I found Gillie’s Fence Corp via Home Advisor. Based on the 5 stars they received on Angie’s List, I put in a request for a quote. Michael Gilmore, the owner, showed up on time (even a few minutes early) and showed me his portfolio. His quote for replacing my side yard, double-wide (RV) fence gate fit my budget ($660.00). He made suggestions for how the new gate should be different from the gate we had had for about 15 years, we agreed on the price, I gave him a $100 deposit, and the work was scheduled for about a week and a half later to give him time to purchase the needed materials. He was to come to do the job on a Monday. On Saturday morning, he called and basically left a message that said “oops, forgot I needed to be out of state on a big job on Monday.” When I finally spoke to him later that weekend, he offered to come and start the job that afternoon which would have undoubtedly left it unfinished with no gate at all for a week or so. We told him no, to go do his other job and we’d see him in a week. When he contacted us upon his return, we told him to go ahead and spend that Sunday with his family and we’d see him bright and early Monday morning. Well, Monday came and went with no sign of him and no phone call, text, or email to explain what happened. When I messaged him that evening to just return my $100 deposit and I’d find someone else to do the job, he responded he’d have his crew there first thing Tuesday morning to start the demo while he went and finished purchasing the materials. I felt we had been more than accommodating to him even though he was not following through with anything that he had said when interviewing to get my job. I began to feel that my job perhaps wasn’t big enough to matter to him although he had said he was trying to establish his own business separate and apart from his father’s. The crew arrived about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, July 28, 2020. They worked until late (almost dark – after 7pm) and when the fence gate was completed, it had a pleasing overall appearance. I gave my seal of approval, saying it “looks nice” but because it was late and I was tired, I didn’t closely examine the details and the workmanship. I truly regret not doing that sooner. The next day, July 29, 2020, in the daylight and upon closer inspection of the gate, I found several problems that needed to be taken care, so I contacted Michael to ask him if he could send someone over to take care of them. He was extremely dismissive of what I had to say, and of the most dangerous of the three problems that were more than just cosmetic -- a 2” screw that he left hanging down -- he stated it was “just a screw.” He must not instinctively understood that should that screw have injured us down the road (it was adjacent to where we were taking the padlock off and on several times a week) and required a tetanus shot, his business might face a lawsuit. I also told him about the hinges that seats the fence pole was loose and dangling, nails were not properly in the bottom board and when you knocked them in, the poles when not seat in the ground because the hole was drilled in the wrong place, the brace board across the top on the inside was splintered along with a couple of fence boards on the outside, and the top hinge for the lock had loose screws and nothing to anchor the other side with just like the bottom hinges for the poles. Rather than sending someone over to take care of the problems, he questioned why I was bringing anything up after I told him that I was satisfied with his work. I have to say it gave me pause when he said that. I told him yes, the gate looks nice but that I still would like to get the issues I mentioned resolved. Those issues that I brought to his attention included the screw, the fact that the post on the left-hand side of the gate, after less than one week, was out of alignment and no longer would go down in the hole in the concrete, and last but not least, the piece of ornamental wood that would serve to hide the improperly cut section of wood that runs the entire diagonal length of the left-hand side of the gate -- and the little scrap of wood he shoved in to fill that gap -- was missing. I call this a “bookend” and it would have matched the piece on the right-hand side gate, thereby hiding the shoddy workmanship. The countersunk holes are present in the wood, he either ran out of materials or just forgot to put it on because the actual ornamental piece is not there. It is important to me that a job is done right no matter how many things you have to fix to complete the task. He, on the other hand, took the attitude, “The job is done, I’ve got my payment, so I’m done”, and whatever happens after that is not his problem. The cost of the gate was not insignificant ($960.00 total), and included unanticipated extra charges. You would think that he would want to ensure that the job was done right. I was truly hoping that he was a professional, someone who stood behind his work, no questions asked. But I was very wrong about that. I’m disappointed that rather than what he said about wanting to grow his business and all the boasting he did, he seems to feel that making the customer feel guilty for pointing out issues and asking for any mistakes made to be corrected is the way to go. Michael Gilmore asked me to give a positive review of his work on the website. I cannot. Michael does not pay attention to detail and does not seem to take pride in his work except on a surface level. When a person does not stand behind their work, it tells me that I’m the lowest priority on their list of things to do and that getting additional jobs is more important than satisfactorily completing the job at hand. I certainly tried to make things as convenient as possible for Michael during this time of COVID-19 when having people come in your “safe space” can be particularly stressful. And being diagnosed with breast cancer a week after the project was completed did not help with the situation. After several attempts to get Michael to work with me on getting the repairs done and meeting with resistance each time, I gave up and concentrated on getting me healthy. I thought we had a good working relationship and was expecting everything would turn out as promised during our initial meeting. But it obviously wasn’t to be. And that too is very, very disappointing. I would not recommend this business to anyone and I will not be using their services again.