Company boss tries to mend fences

By NANCY PARADIS

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 24, 2000

We had a board fence and two gates put up by West Coast Fence in March. Unfortunately, the fence was not put up properly and we feel that inferior materials were used. The owner made no attempt to come to my house, and I made numerous calls. I then decided to send a certified letter, but I received no acknowledgement of that, either. The president of the company, Tom Gavaghan, did call me once to let me know that visits to the doctor had prevented him from calling me back sooner. I responded that I didn't care about that and that he needed to fix my fence. In the first week the fence was up, men showed up at my house without having called in advance and made wrong corrections. Mary Caterina

Response: Thomas Gavaghan, president of West Coast Fence in Pinellas Park and Tampa, said that what you are complaining about is normal warping that is caused by the sun as the wood expands and contracts. Along with the warranty you were given at the time of installation was advice about some preventive measures for maintaining a wood fence. If you have not read it, you are urged to do so. The same information is on the back of your contract.

As a courtesy to you, Gavaghan said, West Coast Fence has made several service calls to your home, even though according to the company's limited warranty, it did not have to do so. After his crew completed these service calls, he said, you called him on June 9 and said you wanted to see him on June 12, as you were going away for several weeks. He told you he did not think that it would be possible because he had already scheduled other appointments. He asked you to call him when you returned to schedule an appointment convenient to both of you.

Several weeks went by, he said, and he tried calling you several times but either got no answer or the phone was busy. He then decided to go ahead and inspect the fence himself, which he did on July 6 at about 7 p.m. No one was home, he said, and he left his business card attached to the burglar bars at your front door. He never heard from you.

Gavaghan said his inspection found nothing wrong with the way the fence was installed. His installer did the best he could with the uneven ground. He suggests that you get some fill dirt and sod to level your ground. Excavated dirt from your pool and your neighbor's pools is making the ground uneven, he said.

Reaction

While in Florida this past winter, I ordered a magnetic knee support from J.D. Marvel that I saw in an advertising supplement in the paper. I started calling in late January to determine if the support came in different sizes, but the line was always busy.

On Feb. 10, I decided to send for the support anyway, with a note regarding my frustrations about the continually busy phone.

I never received my order, and the phone continued to stay busy, unless I called just after 5 p.m., at which time a recording stated that the office was closed and to please try tomorrow. On May 19, I sent a letter inquiring about my order but never received a response.

In late June, I finally contacted Action. You did in a couple of weeks what I couldn't do in months. My knee support arrived July 6. Many thanks for your help. John Flanagan

If you have a question for Action, or your attempts to resolve a consumer complaint have failed, write: Times Action, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or call your Action number, (727) 893-8171, or, outside of Pinellas, (800) 333-7505, ext. 8171, to leave a recorded request for Action. Names will not be omitted except in unusual circumstances. Letters may be edited for length.

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