General Steel: run, don't walk, AWAY!
It came to my attention that the REAL info on General Steel is buried with someone a lot of reviews like this: "all good, thanks" with five stars. So, in a say $40,000 plus building project nothing went wrong? Um, yeah. The chances of those being real reviews are slim. The legit ones have issues much like we actually experienced and are out there but are hard to find because of all the fives star "wonderful, we love our salesman" reviews. Oh, and how about that lawsuit for doing things like claiming to manufacture buildings that hasn't changed their business practices at all?
Here is our real review, please add your own:
We are a long way into our process with General Steel. First, we called in almost a year ago and we're told they had a limited time sales on certain buildings that they had overstocked. By the way- that same overstocked building still had to go into production and later be brought in from a place that manufactures it that was NOT GENERAL STEEL. Later we found out that is a scamming sales pitch that they have already been in trouble with (lawsuit) for doing and yet they still do it. Ok fine, we went on through the process. The initial engineered drawings took twice the time we were told and we had to stay on them. Finally, we got them back and they (despite asking us where our windows would be and so forth), blocked our future windows with bracing that wouldn't work for our needs. They wanted us to pay almost $1k more to fix it. Um no, we told your our plans from day one. Finally we were offered to pay half of the cost they asked and we did it just to move on but we had to wait even longer for finished engineered plans. We were quoted later (by General steel) for insulation and windows. $10,000 for regular ol' insulation. Ridiculous. You can imagine what doors and windows were. It only took a second phone call to find it for half that and could keep going and get it even lower. Markups on any extras are all overpriced. There was a ton of confusion on delivery. We were told it was all coming on one truck but two showed up hours apart. We had a forklift rented and they were having trouble telling us (after we had rented it for one day according to the original plans they told us) if it would all be there on that day. Plus, there was a big "to do" about who to give the check to. Another thing that made me upset was realizing that this isn't a "General Steel Building". They just contract out a third party supplier that we could have bought it cheaper directly from. That is dishonest. Items came damaged which they were relatively quick to replace, items were backordered without warning which could have made us rent a forklift for another day but we figured something else out, and items were missing (say half the bolts required for example). Sure, they said they would replace them but we were mid-building and didn't have time to wait. The building went together okay but it wasn't without issues. Things didn't always line up like it should. We were told they would give us a list of contractors but they couldn't and didn't. We had a hard time finding anyone who would put up a General Steel building. We got quotes for over $60000 just to erect the building from those few that would. After it was delivered and paid in full, we were told about the seamer rental which I feel is the straw that broke the camels back. We paid an upgrade fee of $8000 for a standing seam roof which included a seamer rental. Not until we have the building and it is paid for were were told we have to either send a $4500 cashiers check or do an ACH debit that we SHOULD get back if ithe seamer tool is returned and in good shape. They cost around $4000 new. I pointed out that you don't rent a car or the forklift, pay for it in full up front, and get the money back if it is returned and in good shape. That is like buying it and then returning it for a refund. I don't like it. I asked why I couldn't just give a credit card number and was basically told I just can't. It got rude at that point and we were just put off basically to find our own seamer. All you pay for is a lot of over promised, well advertised metal buildings that you could get elsewhere for a better price. There is a heap of dishonesty in the whole transaction. Why didn't we run away as things got worse and worse? Well they get you with a good deposit up front and keep on adding more- you don't pay it, you lose it all. It's extortion. I hope this review finds many future customers.
Here is our real review, please add your own:
We are a long way into our process with General Steel. First, we called in almost a year ago and we're told they had a limited time sales on certain buildings that they had overstocked. By the way- that same overstocked building still had to go into production and later be brought in from a place that manufactures it that was NOT GENERAL STEEL. Later we found out that is a scamming sales pitch that they have already been in trouble with (lawsuit) for doing and yet they still do it. Ok fine, we went on through the process. The initial engineered drawings took twice the time we were told and we had to stay on them. Finally, we got them back and they (despite asking us where our windows would be and so forth), blocked our future windows with bracing that wouldn't work for our needs. They wanted us to pay almost $1k more to fix it. Um no, we told your our plans from day one. Finally we were offered to pay half of the cost they asked and we did it just to move on but we had to wait even longer for finished engineered plans. We were quoted later (by General steel) for insulation and windows. $10,000 for regular ol' insulation. Ridiculous. You can imagine what doors and windows were. It only took a second phone call to find it for half that and could keep going and get it even lower. Markups on any extras are all overpriced. There was a ton of confusion on delivery. We were told it was all coming on one truck but two showed up hours apart. We had a forklift rented and they were having trouble telling us (after we had rented it for one day according to the original plans they told us) if it would all be there on that day. Plus, there was a big "to do" about who to give the check to. Another thing that made me upset was realizing that this isn't a "General Steel Building". They just contract out a third party supplier that we could have bought it cheaper directly from. That is dishonest. Items came damaged which they were relatively quick to replace, items were backordered without warning which could have made us rent a forklift for another day but we figured something else out, and items were missing (say half the bolts required for example). Sure, they said they would replace them but we were mid-building and didn't have time to wait. The building went together okay but it wasn't without issues. Things didn't always line up like it should. We were told they would give us a list of contractors but they couldn't and didn't. We had a hard time finding anyone who would put up a General Steel building. We got quotes for over $60000 just to erect the building from those few that would. After it was delivered and paid in full, we were told about the seamer rental which I feel is the straw that broke the camels back. We paid an upgrade fee of $8000 for a standing seam roof which included a seamer rental. Not until we have the building and it is paid for were were told we have to either send a $4500 cashiers check or do an ACH debit that we SHOULD get back if ithe seamer tool is returned and in good shape. They cost around $4000 new. I pointed out that you don't rent a car or the forklift, pay for it in full up front, and get the money back if it is returned and in good shape. That is like buying it and then returning it for a refund. I don't like it. I asked why I couldn't just give a credit card number and was basically told I just can't. It got rude at that point and we were just put off basically to find our own seamer. All you pay for is a lot of over promised, well advertised metal buildings that you could get elsewhere for a better price. There is a heap of dishonesty in the whole transaction. Why didn't we run away as things got worse and worse? Well they get you with a good deposit up front and keep on adding more- you don't pay it, you lose it all. It's extortion. I hope this review finds many future customers.
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