza completed the work in the garage, or if Zaza had damaged it.
On the next day after my email, a project manager from Dodds head office came to inspect the work. He had to acknowledge that I had every reason to be unhappy with the quality.
A day later, Dodds sent a professional master technician. He managed to fix almost all the problems caused by Zaza (except for the holes in the front door that remained after replacing the long screws, and height level of the keypad).
So, generally speaking, you can deal with Dodds, but only as long as the work is not done by the man by the name of Zaza, and only after you get a written detailed quote with itemized prices.
