Royal Crown Aluminum Inc

Railings
Vaughan ON L4K
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Peter in Toronto
Peter in Toronto
3 reviews Toronto, ON
3/10

Fascia, soffits, eavestroughs

Frankly, I regret having chosen Royal Crown Aluminum to replace our fascia, cover the soffits and build new eavestroughs and downspouts. Their quote was lowest, but it was a mistake to try to save a few hundred dollars.
A job that was supposed to start on time and take “about three days,” according to Tom, the genial and sincere estimator, dragged on for two and a half weeks, forcing me forgo work and to cancel an out-of-town trip in order to be on the site.
There were always excuses, sometimes weather-related, but “the truck wouldn’t start for three days” hardly strikes me as appropriate, nor does a subcontractor being called to a “worker’s compensation meeting” in mid-job. Nor, I’d wager, was the subcontractor explaining (apologetically) that he couldn’t finish the job on Monday of the third week because he had to go that day to buy a car from an acquaintance who was offering him a deal too good to pass up because the friend was leaving the country; then he started late on Tuesday because the car, he said, was overheating and had to go to the mechanic.
The subcontractor doing the fascia work replaced only a couple of boards — not all, as described in the written estimate — leaving several cracked through (they’re about 80 years old) and covering them with aluminum cladding. A weary-sounding Ashley, at Royal Crown, described this subcontractor as one of their “best” and “most experienced” fascia/soffit installers and I should trust his opinion; to me, this did not enhance the company’s reputation. His workmanship, although generally acceptable, was crude in places — it had to be redone where he left dented, bent, misaligned aluminum with visible seams on the street-facing front of an elegant Beach-neighbourhood home, detracting from rather than enhancing its value. He tended to be slapdash on the first try (for instance reattaching a telephone cable stretched around a brick corner where it would have frayed in the first wind or ice storm), but he always cheerfully took the time to correct such problems when they were pointed out. On the second try, I must add, his workmanship was fine.
When the eavestrough crew finally arrived, they brought the wrong colour downspouts and elbows. Rectifying that took more than an hour. Then, as they were installing the troughs, I noticed that the specified T-Rex leaf guard was not going up; the lead hand said, “I don’t know anything about leaf guard.” So there was another phone call to the project manager (who had paid a short visit to the site earlier in the day, about the colour). It had been dark for an hour before the last of the leaf guard was installed. I don’t know what would have happened had I not stayed home to oversee details that one would think should’ve been a no-brainer; it was tiresome in the extreme.
My recommendation: Pay a bit more to hire a small firm, where the owner is the boss and is on site, supervising at all times.

Approximate cost of services:
$8,000.00
What could this company do to improve their services?
Better manage staff to get the job done on time.
Any advice to offer fellow homeowners facing a similar project?
See last paragraph of review
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Company Response

Dear Peter, Royal Crown Aluminum is dismayed to hear about your discontentment. Our policy is and always has been to provide our customers with the very best installation and repair of aluminum products. Sadly to say there are times that projects encounter difficulties which are beyond our control. Our staff and crewmembers make every attempt and effort to rectify problems and issues that may arise unexpectedly. Rarely there are times members of our crew are called away from the job-site in order to take care of matters that are work-related and which must be attended to immediately and we make every effort to send another installer in his/her place. Please accept our sincerest apologies on behalf of any of our crewmembers who felt it necessary to attend to other matters away from the job-site. On our initial estimate to you, we did in fact include that all fascia board would be replaced; however the estimate was subsequently revised to reflect the work that was actually done. Our installers are well trained and experienced, so it remains to be seen why you would want to pay more for something that was not necessary. Regarding your comment about Ashley - It is a fact that Ashley is a competent, well-versed and highly skilled sales coordinator and is always kind, considerate and cordial to all of our customers, and we have never had a complaint such as yours before. Regarding your commentary with respect to wrong colour downspouts and elbows and the T-Rex leaf guard– we made every effort to correct them as quickly as possible and did so on the very same day. We did provide additional work including reattaching the telephone cable and capping of beams at the front entrance which was not in your estimate; we did not charge you for this additional work. As well, we removed all of your garbage and disposed of same at the local scrap yard thereby incurring this charge voluntarily and additionally at no cost to you. All of this was done as a courtesy to you. In closing please be advised that we do not ask nor do we expect our customers’ to oversee our installers as they work and it is solely a customer’s choice to do so. At Royal Crown Aluminum it is always our policy to ensure our customers’ are 100% satisfied with the projects we undertake, so we are sorry that you feel as you do. We stand behind our commitment to provide our customers’ with the very best service during the installation and repair of aluminum products, which is what we do best. We wish you the best of luck in all of your future endeavours and thank you once again for your business. Happy New Year!