Bill Kay Auto Group owes Serenity LED, an SDVOSB company, over $10K Midlothian Illinois

Over the winter of 2016 into 2017, Serenity LED, a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, was hired by Bill Kay Auto Group to handle the installation of LED parking lot lights at five of their dealerships around the Chicagoland area. Upon the original signing of the initial contract, work was started at the Bill Kay Honda dealership located in Bourbonnais.

Work was completed at Bill Kay Honda without many problems. It took about two and a half to complete due to weather, but overall there weren’t any alarming issues. What was not expected was the unprofessionalism that was apparent in starting work at Bill Kay Ford. Their parking lots were very poorly maintained with the amount of snow and ice that accumulated with the extreme weather the Chicagoland area was receiving at the time. Work was delayed by weeks at some points due to the lifts not being able to function in plummeting temperatures. On top of that, when the weather was appropriate to work, the lifts provided were poorly maintained and inadequate for the job, taking upwards of 20 minutes just to lower at points.

On December 23rd, Serenity LED’s owner and lead engineer Chris Sass, who is a disabled veteran, was at the jobsite taking a look at an electrical issue when he slipped on black ice in the parking lot and tore his left rotator cuff. In the days prior to the site visit, Chicago was experiencing severe winter storms. Bill Kay Ford neglected to salt or plow portions of their lot. Due to their lack of caring, Chris with Serenity LED is now completely unable to work due to his shoulder injury and is currently receiving workman’s compensation.

Later in January, the Bill Kay Ford dealership was successfully converted to LED lights. When Serenity LED was due to be paid, Bill Kay’s true colors were shown. Not only did he refuse payment for the work completed, but he proceeded to hire another crew of anti-American workers to install the lights at the rest of the dealerships on the permit of Serenity LED. These same workers were caught on tape taking down all of the American Flags at the dealerships they were working at while disrespectfully dragging them across the ground and not stowing them away properly.

To this day, Bill Kay has not paid for the work that was done by Serenity LED at his Ford dealership in Midlothian. A lien has since been filed on the premises for over $10 thousand. His treatment of Serenity LED, a Service Disabled Veteran Small Business, is disgraceful. No US Veteran should receive this treatment for any quality work that was done on any jobsite.