Everyday Homeowner

Barry and Murray were great to work with. From initial communications over text months before closing right up to a few days before the install and confirming date - everything was done on schedule. Due to builder door issues (covered under warranty), we asked Murray to come back and remove inserts from the first doors installed to the new ones. We paid a reasonable fee and very happy with the work. Highly responsive team and experts in door inserts and installation.

After being burned by another contractor, Sureloc and a nightmare experience we were guarded with finding a contractor to finish our front and back yard project(s) which they had abandoned. From the first scoping call with Karla to the handshake and final payment on phase 1 of our project - we have had nothing but a 10+ star experience from the entire Duralock team. The owner, Tony took the time to come by with Karla before quoting us to have a look at our property and give an honest and professional assessment on how the project had been left. Karla was highly communicative, frequently connecting over email, text and phone which provided a great deal of assurance to their commitment to us. She was always early for every meeting and well prepared. Her authenticity is clear through every interaction and she made sure we weren't pressured to make design decisions without taking our time or stressing out further. We even had a fairly significant stone option change in the front (which required changing stone they had just laid down after I changed my mind) and Tony signed off on it without issue. The assigned crew was prompt, efficient and very professional. We had Danny, Calvin, Ryan and Damian on site. They are all hard working with strong work ethic and high standards to having the project done right; carefully laying down stone, stepping back and being mindful of smart design and placement. They cleaned up the job site meticulously at the end of each day, not just at project finish. Danny personally made sure to walk my husband through the progress and ensure he was informed and satisfied. We've been so impressed from start to finish, and we are having them return again for phase 2. Well worth the investment. You get what you pay for, go with someone you can trust!

Arranged for a pool closing, despite it being a part of my contract with the company I purchased the pool from this year. Due to their non responsiveness, we gave up and hired Cannonball. I had been to their store on a few occasions this season for water tests. They never pushed me to buy their chemicals (I did anyway) once the report was printed and were consistently helpful. I requested for my pool closing on a very busy Saturday. They were able to fit me into their schedule and were gladly accommodating. I was given guidance on doing a pool sample prior and preparation prior to the closing date. Spoke to Shane (owner) on a few occasions and he was patient and helpful. He also called the day prior to our closing appointment to confirm the visit for the next day. On the day of (cold, wet and rainy), Trevor and David arrived on site and quickly got to work. They were efficient, but also thorough. Polite in asking to run their equipment to our power supply and educate us on what they were doing. Once done, they tidied up their mess (which we are very particular about) and left. The entire experience was hassle free. We've been burned by a number of contractors this season alone, and happily Cannonball Pools pulled through. It's a small job, closing a pool and applying a pool cover - but they were professional, polite and we will use again for future servicing.

Update: January 3, 2017 Fantastic post sales support 4 years later. Tony and Jeremy showed up promptly within the 90 minute window promised and quickly fixed the open (minor) issues we listed below. Their commitment to excellence, even after years has passed shows top notch service and how business' should run when they take pride not just in their product, but their service and support. After experiencing this - upgraded my 4/5 stars for overall satisfaction to 5/5. We met with Cathy in their factory showroom and signed on after seeing some samples. This was in 2012. Friendly, hard working and communicative they met all of their commitments. Showed up and completed all windows. Happy with the quality, look and privacy they provide. Also keep any drafts out in the winter from the window. It has been 4 years and minor issues to report - only 2 broken hinges and our back sliding door no longer stays shut without slowly opening when in a folded accordian position. I will be reaching out to have these fixed under my warranty.

Quick summary of scoring as a 0, then the detailed review: -1 Project timelines were discussed and not met. We came across the revised schedule by prompting vs. being proactively told -1 Failed to manage our expectations – we kept having to check in on deliverables; permit for the pool, measurements, dig date, pool delivery date (why are we chasing??) -1 Crane included in the project, then billed for a larger crane when location in backyard was moved slightly to the left and should not have affected the cost. -1 Unprofessional behavior - Swearing and smoking staff on the property while our family was watching the crane being lifted to the back. -1 Messy workspace and construction site – every mess you could possibly think of from water bottles to pieces of the pool, to packaging for lighting all spewed across the lawn, rental equipment left for family members to get potentially injured by -1 Poor quality – Stone backfill done incorrectly, bows in pool, no ownership, passing the blame -1 Unskilled/uncertified staff – young adults (could have been teenagers) left unsupervised to work on key parts of the project (concrete pouring, drainage) -1 Failed to share/educate new pool tips, we received a 10 minute run through before Chris (landscape contractor) dashed to his truck and left (mess left behind again) -1 No customer advocate – we raised concerns around most of the above with our sales person, Desi. He immediately took the service side and tried to make us feel completely in the wrong -1 Falsifying information – no accountability for their mistakes/disorganization and a serious inability to deescalate when we tried to reach out and get them to right their wrongs. Mary Sue and Chris are in a relationship, and during email correspondence, when we tried to be objective and share our frustrations around issues with Chris' workmanship- Mary Sue would have a fit. I think it's because they wanted us to get our entire backyard landscaped with them and when we told them we only wanted the pool - they wrote us off since no additional money was being made from the sale. We went with Leisure after meeting Desi and visiting their showroom a few times. Seemed like a down to earth (chatty) sales person who knew a lot about pools. We paid 53000 cash for a piece of junk and what we thought would be our dream pool, the biggest fibreglass pool in their product line. They have major flaws in their project management style. They don't do this work properly, promised one date for the dig and then keep pushing but only when we asked what's happening. Permit work a mess, stuff they should be informing about, but don't. Claiming to be the experts and working through a clueless post sales person, Mary Sue. A lot of times she was giddy and unprofessional, lack of follow up and clarity with each conversation. Then we move to landscaping arrangements and the company they use which we believe is under the same umbrella company is CLH where we get introduced to Chris. He conmunicates poorly with us throughout the project and sends unqualified young guys to work on prepping our backyard. In the end, they wreck our pool during the sloppy backfill of stone. Our pool as two bows. We purchased a brand new pool and they send us a demo. Complete with scratches and unknown markings. Chris swears at his staff while our pool is being dropped by crane into the backyard, which instead of going directly to the hole they dig, ends up plopped at the side of the house since they ordered the wrong crane. Instructions on how to use the pool are brief, we barely get the pool expertise we would expect from such a big purchase. Our ionizer is broken, which was a selling feature to move from salt to chlorine. Garbage and equipment left on our property while they would disappear between visits, then push their way into our backyard unannounced. Very sloppy work and not subject matter experts in their field from how they presented themselves and the final product being installed.

Someone on our street wanted to rush and get their fence done quickly to accommodate a pool installation two years ago which wasn’t in line with everyone else’s timeline for fencing, including us. We were not happy with this contractor from the day we began speaking. Everyone had agreed to different dates, Dan (owner) joined up with 2 neighbors in between everyone and as soon as he had clearance from both he began working. He was not authorized to start our side of the fence!! We kept trying to contact them to clarify our timelines, no answer. Dan started positioning neighbors against one another on our street causing unnecessary friction. Then, one day we come home and posts are dug up – the fence work has begun. A few days later, a stranger comes to my door (who I learn is the owner Dan’s wife) and demands payment. She carried on unprofessionally and didn’t even identify herself. We get into an argument. Our experience with Security Fence was very poor. Pressured into working with them and then terrible customer service. They took unauthorized pictures of our property and spoke rudely to us. The work is inspected and done poorly. Spaces and gaps between the fence, post height done incorrectly, gate posts are not aligned with the fence. Dan was provided with specifications for the fence and he didn’t follow any of them. They refuse to fix the fence, are adamant about payment and ignore our requests to fix the work. Haven’t seen them since to rectify the open issues, we learn other neighbors on our street have the same problem. They were quick to do a sloppy job and when we slowed the brakes on paying until they made things right - they became hostile.

After using a very poor contractor for one side with our neighbors, we sourced Cando to complete the second side of our fence. Fence was completed last year (2015) and we raised some issues to be looked at and fixed. Unfortunately, we were told due to the season and size of the work to be fixed - they would not be coming out. We kept persisting to get the matter escalated (2015-2016). Late last month, we were able to speak with Alon, the owner. After hearing our concerns and that we had done our due diligence to notify Cando of our issues including noting staff names, dates, etc. he was highly empathetic to our situation. He had his team come to review the site and arranged for Elliot to do the work. Elliot went above and beyond. He was communicative, professional and a hard worker who wanted to make sure everything was done correctly. We've used Pickett Fence and Security Fence in the past. Cando has impressed us the most. We were frustrated initially by post sales service but after reaching the key decision maker - overall experience was positive. Issues were limited to final gate posts. Craftmanship for the bulk of the job was good!

Deck looks good, but Stephen and his crew came back repeated times to fix things. Many items did not pass inspection. He was quite responsive initially, then with more persistence and follow up calls, texts and emails. Footings were not dug deep enough which is a big concern and now needs to be fixed. Glass railings took over a month, but in the end these look really nice. In hindsight, we would have used them but definitely watched over the job closely to ensure footings were to code right out the gate and other stuff was simpler to fix. More accountability from this contractor would have been helpful. And ensure they take lots of pictures to prove their work.

Update: October 2016 Zee finally came out and made things right. First review is definitely rated as a 1 star. With the closure and apparent miscommunication between his service staff and himself on scheduling - I am finalizing the review with 4 stars. Initial review below 1 star Met with Zee (owner) at his store on Ridgeway in Mississauga and found a door we liked. He took out our standard builder door (massive gut job) and replaced it with an 8 foot steel single door with frosted glass panels on either side. From the street, the door looks nice (matte black was recommended, but I would suggest going with a glossy finish - matte shows every fingerprint and speck of dust). Unfortunately, up close the craftsmanship, quality and post sales service has been poor. Door purchased in 2012, within the first few months, a hairline cracked on one of the frosted windows, we called in and emailed and it still needs to be replaced. The door is poorly insulated and up close you can see gaps in the drywall from the original frame being removed. Sloppy work done on our project. We have been trying to work through the service manager, Justin for several years with no success.

Update: November 10, 2016 Still no monies returned from Sure-Loc. Tired of the games. Update: October 18, 2016 Still nothing. Shy of 3 months and Sure-Loc has not provided a refund for their breach of contract. We are out $31.5k. They also came on our property unannounced a few weeks ago and took the materials (12 steps) they had dropped off (who does this??) They left the garden wall stones on the driveway (blocking the second garage door for 6 weeks) I would not recommend this company! -- Hired on to do a job after our first interlocking contractor kept delaying their start date, Sureloc knew exactly what our situation was, expectations and timelines. After what we believed were cordial and trust worthy conversations, they began work on our property July 21, 2016 with a very long day and excavation work (lots of equipment and staff, what I believe now was smoke in mirrors). When Shawn and Gina arrived to quote on July 16, 2016 – we were quoted 4-5 day turnaround completion from the start date. We were explicit with our circumstances having just put in a fiberglass pool and needing someone to do concrete and stone work around the pool ASAP to ensure a strong foundation and allow for immediate pool use. Our first interlocking contractor had put us in a pickle with delays and we had had enough. We told Sureloc clearly – we don’t want to start end of July and finish mid August with the contractor we have. We want faster. Can you do it? Sureloc said they had the equipment and manpower to do the job, boasting they owned their assets, never rented equipment, were in the business 20+ years. Shawn said Omg, that’s terrible, can’t believe they (other interlocker) would do this. We can do this fast, so you can have your pool and backyard to enjoy! Our boys can load up the diesel! Every pain point they had was met with how Sureloc was committed to deliver. I see it was now pure lip service. On July 19th we gave Sureloc $5,000 cash which they pushed us to provide to order the stone quickly given the job timelines. On July 21st, excavation day – they refused my draft of $21,600 and requested cash. I went to three banks to give Gina, sales manager my hard earned money. She even had the nerve to say – None of this is for labor, this is mostly to get your stone here asap. Fast forward now, a painful 7 weeks has passed and our property is still a disaster. Constant calls chasing, Gina and Shawn went dark. Finally after a few weeks of emails and voicemails and nervous breakdowns, Ron the owner calls. Then the games begin. Stone to settle, feels loose. Weather delays (there was barely any rain!), stone on backorder. This is where it gets interesting. They boast Best Way stone as the best, Permacon sucks, Techo Bloc no good. I start daily calls to Best Way’s order desk. Guess what? No order. Weeks pass and finally they show up, wrong concrete – no fibre mesh. Come back a week later, concrete in. Mess. Two weeks pass and a terrible coping job is done. Chipped stone installed. Glue lines fully visible across the perimeter of the pool. Kids cut their feet on the sharp edges. The construction site they've left is unsafe! It’s September 8th now. Backyard and front yard still fully excavated. Dust everywhere. Stones and nails everywhere from bad gravel also – not clean. Garbage. Now we’re fighting time to close the pool and they continue to take us on a roller coaster of headache and frustration. We wouldn’t want this for anyone in the world. They took our money and keep pretending stuff is happening behind the scenes or through having a few hundred dollars worth of retaining wall and steps sitting on our property blocking the driveway for weeks. Save your sanity, this is our personal heartbreaking experience. I’ve woken up every day for 7 weeks to this nightmare….and it still continues. Pool coping pictures- work is not done well. Glue visible in prominent areas around the pool, stone is not level (no shims used), cracked stone used for project while surplus leftover is better stone than the ones laid. Update: September 14, 2016 Sureloc continues to be evasive. Lots of emails back and forth telling us they are ready but they want to meet to discuss the project scope (why????, it's all in the breached contract) and then silence all over again.