C D Stroud Fence

The fence was good piece of work as a structure but the experience with Gary and the owner was insane. I met Gary once only (when he estimated the fence in January 2014) but the balance was on the phone screaming yelling threatening to beat me up. The owner was no better but at least he came to the job site (my house) Gary never did.
There was a problem with the fence line being back further than the existing fence (this was just a re-​fencing job) so there was a tree in the way the owner (after screaming at me on the phone) did show up and came up with a solution so that was resolved. However the fence ended up being too high off the ground 6″ so I’ve had to add boards to the front and back gates and add chicken wire to the side fence to keep my animals in and other animals out. Bringing this to Gary’s attention set him off like a roman candle explicative laced yelling and screaming and saying he was going to come to my house and beat me up. So unless you’re interested in having to modify your job after they’re done with no recompense and be threatened by their salesman I think this is a company to avoid.

After dealing with another fence company who refused to return phone calls and couldn’t secure permits after 6 weeks, I called CD Stroud. They had given me a quote initially, and I should have trusted my instinct that these guys were good. After I pulled my deposit from the 1^st company, CD stroud had the permits in 2 business days. They were backed up about 2 weeks which they told me upfront, but once available, they called and told me they were starting construction that day. I told them my dog was out in the yard, but he’s very friendly. When I came home they had almost all the posts set already. They completed the whole job (350+ ft) in 3 days. This fence is built to withstand the apocalypse! It is very well constructed, the workers were extremely personable and took care of my dog giving him water and playing with him. Can’t thank them enough, I will be having them back out for some more work.

When looking up this company to support you in building or repairing a fence, their mission statement says that they provide «courteous» customer service and want to «exceed expectations» for their customers. This was proven false by C.D. Stroud’s Sales person, Gary Smalley.
Gary came out to provide my family an estimate for building a new fence for our house. When Gary asked my wife what we would like to have for a fence it immediately turned into a conversation about how «it couldn’t be done». I figured that having a fence with the boards side-​by-​side was possible since I have 2 family members and a co-​worker that have that style of fence, but I guess not. As my wife asked to have a completely level fence on top and the bottom of the boards level with the land, she was approached again with «it couldn’t be done», that all of the boards will be the same height and you need to just move the dirt around the boards to make it level. When viewing the fence across the street from us, my wife pointed out how their fence has a dip in part of it and explained that she didn’t want that, it turned into «that’s going to happen with uneven land». As the conversation progressed, I perceived that Gary became impatient and uninterested in wanting to exceed our expectations, he asked my wife what she did for a living, my wife explained what she did for work and then he went on to say «I’ve been doing this for 25 years which is longer than you’ve been alive, I know what I’m doing». At this point, my 28-​year old wife was asked if she still wanted a measurement of the yard to get the estimate. After returning with the measurement and estimate, the Sales person, Gary, handed her the estimate sheet and left without attempting to Sell their service.
Later that evening, I attempted to contact D.C. Stroud’s office to discuss my concerns with the Manager/​Supervisor, left a voicemail with my personal number and a request for callback. My wife gets a call on her phone from the company looking to follow-​up on my request. Gary called my wife’s phone to ask me about the experience and when I asked to speak with his Manager he stated that he was the Manager of the business. As he asked for the feedback, I explained how through his interaction with my wife he came-​off as though he was belittling her through the things he was saying. Immediately, he went into explaining himself; the way he has to speak with customers because he understands the city requirements and how it’s unfortunate that my wife got upset by his words. Then he actually acknowledged that he said the «…25-​years…» comment and said that some customers need to understand his knowledge of the service he provides but can come-​off as «New York-​ish» when explaining it; what happened to courteous though? And what is «New York-​ish»? Sounds like excuses for knowing that you didn’t exceed a customers expectations and didn’t want to take fault for the experience. Where is C.D. Stroud and does he know the tarnish being put upon his brand?
I’ll say that the estimate we received was a cheaper price than other estimates, but that doesn’t mean it should cheapen the customer experience though.