VENTURES reviews

1521948159

Sarah Salerno

google

Good afternoon Sarah, we apologize that one of our consultants came across as crude during their conversation with you. Thats highly unacceptable and not the level of professionalism we're known for. We take pride in our work, value the outcome of each of our projects and feel honesty with our clients is a core responsibility. We have very close relationships with our clients and ultimately feel like theyre family. At that, we tend to joke around, be personable and give clients our honest advice when we see room for improvement in a design or project before construction begins. Our consultant shared their perspective regarding the design presented. It was their opinion that the functionality would have been compromised as the design did not suit your home and would quickly look dated. Again, we really apologize for insulting you, Im sure that must have felt awful and was definitely not our intention. As a token of good faith wed love to create a complimentary design for you that could help visualize an alternative approach to your backyard space. This would give you the option to go with whomever you feel confident in delivering a quality installation and product.

1522094548

1

Just saw these guys at the novi pools show. Absolute disgrace. They called my design that I brought to them old fashion and similar to a look of a scrotum. My 5 year old and 2 year old were standing close by. Clearly they were not looking for business and/or high (cause the other 2 consultants were laughing). Completely disrespectful and non professional. I have never been treated so poorly by any other business in my life.

1650982769

Joe Haak

google

Were sorry to hear that you are unhappy with your experience with Ventures. It is our goal to provide an exceptional design and build experience to all our clients. As you know, we hand dug around the unmarked electrical lines when expanding your patio and took every precaution to ensure it would not be damaged. When you experienced electrical issues we coordinated the electrician for you at no cost. They came to diagnose the problem and were unable to find any issues during the diagnostic so they determined the line would need to be dug up and replaced. Once they dug up the line and examined it, they found that it did NOT have any damage or nicking to the exterior casing. While they were unable to give you a definitive reason for the power issues, they did ensure that it was not caused by negligence on our end. While we can understand how frustrating it is when issues like this arise, we cannot incur the cost for your electrical work. Additionally you had the electrical company add new lines and outlets to the patio expansion while they were working. The billing for this work is between you and the electrical company. We did however redo all the pavers that the electrical company had to remove to rerun the new electrical lines, at no cost to you. This was done in good faith because we value you as a customer but was not required in our contract and would not typically be done for free. Your bill with Ventures was closed at the exact same price it started at. There was not a 10-15% increase as stated in your review besides items you elected to add to the scope of the project like additional low voltage lights. There was no damage done to your lawn in the replacement of the electrical line as no large equipment was needed for these repairs. The damage to your grass was caused in the expansion of your patio. When performing this type of work which requires heavy machinery, there is always damage to grass. It is an inevitable side effect of bringing a skid steer onto a property and is outlined in our contract. The restoration of the lawn after a project is always the responsibility of the client, as you know because we have a signed and paid change order for the restoration work done after your 2017 build. Last fall, when the work was completed, sod farms had already closed for the season. Again, as a good faith gesture, we seeded and laid down straw erosion blankets on your lawn free of cost, a service that would typically be billed to you. Come spring you contacted us stating that the seed had not taken and we informed you that we could calculate a cost for additional seeding or sod but it would be a change order. We regret that our efforts are seen by you as two-faced. We believed that our communication (both in the written contract signed by you and verbal) was clear and informative and that we went beyond what was required of us to assist you with a frustrating situation. We hope you enjoy your beautiful patio. We appreciate your recognition of the high quality work our crews do. They are impeccable craftsmen and we are very proud of their work.

1649175625

2

tl:dr - Venture's craftspeople generally do good work, but their construction / business team will nickel and dime you to replace stuff that THEY damage while they work, so be prepared to fund an additional 10-25% of your quoted cost. We had ventures do our patio, yard and landscaping in 2017 and the end results were great; however, after some staff turnover over the ensuing 3 years, our second project to expand the patio and install a fire pit in the fall of 2021 went poorly. Despite enumerating the need to carefully handle underground electrical in advance of the project (that they installed in the first place), their equipment damaged this during construction, and rather than fixing their own mistake, they forced us to pay outside electricians to fix damage that clearly they had inflicted. Further, they destroyed our entire backyard lawn with construction equipment when they could not fit the required machinery through our front gate. While they put down hay/seed to cover most of the damaged areas in November, and their relationship manager committed to having someone come out in the spring the ensure there was good coverage for re-growing the lawn, they re-negged on this commitment and offered to quote us for lawn repair. We won't use these guys again, but if you do, be forewarned that their definition of "reasonable care in the exercise of their tasks" is essentially that they will exercise limited / no care in the ordinary course, are not liable for any damage they do, but in a smarmy, two-faced fashion, are happy to provide you with a quote to pay them more to fix damage that they caused in the first place. Updated Response: I have added some photos of the condition that Venture's left our lawn in. I appreciate that their response is that their activities did not damage the "unmarked" underground electrical (which they installed in the first place in 2017), however, the outdoor electrical worked just fine until work in the area commenced, and then did not work thereafter, which is simply not a coincidence. Further, while I appreciate that heavy equipment was used to move pavers, it was verbally agreed that our driveway, not our entire backyard, would be the staging area for the construction activities so as not to destroy the sod (which they also installed in 2017). The replacement of the entirety of our lawn that was destroyed had a cost of over $6,500 which represents 23% of the entire project cost, so when it is stated that there are incremental expenses beyond the quoted cost I am not exaggerating.

1602100722

Brad Konvolinka

google

5

As a professional in the large-scale commercial construction industry, Im well aware of the negative consequences of subpar design and inferior workmanship. Jake and his team were extremely accessible, here every day and paid attention to the details. If you are looking for a quality result, save yourself the time and call Ventures. No hassle, down-to-earth and easy to work with.

1497636099

Mara Hosner

google

5

First of all, they were incredibly professional and friendly! My patio and fire pit are breathtaking, nothing better than Michigan summers- especially now! Thanks Ventures!

1527612116

K. Conti

google

3