Fence Master

Fence Master built a rear fence and side yard gate for the previous owners of my home. At the time the gate was built, the walkway was made of large gravel (small rock size). Rather than level the gravel near the gate, the workers decided to «arch» the bottom of the gate to conform to the gravel along the walkway. When we re-​landscaped, we decided to replace the walkway with crushed gravel, which left a huge gap at the bottom of the gate, allowing rabbits to come into the yard and eat the garden. I called Fence Master (they had affixed a metal sign with their name on it), explained the situation and asked if someone could come out and give me a bid to modify/​re-​do the gate. The person in the office was very friendly, and assured me I would hear from someone later that week. After not hearing from them, I called back about a week later, spoke to the same person (who had looked up the paperwork for the job) and again was assured someone would call back. Again, no one called. I made it clear that I was NOT looking for a freebie, but just wanted the gate to be fixed so it would keep out the rabbits. What is annoying (apart from not being called back), arching the bottom of the gate most likely took more time and effort to build, than it would have taken to smooth out the rocks along the walkway and do the work right in the first place. Very disappointed these folks wouldn’t stand by their work. I’m giving them 2 stars, because the gate construction (apart from the bottom) is good, as are the materials.

Overall, I’m pleased with the result of our cedar fence that was installed by Fence Master. However, there were a few issues along the way that dropped it from 5 stars to 3 stars.
If I were just grading on construction quality and installer professionalism, I would give 4 or 5 stars. The fence looks great, and the materials appear to be of high quality.
The first issue was scheduling and timeliness. I set an appointment for an estimate, and they kept calling telling me they were close, but didn’t show up until 2 hours late. Note that this was not an issue with the installers — they arrived on time on the days they were scheduled. I also had one minor issue getting them to call me back to schedule the completion of my fence (I had the posts dug before landscaping and the pickets done later). I believe this was just because they were busy, but it was still annoying.
The second issue was the estimate. The cost estimate (that I used to make my decision on who to hire) was very competitive, but the final bill was 10% higher than the estimate. The difference was exclusively materials, and when I look at the fence, the final bill is correct. I don’t think this was done intentionally, but was definitely an oversight that could have been prevented with more attention at the time of the estimate. The final cost was still better than the other estimates I received.
As I said at the beginning, I was overall pleased, but there were some minor annoyances.