In April, our basement flooded. So my wife and I went through the process of getting bids from several companies. One of those companies was Zimmer & Kohl Contracting. I wish we would have never, never, never done this. (I also wish there was a rating of lower then one star.)
Their bid was the lowest of the five we received. When we asked why they came in lower than the other bids, we were told it was because they worked in volume and that's how they could keep the prices low.
Sounded legit to my wife and I, but just in case we put back a extra money to cover any additions to the estimate that might occur after the job was completed.
So after fighting for two weeks to get on the schedule and getting anybody to call us back, we finally got on the calendar for May 24th. When May 24th arrived, we were told they needed to come back to our house to measure. Which was odd because they had been to our house 3 times already and had measured twice.
So, being slightly angry from having taken a day off from work, (this was the 3rd one I'd used?they missed two other appointments), Ben their contractor finally showed up at 2 in the afternoon.
When he did arrive at my house, he was visibly angry. He stormed into my house, brushed past my wife and in a tone that can only be described as furious, he berated me, asking, ""So you have the tile? Where are the supplies?"" My response was no, because the estimate included the tile. He told me ""no you're wrong."" I said, ""No, I'm not."" At this point I produced the estimate, which LINE 1 of the estimate said they, Zimmer and Kohl, would provide and install all materials.
He then told me there was no way he could do the job for the price on the estimate. I asked how could he suddenly come to this conclusion when he'd had the estimate for 5 weeks. He said, the person who did the estimate didn't know what they were doing and they should be fired. He then filled out a check for the deposit we had given Zimmer & Kohl Contracting, threw it at my wife and I, slammed the door, saying ""I took time out of my schedule to come out here, I don't need this!""
So after calming down, I called the person who had done our estimate. He apologized and worked with Zimmer and Kohl to come up with a new price. He produced one for about $3000 more than the original price. Which my wife and I agreed too, this was our own fault for doing this. But like I said earlier, we had put aside money in case of overages, and this was honestly about what we thought they would be based on the other estimates we had received.
So we scheduled a date with the guise that we wouldn't have to deal with Ben again after his outrageous behavior. They agreed and were supposed to come out to our house so we could sign the new estimate on May 28th.
I receive a call from them on the 28th telling me that the front office had kicked back the 2nd estimate and had assigned a new dollar figure to it. This estimate was for $10,000 above what the initial estimate was. At this point I had to walk away.
Now, I sit in my house which has all the furniture that was in the basement crammed into our living room, hallway, extra bedroom and sun room. Our house is maze because we moved everything out of our basement because they were supposed to be here to do the work. So instead of having a completed basement, I have an empty hole and a garage full of old carpet that they were supposed to hall away.
Of all the horror stories you hear about slimy, underhanded, greedy contractors and construction companies, Zimmer and Kohl fit them to a ""T"". They don't show up when they're supposed to, don't call you back, and low ball you on a price to get the job and then try to gauge you with a prices only the hand of Satan could have signed off on.
Stay away from Zimmer & Kohl Contracting. I'm not sure how a company that's been in business for over 40 years can survive with rude, pompous employees like Ben. I will be reporting them to the Better Business Bureau.
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