Another Complaint against Jamey Carter, Owner of Cowboy Fence and Deck, now Dallas Deck and Fence.

This woman fights back by sending this story to the local Dallas area news stations. This is her story. Be sure to submit yours too.

Saul,

Just covering all bases sending this to both you & Steve.

I had significant wind damage to my fence and called Cowboy Fence & Deck in Lewisville, TX for a repair estimate on 5/3/07. My 3 sisters were in town from CA one arriving the night the fence blew down and the other two the next day. This was sister’s week planned a year in advance. I am the youngest at 54. We had a sister pass away in 2001 so we try to get together once a year. They enjoy using my Jacuzzi and relaxing. My oldest sister’s son passed away 2 weeks ago and she almost wasn’t able to come but we needed this quite time together more then ever. It was anything but peaceful rather a very stressful week for all of us.

On the evening of 5/2 we had Tornado Watch (Warning?) and my TV went out and my sister that had already arrived and I went in my special “tornado” room, under my stairs. When we heard it stop about 5 min later and came out we looked outside and 2 very large sections of my fence were blown down. I called Cowboy Fence & Deck in Lewisville the next morning, without doing my homework first on the Internet because I was in a hurry and upset. They said they could be at my home in 15 minutes to give me an estimate! It sounded like a reasonable quote from Ron and they could start that day. I wrote a check. Upon arrival of the workers I was convinced to replace the entire fence by (Name Removed), which of course would be more $. It sounded like a reasonable price and quick time frame. They were having problems with an outside circuit so I plugged in an extension cord in the house under the door and then my sisters and I left while they were working because it was upsetting to be here with all that going on.

We came home and stood there with our mouths open when we saw what I was left with. We were all in complete disbelief of Cowboy Fence & Deck’s work ethic and workmanship. Before I saw the other stories on the web I thought they were just taking advantage of me because I was a single woman that wouldn’t know any better. The materials used and the workmanship is the poorest I have ever seen. Obviously this crew had never built a fence before. Postholes not even filled in, with old concrete thrown on top. Fence boards with only one nail. Boards on the gate came off in my hand, NO NAILS! Gate hardware put on upside down so I couldn't get the lock on it. Fence boards uneven with a board put across the bottom to try and hide it. The guy who gave me the original estimate (Ron) came back on 5/7/07 and agreed it was horrible workmanship and said they would come back and tear it down and rebuild it, I wrote a check for the additional amount. (my big mistake) We agreed they would come back on 5/10 after my sister’s left and do the repairs. I emailed the owner, Mr. Carter, pictures and he also agreed it was an unacceptable job and said they would be out the next day to fix it. He said the foreman of that job, XXXX XXXXXX (a Sub scontractor), would never do another job for him. He was appalled at the pictures I sent him. Every day I am told they will be here the next day and I'm still waiting.... I was foolish enough to pay in full in advance. I have a pool and MUST have a fence. It is so wobbly I am afraid to leave home when there is the least bit of wind and in Texas that is almost every day! I finally decided to look on the Internet. OMG this man who had seemed so sincere was lying through his teeth to me.

I have saved emails almost daily where he says he will be out. Yesterday I got a call at work from Linda (Cowboy Fence) saying they were on their way to my house to put in post and the rebuild would be completed today. When I got home last night no one had been out. I emailed last night telling them that I would be contacting Fox 4 today by noon. I worked at home today, what a surprise no show. Yes, I had already filed a BBB complaint probably why Linda called me yesterday. Around 2:00pm today when still there was no sign of them I called Linda. She claimed she really thought they had come yesterday and would have the owner Jamie Carter call me back. I got a call and it was the most bizarre exchange I have ever had with a business. This man who had been a good ole boy to me to this point was now YELLING at me on the phone. How could I call them liars (maybe because they were?) He was saying he did not care at all about the BBB complaint because he knew he would win. He said he did not care about the pending small claims against him by the other guy on the internet because he didn’t like his web page (???). He challenged me to check BBB I would not find anything because he gets it fixed just before they can post it. He said Fox 4 didn’t scare him either because it would be to long before you got here and they would just see a corrected fence because he would get it fixed eventually.

He said he would send Mike out this evening to redo one of the post and then his dad would come Sunday to finish the job! Mike!!! The guy he claimed to have fired who screwed it up in the 1st place. I’m sure this is part of their scam blaming it on each other. I have no doubt Mike is still working for them. I explained I never wanted Mike on my property again. I would wait for his dad on Sunday. I confirmed three times that he will be here at 10:30am on Sunday I would stay home from church and wait for him. I do not expect them to show up. At one point in our conversation Jamie mentioned the “cheap” fence I had purchased. I asked him if the fact that I didn’t buy a more expensive fence meant the workmanship should not have been up to par. Unbelievably at that point he started trying to sell me a fence stain job at a discount!! I told him once the repair is done I never want to see them again.

It was just the way he is so defiantly challenging the public to be able to do anything about the way he does business that inspired me to attempt to reach out. Even if they do show up Sunday there needs to be a warning to the Dallas community about selecting contractors without thorough research even when it’s an emergency situation. They may be paying the consequences long after if they don’t investigate.

I am not alone with my experience with this company, see links below.

http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=15049

http://www.allenlharris.com/cowboy-fence-company.html

http://www.allenlharris.com/cowboy-fence-and-deck.html

The fence is actually even worse then the photos I attached. Look how uneven the fence boards are. These were taken after they left! They even left the string attached; as if it mattered it didn’t help them line anything up straight. They put the board across the bottom on that one end to try and hide how high the boards are at that point. Although I went with a cheaper fence (because I plan to sell soon) I still expected quality workmanship.

Images of this new fence:

This was the email sent to the owner. More than a week later, the problems are still not fixed.

Jamey

I just could not resist showing you some of this for yourself. In addition to this when Ron and I walked the fence line there were boards that only had nails on the top and none on the middle or bottom. If we have straight line winds again tonight I have no doubt those will be gone anyway by the time they come back Thursday to try again.

The first photo (#008) has 2 pieces of wood lying on the ground. They were on the gate and came off in my hand after the crew left, they did not even have nails in them. The second picture (#009) speaks for itself. The 3rd picture (#011) is a post where there was a sprinkler cut thru. I asked several times to make sure the post was not installed until the leak was repaired. Mike said it was repaired and the water left was just run off from previous rain. This is the post that had no dirt around it only previous concrete thrown back on top. The whole was so open as you can see I could get a turkey baster down next to the pole. I got 1 of those 5 gallon Home Depot buckets of water out of it this morning, and this afternoon another ¾ bucket before I gave up, it never did stop filling with water. (This was long after the rain had stopped.) It is obvious the water is coming up not from run off. Ron had marked the post up from this for the re-do I think this post needs to be included. # 14 is the mess they left were they got concrete all over my stamped concrete. #15 & 16 are the ridiculous gate job. I am trusting you and Ron are going to do as promised and get this corrected. I am expecting them Thurs morning weather permitting, if not Friday. Thank You.

Update: June 6, 2007

Did you read anything on this page that lead you to believe that this customer was happy with Jamey Carter?

This customer went to the BBB about her episode and the owner, Jamey Carter, tells them that the customer was "100% Satisfied". What a liar!

Here's what he wrote in response to her initial complaint and her reply to his out right lie.

On June 04, 2007, the business provided the following information:
Contact Name and Title: JAMEY CARTER OWNER
Contact Phone: 214-636-3456
Contact Email: cowboyfence@verizon.net
THE JOB IS 100% COMPLETE AND WE WERE PAID IN FULL THE CUSTOMER SAID SHE WAS 100% SATISFIED.

************************************************** my reply

I did not say I was 100% satisfied nor was I asked! I was foolish enough to pay in full at the beginning before I knew what I was getting into because I trusted them. I will never make that mistake again. After sending back Mike who I said I never wanted on my property again to do the rebuild, the gate would not even close one day later. It was then repaired again. Gate done structurally better, however inferior wood used even on the gate in the most obvious spots. The other 'post' were not "redone" very little concrete used, and it is still very unstable in the slightest wind. When I purchased this fence I said I wanted the SAME type wood as my old fence. Maybe this is the same "type" but there are many grades even within the same type just as there are many shades of red. I've never even seen materials this bad in a store so didn't know it was possible to get this low grade of material. I was lied to on numerous occasions, yelled at by Jamie Carter, at one point in the phone conversation he called me an "idiot"! His customer! The only part of that statement that is true is the fact that I did business with Cowboy Fence which makes anyone an idiot. In that same conversation he challenged me to find anything bad about him on BBB and said he wasn't afraid of Fox 4 news either (whom I also sent an email to). He said anyone would just have a finished fence to take a picture of by the time they got here. I have many many pictures of my own. He knows how to work the system just enough to get by. I am going to get an estimate (NOT from Cowboy) on getting this corrected, which I think Cowboy Fence should be accountable for. Mr Carter referred several times to my "cheap" fence. I guess this implies if I had purchased a more expensive fence I would have gotten better workmanship. Even with this below standard wood if it had been built correctly and solid I would have had to accepted it. This entire incident has caused me extreme stress and anxiety.At this point I don't want to have anyone associated with Cowboy Fence near my house. I have no doubt there have been other complaints against this company but people probably just get tired of fighting therefore other potential customers never get to actually see the facts on BBB.

Back to the main cowboy fence company page