ComplaintsforSunshine Rooms

• Initial Complaint

  06/21/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We needed 2 sunrooms and worked with Crystal Structures to get a design that fit our building starting in 2020. After several exchanges of ideas, they produced a Plan A in August of 2021. We went over it and sent detailed dimensions of our concrete structure. They produced a plan B which we studied in detail. It was what we wanted and signed off on it on October 5, 2021. They warned if we made any changes, we would be responsible for all costs including materials, labor, and shipping. Then on October 28, 2021 their engineer sent a long email saying they were sending the sunrooms for production and DO NOT MAKE ANY CHANGES. At the bottom was a small attachment which said plan C. There was no mention of any changes. Because of supply problems, shipping was delayed until March 3, 2022. Assembly on site began in early May. We called the company and talked to the production manager because we wanted a good hard copy of the plans to work from. He said it was in one of the boxes. We found it, plan B, and proceeded. We soon ran into problems, because the structure was not fitting our building. We called the manager and discovered that we should have had plan C. We talked about how to make modifications to make the structure fit. It required redoing some of the work we had done and making changes. We sent them a bill for the extra hours required because of the unilateral changes they made that we never signed off on and didn't want. We didn't ask them to ship us the correct unit. But they refused to compensate at all for their mistakes. We paid $****** for the units. We asked for $*** to compensate us for our extra labor.

  Business response

  08/26/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 10, 2022/07/19) */ In regards to the complaint levied by Donald ******* for 2 custom solariums. We worked very closely with Don and Joel to get this project off the ground and to match the existing space, beginning with initial sales consulting in late 2020 to finalization of shop drawings in early 2022. Our team went over all aspects of the build with them to make sure they were getting everything on their site prepared properly for them to install the rooms we were manufacturing for them. They wanted to install themselves to save money on the project, so to make sure everything went smoothly for them, we went above and beyond normal procedure by researching and discussing at length the type of material they were initially proposing to use to attach our rooms. We discussed everything from the load ratings for those products to make sure the loads would be distributed properly, the type of fasteners needed for a strong connection, how to block the room for the best connection, etc.all this to ensure the rooms would last for decades to come once installed by them. Don and Joel initially signed version B of our shop drawings on October 5th, 2021. Once we got those back and had a few more discussions with them about the rooms, we created the as-built drawings for final production which had a minor change of 1/2" at the sill of the room to ensure an easy and proper installation. We emailed them the changes on October 28th, 2021 and informed them these were the drawings to be used for installation and that we were putting the room into production. When the room was completed we shipped it to Don and Joel and, mistakenly, included a hard copy of the version B of drawings, this was clearly our mistake. So once this was discovered and they reached out to us, we jumped into action to help them resolve the discrepancy. Our installation and production managers worked with them in lock step until we got the installation back on track for them. We acknowledged our mistake and rectified the issue by spending hours of extra time and effort over the weekend to ensure they got all the issues corrected and on the right track. In these conversations, among the countless conversations prior to shipping, we also walked them through various other aspects of the install unrelated to the 1/2" discrepancy, which were not included in the original agreement, without further billing for our time. Then to our bewilderment, Don ******* sends us an invoice for $*** to compensate them for their extra labor. We were caught off guard, especially after they had thanked us for all the extra help and communicated their overall satisfaction for the product and service they received. We felt this invoice was unnecessary considering the amount of extra time and effort we spent above and beyond the contracted agreement to ensure a successful install. Missteps were made by both parties involved, we acknowledged our mistake and felt we took more than adequate measures to rectify the issue. Consumer Response /* (3000, 12, 2022/07/21) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Thursday, July 21, 2022 In response to Crystal Structure's reply to our complaint, we would make the following comments: Our main complaint is breach of contract. We did not get what we ordered which was the only plans we signed off on. Crystal Structures was very clear that they would not proceed with any construction until we had signed off on the plan because making any changes would be very expensive for us once they had gone into production. What the engineer did was to make unilateral changes to what we had approved without telling us or the production manager that he had done so. The only notification we got was a long email saying that they had gone into production and to make no changes. He did not say that he had made any changes. At the bottom of the email was an attachment with plan C which included the changes he made, but no mention that it was different than the plan we had approved. It looked looked to be the same unless one studied it in detail, which was hard to do with a small attachment. And as far as apologizing, when we called about the discrepancy, the engineer argued that he made the changes, because what we had approved would not fit our structure, which was not true. I would say that Crystal Structures was very helpful to us whenever we had questions about how certain things should be done. And the quality of their product is very good. But I did not realized that they considered customer service as going "above and beyond normal procedure." When it became clear to us that we had not gotten the measurements we had signed off on, they were helpful with ideas about how to modify the installation to fit our structure. After paying $****** for the units, it seems that the $*** we requested for our increased labor and time is not unreasonable.

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