Defective Product, Poor Service, Unprofessional Management

Two years ago, spent almost two thousand dollars to have a vinyl awning (winter cover) made for our patio area. The canvas awning used for summer was in place when we purchased the house and Laurel Awning was the maker and installer of the steel frame. At the time of my order and through subsequent calls, asked the company to contact me when the new awning was delivered and installed and the summer awning removed. Came home from work one day at lunch time to find the installation crew tearing off the summer awning and installing the winter cover. That was really the beginning....noticed during installation that the specially made and expensive cover was not sewn properly with large gaps in the stitching and too small for the frame. Expressed my dissatisfaction during the installation and was told to call the company. From there the service person became belligerent, used profanity toward me personally and began slashing at the cover straps with his box cutter. Needless to say, I was astonished and somewhat fearful as I had never had a service person speak to me that way, especially with a box cutter in hand.

The company at the time begged to allow them to make up for the reprehensible service. At the time, I just requested my money back and told them I would think about it. The following spring they re-installed the summer awning and were very pleasant. I then decided they were sincere about making things better and ordered another winter cover. It was on for about 2 months before it starting ripping on the sides.

Contacted the company, who sent out a representative to look at the damage. At the time, they advised they would repair it during the summer. As it turned out they did not repair the damage, when I called to ask for the return of the awning, learned it was not yet done. Finally, received the poorly repaired awning back via UPS (instead of being delivered by a service person)with a NASTY note from the VP, Gregory Schmieler, telling me to find another awning company to deal with as they WILL not provide service to me from this point on.

The folks at Laurel Awning have demonstrated they are not honest, provide poor quality and then are rude about it. I would caution anyone against doing business with them.

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Not quite three years ago, we purchased a retractable awning from Nelson Brothers in Bristol, Pa. In the interim, Nelson was taken over by Laurel Awning. Last week we had service men here to repair a valance, and we noticed that the arms were not working properly, and for some reason they blew the motor on the awning. Schmieler(Laurel) and Niemczyk (Nelson) told me the arms could not be replaced because the manufacturer Arquati, went out of business.Warranty could not be honored. Arquati is still on line.(manufacturer) Here now,BBB next then Philaspeaks, then angie's list,then facebook, craig's list on n on

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I think we can just forget about good service. Consumers really need to have a voice and a place to tell their stories.