Complaint Review: Benchmark Quality Gutters

Benchmark Quality Gutters

Owner: Michael Katrinic – From Port Huron, Michigan.  Born in 1968.  Graduate of Port Huron Northern High School (1987).  No college.  Owner of business since May 1994.  Prior to that, worked as a lab manager for Lenscrafters from June 1987 – May 1994.  House was foreclosed on in December 2012, and was sold at public auction on January 17, 2013.

Sales Associate: Darrell G. O'Neill – From Rathway, New Jersey.  Born July 1942.  He claims to have an Associate of Arts degree from Union County College, Cranford, New Jersey (1972).  Graduated from high school in Rathway, New Jersey, in 1960.  He has worked at Benchmark since April 2005.

Ann-Marie Baine, contacted Benchmark Gutters back during the Week of January 7-11, 2013.  The sales guy, Darrell O’Neill, came by on January 12, 2013, for an estimate.  We told him we wanted the same color gutters as the trim on our house (which is sort of a brownish color).  He had a similar color in his color samples and we pointed it out to him.  He said that was fine.  As we were leaving to go to a wedding, and as he was also doing an estimate on our in-laws house next door, he said he'd leave our written estimate/proposal with her parents.  Unbeknownst to us, he wrote down a different color than the one we agreed upon on the estimate/proposal.

When we returned home on Sunday, my wife retrieved the estimate/proposal from her parents next door.  Darrell had left instructions to have her sign it and fax it in to their company.  She did that.  She naturally assumed that the color that was written into the "color" box, "Linen," was the correct brownish color that we agreed upon (we have some brown bed linens...the term "linen" is not an actual color.  Not once did he tell us which of the trade colors he had was the one we picked out.  She had no way to know he wrote the wrong "color" in the box because technically, what was written in the box was not an actual color).

On January 21, 2013, the Benchmark Quality Gutter installers (of which Michael Katrinic was one) came while we were at work and installed the wrong color gutters on our house.  Instead of the brown gutters, they installed "white" gutters.  Ann-Marie left a check with her parents to give to the gutter folks.

When we got home, we realized that Benchmark Quality Gutters installed the wrong color gutters.  Tom instructed Ann-Marie to call Benchmark the next day, January 22, 2013, and to also call the bank to cancel the check until the matter gets resolved.  She did both and she let Benchmark know that the check will be canceled and they will not get paid until the matter is resolved.

Ann-Marie also contacted the owner, Michael Katrinic, on the same day and he was very angry that she canceled the check.  Then he said, "You signed a contract."  She told him that she was willing to pay him as long as he came back and corrected the situation by putting on the gutters that we ordered (the brown ones).  But she made it clear he would not get paid if he did not correct the situation.

The sales associate, Mr. O'Neill, said that "sometimes these things happened" and that he "could not remember exactly what was said at the time."  He said he'd come by a 6:00 PM but said to correct it "might cost extra."  He never showed up.

Tom called Darrell around 7:00 PM and asked if he was coming.  Darrell had no excuse why he no-showed, but he said he'd come by on the 24th around 6:00 PM.  Tom told him that was unacceptable, and he agreed to meet him at 1:00 PM instead.

At 1:00 PM on January 24, 2013, Darrell came to the house and told Tom that the owner of Benchmark Quality Gutters, Michael Katrinic, was "pissed off" because we "canceled that check."  He told Tom that he "signed a contract."  Tom told him that he either made a mistake by putting the wrong color gutters on the house or he tried to defraud us (we found out white gutters are cheaper than darker colors), and that he was either going to correct the situation or he could take his gutters back with him.   Darrell then stated, in a sarcastic tone with a nasty smirk on his face, that he suddenly "remembered" that Tom and Ann-Marie picked out the white gutters and then he told Tom, point blank, that Mike, the owner, was not going to do anything to correct the situation.  He then threatened Tom by saying, "You better pay what you owe or we're going to sue you for alot more than $900."

At this point, Tom told Darrell how it was interesting that yesterday on the phone he claimed that he did not remember what color Tom and Ann-Marie picked out on January 12, and that Benchmark would correct the problem, and now he's telling Tom that he supposedly, all of a sudden, remembers perfectly that they ordered exactly what he wrote on the estimate/proposal.  Tom then told Darrell that Darrell was lying, that Darrell knew he was lying, and that Darrell needs to leave the property immediately.  Darrell proceeded to continue to threaten Tom as he started walking away.  Tom told him that his business with Benchmark Quality Gutters has ceased and that they need to contact him to make arrangements to pick up their materials (they never did).

Ann-Marie received a voicemail from the owner of Benchmark Quality Gutters, Michael Katrinic, and proceeded to disparage Tom to Ann-Marie, accusing him of attempting to assault his salesman.   He told her Darrell came by to offer to paint the downspouts (which was not true…not once did Darrell make the offer, nor would it have been accepted, as we ordered the gutters and downspouts in the brown color that they are manufactured…paint chips after a short time).  He then offered to paint the downspouts (as opposed to correcting the situation), which was refused.  She told him they needed to put on the color that we ordered.

Then Mike Katrinic threatened her by saying, “I really don’t want to have to take you people to court over a gutter cap.”  He then further threatened her by saying, “I hope it will not get around in your neighborhood that we are a ‘fly by night company’ and that I would really hate that as it would be very, very bad.”  The clear implication was that if we told anyone what a bad job they did, he would retaliate in some fashion.

Mike Katrinic then left town for an undetermined period.  When he returned, he contacted Ann-Marie and then made arrangements to come by on Saturday morning, March 2, 2013, to talk about the situation.  He came by and we simply told him to either correct the situation and get paid, or to collect their gutters and not get paid.  In spite of the downright nasty treatment we received, we still gave him one last opportunity to correct the situation.

He complained to us that to correct the situation, he would have to purchase more materials and that he would barely break even on the job.  He said he may even lose money on it.  We told him it costs money when you or your employees make mistakes, but that he was obligated to correct the situation.  He then said he wanted to go home to think about it.

Two weeks later, Michael Katrinic left a voicemail on Ann-Marie’s phone telling her that he would not correct the situation and that he would seek legal action.  At that point, Tom and Ann-Marie severed all ties with Benchmark Quality Gutters.  Under no circumstances would they be allowed back on our property except to collect the gutter material that they left.

The bottom line is that Darrell O’Neill at Benchmark Quality Gutters either made a mistake and put the wrong trade color (“Linen”) on the order sheet instead of the brown color that Tom and Ann-Marie Baine ordered, or he was trying to defraud them with a bait-and-switch tactic by installing cheaper materials (white gutters are cheaper than darker ones) and then pressuring them to accept them by threatening legal action. 

Michael Katrinic, the owner of Benchmark Quality Gutters, is either an active party in a bait-and-switch fraud against the Baines or he is a bumbling, incompetent manager who refuses to correct the mistake that his employees made in an effort to save a few hundred dollars for himself. 

Furthermore, that Mr. Katrinic had just previously had his home foreclosed on, January 17, 2013, literally four days before they installed the wrong gutters on our house, is an indicator that he and his company are not financially sound.  It seems that Mr. Katrinic likely did not have enough money to buy materials to correct his company’s mistake or fraud, whichever it was.

That Michael Katrinic, the owner of Benchmark Quality Gutters, has absolutely no qualms about not only threatening customers with legal action if they not only do not pay for his mistakes, but also if they tell anyone about his mistake and poor customer service, is a clear testament to the kind of disreputable company that Benchmark Quality Gutters appears to be.

Beware of doing business with Benchmark Quality Gutters in Jacksonville, Florida.