Fine Home Contracting and Our Approach to Reviews
Transparency and honesty are crucial in any industry, but they’re particularly vital in the world of home remodeling. At Fine Home Contracting, we believe in owning our mistakes and using them as opportunities to learn and grow. That’s why we don’t delete bad reviews.
Transparency is a part of our process from start to finish: Firstly, we try to be transparent in whether projects are worth it. While you might have a budget and wishlist already, figuring out how much of that wishlist can be accomplished on your budget is tricky. We try to provide an honest, transparent assessment of your project’s feasibility, rather than building out a proposal that is an unwise investment for your property, even if it’s what you might currently want.
When we present an estimate, our goal is to list out each individual expected cost, explain why it’s incurred, and give you the information and resources necessary to accurately budget your project, and compare that budget against other contractor’s proposals.
In building our company around transparency, honesty, and being a resource for homeowners, we’ve also made a difficult choice: We do not remove negative reviews of Fine Home Contracting.
What Bad Reviews Tell You
Any contractor that says they’ve perfectly finished every project they’ve taken on, and done so under budget, is lying to you. While we aim for excellence in every project, there are times that unseen contingencies affect projects, and looking at a contractor’s reviews can tell you how they deal with unexpected changes, cost overruns, and changes in project scope.
Reviews are the pulse of our business, providing invaluable insights into our performance. Bad customer reviews, often seen as a blemish, are, in fact, opportunities for growth, and deep insights into where our customer experience, pricing, and build quality can be improved.
The Dark Side of Review Management
While some companies opt to remove negative feedback, we stand firm in our belief that this only undermines trust. Censoring customer voices does more harm than good, creating a skewed and unrealistic portrayal of a company’s capabilities.
Being Candid: This is our Worst Review.
Fine Home Contracting was a disaster from the second meeting. The owner assigns “project managers” to each project who are supposed to be well-versed in all areas of building. Unfortunately, that is not the case – these young men have very little experience with anything. The professional paint job I was promised turned into a nightmare. The project manager failed to sand, fill holes, remove the railing or other items and simply began to paint, stating to me “I’m not a professional, but I have painted before”.
Then, I was promised the largest non-tile shower for our bonus space – what was said they could do turned into the contract stating only 36″x36″, which later measured at 32″x32″ with very poor plumbing work that could have caused major leakage had I not moved on to a better contractor who has provided me a much larger shower and fixed all of FHC’s mistakes. Everything David and I discussed in person from sealing off crawl spaces from the elements to removing a bathroom wall was put in the contract in such a fashion that he was able to later manipulate into doing less or pretending he meant something different. Every single person who was hired underneath the project manager told me in private that they will never do work for this company again as they, too, were not given what was promised or the job was not what they were told and they ended up losing money on it.
After all of this, David refused to respond to me and wants to move on, yet he has my money for work he claims was done properly and is now saying that I did not give him the opportunity to complete the work. This is ridiculous as he was doing all of the work improperly and constantly cutting corners. He told me parts did not exist (not just cause of supply chain, but that they did not exist at all), while my current contractor is installing them as I type this. Do not use this company!! I have had numerous others reach out to me about the failures of FHC since my recent experience.
So What Happened?
First off as the owner I have to take full responsibility: in the time frame of this particular review, the company was fast growing and as a result a lot of things were being overlooked, and frankly, a disaster.
The biggest jump in a small business is hiring (and wow did we get it wrong in cycles for almost a year until we figured it out.) I had lots of sleepless nights and occasionally still do…
Like in any relationship, when your clients lose trust, it can be impossible to regain it, or by the time we have found out about an issue and try to get a project back on the rails, it has gone too far and a hard breakup is the only route out.
In this particular case, both parties had challenges in their life separate from the remodel, which contributed to the project falling apart.
Looking back, this and other projects that went sideways have given us the opportunity to better our company, how we respond to issues, and how we prepare for unexpected problems.
What We’ve Done Since.
In the time since this review was published in 2022, we’ve retooled almost every aspect of how we handle remodels.
- Communication: We’ve implemented new project management and communication tools (BuilderTrend) to keep our client communications in one organized space.
- Project Manager Quality: While previously we hired with the goal of training up project managers, we’ve found that industry experience is vital to overseeing larger remodels. We’ve moved from training our own PMs to hiring experienced industry experts who are already performing above the industry standards in their niche.
- Transparency: We’ve reworked our price quote system and always provide a transparent, line-item list of costs for your remodel. If you’re in the early stages, we’re happy to offer ballpark estimates, but make it very clear that those prices may change as details are carved out.
- Client Education and Involvement: We’ve enhanced our process to include more client education and involvement at every stage of the remodel. This ensures our clients are well-informed about their choices and the remodeling process, helping to set realistic expectations and foster a collaborative environment.
- Quality Control Measures: We’ve instituted stricter quality control measures to ensure the highest standards are met across all our projects. This includes regular on-site inspections by senior management and detailed checklists that cover all stages of construction and finishing.
- Feedback Loop: We’ve established a formal feedback loop with our clients post-project completion to gather insights and continually refine our process. This ongoing dialogue allows us to stay aligned with client needs and industry best practices.
About the Author: David Perrotti
