ComplaintsforArtistic Iron LLC

• Initial Complaint

  04/26/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I hired Artistic Iron to make and install a railing four our front steps due to safety concerns. I paid a deposit on November 21st of 1041.21$. The railing was installed in March. It was unstable and rocked back and forth. I requested it to be fixed. The company ghosted me and never returned my call for weeks. Then they stole the railing from my front steps without my consent. *******, the owner called to tell me this afterwards. I told her I would like it fixed. They have ghosted me again. The have my railing and my deposit. I have tried to call and email the company with no response. There are bolts sticking out of the steps, which is a safety liability. I feel taken advantage of and don't know what to do. At this point I would like a refund and the bolts removed and wholes fixed.

  Business response

  05/13/2024

  Yes, we contracted with ***************** to manufacture and install a railing on 11/09/2023, whereby a deposit of $1,041.21 was received and was deposited on 11/20/2023 and a balance of $1.041.22 was due at acceptance of installation. All communication was civil and went well and after some rescheduling due to weather we went out and installed the railing for **************** on 03/22/2024. At this time she signed acceptance of the railing and wrote on the completion sheet Railing vibrates, but Im happy. If it should become loose I will let you know. Thanks!. On 03/25/2024 she sent me an email,indicating that she would like to get it secured. On 03/26/2024 I returned from an oversees trip and was informed that ***************** was elated with the railing we installed and that it has a little vibration but she will let us know if this becomes a problem. At this point I did not read my emails as I had just gotten back and thus did not read Mrs. ******* email asking us to get the railing secured. So I proceed to call ***************** whom I thought was a happy client as we spent significant time in getting the design to her liking and vision,so I was excited to hear what she thought of how the railing turned out.  What a great way to start coming back from a trip, to hear from a happy customer. The conversation started very jovial and that she proceeded to tell me that the installer told her that the railing was top heavy (this is because of the design choices both ***************** and I made in the design elements) thus causing the instability, she indicated that she wanted it fixed. I immediately thought that since its top heavy that that would mean that we would need to change the design of the railing. At this point I said then we would need to change out the top rail on the railing as we prolonged the volute quite abit. I was then told that she does not want to change the design and that we are the experts and should have known that with that design choice the railing would be unstable. I explained to her that we do not have engineers on staff to do design calculation and that this is the first railing that this has ever happened to and I can only attribute this to the design elements we used as this was the first time doing this design we had no way of knowing that it was going to unstable. Prior to this conversation I had not even spoken to the installer about the issue so I was really not aware of how unstable it was. As I did not feel equipped with all the correct information I told her that I will look into and get back to her back when we both were a little calm. Of which I admit I did not get back to her in a timely fashion as I had no idea what the correct solution needed to be get this fixed,and neither ***************** call me to followup .
  There was no further communication from me to ***************** or from ***************** to myself, thus I believe I was not ghosting her.  I had sent our installer out on 03/29/2023 to see what could be done to stabilize the railing and he came back with pictures and feedback that we are not able to stabilize the railing without having to modify it. As I knew ***************** loved the railing design I wanted to make sure we could find a better solution without having to compromise on design. So I finally made it there with my installer on April 18th to look at the railing for myself and I was really not happy to see the railing being so unstable, and understood the need to get stabilized.  We spent over half an hour on site trying to find plausible solutions and finally found one that I was happy with and I felt the client would be happy with as well, as we found a solution to stabilize the railing without having to compromise on the design. I then proceeded to give ***************** a call at 1:15 pm in the hopes that she was home so we could let her know what we are thinking of as the solution, unfortunately she did not answer and so I left her a voice message letting her know that I had found a solution for the stabilization of the railing and would like to discuss the option with her. I honestly cannot remember if I mentioned the fact that I am taking the railing back to the shop as the solution I am presenting needed the railing to be modified and that we do not do that type of modification on site.So I proceeded to take down the railing and brought it back to my shop. The next morning when I got back into the office I had still not heard from ****************, so I proceeded to call her. I started my conversation by saying Hi ***************, I have taken down your railing. And before I could finish my though or even let her know what the solution to get it fixed was, I was accused of stealing their railing. She then proceeded to put me on speaker phone and I could hear her husband in the back ground ranting all sorts of threats and accusations  at me, and this is the first that I had any interaction with ******************. I offered to stopby their home that same day with their deposit check and have the bolts cut off, and repaired. To which ***************** was fine but ****************** was still going on in the back ground about calling the police, writing bad reviews and take us to court.Thus sending  me such mixed message as to what to do. At a certain point ***************** asked to speak to my husband. When my husband came on the phone **** ****** proceeded to tell him her side of the situation and when he offered solutions he was met with the same reactions from ****************** in the background and thus there was no clear direction from them as to how they would like to handle this situation.  At a point ***************** also mentioned that she would like to have her deposit refunded to her but that we would still need to fix the railing and come out and install that for her and then she would pay us the deposit back, and when asked about the final payment, we were told that we did not deserve the final payment of the project. This was not acceptable to us. She also mentioned to my husband that I promised her that we would just give her the railing and would refund her full deposit, so literally just give her a product with no monetary compensation for it as this was what they deserved.. We also offered them a $200 discount on the project. With providing many viable options they were still not able to clearly tell us what it is that they wanted and how it is that they wanted us to proceed forward. At a certain point we asked to put them on hold, but the phone got cut off unintentionally. I did not call them back. At that point I printed a refund check for their deposit check and planned to drop it off personally, and wanted to hand it to them in their hand. On numerous occasions I asked if she was at home for me to do stopby, I was not given an answer  but was instructed to drop off the check in the mailbox, to this I was not happy just leaving the check in the mailbox without getting a signature to say they are officially cancelling the contract with Artistic Iron. Before I could get the check to them, I got a call from *****************  telling that she has pressed charges against me with the police for trespassing, theft and property damage. At this point I had seek legal counsel and the decision was made not to drop off the check and to keep all communication going further via email
  A little while after that she called me back to ask me when I am dropping of her deposit check, this time I let the call go to voicemail. I had no intention to go onto their property as she had already indicated to me that she has charge me for trespassing.  I could not put the check in the mail as we still had a binding contract to provide them with a railing. So later that day after speaking to my legal counsel  4 different options were presenting to them via email, asking them to choose the option they wanted to execute.  The next day I received a response indicating that they would like to execute option 4, which involved both parties signing a mutual release so that we can terminate the contract signed on 11/09/2023, refund them there deposit and we retain the rail.
  Based on the choice they made, our legal counsel **** up a release which was sent to them for signature on 4/22/2024. ****************** replied that if I send him a new release without the non disclosure clauses in it that he would be happy to review it (the most civil email, I have received from him).Not even 10 minutes later he sent another email not wanting to sign a release, (even though option 4 that *************** informed us was their choice, outlined clearly a execution of a mutual release) and demanded that we return his deposit and fix the holes, and that if I try to send him another release to sign that I will get a court summons.  Again we were given conflicting messages.We attempted to make this right in everyway possible within all reasonable judgment,however with so many threats and accusations thrown at us, I at this point chose to keep silent and wait for the court summons which I believe is what they are refereeing to as ghosting.
  Thereafter I proceeded to get more emails from ****************** with more threats, to which I did not respond. I also received emails from ************* and ****************** that a report has been filled against **** finally received and email on 04/25/2024 stating that they have a quote from their contractor to fix the holes for $400.00 and if we do not respond to them within a week he will get the work done and will ask the court to recover this fee for him.  To avoid further conflict of this tense situation the pragmatic thing to do was to let the contractor fix the holes and so within an hour and half of receiving that email I reached out to them to ask for a written quote and that I would happily write a check for $400 to the contractor and would mail out the contractors check and there deposit check via certified mail to them. Not even half an hour after sending that email to him, I get a call from the *********************. Long story short, ****************** finally signed a release to have deposit refunded to them and the railing would belong to Artistic Iron  and previous contract would become null and void, (which he could have done on the onset and avoided prolonging it), and the Denver ******* emailed  it over to me and was informed that ****************** upon returning home in an hour would send me a copy of the contractors quote so we can get him paid. After about 2 hours of not getting the email quote as he indicated he would, I reached out to the ******* who contacted me earlier that day letting him know that I am still waiting. The Officer called ***************** as I did not have Mr. ******** number.After speaking to her, the ******* indicated they have changed their minds yet again and that ***************** would like to keep the railing and that they would accept our offer for a $200.00 discount on the contract, for being a disgruntled customer, and get their independent contractor to come pickup the railing from our premises and will install the railing in an as is condition on their home, without any modifications, to assist with the stabilization. The police office indicated that report was closed of and it was considered as just a civil dispute. Again after some further back and forth with getting the wrong release signed and sent over to me, we finally got the correct paper work signed and their contractor finally pickup the railing and we were paid the discounted amount, and happy to have this behind us.
  Small businesses are run by humans and mistakes can happen,it is up to us human to own up to our mistakes and I believe Artistic Iron has.Artistic Iron is not perfect but will strive to do everything righteous by our clients, but at the same token will not standby to see small businesses being taken advantage of. I do acknowledge that I need to do better on my communication, and that I should have checked in with the client before removing the railing, but in my excitement of coming up with a plausible solution all reasonable thought left me and I acted hastily, for which I am sorry. I took down the railing with the intent to fix it and stabilize it as per Mrs. ******* request to have the railing secured, so I did not steal the railing as I am being accused off. I only ghosted the client when communication was  one side, belligerent andthreatening with legal action and when I felt I had no further solutions to fix the  situation is attainable, and was willing to leave it up to our justice system. We were accused of having both their railing and deposit, but no mention is made of the final payment that was due upon installation of a product they now have in the same condition as when we first installed it or any intention to payment of that. Upon knowing that they were not happy that I took down the railing I immediately offered to cancel the contract and come and drop off the deposit, but that was not met favorable either. From all the back and forth that has happened the clients have proceeded to have the same unstable railing that they absolutely love installed by another contractor as is, and got it at a $200.00 discount, but still would have had to pay an independent contractor to install it. If the instability was such an issue they would have requested for that to be fixed, but I guess they had other intentions. Artistic Iron if given the opportunity would have gladly fixed the railing if given the chance. 

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