I requested a quote to relocate 2 existing POTS lines with phone & fax to another office, and install 3 new phones, for one of our client. We received a faxed quote from Folkerson Communications in Harker Heights, Texas, requiring a return fax with signature. The quoted amount was $385. I signed and faxed it along with a purchase order on 10/13/2009. When the job was done, the bill received from them was over $1000 (see attached quote, PO, invoices, email transactions).
Company I work for, MultiByte Systems Corp. (
multibyte.net), is a contractor/subcontractor/consultant, and provides services to various companies such as Scott&White, Fort Hood Darnall, Schools, Malls, Walmarts, HEB's, McDonalds, Wendy's, etc. We outsource some of the work required by our customers to third party companies.
This particular work was requested by one of our school client (accredited public charter high school), and we outsourced to Folkerson Communications. They made multiple trips, I would guess that about 90% of the entire time spent was to fix what they broke. Looking at their multiple invoices, they completely disregard the written quote and charged us hourly rate plus the parts. Nowhere in the quote, written or verbal, that they were going to charge us by hourly rate plus parts, including repairs for what they broke. After many email transactions, we were unable to settle.
The job, in my opinion was simple. A week after the signed quote, their tech came to the job site and looked at it. The two pots lines to be moved in the office are private lines for regional budgeting officer and not tied to school phone system. The lines were to be pulled and ran across the two classrooms and over the (fire)wall and into new office. He stated that due to the (fire)wall he can't drill through it to pull the cable. So explained, instead, he was going to pull from DMark which is at the back wall of the new office area where the two pots lines are to be moved and also two new phones to be installed. Come to think of it, the distance may actually be closer from DMark than from the old office to the new office. He said he's not ready to do it and postponed a week (so two weeks past). When he came back, it didn't take him long to relocate two POTS lines and install two new phones.
The old office where the two working POTS lines were to be moved is where the third phone was to be installed, tied to school phone system. BTW, the school does not have PBX, just simple two line phone system, and after adding three new phones, school now has total of 7 phones.
Since the cables were not moved, the tech reused the cable by re-punching down to the main lines. That's when all the problems began such as phones not working. At first, he said the cable was bad (although it's been working fine), so after replacing it, the phone at front desks start having same problems, then he again said cable to front desk is bad and he replaced it as well. If those cables were bad, then replacing them should have fixed the problem? No, same problems, plus additional problems, principal's office, counselor's office, two new phones installed... Every phones started to have various problems, line 1 not working, unable to phone paging, busy signals, able to hear one way but not the other....
After spending most of his time trying to figure out what's going on, he called quit until next day. So he came back, again and again. Several trips and several days has past. The final trip on 11/17/2009, made by another tech, all he did was re-punchdown the wires, and that fixed everything, strange isn't it?
They would not honor what they quoted. After phone calls and several email transaction to settle this dispute, the best they could do was discount $300 from the total bills.
They did a job for us in the past, and they gave us a quote of something like $4000 which included simple PBX, 6 phones, cabling work, and setup. Turns out that the cables and jacks were already ran by the building contractor, so they didn't had to run any cables, which saved them many hours. But we still paid them the amount that was quoted even though it only took them half a day, why didn't they charge us less? Because a written quote is like a binding contract. Now, regardless of the written quote, they want to charge more because they had to fix what they broke and took longer than expected to complete the job.
Am I being selfish trying to make them honor what they quoted?
Below are description of the PDF attachments.
Page 1 Quote from Folkerson Communication (FC) 10/08/2009
Page 2 Purchase Order by Us 10/13/2009
Page 3 1st invoice received on 10/30/2009
Page 4 2nd invoice received on 11/06/2009
Page 5 3rd invoice received on 11/13/2009
Page 6 Sent fax since phone call wasn’t getting response about bill 11/16/2009
Page 7-11 Email from FC 11/17/2009. Note in diagram, my markings are in thin red, and there were previously existing jacks and cables already at all locations. Three locations (marked 1 to 3) where 3 new phones were to be installed after 2 lines in office 1 (private phone and fax) are relocated. 10/28/09, he didn’t seem to know about the 3rd phone after installing two (location 2 & 3), as if he didn’t know about the quote. Remember, all phones at existing locations were working until he re-punchdown the office 1 cable. He then said cable was bad and replaced it (marked green). After that Lobby phones stopped working, he again said bad cable and replaced it (marked blue). But the same problem continued. He mentioned that he will have to run these cables, and I didn’t argue, they should fix what they broke, and he never once mentioned it was going to cost more than quoted. You will notice the invoice reflects hourly rate and material, not cost above the quote.
Page 12 My email response 11/23/2009
Page 13 Email from FC 11/23/2009
Page 14 Our staff email response 11/23/2009
Page 15 Email from FC 11/24/2009
Page 16 My email response 11/25/2009
Page 17 Email from FC 11/25/2009
Page 18 My email response 11/30/2009
Page 19 Invoice received 12/01/2009 over email
Page 20 Invoice received 12/02/2009 over email
Page 21 Invoice received 12/02/2009 over email
