This is the worst company to deal with ever. I hear they changed their company name, so watch out for any paving company run by Isabella and her husband Frank, or just anyone who falls back on her thick Spanish accent to avoid answering a question straight up, and yell at and threaten you instead!
I don’t know where to begin this review. In hindsight, I should have followed my gut instinct early on that something is amiss, but was in too much of a hurry to get the work done. Lesson learned. Isabel from G Way came twice to give quotes, and when I called to ask when they could do the work, she expressed discontent that she had to come back to give a second quote “which took 2 hours”. My response to her was that the second quote took a long time more because she kept answering her phone (which I was ok with), but not because I forced her to discuss with me, or wait for me for two hours. In addition, the second quote included more extensive work, and thus more money for them, and I would think most companies would be happy with this type of change. In hindsight, when a company starts blaming you at this point, turn and run the other way, since it is absolutely positively a sign of things to come. During the more detailed quote, I had asked what they were going to do with a storm drain pipe that ended near the porch. Isabel said, we’ll run it to an unpaved spot and bury it under the paving. Trouble is, she didn’t tell her husband Frank, who was the one onsite throughout the work, about this. So when I asked him after it didn’t appear done, he said he didn’t know about it and wanted $60 for it. I said, I’m pretty sure it’s included in the price since Isabel said she’ll do it while giving the quote, but if I had to, I’ll pay the 60 to get it done before it’s too late. (I have since had another paving company tell me that what they have done will cause problems in terms of flooding and freezing in the winter). Apparently Isabel also didn’t give Frank a copy of the plan/contract that describes the length/width of the walkways in the backyard. There was a bit of wait for the screening to arrive, so I had a chance to measure the width of one walkway after the excavation. I told Frank the dug-out width was not quite the 3’ shown on the contract, and gave him a copy of contract when he asked for it, and thought it would be taken care of, since at this point it was just a little more shoveling of dirt. The work was scheduled to take two days, but they said they can finish in one. However, the day they chose, apparently their daughter was graduating, so neither Isabel nor Frank wanted to stick around too late. In the meantime, I had to pick up my child from daycare, and in the less than an hour I was gone, the backyard walkways were “done”. I measured the widths and it was still not quite 3’, nor was the other one quite 2’. Frank replied, with, well it’s more than 2’ in some sections, and more than 3’ in others. I had three tired and somewhat angry looking guys and a young child to contend with, so exasperated, I decided to pay them despite my not being completely happy. When I went to pay him, Frank said, it’s another $60 for the pipe. At this point, I have to admit that I lost my temper, and said, you want your $60, well, I want my 3’ walkway. So he took the original amount, and apparently by paying him, I accepted the unsatisfactory work. A friend said that I shouldn’t have paid him, but if you’ve ever taken care of young children, you may be able to understand the challenges of measuring walkways and arguing with trades while taking care of a restless child. The next day, I realized that the lack of width was indeed a problem, and in addition, the lengths of the both walkways were significantly shorter than on the contract. As well, the sides of the walkways were not filled in, so I literally fell off the walkway a couple of times. I called Isabel and although it took 2-3 tries before she even came to look at the “finished” work, she agreed to fix things. After the third no-show/broken appointment to actually fix things, she said that I owed her $60 for the pipe. I said, fine, I’ll pay you the $60 for the pipe after you fix things. After the 5th no-show, she started yelling at me and threatening to measure the front yard paving and charge me extra for any extra paving. I welcomed her to do say, since I was quite sure I was short here as well, but I agreed to it, although she had already given her workers the instructions before she got my approval. In the end, it was an unnecessarily horrible experience. If you are absolutely desperate, enjoy petty arguments, no shows with no calls, being yelled at, blamed and threatened, go right ahead and hire G-way. I also just found out too late that they have a D- rating with the Better Business Bureau. Obviously, by writing this review, I have given up that they’ll ever come back and make things right, but I’ll be happy to update this review if they should do so.
Last summer Bunti came and replaced a wood fence on one side of my backyard that was falling apart. I was so impressed with his skills, work ethics, and professionalism, I asked him to come back and install two other fences (one wood, one wrought iron) this summer on the other side of my home. I'm thrilled with all three fences. When my deck needs to be replaced eventually, I'm definitely planning to ask him to do it. I've recommended him to friends and colleagues, and my only tip is: he's a busy guy, you might need to be a bit persistent, but he doesn't take it the wrong way, and the final product and overall experience are definitely worth the persistence.
This is a good company, although apparently not the cheapest. Paul Gallop is a reasonable and honorable man, which apparently is a rarity in the renovation business. He is detail oriented and very good at understanding (but not judging) client needs. He also comes up with really good solutions on the fly to complex problems that I (and most contractors) would probably never think of. I have hired a few trades to do other renovation tasks without Paul, and can definitely see his added value.
This is one of the best companies I dealt with in over 2 years of renovations. I'm actually grateful to IKEA that they selected Surfacing Solutions to create/install their Staron countertops. Bob, who came to measure, like his installers, was extremely prompt, knowledgeable, professional and accommodating. When I commended Bob for being really reasonable in helping me solve an issue that started at IKEA, he said, "Why go around annoying people?" Why indeed, I only wished that more trades/companies lived by this motto.
I've had major renovations over 2 years, and my experience with Peg makes my top 3 worst renovation experiences. The measurer was prompt, but interrupts a lot, and in the end, was off by a few inches as he insisted we couldn't fit a specific cabinet where we did. The lead assembler seemed constantly shocked that I wouldn't drop everything to go fetch parts from IKEA for him as he discovered they were missing. No, it was not possible as per company policy to check in the beginning what was missing, and give the duration of the renovation (2-3 days) to either go get them or arrange to have them delivered. The supervisor just yells "you need to read the contact!" in response to any disagreement. I had to yell over him many times, "you need to let me finish talking!" The receptionist, while very nice, has likely had formal mediation training. It makes you wonder about a company whose receptionist has/needs mediation training. The quoter was great and knowledgeable, but called back with 10 minutes before he had to leave when I was trying to resolve a time-sensitive problem. I had to call him back, but couldn't reach him because none of their emails give their direct extensions, so if the receptionist is away, there's no way to reach any one quickly. Seems a bit odd that people are so hard to reach directly. Renovations never go off without problems, but, the true nature of the company shows through in how it deals with problems that come up. From my experience, problems will get you yelled at and/or ignored at Peg. My advice: Either stick with contractors/tradespeople you already know and love, and pay the possibly higher price, which I should have done. If you have the time and ability, assemble it yourself, saving yourself money and aggravation. Or, have low expectations, and you won't be disappointed by Peg.
Thank you for your review. At PEG we feel it is important to know how we are doing and we take our customer’s feedback very seriously. We have policies in place at our business to define our customer service levels and these are reviewed with employees regularly. Our office hours are Monday through Friday 9am – 5pm and our work at job sites is also done within these hours, and our phone lines are attended to by a receptionist during these times. An IKEA kitchen installation is very much a do it yourself type of undertaking. The client is responsible for the plans and providing PEG any changes to the plan once quoting has taken place so that we can ensure you are being billed for the work you request. Our pricing package clearly indicates the client’s and PEG’s responsibilities during our contract with you. We at PEG are a service company that can provide you with the assembly and installation portion of your IKEA kitchen. Pricing of the kitchen installation changes when the client requests changes to our services or the plan layout of the kitchen changes thus resulting in a review of our pricing. Our clients are asked to review and then to sign off on the pricing sheets before any work will begin and agree to a payment method and date. You must realize, that with any renovation type work, there can be unforeseen complications along the way and our staff is committed to working through these complications to a resolution that is acceptable to our clients.
