Business ProfileforMagnum Construction Services Inc.

We initially began with them and they seemed good. However we were only a few weeks into preliminary tasks when a contractor friend of ours offered to help us out. We contacted Magnum immediately and told them we appreciated their help so far but we would like to go with someone we know and trust. We understand it must have been disappointing for him, though it was so early in the process we hadn't even signed a contract with them yet, though we had given them money to do the land survey (our bad). As soon as he and his architect from ******** **** ******* learned this, they turned sly, dishonest and what felt like vindictive. He didn't use the money to pay for the land survey which is what they said the money was for and instead locked it into a non refundable deposit with the architect and never told us (even though he said he'd be completely transparent with the funds) until an invoice for the entire amount was emailed to us, dated a month earlier, along with the land survey bill on top! We asked for the survey to be paid and we would gladly pay for their time, but the architect wouldn't even give us a detailed invoice of what he was charging for, and after many phone calls we finally received a small portion of our money back (which doesn't even cover the land survey bill) and certainly not an amount we were expecting nor feel is fair. I wouldn't go with them. To us, they acted with little integrity.

Hi ****, Thank you for your feedback. It is unfortunate how this project ended, but there are always two sides to the story. As much as it is painful for you how things went; it was also very disappointing for us how we were misled. We would like to address some discrepancies and gaps in your story that needs to be corrected with the right information as it is unfair to blast a small business like ours without providing all the facts. We can appreciate how things unfold and parties involved feel they are a victim of certain actions, but if we are truly objective with ourselves and try to honestly reflect on the situation, we would say that there were several aspects of miscommunications on your part that resulted in us having to pivot and salvage what we could for all the parties involved. You contacted us about a year ago regarding your home renovation project, at which time we provided you with free consultation, prompt estimate and detailed scope of work. We reached out to you gain at some point to follow up and you were still on the fence. You then reached out to us this past summer and wanted to get the ball rolling. We were eager to work with you and secure the job like any other small business in this very competitive industry. We had number of meetings with you going over ideas and possibilities discussing your idea board and looking at dates to start the process. You then requested to involve a designer which we gladly facilitated and agreed to hire on your behalf. After meeting with you and your husband, us, and the designer we had a good faith verbal agreement to move forward with the process of putting together a design, drawing and permit package to submit to the City of Burnaby. We all knew there would be a lot of leg work and several steps before we could submit the permit and drawing package and as per industry standard, we requested a retainer for time spent and services that would be required. A retainer is an advance payment that is made by a client to a professional, and it is considered a down payment on the future services rendered by that professional. The retainer fee funds the initial expenses of the working relationship. These fees are usually paid upfront, to ensure the commitment between the client and professional service provider is in good faith. In addition, retainer fees usually do not represent the total final cost of the services provided as there are several unforeseen aspects of a construction project of this size and scope. We got the ball rolling with research, planning and preparation, we facilitated the site survey, and we booked an appointment for the draft person and arborist all the while communicating these steps to you. You gave your go ahead and we moved forward. To our shock and surprise, we got a call from you saying you were sorry and decided to go with a contractor friend of yours. With obvious disappointment after learning this, we continued to provide you with honest advice on how things may likely turn out when you work with friends rather than professionals. To clarify, the non-refundable retainer you paid us was partially used as non-refundable deposit to the designer and his associate as well as our time spent researching and planning for the project. We had not yet received the invoice from land surveyor at which point you had already decided to go with your contractor friend. The initial retainer had already been used up in which case we would have requested additional funds at that point. After several lengthy back and forth conversations, we decided to meet you half-way in good faith and settled on reduced amount with a credit back to you to compensate you for the land survey cost. We felt this was fair and well within industry standards. We feel your review was unfair and unnecessarily negative considering we met you halfway and took a loss on our part. After all is said and done this has been a valuable learning experience as we continue to improve our communication and business conduct. Good Luck with your project.

Yes, indeed there are two sides to every story; each to one’s own perspective, and our initial review was a brief snapshot of how we feel things unfortunately went. Please allow us to respond to your comments and fill in the gaps with the correct information. Yes, nearly a year and a half ago we interviewed a number of contractors to get a feel for different companies in our area. I’m sorry if you felt you were misled in thinking that you were the only ones interviewed; we certainly did not lead you to believe this. I believe this is pretty standard practice to interview more than one company. This summer, we met once whereby you didn't give us an estimate, you asked what our budget is, and jotted down our own ideas for our renovation, and subsequently had one meeting with the architect from ******** **** *******. Without a contract, we trusted you with a retainer to start preliminary tasks, before things changed for us and we had an opportunity to work with a trusted friend and professional contractor. It had only been a few weeks into asking you to start, we hadn’t signed any contract with you and at that point we didn’t even know if the land survey had been completed as there was no communication from you regarding this. I’m unsure what “several aspects of miscommunication” on our part that you claim; I can only assume you are implying our decision to go with another contractor which we didn’t know until the day we contacted you. First, we can understand that it would be disappointing for a small business that we decided to continue with someone else, however a large scale reno requires a huge amount of trust, and I don't think it's incomprehensible that we would rather have someone we already know, trust and has been in the industry for many years. It was however, unfortunate the timing in which he became available. Second, there was NEVER any appointment date for a draftsperson nor an arborist. In fact, there has been no mention of an arborist after the initial request for the retainer, so I’m at a loss as to what appointments you are referring. Third, the retainer is NOT non refundable. It was never mentioned verbally nor on the invoice as non refundable and as you mentioned the retainer was for "future services" ie the land survey; they provide the service and you pay them for that rendered service. When services are not rendered, the retainer is refunded. The land survey was the only service that was rendered, apart from your time, for which you specifically said would be paid for with the retainer. In fact, when we informed you we would be continuing with someone else, you said the survey had been done, (which we found out later hadn’t actually been completed) and would need to be paid for. You would then consolidate any other invoices (we assumed you would bill for your and the architect’s time) and review our retainer because we both know, NONE of the retainer had been used up at this point. BUT, what you did instead is instruct the survey company to invoice us instead of Magnum Construction, and then used the entire retainer amount (not partially) as a non refundable deposit to the architect, not for services rendered, and lied on the date of the invoice; you inadvertently admitted that much to us on one of our phone call conversations saying that once we ‘changed our minds’, you ‘changed your mind too’ as to how to use the money to ensure the architect was paid for his time. We can only assume that you dated the invoice as such to provide a plausible documentation trail to say you “used up” the funds and to bill us. After several communications stating that we were willing to pay for time spent for research etc for you and the architect as part of "services rendered", you were willing to speak with the architect regarding this, and came back to us with $500 for your time, and $3000 for the architect. We felt charging $3000 for the architect's time was unreasonable. When we asked what he was charging for, the response was 'it's not available'. To us, that’s not acceptable, but we ended up settling with the $1500 refund instead of continuing, as it seemed that negotiations on any other amount wouldn’t be entertained and we were not willing to take it to tribunal. And only now as a response to our review are you clarifying that our retainer funds for services was in fact maintained as a deposit for the architect and "his associate" (whom we’d never heard of nor met, and whom was apparently to replace him while he went on paternity leave later in the year), and not for his time. You may feel this is an unfair review as you collectively with the architect, agreed to give us $1500 out of the $5000 retainer, and we take some responsibility in the changing of contractors; we understand that was not ideal and a shock to you. But what you still fail to understand or perhaps unwilling to admit, is that our review is negative due to the manner in which you dealt with your shock and disappointment. It continues to be with little integrity and honesty in an attempt to maintain good face. Please take a moment to honestly reflect on that.