Architectural and Engineering Design Group Price Gauging company that under delivers and offers no help San Marcos CA

Beware!! Overprice, under-qualified and very unimpressive. They WILL keep your retainer even if you don’t proceed, so avoid putting money down they will justify it with a single hour visit. $850 for a single 1 hour visit, no joke. They will literally rob you of your retainer and then ignore your emails.

Unfortunately I hired Erin from Design Group which required a retainer of $850 to come have a consultation. Yup you read that right. Just to get them to come out, you have to put down a retainer for the job. Well didn’t seem that bad at first since I was going to use them anyways. However, upon arrival it became very clear that Erin was just full of buzzwords and not at all used to social queues or ability to read the room. She was pushing her way or no way for how we would layout the barn. 

I really wanted my land to be used the way it was, but she was insistent that the only option was to put the barn part way into my driveway. What a horrible suggestion. I have 2.5 acres of land with adequate room. Yes there is a creek that runs through a portion of it and some leeways that are about 60 ft around the fence line but there are plenty of options to work with. Unfortunately Erin wasn’t kind enough to discuss those options, she just kept pushing that we build it several feet into my driveway and just reroute the driveway if needed. 

I continued to let her know this is not how I want it as this is my home and I want it done nicely, not just to make it fit where it’s most easy for land moving. She continued to talk at my general contractor and myself for another 30 minutes about her opinions and refusing to discuss other options until finally she left. We decided not to move forward with Engineering Design Group due to their narrow vision and inability to think outside the box or even communicate effectively. 

I wish that was where the story ends. Erin had spent a little less than an hour at my property of which I have Nest Cameras showing her arrival and departure. I asked for a refund of the retainer minus her 1 hour consultation and the proceeded to keep $475 of the retainer because she had to answer the phone a couple of times to set up the consultation and did the site visit. I reached out and said I’m fine with up to $250 for that one hour, but anymore then that is just getting to be price gauging and they should really reconsider this. They pushed back and said I’m sorry you weren’t happy with the consultation fee. Then proceeded to ignore me after that. I’ve never dealt with such an unprofessional company. I’m so disappointed in this place. I can’t imagine how they could possibly stay in business with practices like this.