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| - I was planning to replace the flooring in my 1000 sq foot condo with new laminate, a fairly simple and standard project.
I initially went into the store, and spoke to a very nice and helpful gentleman named Gerry who answered many of my questions, and provided me with some rates. He indicated that the next step would be to set up a meeting in my condo so that they could measure it and provide me with a detailed cost estimate. A couple of months later I was prepared to proceed, so I set up the appointment.
The guy who came over (Vincent) was the owner of the business. He did the measurements, answered some more questions, and we talked about a few alternatives.
The next day Vincent phones me, and gives me a verbal lump sum quote. He refused to provide me with a cost breakdown, even though some of the items we discussed were optional, and I had told him that I would make a decision depending on the costs. He also refused to give me the estimate in writing. He got very defensive when I pushed him, but said he would email me the details, which he never did. The quote he gave me was significantly (i.e. several thousand dollars) higher than my own estimate based on the rates that Gerry provided. It should be noted that I never mentioned to Vincent that I had those rates. I am a young girl, so I suspect that Vincent had one look at me and took me for a sucker.
I work as a project manager on large (i.e. several million dollar) projects, and as part of my job I regularly obtain cost estimates from subcontractors. I am definitely not going to sign a work agreement based on a verbal quote!
Needless to say, I did not proceed with hiring these guys.
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