Amended April 27, 2012 (located at bottom of document) Mr. Ferro, below additions and copies of emails enclosed show the nightmare that has been our kitchen renovation by Alure. You have received this letter before but I have modified and added to it as we have reached the end of our project with Alure. Mike Camastro was our contact after this original letter was sent to you and he attempted to fix the initial install but was unable to completely fix it. While it appears long and drawn out, it really happened and you should take the time to read it in its entirety. September 6, 2011 Sal Ferro, CEO Alure Home Improvements 1999 Hempstead Tpke East Meadow, New York Gentlemen: This letter is a hard copy of the e-mails sent to you c/o Alure Home Improvements, documenting our bad experience with and displeasure in our kitchen re-modeling project that we entrusted to Alure. In May 2011, we contracted with Alure for our kitchen renovation which involved a full gut and installation of new sheet-rock, new electric, new plumbing, new cabinets, new countertops, new floor, and a new pass-through opening to the living room. The project has been the most disappointing project that we have ever contracted to do. The starting date for our Kitchen project was June 13, 2011, a date Derek Nelson asked if we would take as Alure had an opening then, with the completion date promised to be July 1, 2011. As the job progressed after the initial gut, the workers presence became shorter which was fine to a point because of what could be done on any given day, but then the amount of time Alure spent on this job to complete it became less and less over the course of the project and the poor quality of the work became evident. Having seen Alure Home Improvement on the TV show Extreme Home Makeover, and believing the reputation of Alure, and the sales pitch of Derek Nelson, we chose to invest over $31,500, (amended to $32,000+) a lot of money for us, into our Kitchen project (a 12’ x 8’ kitchen). We refinanced our mortgage to do the kitchen, so when we are told that we would get a new beautiful kitchen in 10days and Alure had a reputation for producing such, we believed it. We rearranged our other commitments to be here for the workers for our kitchen that was supposed to take ten to fifteen working days to complete. As the project progressed it became apparent that we were a side job to and not worth the full attention of Alure or their contractor as far as finishing this job on time or in a timely manner and doing a professional job. Oftentimes the workers came after midday and sometimes not at all even after stating they would be here, causing the job to drag on. This does not include 2 total days for roughing and electric inspections and 2 other days for plumbing inspections which were figured into the ten to fifteen day job. More days were required for final building and electrical as both failed the initial inspections, and as of September 3rd we still had not passed electrical inspection. I prepared a list of what was not done, and what was not done right in my opinion. I relayed my dissatisfaction to John Brower through e-mails and phone conversations starting on July 1, 2011 (I have copies of all the e-mails). • Part of the contract was three coats of joint compound on the sheet-rock to get it “paint ready” (as quoted by Derek Nelson). The following problems still remained as of July 21st (three weeks overdue and which was the initial drafting of this letter) including a punch list (large for such a small project) made July 9th. • I was home every day of the construction and I saw the initial coat of joint compound applied to the sheet-rock and the subsequent spot coating and sanding. • There was never an indication that the spackling and sanding was finished. Neither the Alure contractor nor anyone else told us that they were finished with the spackling or I would have pointed out to them that there was only one coat on some areas of the walls and two coats on others. Instead the cabinet installer came and installed the cabinets on top of one coat of joint compound. Realizing that the cabinets would not be taken down so that they could do a professional taping job I began to point out that the rest of the kitchen was not done as specified by Alure. They did respond to my points that the spackle job needed sanding and touch-up and they did sand a few spots and spot coated others but 5 1/2 weeks into the project the spackle job and sanding was not close to being paint ready. None of the spackle, seams or corner joints were “3 coats of joint compound paint ready” as promised and specified in the contract. Over multiple days after the initial application of the 1st coat of joint compound, workers intermittently sanded and spackled while doing other things but never finishing. Where there were two coats applied to some seams, they used the same size spackle knife on what they second coated which didn’t allow the joint compound to feather out causing the spackled seams to look like lumps in the ceiling with the third coat never being applied. Three coat professional joint compound applications and sanding should have been done in three days and prior to the cabinets being installed and not as fill-in work when other aspects of the job were done. As noted above, there are not 3 coats of spackle as promised and the kitchen was never paint ready as specified and promised. There is 1, maybe 2 coats of joint compound on the seams, 1 coat on the corner seam joints, 2 coats on some screw heads and 1 coat on other screw heads. The metal corner molding at the entrances to the kitchen was visible through the joint compound, and as a result: a) The entrances corner wood molding was put up over the exposed metal corner molding before the spackling and sanding was finished. b) The cabinets were put up before the spackling and sanding was finished c) The high hats were installed the ceiling was not finished coated with joint compound around them. d) There was overlapping joint compound on adjacent room trim that I had to clean up. e) In at least two seam locations the joint compound had been sanded down to the tape and down to the metal corner molding at both entrances to the kitchen. The joint compound was not applied properly to the ceiling seams; the joint compound was not feathered out at some areas where there were two coats and the joint compound is visible as a lump on the seams. f) In at least three locations the dry wall tape outline was visible through the joint compound. g) I have photos of all of this. Since it appeared that the sanding and spackling was going to be finished piecemeal (if at all), and it became apparent that the Alure contractor was incapable of doing a professional taping and spackling job as specified and promised, and because of the constant presence of sanding dust in my home, I told John Brower on July 9th that in the interest of completing our kitchen, which as of Monday, July 13 was one day short of 2 weeks overdue, that I would complete the spackling and sanding as apparently the contractor was unable to finish it properly, and he could have the Alure contractor finish the punch list. I could hardly do a worse job then they did, and at least I knew what a finished taping job is supposed to look like which apparently Alure did not (or didn’t care). Upon me starting to finish the spackling and getting close to the walls and ceiling after 8 hours of trying to finish the spackling I realized that this was beyond my capabilities (as well as the Alure crew’s capabilities). Part of the initial contract was to extend the wing wall opening to the right of the refrigerator from existing 19” to 27” outward and up to the ceiling. In putting up the new sheetrock and molding on the studs next to the refrigerator as part of the initial gut, they closed the wall (with tape, molding and a coat of joint compound) without extending it as was in the contract. I pointed this out to them after they had closed the wall and showed them the schematic showing that the wall was to be extended to 27”. They then put up the additional stud (s) required for the 9” extension and closed it up with molding and joint compound. It was not until the cabinets were installed that I could see that the cabinet molding to the wall was warped against the 9” wall extension. I called John Brower who stopped by the house and looked at it. He then asked me for a level and showed me that the wall extension from the floor to the head of kitchen opening was level and the wall from the head of the opening to the ceiling was not (implying that the stud from the head to the ceiling was existing and only the stud from floor to the head opening was new) and that what they put up was proper and level and old studs were not, and therefore the old existing studs were responsible for the warped appearance. I didn’t fully understand it at the time but took him at his word. After he left I started thinking about it and realized that the total wall extension from floor to ceiling including what was not level, was new, and installed by the contractor who installed the studs after the existing 19” of wall had been enclosed with new sheet-rock and spackled over. This made me realize that when the workers installed the studs for the additional 8” extension they did not line the first stud of the extension up with the existing wall stud (probably because the wall was enclosed and he couldn’t see the old stud) which in turn resulted in the second stud also not being lined up properly. This resulted in the warped appearance of the sheet-rock, which was not noticeable until the cabinet wall trim was installed. John Brower did ask the contractor to do some work to the cabinet trim it to make it presentable, which they did, but the wall is still noticeably warped and not all that presentable. We paid $400 extra to have the workers rip up the old kitchen sub floor and replace it with a new plywood sub floor over slats. After installation of the new sub floor there were squeaks in three places. I believed that some of the floor slats might be loose from the joists therefore the plywood would also be loose in spots. We informed the contractor of this prior to the floor being finished and lower cabinets being installed and he said he would fix the squeaks. He did not and the finished floor and the lower cabinets were installed over the new sub floor without first fixing the squeaks and as a result, the squeaks still exist. When the workers were reminded of this, they said that the squeaks were probably caused by nails coming loose from the slats to the joists so what? Shouldn’t he have made sure that the slats were firm to the joists while they were exposed before he installed the sub floor? Now there is a very good possibility that they cannot be fixed (we were subsequently told by the subcontractor (Robert) that the squeaks could not be fixed). We also added to the renovation, at the additional cost of $825, the cutting of a pass-through (58” x 36” approximate) from the kitchen to the adjoining room. The total height of the pass through was 46 in. I requested that they cut the opening down further and was told they couldn’t because of the electric outlets. This turned out to be false as after the pass through was completed it was clear that they could have cut down. This now required that I purchase custom stools (33” & over require that) at a cost of over $200 each, instead of the max standard height stools of 30”. I was present during work on the pass-through and it did not involve any additional days on the contractor’s part as they were not putting in full days of work anyway. They did the work for the pass-through at the same time they did other work in the kitchen. The countertop for the pass-through was measured the same day as the main countertop and installed the same day as the kitchen countertop by the countertop contractors while Robert and his people worked on other things. When the pass-through was finished, the joint compound application was terrible. I pointed it out to the contractor and the person who did the initial terrible job was assigned to fix it. The result was the same and the end result is that it is an atrocious spackle job. There were gaps between the installed trim and the sheet-rock in the pass-through which are so wide that I have to fill them up with wood fill before the entrances and pass-through could be painted. On June 30th Robert was at the house doing some touch up work and told my wife he would be at our home on July 1st to finish up our kitchen punch list at about 11am because he had to be at another job in the morning. This statement was upsetting as it was further proof that Alure was doing another job when we were told our job was scheduled June 13th to July 1st. It was now apparent we had become a side job to Alure as we had suspected even though we took an open slot you had in your schedule. Also that day we were told that John Brower was away until July 6th, meaning he would not be available for final walk through and punch list review thus our job would not be completed as contracted. John Brower did come to our home the week of July 5th and reviewed the punch list. Subsequently we were told that Robert (Alure Contractor) would be at our house on July 13th @ 1pm to finish the kitchen project. Shazelle called that day at 2pm to inform us that they would come after 4pm to sand and touch up the kitchen because they were tied up on another job in New York State (this was proof to us that we became just a side job to Alure). I told Shazelle to tell them not to bother coming at 4pm or after because we did not want our kitchen and surrounding rooms full of spackle dust at dinner time. I also informed her that I was going to finish the spackling and sanding. Also on July 13, Shazelle told me that the slow-close hinges for the upper cabinets which were ordered would be in Monday July 18 and because of that they would be back on Wednesday July 20 (now 19 days overdue) to devote a full day to install the hinges and complete the punch list. What choice did we have but to agree? As of 11:30am on Wednesday, July 20th the Alure Contractor had not shown up as promised. I called Shazelle who told me she was not aware that the contractor (Robert) did not show. She told me she would call him. Shazelle called me back and told me that he (Robert) wasn’t answering his phone and that a possible reason was that he may be driving to my home and did not want to talk on the phone while driving because it would be a violation and he would get points on his license. Did I really need to hear that offer of a lame excuse? Shazelle told me that she would call me as soon as she heard from him. I received a call from Shazelle at approximately 3pm and she told me that Robert just returned her call and told her that he had an emergency on another job and had to install a floor there. He promised her he would be here tomorrow morning (July 21). He did not show up on July 21st. On July 22nd Robert and a co-worker arrived to complete the punch list. The electrician did not show up and Robert changed the kitchen light on/off switch to a dimmer because the wrong switch had been installed initially. I had to settle for a non-electrician (Robert) getting direction on how to replace the light switch on the phone from the electrician who did not show up. The final inspections were then scheduled for Monday and Tuesday July 25th and 26th. The Kitchen failed both inspections. The following email was communicated to John Brower: “The inspectors were here yesterday and today and said the following: Plumbing The stove should be flush with the wall. It is not. The gas connection lines up with the leg of the stove and it cannot be pushed back. Building Shove fire stop insulation into the cavities from the basement to the kitchen (he will not pass the job without it) When the kitchen was gutted John Brower told the contractor in my presence that the inspector would probably fail him unless he put fire stop insulation in the gap from the basement to the kitchen. Electrical Above stove microwave should be a single plug outlet. It is a two plug outlet. Additionally, the microwave electric cord should not be lying on the cabinet floor. “ The building and electrical issues were preliminarily corrected by the Alure contractor. The contractor told me that the plumber would be here to fix the gas pipe on 8/8 or 8/9 between 2 and 4:30pm. He did not show up on either day but I found plumbing equipment (pipe wrenches, fittings, and cement) outside my back door. As of August 15 they are still a no-show.) The plumber finally showed up on August 16. He showed me that the back of the stove had (for lack of a better word) blocks on each side of the stove to prevent it from being put flush against the wall which would not have allowed it to vent properly. Since the blocks made the stove stick out further from the wall than the gas pipe it became a non issue and apparent that the plumbing inspector was wrong in his analysis. I thanked the plumbers for coming and they left. I then called the Boro and arranged for the final building and electrical inspections. On August 18, 2011 the Boro Building and Electrical Inspectors arrived for the final inspection. The Building Inspector passed the issues he initially failed the job for the first time. The Electrical Inspector failed the kitchen for the 2nd time. He explained the following: the microwave plug having been changed from a two plug outlet to a one plug outlet is now a 15 amp outlet and that a 20 amp outlet is code. He also stated that the outlet polarity is reversed and not acceptable. He asked me if an electrician did this work and I told him no, the contractor did it himself. He will not pass the job until the issues are corrected. The Boro Construction clerk told me that the next day they could inspect was August 30. Forty nine days and this small kitchen job is still not done. I notified John Brower via e-mail and he apologized and said that they would “fix the electric ASAP” to get it ready for the August 30th inspection. August 30th has come and gone and I had to turn the Electrical Inspector away because Alure had not shown since the last inspection (August 18) even after John Brower had assured me that they would fix the electric ASAP. The Inspector told me would call Alure and I also emailed John Brower. I sent the following email to John Brower and received the following response: To John (Brower) Today is August 30, 2011. The Boro Inspector was here and I had to turn him away, telling him Alure was a no-show. He told me he will call Alure and find out what the problem is. I realize there was a serious tropical storm on Sunday but you have had since August 18 to fix this issue. I still want this kitchen finished. Please let me know ASAP. As soon as the inspector contacts me and if I have not heard from you, I will hire an electrician. Response by John Brower: “The electrician said he was trying to go there today! I now have another call out to him. He was in Verona and was having a lot of trouble getting around everything. I will update you as soon as I get him. Sincerely, John Brower Alure Designs 201-370-**** jbrower@***.com Alure is proud to be an Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Contractor. We go to extremes to build your dreams. As usual the electrician was a no show. I received an email from John Brower on Friday September 2nd stating the following: “John, (Lynam) The inspector has not contacted me since your e-mail. Robert wants to stop by with the electrician tomorrow around 10:00 to replace the outlet. You can bring any other concerns to him at that time.” I sent him the following response. I have been telling him this for some time now but my response to the above email was: “That’s up to the Inspector. I imagine that he wanted to tell you to fix the problem but I can’t speak for him. Tomorrow at 10 am will be fine. Once the electrician corrects the issue I will call the Boro for another inspection. By the way I’ve been told he would show up before and he has not. If he does not show up tomorrow tell him not to bother and I will hire an electrician. I refuse to do this anymore” As has been typical for Alure on this job, ‘Robert’ did not show up today and I did not receive a call from anyone telling me he would not be here as John Brower said he would. 60 days into this small kitchen project and it is still not done. I emailed John Brower after 5:00pm and told him to tell ‘Robert’ not to bother coming here that I would now hire an electrician to bring this Alure job up to code and deduct the fee from the last payment that we owe Alure. In our opinion, our kitchen looks like new cabinets and new high hat light fixtures which also do not look that good (gaps), were put on old walls and ceiling, with a squeaky floor. The sub standard taping and spackling brings down the whole job and the best John Brower could offer was to have Robert sand and spackle to our satisfaction. Let us re-iterate again; they don’t know how to do a professional full tape and spackle job on new walls and ceiling (as they have already demonstrated) so why would we have them try to complete a job they are incapable of doing???? The building and electrical issues speak for themselves and to the competency of Alure. The promises that were made to us regarding our Kitchen project that began as a ten day to a three week job that stretched into over five weeks on an approximately 12’ x 8’ walk-in kitchen were not kept. By the time this project was done (not including final inspections) it was 5 ½ weeks (28 working days) for a ten day to fifteen day project. The total time for this job not being done is 8 weeks What annoys me most of all about this job is that the workmanship conditions described above were glaringly visible and could not have been unseen by the contractor as they were being done. Therefore, the fact that this substandard work and errors were either acceptable to Alure or you just didn’t care in my opinion greatly damages the reputation that Alure has and that Alure advertises. I now understand why Alure requires 99% of the cost of the job paid up front over two payments and leaves less than a 1% balance at the completion of the job as was done on this project. • As a footnote in an example of how this job has gone; the saddle between the kitchen entrance and the living room came apart the first week of August but fortunately we had extra material and another contractor renovating our upstairs bathroom and he installed the saddle properly and it has not fallen apart as Alure’s installation did. April 2012 – while fixing the warped ceiling trim above the refrigerator, the molding was removed and it showed that one coat of joint compound had been put on the tape over the seams. The joint compound application was 4’ wide and not flush with the ceiling. This explains the unevenness of the trim caused by the lumpy seam applications. It took the crew 4 hours just to fix the seam so that the trim would fit better onto the ceiling. April 2012 – the laminate floor section in front of the dishwasher started to lift a little at the seam. The Shaw Floor Rep and the Kenmore Rep both confirmed that it was not due to any leak from the plumbing or dishwasher nor was it a laminate floor defect, but that it was caused by an improperly installed sub floor. After numerous attempts to fix these issues Alure was unable to fix them). • On April 13 2012 it came to the point that Alure could do no more to fix the floor and I was offered the opportunity to hire a floor contractor to do it and Mike Camastro offered to “see what he could do to help with the cost”. No Thanks. $32,000 to complete an 8ft. by 12ft kitchen is more than enough money. Had the project been done right the first time none of this would have been necessary. Unfortunately, we allowed ourselves to believe in the highly respected reputation of Allure. The quality of work and the high standards that Allure projects on television and profess in their estimates and on it’s’ web site to secure home improvement contracts has proved to be extremely disappointing. You have the right person selling your products in Derek Nelson he sold us on your company completely, you trained him well. We could not be more disappointed and dissatisfied with Alure. Had we known that the contractor was not a professional and was disorganized as far as completing one portion of the job before starting another over it, we would not have contracted with Alure. Instead of home improvement specialists representing Allure, we had what appeared to be yellow-page type handymen working on construction of our NEW kitchen. Before we publically share our disappointment with Allure, We would like to receive acknowledgement and response to our disappointing experience. (Mike Camastro was sent to try and fix this mess) I have also enclosed some emails which may give you an idea of our experience with Alure Home Improvements. John and Valerie Lynam 397 Luhmann Drive New Milford, NJ 07646
I have read many of the reviews and have to agree. Deceitful liars are the first 2 words that come to mind when dealing with this company.
I was lied to and the salesman talked me in circles from day one. I called management and all he has is excuses to defend the poor customer relations of the salesman without even knowing the job. They say they cannot give me an itemized bill because it does not work that way, yet when I ask why certain things are priced a certain price they know the price for add ons. Add ons?
A project was discussed and lies were told. They do not care about quality or customer satisfaction. I was not given choices to all of the materials. Even when I asked for certain things with the ridiculous prices they charged I am ignored and they order and install whatever they want.
I am beginning to think they want to get rid of overstocked inventory and steal hard earned money to pay for it instead of follow the customers request. They do not answer questions make mistakes and choices of their own and then lie and make excuses and actually charge you for thier errors.
If you want to be broke and stressed out while working hard to provide a nice home for your family then you have reached out the right company. I would not recommend and my complaints will go further until someone listens and checks their facts before talking me in circles and making up lies to defend incompetence.
Totally just happened to me. Everything you wrote here is true.
Minor issues i need to be taken care of and my Project Mgr never showed up when he should.
They are not getting my final check until all things are taken care of. The End.