Davidson Fence & Deck

Communication from Davidson fence is absolutely abysmal. We accepted a quote from them 3 months ago and was told it would be about a month before install - perfectly fine; anyone in a home services business is beyond backed up on their calendar right now. However, as we were coming up on that month mark we called and was told “3 more weeks”. Alright, again it is a tough time for small business owners right now battling a labor shortage. 3 weeks passed so we called again (btw, all communication was initiated by us. They did not proactively reach out to us). We got the “3 more weeks” response two more times. One of the last times my wife called, Teresa was incredibly rude and laughed in my wife’s face. Again, we are patient - to a fault. They were supposed to begin work today. My wife has taken multiple days off work to be home for this. Well, they did not show. No call. We had to call them and was told that we got booted on the calendar again. Just be honest. If it was going to take 14 weeks just tell us that up front and I would not be writing this. Again, it’s hard for business owners right now with labor - but the one thing you always have control of is communication. We received practically zero communication from Davidson fence. Now we are half way through the summer with no fence. It feels as though we were blatantly lied to just to try to keep our business - albeit months down the road. Proceed with caution.

My experience with Davidson Fence has been very disappointing. The first part of the experience wasn't so bad. They were a little less expensive than the other quotes, so we decided to choose them. They got started a little while after the initial target date, but never bothered to let us know until after I called to inquire a couple of times. But, once they got started it was finished up very quickly. Now for the bad part. First, they didn't bother to put the dirt back over the post holes. They just left it scattered and the exposed concrete which was several inches down in some of the posts. Second, I really can't believe that this really happened... Several areas of the fence are so high above the ground that our dogs escaped. I measured just to be sure and there are several spots where there is approx 7 inch clearance from the bottom of the fence to the ground. Some of the areas are even just a random picket is several inches higher from the ground than the one next to it. Couple of entire sections of the fence have 4"-5" from the ground on the entire section. I called to complain about it and I was told that someone would come by to look at it ASAP. Well, I didn't hear back for about a week or more. I called them and left a message. got a call a couple of days later from Mike Davidson Jr. From our conversation, I couldn't really tell that anyone had even bothered to actually come by. He just kind of repeated what the note said from my complaint message. However, he said that they would come by as soon as it could be worked in to address the issue. I didn't hear anything for quite a while again. When I called again, I was told it would be the following Friday... about a week away. As of today, it has been a week and a half past that date and still no call or attempt to resolve the issue of the large gaps under my very expensive fence. I had to stack random crap all of the way down one side of my fence just to keep my dogs from escaping again. I guess I will have to alert my HOA of the issue so that they will hopefully remove them from the "approved" contractor list for our neighborhood.

AWFUL experience. We needed a 4 foot black aluminum fence for our dog in a small backyard (156 feet in total length of fence). No problem, right? We thought about getting a collection of buddies to come over and pay them with pizza and beer, but the HOA is picky...so we decided to have a fence company put in the fence. I met with Mike Davidson, Jr. He seemed nice and knowledgeable, and it is a family business, which I like to support. He told me that they were backed up 6 weeks, which was fine because that is when we were planning to move in to the property with our dog. However, we had no fence at 6 weeks, and actually no fence until 12 weeks. The fence they put in was fine, but honestly, we could have had our buddies put in a cheaper fence and just bought the supplies at Home Depot if we had not been concerned about the HOA rules. Here is my complaint. Communication. It makes all the difference in the world. When we had no fence and no update on the plan for timing of the fence early in the process, I called...no call back. I emailed, and I got terse responses. I emailed that I was disappointed and frustrated, but I received no apologies and no explanations. They would say that the order still just said "Processing", and the effort to help was always something like "I'll check on it" and then I would not receive any updates. I would have to call again, and I would get the same "I'll check on it", and again... they never called back. Finally, my husband insisted on calling because he felt I was being too nice and too patient. I told him that we had already lost this war, so what was the point. We were never going to get our huge deposit back from them if we just told them to shove it. We would just have to wait. When my husband called and raised some hell, he said they acted as if they thought they had called me back. They gave him a story about how it was not their fault, but their supplier was backed up so there was nothing that they could do. Even after he very clearly made the point that we were angry and we wanted to be updated with the plan going forward, they would never call him back. He had to call again and again. When they finally put in the fence, the crew leader had been given the invoice for the rest of the payment. However, he also said that they would not be finishing the job that day and would have to return in the morning to finish. So I refused to pay the guy that day. Shockingly (sarcasm), the next day when they finally finished the fence, I received 2 phone calls from Mike Davidson, Jr, (gasp, he does know how to make a phone call!) about getting the rest of the payment. I told him that "after everything that we have been through", I would not be paying another cent until I was able to get home from work and verify that the work was fully completed to our satisfaction. He had no questions about what I meant by "after everything that we have been through"... because he knew.... he knew that he had f---'d us over. He asked where he could meet me to get payment. I told him to leave the invoice and I would mail him a check. (His second phone call of the day was to let me know that he scanned and emailed the invoice to me rather than leaving in the mailbox or under the mat). Where does this guy get off in avoiding us for weeks and weeks, and NOW he can EASILY make multiple phone calls to get his money? We will never use this company ever again. Contrast this experience with another anecdote. I stop to pick up dinner on my way home from a very long day at work. Panera sounds fine, and there is one very conveniently located on my route. It is well after the dinner rush hour, so there is only 1 other customer. I order, go to the pickup area and wait. I zone out and scroll through Facebook. Not once do I question why my order is taking quite a bit longer than usual. I assume it is because I am there so late, and they don't have the same number of workers right now. Suddenly, I am interrupted from my zoning out by the manager. He had realized that I have been standing there for quite some time, and he proactively came to me, apologized for the atypical wait, escorted me to the dessert counter, and told me to pick a free dessert. So I got a brownie. All very pleasant despite the long wait. I understand that giving me a free dessert cost him nothing. They were going to donate them or throw them out, so why not give one to the customer who might have become upset by the wait. I left that store feeling like "hey, someone just gave me a huge chocolate brownie" (smile, smile, smile), rather than "jeez, that took forever, and I am already so tired" (frown, sigh). My longwinded point...Mike Davidson, Jr, if you had just offered a metaphorical brownie and communicated your apologies, this experience would have been so much different. Shame on you for running your business in the way you do.