Business ProfileforSouthern Aluminum Inc

Good morning BBB,

Thank you for giving us an opportunity to shed light on this review.  I have researched this job and I remember this client.

Prior to Hurricane ***'s arrival, we received a visit from ************************** to our office.  Now, our contract was not with the homeowners but instead it was with the contractor they hired to build their swimming pool and we were brought on by that contractor as the sub-contractor to build and install their screen enclosure.

************************** was not happy that the city was taking so long to approve her permit.  She bragged about the fact that her and her husband know the mayor personally, (they have dinner with him at least twice a week) and she would make sure that her permit was pushed through ahead of many other people waiting, so we could install her enclosure.  They managed to do just that!  The mayor of our city had their permit pushed through so we were given permission to install her enclosure.  This was back in July of this year.

We give a one year warranty on our workmanship, and on our enclosures, and have always taken care of our builders and our homeowners.  We have built a solid reputation for being a 'go-to' company in our tri-county area.  Unfortunately, as stated on our contract, at provision number five, we cannot be held liable for any damage or delays from storms, floods, earthquakes or any other acts of God.  We feel that Hurricane *** falls under that category.

We have had many previous customers call us after the storm asking if we could come out and service their enclosure that was damaged and we have had to make the unfortunate decision to turn away this repair work, at least for the time being. 

Southern Aluminum specializes in being an enclosure install company for all of our home builders and pool contractors.  While we did have a couple of men that we used to run service work, we are mainly an install company.  After the storm, we lost several men to unlincensed contractors who were offering to pay them cash money under the table.  One of those men was our best service guy.  It was at that point that we had to make the difficult decision to refer any and all repair work, for the time being, to repair contractors that unlike us, are designed to repair rather than install.

************************** visited our office again and was very unhappy that we told her that we could not help her out at this time.  We completely understand how inconvenient this is, especially for our most recent clients, but we just do not have the manpower to address this right now and we would never ask our clients to wait eight to ten months for us to get back to them, which is why we were referring other contractors.

I am not surprised by their review.  The sense of entitlement that they have shown during this process because they happen to know the mayor was eye opening.  I have no doubt that they have used this 'power' on others to get things done the way they wanted.