Phoenix Home Construction

I am more than displeased w Phoenix Home construction. I don’t know where to start… Let’s start w poor peolpe skills. You’ll never meet anyone w less than Mike, when he barges into your home, or has you help measure the job. Attendance by the workers was all over. Some days their there, sometimes not, then at 7 on a Saturday with no notice. Then there’s the permit… Ahhhh, the permit. The same day they were paying a fine for not pullin a permit for MY job, they were getting fined for one, on another job, in Villa Park… Then he yelled, and blamed me for it. The cleanup was that of my kids. Debris and garbage all over, and probably a pound of nails picked up. To top it off they damaged the cable for TV, and I’m eating a $ 150 bill for that. While the install itself looks great… But it didst have to take a month, and one guy to do a ranch house. My buddies, and a case of beer could have gone faster. Shop around… Bet there’s others you’d rather deals with.

These guys did a great job on my gutters. The job started on time, ended on time and the gutters are holding up just great. They also look great and conform with my Historic District standards. I highly recommend them.

Received a call inquiring whether I was considering a home improvement project and we were and at the time of their call had other quotes. Appointment was set, arrived as scheduled with Mike. Discuss our idea and was attentive and offered his input without pressure. Thanked us for our considering his business and hoped to hear from us. We hired him and throughout our project continued to be part of the project making sure things were going as planned and pleased with each phase As with any project there areas unexpected surprises but Mike handled them professionally and promptly. In a couple cases the vendors expected to come had other conflicts with their outside clients that caused Mike some disruption but was quick to resolve these issues quickly. We appreciated his interaction to make sure our project was completed to our expectations and we were pleased throughout. We are very happy with the outcome and happy we had chosen Mike. I would recommend him to anyone.

I would give zero stars if I could.
We needed some porch and concrete work done, and got contacted by these guys through a contractor referral service. HUGE mistake. Mike called my husband on Monday, and my husband couldn’t call him back because he was working a 14 hour shift. The next day, Mike called three times while my husband was in school for 13 hours.
Obviously, my husband couldn’t call him back immediately, and Mike started sending passive aggressive emails on top of the many calls (that same day). I looked Phoenix Home Construction up on Angie’s List and Unilocal and saw the terrible reviews, so we decided not to do business with them.
Then, Mike left this voicemail on my husband’s phone, today, Thursday:
Verbatim voice mail:
«Hey Jim this is Mike from Phoenix Home Construction. I called you several times. I’ve tried asking for credit and Jim you need to call me back and tell me you’re not interested. Now, what kind of AS***OLE are you, that you will fill out an application and make me pay to contact you and you don’t have the courtesy to call me back and say hey I’ve changed your mind. I hope this pisses you off because this pisses me off that I’m losing money because of a JERK like you. So why don’t you call me back, AS***OLE, and let me know that you’re not FU**KING interested in this? Thank you.»
I wish I could post the audio file of the voice mail. I am completely shocked that he could possibly do business like this.

Beautiful, professional craft work. Professional service who work quickly to achieve your goals and dreams. They can change your building to suit YOUR needs. Great prices and NO SURPRISES! Their experience will give you an affordable price and with today’s use of modern technology your DREAMS will come true~

Phoenix Home Construction sends out some guy to go door-​to-​door in my community to increase sales and offer the proverbial «free estimate». BUT if this company were so good, why do they have to do this? Don’t they have happy repeat customers and positive word-​of-​mouth to keep them busy? Apparently not! Really annoying and the guy comes by every year, sometimes twice!

They gave honest answers during the free estimate. They give the costs and there were NO SURPRISES once work was complete.
They use great technology to ensure that each transaction moves smoothly.
While some people may have had issues a while back — these issues are not present anymore.
I’d say everyone that’s looking for this kind of service at least get their free estimate and decide for themselves.

We sought a general contractor to complete several big jobs: replacing our 25 year old concrete driveway, aluminum siding, and revamping our front porch. We contracted with Phoenix, and found the work scheduled quickly.
Sub-​contractors were polite, and worked steadily. They showed up on time and knew their craft. All jobs were completed within 1 month — better than we expected. Mike seemed eager to please us, and when we requested something extra (an electrical outlet, a new door, paint touch-​up) someone showed up w/​i a day to complete the task.
I asked Mike for a detailed invoice of all the completed work, and received a handwritten «contract» listing the original price, plus charges for the additional work. I was expecting a formal, typed invoice. Mike always quoted me an amount, and waited for approval before purchasing materials. Prices didn’t seem too out of line; he didn’t quote materials and labor separate, just gave a price for job completion.
I rate contractors by our experience with Andersen Renewal Windows. Andersen really cares about pleasing the customer and everything/​everyone is user friendly. Our experience with Phoenix wasn’t up to Andersen’s excellence, but Phoenix is a local contractor and was what I expected.
When we built this house 25 years ago, using a general contractor from Napervile, there were numerous delays, many compromises and changes, and we were disappointed by several subcontractors’ work.
Yes, Mike is a loud, blustering fellow, but he did want to please us. The job was done long before the original contract dates, because the weather was good.

It started with a guy at the door proposing good prices for remodelling in the slow season. We agreed for the contractor coming on Saturday at 1:30 pm. No show, no phone call. Next day, Sunday a call — he’s coming and it was supposed to be Sunday in the first place. Hmmm… O.K.
We have spots on the carpet in the sub-​basement supposedly from the leaking floor and wanted to seal the cracks and install the tile instead. The contractor Mike Frobouck suggested a radical solution — waterproofing for $ 9,000 as «in this case you have 100% gaurantee». Hmmm, I know there are much cheaper solutions like sealing the actual cracks and/​or putting a sealer right on teh concrete floor, but my wife swore me not «to show off, so we can get the guy’s opinion».
What about just the tile job? O. K, it is $ 1950 for installation and it is because they do not have a job now, but just for us a Christmas discount — $ 200 — of course, we need to sign the contract NOW! O.K. we have three days to cancel just in case.
Next day my wife went to Century Tile and got a quote $ 1500 (tile installation) + $ 500 (putting a sealer on the concrete floor). When I informed Mike about it, he got mad and accused me of lying. Hmmm, so much about customer service and trust. Avoid, avoid, avoid…

The initial remodel of our main bathroom was nice, and we had a «service call» after about 1 month to fix some cracking grout lines. We rarely use this bath — it’s just me and the wife — and we use our master bath most of the time. 4 months after the 1 year warranty, we had guests for almost 3 straight months. The new bathroom got some use, and I saw a couple tile grout lines cracking. I’ve been calling Phoenix Home Construction since August, and here we are in November. Each time I’m told someone will call back. I’ve received only one call back in the 3 months I’ve been calling. I always have to call them. Finally, they sent out a tile guy who said the installers didn’t use enough thin-​set under the tiles. Since this is an installation issue, I offered to split the cost to fix. They’ll get back to me. That was 3 weeks ago.
Update ¹²⁄₂₀₁₀: I opened a BBB complaint about their tile work, and now they’re lying to the BBB, saying I did part of the work that’s falling apart. No — the contract says they were to do it. Not a good business practice.
Update 2÷24÷10: The BBB rejected my complaint because they don’t get involved in out-​of-​warranty issues — Phoenix gave a 12 month warranty.