All in One Pavers Illegally withheld a restocking fee not in the contract. Rockledge Florida

 I don't object to a legitimate restocking fee if clearly documented in the contract. All In One Pavers didn't have such a clause in their contract. While the craftsmanship of their workers is excellent, you have to deal with Stephanie and the management of All In One Pavers. There lies the problem. Ad far as ethical business practices, they were "no shows" for the first two appointments for estimate. Stephanie was late for the third. That should have been the red flag to avoid this company. If the weather was an issue and they were 2 days behind, why didn't they tell me when I called to confirm the installation? I took time from work and they cancelled after normal business hours. They then cancelled the rescheduled installation date. Their arrogance and lack of business ethics was demonstrated when they failed to appear in court on two occasions. Stephanie then "blew off" a court order to provide me a list of their assets for a lien. Based on the fear of facing contempt of court charges, All In One Pavers paid me the restocking fee and damages. While you can bury your head in the sand, this is reality and fact. I do live in Florida full time when not traveling on business. Where I live plays no part in All In One Pavers poor performance. I wish you the best in your project, but you were warned. Caveat Emptor! Let the buyer beware.

I believe All in One Paver has fair business practices. I can understand their pushback to not want to refund a restocking fee and who in good faith, filled the custom order and tried many times to get the delivery and installation rescheduled and around the bad weather. We live in Florida and rain is inevidentible and I'm amazed the owner of the home has not realized this! Perhaps you don't live in the state most of the year???  In my opinion, the consumer was wrong and should have been happy to get his project done. I know by experience it's often difficult to get good service and hard to find good contractors, much less good paving companies.  I am NOT going to let this story inflluence my decision with doing business with All in One Pavers. I am signing a contract with them for paver work and without concern. If it rains, it pours here and outside work, especially concrete will be delayed. It's the fact of nature!  This company is one of the few paver companies in the area who are reputiable, come highly recommended, and who actually call you back, give you a reasonable estimate for work, and follows through!

After 14 months of unnecessary aggrevation and wasted time, I final won! With the prospect of standing before the local judge for contempt of court, the owner of All In One Pavers paid the court awarded judgment. She knew she didn't have a leg to stand on and no defense for ignoring a court order to supply me with a list of her assets for confiscation/lien.

I will continue to warn friends and co-workers to avoid All In One Pavers at all costs. Her arrogance is only exceeded by her foolishness. Instead of refunding an illegally withheld $300.00 restocking fee promptly, she eventually paid over $1,000.00 and created extensive bad publicity.

To quote Stephanie, "now she can get over it"! I got my money and you lost!

At least the response from All In One Pavers (Stephanie) was consistent with their previous excuses. It is now a desperate attempt at character assassination and to besmirch my credibility. I have been fighting this questionable contractor for a year now and I will do whatever is necessary to receive justice in this matter regardless of the time required. It is beyond the money, it is the principle; something Stephanie doesn’t comprehend. I told Stephanie that if they withheld the undisclosed “$300.00 restocking fee”, I would take them to court. I tried everything possible to avoid that and not waste the time of the court system. They forced me to drag this out with every other possible solution (BBB, Angie’s List). All attempts failed as no one had the authority to hold them accountable. Stephanie even ignored a “demand letter” from a local attorney. Therefore, I took All In One Pavers to Small Claims Court. They failed to show for the pre-trail conference (and made more excuses) and judgment was ruled in my favor. Stephanie knows she doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on. Her “self-made” rules of law and standard business practices are worthless in a court of law.

As a former U.S. Air Force Officer, I took an oath to never lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those who do. I still take that oath very seriously. All In One Pavers has also questioned my understanding of the weather here in Central Florida. As a FAA licensed pilot, I know more about meteorology than she can ever comprehend. As Floridians, we have all seen it rain on one side of a parking lot and not the other.  Additionally, to question my business travel as a highly placed Senior Engineer is ludicrous. Again they try to play on emotions and “game” the system.

Stephanie’s attitude of “just get over it” is the classic symptom of a typical unethical contractor. They don’t live up to their agreement, they change the rules, rip you off and then say…. “just get over it”.

All In One Pavers lost all credibility when they didn’t communicate openly and honestly. They had no intention of honoring any installation date (September 26) until it was convenient for them regardless of the weather. They kept stringing me along day by day. When confronted in their office about when they were actually planning on installing my pavers, their response: Tuesday (October 1). They never told me that prior to my cancelling the job.  

Contrary to Stephanie’s implication, I was not traveling for pleasure as I am very actively employed. Based on my negative experience, my co-workers (at a very large and growing defense contractor in Brevard County) are not likely to use this questionable contractor.  I’ve been very vocal about my experience with All In One Pavers.  The longer this goes on, the more people will hear about Stephanie’s nonsense.

The officers of All In One Pavers feel that they are above the rule of law in numerous matters. They act with impunity and a sense of unaccountability to anyone. They claim “standard business practices” when it is in their favor and disregard the “standard business practices” of keeping appointments for estimates, open communication and honesty. According to their attitude, they seem to feel that you work for them and not vice versa…after all they are ALL IN ONE PAVERS! That was said as if I was dealing with NASA, the Mayo Clinic, the FBI or the New York Yankees. And no… I wasn’t impressed. 

I will continue this fight as long as necessary to seek justice for not only myself but all consumers in Brevard County. Stephanie’s threat of a lien on my home might have scared a retiree, but it didn’t faze me as I am well informed. Perhaps my gray hair gave her a false sense of intimidating me. Seniors beware! I strongly suggest that all veterans and seniors avoid this questionable contractor. When all is said and done: I WAS RIPPED OFF!

Stephanie, you were blatantly wrong. Instead of learning from this, you were out to punish me for not bending to your will. You mismanaged your schedule and tried to mislead me to recover. I am many things, but stupid isn’t one of them. You could have been honest and tried to work out a mutually agreeable recovery plan. Your unethical practices led me to believe that you are a company in trouble. Not arriving for scheduled estimates, lack of communication, failure to meet scheduled installation dates (repeatedly) all led me to question if I would get any of my money back if I postponed my installation until I returned from a long business assignment. You then threatened me with a lien against my property, to coerce me into doing business with you. I strongly suggest you take some basic business courses. You have no aptitude for dealing with the public. Based on my experience with you, even the satisfaction guarantee on your web site is worthless.

Wise up, pay the court judgment of the illegal withheld restocking fee, the related losses and court fees and then you can “get over it”.

I am the owner of all in one pavers.  This customer has been going on and on over this restocking fee for a year now.

I am going to explain to you a little bit of this situation so there is a better understanding. He had signed a contract with us on 8-30-2013 and we had put him on schedule for 9-26-2013 which was a thursday.  The customer apparently works out of state or just travels alot so was not aware of the weather the beginning of that week. Due to heavy rains on Monday and Tuesday of that week we were already two days behind on work.

 He did call on Wednesday to confirm if we were going to do his job the next day, I than told him that we had some rain and depending on if we could complete are jobs in a timely manner that yes I would try.  I also stated that we would call him to let him know whats going on by the end of the day. Now I did fail to call him that day but did end up having someone call him first thing in the morning the day of install.

The woman in my office applogized to him for the inconvenience. She was than going to let him know that we needed to move his install date for Saturday if possible due to the weather issues that we had in the beginning of the week.

My company works 6 days a week 2 jobs a day so if Monday and Tuesday was rain that means that we would automatically be 4 jobs behind.  Being that pavers are only installed outside of a property working in the rain is not doable.  I can understand his fustration due to the expectations of a job getting done on an install date.  But being that I nor anyone has controll over mother nature this was out of our hands

In the meantime the customer became very upset with the girl in the office and he told her that he was going to arrive to our office @ 3:00 pm to pick up his check because he wanted to cancel the job.  At that point the girl in the office called me the VP to inform me of this unhappy customer.  I than called him and was unable to get him at that momment  but did leave a message. 

I can keep going on and on about this unfortunate situation but to make it short and sweet.  A customer signs a contract where material needs to be specially ordered for him. (Because the manufacturer only works on MTO which means Made To Order ) I dont feel that I ripped him off when he is the one that was pulling out of a binding contract that was signed and material was already ordered and in my yard ready to be installed.  So due to the fact that the order was not cancelled before the material arrived, why is my company liable to hold that material for only god knows how long before I could get my money back.  This is why we do a restocking fee.  

A restocking fee is a common practice in the construction business. 

Now in regards to the small claims court the notice to appear did not get sent to my office.  The summons was served based on information obtained from sunbiz which showed our former accountant as a registered agent. He was served papers which he signed for , never notified us or sent us the documents or returned them to the courts. This accoutant has not worked for us since April of 2014 so any documents sent to him would never reach us.  What we did receive the day after the court date was the default for failure to appear.  When I received this letter I called the Judge and spoke with the secretary which advised me that I could write a letter in attn to the Judge to appeal the verdict of this case. 

I would have gladly gone before the Honorable Judge to defend my company and my reputation.

I have been in the paver industry for over 9 years and have never ever encountered a customer as uncooperative and disgruntled as this customer has been. He has contacted Channel 9 / Angies List / Better Business Bureau / Department of Consumer Affairs/ WKMG Tv out of orlando / Home Mag / Brevard County of Commissioners and much more.  

I understand what this customer wants which is the restocking fee amount of $300.00 dollars. But, as a small business owner I feel that if I were to give or allow customers the freedom to cancel binding contacts the week of or the day before an istall date I would have to shut my doors.  I can not run a business on sitting material that has been paid for along with freight charges and sales tax and no where to insall it.  

I hope my response to this complaint is well explained and understood

ALL IN ONE PAVERS MANAGEMENT