Bliss Enterprises LLC Rickey Bliss, Owner Rude Rip Off Plant City Florida

9-12-2016

Summary of Dealings with Bliss Enterprises

We began our dealings with Bliss Enterprises on the phone on July 5, 2016.  We saw your web site and liked the photos of your barns.  I visited with Ricky Jr. on the phone and he was pleasant and courteous.  He invited us out to see model barns at your Plant City location.  We drove out on July 7^th and met with both Mr. Richard C Bliss “Big Ricky” and Ricky Jr.  You gave us a tour of your facilities and we loved the model barn at the front of the property.  We talked in detail about the project.  We explained that time was of essence to get the barn completed at our farm in Dade City since we were moving our show horse from a facility in Odessa, FL, to our farm.  We explained we were spending $750 per month for horse boarding. That is $150 per week just for stall rental, so time was of the essence.

Both Richard and Ricky Jr pitched us on the professionalism of your company.  You stated that you had multiple crews and that you had a crew in Dade City.  You said that you had built many barns in our neighborhood and there were probably several within a mile of our place.  You stated that you had a lot of experience with Pasco County and the permitting process.

You outlined the steps for the project.  The first step was to finalize plans.  Then give you a deposit for the engineered plans and permitting.  Per your experience, this would take an estimate 3-4 weeks.  Once the permit was approved you would start in a week and it would take around two weeks to complete the project.

In light of this sales pitch and schedule we worked quickly on the plan to get the project started.  We visited with Ricky Jr. several times on the phone to get questions answered.  He was polite and got back with us quickly.  By July 12^th, 5 days after our in person visit, we had finalized plans and a final quote from Bliss Enterprises. 

My wife and I were little apprehensive about dealing with your firm.  Your office was disorganized and a mess.  The bid was crude and was hand written and a little confusing.  In light of that I took Wed. July 13^th to put a drawing and pictures together along with the quote so that we could have decent documentation of this $25,000 project. 

We set an appointment to finalize the deal for the next day, Thursday July 14^th.  We met at your office and reviewed the project.  We reiterated that time was of essence due to our boarding costs.  Ricky Jr stated that the only thing out of their control was the time for permitting.  We gave you our $1,250 check and we had you sign off on the plans and bid.  We were buying virtually the exact barn as the model on your property.  Ricky Jr said that the plans were standard and he could have engineered plans the middle of the next week.  Then assuming 3-4 weeks for permitting, that would result in being permitted around August 19^th.  With what you had outlined in our July meetings, we should be under construction by August 29th.  With two to three weeks for construction we should be able to have our horse out of boarding by mid to late September.  We gave notification to our horse boarding facility that we would be leaving October 1, 2016.

 On Thursday July 28^th I called to check on our project.  Ricky Jr answered and sounded like he had forgotten about our deal.  He responded that nothing had happened and he would get started by getting the engineer to get him some stamped plans. 

I was surprised that nothing had happened.  On July 28^th I emailed the following to Ricky Jr:

Ricky jr

We are excited about our new barn but also disappointed.

We met with you 7-14 to finalize the design and gave you the check for permitting.

At that meeting you said you would submit it to the Arch/Engineer for stamped plans on Tues. 7-19.  I called you yesterday and evidently nothing has happened.  You said you would try to get it in next Tuesday, 8-2.

That throws us back two weeks at the beginning of the project.  At our meeting we explained we were on a tight time schedule.  What makes it tight is that our horse is in a boarding facility at $1,000 per month.  Every week of delay costs us $250.00, thus $500 for the two weeks so far.

I am concerned that we are starting off on this foot and we aren't to the hard part of building the barn.

Surely you knew on the front end the amount of work you had on the table and your firm’s ability to hit dates on the project.  We were relying on your commitment.  If this is a pattern of your performance for this project, we don't want to move forward.

If you make a commitment, you need to keep it.  I have the feeling that if I hadn't called yesterday to check on progress, the delay could have been longer.

I'd like you to email me a time line as to what your commitment is for this project, showing finalized plan date, submission date to Dade City, estimated permit date, start date of construction, and completion date.  I do understand that you do not control the time between submitting the permit and its issue.  The rest of the dates are in you control.

As stated above, timing is important to us.  If giving us a schedule and hitting commitment dates does not work for you, I will certainly understand.  Then we need to nip this in the bud and not move forward.

If you can give me a schedule that we both can live with, then we can move forward.

Sincerely,

Buzz & Linda Roman

There was no response from Ricky Jr...  This was the start of the passive aggressive behavior.  Prior to this email, when I would call the Bliss office, Ricky Jr would frequently answer.  After the email, I never visited with Ricky Jr. again.  In multiple calls since then he never answered. I assumed he saw my call on Caller ID and let someone else answer.  We were now weeks into working with Bliss, we really liked the model barn, so in the absence of any response we hoped they would come through with what they said they would do.  I would call every 10 days or so to see what was happening.  All of these calls were answered by office staff.  Basically they said that they were in contact with Pasco County and that the permit was working its way through the system.

Not once during these weeks did I receive a call from Bliss as to what was happening.  I had to initiate every call as to the project status.  Finally on my September 6^th call, I found out the permit was approved. I don’t know the date it was approved, but was told that it was now approved.  Richard got on the line and told me it was approved.  When I asked him when we might start he said he was totally stressed out from the long holiday weekend and that I would need to call back later.

I waited two days and called Thursday Sept. 8, 2016.  Richard got on the line and I asked him when we might start construction.  He said that “he had no idea”.  He then went on to give a list of excuses as to his workers, the weather, Obama and on and on.  I said, “we are really in a bind as to getting this project going” and that time was of essence.  He rudely replied “you know if you don’t like my answer, then why don’t you come out here and pick up the plans and get someone else to build the barn!”

I was shocked!  Dealing with Bliss Enterprises and Richard and Ricky Jr. had turned into a nightmare.  The rude, unprofessional, non-communicative behavior is horrible.  I couldn’t help but wonder how a firm like this stays in business.  The bottom line is that after nine weeks of working with Bliss in good faith, they were throwing us under the bus.

We now have to start from scratch to find another builder and go thru the permitting process.  

I called Pasco County and they said that Bliss had not even picked up the permit.  That we could only proceed with the permitted project by substituting another builder using those exact plans.  I quickly called a couple of builders and they said they didn’t think they could bid or use those plans and that we needed to start from scratch.

The need to start over means even more delays than the 9 weeks we’ve already lost.

I have 50 very active years of business. It is my experience that behavior like yours is not an isolated incident, but a way of life.  I would bet many of your customers have received this rude and unprofessional behavior.

The sad thing about all of this is that all your company needed to do was to be courteous,

communicate, and do what you said you would do. 

On September 19, 2016 I received in the mail from Bliss Enterprises a set of the plans and Building Permit.  There was no cover letter, no response to my certified letter of September 12, 2016.  This continued passive aggressive behavior gives me no other recourse than to file a small court claim.