Tru-Link Fence

So if I write a review when they do Bad it’s only fair I write one when they do Good.
Last Update, my apologies for the delay…
Well, my problem was resolved shortly after I posted the last Unilocal review, which amazes me that it needed to get that far for any type of help from Tru-​Link. The owner (John B.) reached out directly after, and then another Gentleman named Tom B started to contact me. I can’t say much about these two other than they are VERY Helpful, and quick to get results. They sent a technician over to start working on my fence right away.
Now there is some confusion here…
1^st tech (previous review) stated that it was a big job and all boards must be removed in order to get all the rust off the wrought iron.
2^nd Tech showed up and…
1: He said that the boards don’t need to be removed in order to treat the wrought iron
2: He did try push back on me a bit, reason was because during all the waiting I had to do for the company, I treated the wood on the fence, and some of the sealant got on the wrought iron. He questioned if it was rust I was looking at or sealant, at which point I had to show him the pictures I took of the rusty fence prior to any wood treatment. I will admit when he questioned me I was a bit defensive, because after all I had been thru with this company I wasn’t about to have them flip it and blame me. he looked at the pics and that was quickly squashed.
3: The tech came out in the morning (9 — 10 am) worked till roughly 2 pm, and left… If I didn’t walk out to check I wouldn’t even have known he left.
4: Now, I wasn’t going to sit over him or nothing but he was done quick and I was left w/​o knowing what exactly he did, did he sand down all the rust spots or just paint over them? Wasn’t even around to ask. I guess we’ll find out soon, Time and weather in the mid-​west will soon let us know.
Now, here’s the tricky part… What do I rate them???
I ended my last review with :
«I wish you could a No Stars rating because they don’t even deserve 1 star»
Well, John and Tom deserve 4 or ⁴¹⁄₂ stars as they are responsive, and follow-​thru, but unfortunately I’m not rating them on Unilocal… I just want to say thank you to both of them.
Currently their one star rating is going to stick, because I can’t upgrade to 1 ½ stars on Unilocal,but I am willing to upgrade 2 possibly 3 stars if the fence manages to last the winter with their new treatment.
I hope this helps… I wouldn’t give up on the company just yet, as it has proved that there are people there that care about work quality. I will suggest this, If you’re going to deal with them, the 1^st sign there is going to be an issue make sure you contact either Owner John B or Tom B, sorry guys but I have a feeling you will be getting a lot of calls.

They did a metal fence for me around my pool. I have to do the entire yard next year. They will NOT be getting that job. Communication is terrible. No one seems to take responsibility for the job. I finally got the head of installations to work with. His people keep telling him it’s done but it’s NOT. Why can’t someone come and see the incorrect/​incomplete job and finish it! NO, not for me. They may end up getting it correct, I hope so, but this place is pitiful.

Salesman was nice; quote was fairly high. I got several, however, and gave them the chance to meet the middle bid, which they did. My one condition was that works needed to kick off and wrap up this month. After making some calls, the salesman got me a new contract that met my needs, awesome. Then I get a welcome letter, with a start date of next month. Yikes.
Communication between sales and operations and me could have been smoother (i never got a call back from the office) but I crossed my fingers and the yes! the installers did arrive on time the day I was promised. The fence itself is gorgeous– we love is. The crew did a lot of work in a day and half.

This company screwed up my order, and were rude, but finally got it right. They worked with me and reduced the price of installation… I ordered from this co. on Aug. 17, 2015, and paid in full. I called Sept. 11^th, 2015 to check on the status, and left a message. Nobody returned my call. I called again on Sept 16^th.
After that, everything went great.

I wish I read these reviews before going with this company. I also had an awful experience with Tru-​Link (which recently relocated from Skokie to Melrose Park). The installation was two weeks after the estimated installation window, which would have been okay if they had ever contacted me to let me know. Instead, I called three time to ask for an update and reiterate that I needed at least one day’s warning to take time off work to be there for the installation. None of the people I called had any idea what was going on.
Then I get a call while at work that the team is out THAT DAY, currently digging holes and waiting for village approval. The village came by, checked out the holes, and said the holes were on my neighbor’s property and had to be re-​dug. I called the project manager alerting him that his team had incorrectly measured the yard and/​or read the survey plot of my land that had been provided over a month previously. He never called back, and when I arrive home the next day the fence was installed in the hole that the village said was out of bounds.
Across two weeks, I called and left multiple messages with each the project manager and office manager. I never heard back from either individual. Today, I showed up and the fence has been re-​done, again no communication, and they cut the fence up so now I have the weirdest shape fence in the world, in order to stay in my property’s bounds. With all the time and trouble they have caused the least they could have done would been to provide a fence with proper dimensions for my yard, so the gate doesn’t go across my driveway on an angle.
Do not contract with this company. I had a simply project with two sides of my house already fenced in by neighbors, and it was months of poor communication and two weeks of hell.

I contracted Tru-​Link to replace my entire fence a few weeks ago. I did not experience the issues stated in these reviews as the sales person I worked with did a fine job. We did experience an issue as there was an assumption made by the sales person that the fence should not have a cap on each section. I called and he stated that the fence I ordered did not come with one. After a discussion, he admitted that this was a misunderstanding and received approval from the owner to add the cap at no cost. So, even though there was an issue, Tru-​Link responded well and make good on their promise. The fence looks great and we have experienced no further issues as of this date. D.G.

I had a fence installed less than year ago… Happy with the fence but very disappointed with latches and hinges on my gates. They tried once to correct it but the problem still persist… I have tried calling Mr. Bellie or some person Ned John was supposed to call back… Never did…, the kicker is the salesman Bernie said it was my fault for picking the design… Rustic fence built my previous fence had no problem with gates… Trilingual will take your money and run with it… Very poor customer relations.

I will reserve any comments until the fence is installed.

PLEASE DO NOT spend your money with this company — This is the ABSOLUTE WORST COMPANY IN THE WORLD!!! My project did not start when it was supposed to as stated by my salesperson, Bob Cortuera and I was not contacted to inform otherwise. After my fence was installed I noticed a very unattractive «slump» in the middle of the south end of the fence; it ruined the appearance of the whole fence and it was a HUGE «eye-​sore!» Luckily, I had not paid the balance for the fence because I know now they wouldn’t have come out to repair the fence if I had. When I first called to make a complaint about the slump, my salesperson Bob came out and took pictures to send to the office so they would know what needed to be repaired. After weeks and several phone calls to them I received a call from the President, John Belli, who said that if they fixed the slump then it would cause the section next to it to slump and so on and so on. Anyway, I insisted that someone be sent out to do whatever could be done to enhance the appearance of my fence because the slump made it look very «cheap and cheesy!» Finally, the same two individuals who installed the fence/​gate were sent out to repair the fence and make sure the slump would be eliminated. Amazingly, they fixed the fence by eliminating the slump,(about 95% of it) where it was no longer noticeable and the fence looked like it was maybe worth the $ 7,500.00 I paid for it! Needless to say, the rest of the fence did not slump due to repairing the initial slump: I think Tru-​Link Fence was trying to avoid coming out to fix my poorly installed fence/​gate when I complained about the slump. Also, approximately 8 weeks after my fence was installed, my gates practically blew off from a moderate gust of wind because of the sub-​standard installation done by Tru-​Link Fence. Unfortunately, Tru-​Link doesn’t use double swinging hinges, nor do they bother to install some sort of anchor on the ground to keep the fence from totally swinging the other way and succoming to bad weather. Also, the installers who installed my fence/​gate did not drill the holes deep enough for the open/​close poles to go into; which is another reason why the gate slung open and broke from such a moderate gust of wind. Shortly after the gate broke, I contacted my salesperson, Bob to inform him of what happened and he reminded me that he resides in Florida during Chicago’s winters but as soon as he returned to Chicago in early Spring, I would be first on his list to take care of. I was okay with that because I didn’t expect much right away due to the winter weather. I later called Bob again the last week of March and he said he had just returned to Chicago that day and would get back in touch with me within a few days. Not only did Bob not reach back out to me but I repeatedly called him about the repair of my gate for nearly 2 months with little or no response and whenever I eventually reached Bob he would make false promises and stall me about when my gate would be repaired. Bob even had the audacity to tell me that he hadn’t gotten back to me because he was too busy during the month of April with 10 new appointments. To me that says: «I’m too busy chasing new money to be bothered with your minor repair issues. I’ve already gotten your big money.» I made at least 2 complaints to the main office but I still have a broken gate and no one has contacted me to attempt resolution of this issue. I received a voice mail message from my salesman Bob 2 days ago informing me that Tru-​Link Fence will come out and repair my poorly installed fence for $ 780.00. Apparently, Tru-​Link still doesn’t get it! Yes, I repeatedly complained about poor customer service and the insensitivity of their salesperson Bob but it wasn’t to have the company «bow» to fix my gate at no cost; it was to emphasize the importance of treating customers better. They should repair my fence at no cost because of how badly I was treated by them-​I was was ignored after they got my money! The Manager, John Belli, has yet to address the REAL issue surrounding this entire complaint and chooses to hide behind the whole «warranty thing» as a way to justify why a good paying, patient customer such as myself, was treated so poor. It’s not that I wasn’t willing to pay for the repair because Bob told me he didn’t think the damage was covered by the warranty; it was that Bob never initiated the repair, failed to return my calls, made false promises, lied to me repeatedly and ignored me for several weeks! I became concerned about Bob’s well being because I found it hard to believe he would intentionally treat a customer so badly: I suspected maybe something happened to him. The treatment and service I received from Tru-​Link caused me emotional distress, pain, anger and frustration! My dog is also frustrated because he hasn’t been able to run in the yard. Bottom Line: Why would I pay Tru-​Link more money after being treated this way? Tru-​Link Fence SUCKS!!! :-(

This company is worse than terrible. My wife wanted a new fence and Tru-​Link made her pay $ 889.00 on 6÷6÷2014 charged to a credit card. She called several times and left messages, but Tru-​Link refused to call back. The credit card bill was due Thursday 7÷17÷2014 and she called the credit card company to have the money taken out of Tru-Link’s account to refund her money. Today Sunday 7÷20÷2014 the salesman called her and told her he «dropped the ball» and wanted to install the fence. She told him she would never deal with Tru-​Link ever again. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH TRU-​LINK. DON’T EVEN ASK FOR A QUOTE. NOT RECOMMENDED.

I went to this dump to get a new fence for my yard. The sales jerk came to my house and measured the yard. He told me an estimate would be delivered in two days max. That’s fine and expected.
Two weeks later and two unreturned phone calls and still no estimate.
I called the main number and spoke to a boss. He said he would get me an estimate and have the sales person contact me. I told him I wasn’t interested in dealing with the original salesman again due to his poor performance. He agreed.
I received an email with a short incomplete quote from the original salesman.
I will never deal with these jerks again.

I’m giving 1 star, only because they don’t offer a negative rating. Run, don’t walk away from these people. I explained what I needed on the phone when the salesperson Bernie called me back (2days later)” when he came out, he was so rude, yelling at me, telling me «you cant do that, you dont know what your talking anout, etc“that I threw him off my property !!
If I want to hire someone, does that mean they can talk to me like I am a stupid???

I am giving this a 3-​star review with an up-​front disclaimer: I could have gone 1-​star if I were rating the «process» only — or 5-​star if I were rating the fence only. Ultimately, after a lot of headache, I got what ultimately I think is the best-​looking fence in my area (5-​star) with a lot of unnecessary grief (1-​star).
Salesman was Ray N. Ray was very helpful throughout most of the process, until the very end (after I had apparently complained one too many times). At that point, he became harder to get a hold of (for me). For the almost $ 7,000 I paid for the fence, I think they should take my calls until I stop calling.
Like I said, overall, my fence now looks very nice. I went with the Copperwood, which was adorned with cedar post caps, since they don’t have Copperwood post caps. Post caps already looking worn, fence looks great. No issue here — just wish they had Copperwood post caps.
Problems: First, they tried to cram what should have been a full 3-​day job into 2 days. The result was a very late, long day #2, which is when most of the mistakes were made (and the job ended up going into day #3 anyway). On day #1, 30 minutes into the job, they cut a utility line because they ignored JULIE flags. They told me they were handling getting the repairman out… but no one ever came. I ended up fielding the repair calls myself.
Ordered a 5′ fence. I had no idea that a 5′ fence was built with 5′ boards; I assumed they used taller boards, and then cut to height. Well, the crew showed up and had both 5′ and 6′ boards. When they ran out of 5-​footers, they started using 6-​footers. The problem here was that where the 5′ boards were used, there were gaps of between 3″-5″ from the ground to the bottom of the boards (skunks could easily fit under). Where they used 6-​footers and cut to 5′ high, the boards were flush to ground and looked great. I was going to chock this up to my own ignorance, until I started counting boards…
When the fence was sold to me, I ordered the «21-​board spacing» — or 21 boards per section. This cost extra, but I wanted the privacy. Well, after I went around each section counting, most sections had fewer than 21 boards (as low as 17 in some cases to 18 – 20 in others). At least ½ the fence had fewer than 21 boards in a section. I called TruLink about this and mentioned the 5′ vs 6′ height issue (the gap at the bottom). They came out and replaced the most problematic 5′ boards with 6′ boards to «call it even» on the boards-​per-​section issue. Gap issue solved.
A week after the install, latch problems — which as I understood were common with wood fences as the wood «settles», the ground settles/​rises, etc. One latch, however, was simply installed wrong (too high) and would not latch. TruLink eventually tried to carve a hunk out the gate post to recess the latch. I didn’t like this approach, but it was already done. Eventually, when this still did not fix the issue, another tech came to service it. He told me that carving the post was not the proper fix. Seeing as how I didn’t like this «fix» in the first place, I requested a new post, and TruLink obliged.
Weeks later, I notice that on one entire section of fence installed late day #2, the entire section was lacking nails on the bottom of the boards, and the boards were already curling (Copperwood is heavy and tends to want to curl). TruLink addressed this a few days later (though I kept getting different guys/​crews sent out to me).
In the end, I still had latch issues, which my handyman fixed by drilling slightly larger holes for the latch bar. This seems to work thus far. I’ll see come spring.
All in all, a very nice looking fence in the end — after mountains of aggravation. Had this originally been scheduled as 3 days vs. 2 days and not rushed, I think some of these problems would never have occurred.
In fairness, TruLink eventually took care of every issue I brought up, but again – (a) many of the issues should never have occurred, and (b) for what I paid, this level of support should be a given, not a «bonus» or a «favor».
I would recommend TruLink to others with the caveat that you absolutely do not let them «cram» a job. If 4pm on the «finish day» comes around and there are still boards on the ground waiting to be installed, don’t let them work until 8pm — the work will suffer.
PS: For what it’s worth, I was very impressed with how the installer scalloped the fence on-​site. Using nothing more than a circular saw, 1000+ boards were scalloped smoothly and almost to perfection. I was impressed.

UPDATE: I will give Tru-​Link one more star. After having posted my last review, I got a call from the owner, John. He wanted to fix the problem. He even came out to take a look at the fencing issue. They did, in fact, fix the problem.
That said, it never should have come to this. The owner shouldn’t have to get involved in a simple customer service issue. What makes it worse is that they did the fix that I suggested to the installer. When I originally suggested it, I was told that they can’t do that. Oh well.
John fixed the problem and, for that, I am grateful. My recommendation to Tru-​Link: Get better customer service reps.

Had an issue with a Tru-​Link salesman in 2011, and wrote this place off. However I recently got a call from John, the owner of Tru-​Link, looking to make up for the poor service I had received. He set me up with a great deal and I couldn’t be happier with the new outlook on service that Tru-​Link has. Recommend to give them another try.

I had set up an appointment for 4:30 last Friday. I get a call at 3:10 from Larry saying he was in the area and if I was available then to meet for the free estimate. I informed him that I worked downtown and wasn’t able to make it back to my house until 4:15, so i could only do our 4:30 appointment as scheduled. His response was «well, I’m going to go over now and will leave you an estimate on your door.» I’m sorry — how are you supposed to give me an estimate without knowing: what kind of fence I wanted, how many gates we wanted, what height we wanted or… where we even wanted the fence to go? I was baffled at his thought to go and do it without me being there. I told him I did know the number of feet that needed to be fenced in, as this is the most important thing to know with all the other estimates we got. He said «no, don’t tell me — I’ll just figure it out.» Oh, okay, just make up where and what kind of fence I want and slap that on my door. I knew at the end of that conversation we would not be going with Tru-​Link fence. ever.
So then at 4:10 on my way to my house I get a call from Larry. He said he couldn’t figure out where I wanted the fence (shocker!) and would wait for me since I said I would be home at 4:15. First of all, our appointment wasn’t until 4:30 so don’t rush me to get home to meet you because it’s more convenient for you. I told Larry not to bother waiting and he could leave, as we were not going to use Tru-​Link and to not waste each other’s time even more than we already have. He asked why, and I explained to him how rude he sounded in our first chat, how my time meant nothing to him if he couldn’t even wait to meet/​talk with me during our scheduled appointment, how he made me feel like it was my fault I wasn’t available an hour and twenty minutes before our appointment and how he wouldn’t let me even tell him what we wanted.
He then started to argue with me. I had to stop him in the middle of his argument to inform him that he’s arguing with me — how is that helping his case? As a potential customer, not only was he rude and showed me that my time wasn’t worth it, but that he could care less about what we wanted for our fence. I should have read the reviews on Unilocal before ever contacting them. Good luck getting them to care about you as a customer!

Looking to replace an old worn out fence I figured I would go to Tru Link a name that I had been familiar with all my life. I was most interested in a fence that would be durable and straight. Tru Link offered a vinyl fence that is very well constructed and I was happy to pay the considerable cost. I was happy with the fence, it is durable, but, the installation was poor. It wavered at several spots.
I posted my dissatisfaction on Unilocal and was recently contacted by John, the president of the company. John came over and inspected the fence and told me that he wanted to «make things right.» He explained to me the process they would use to reseat the posts. Today, Eddie, Tru-​Links’ trouble shooter came over, re-​explained the process and set to work. At the completion, the fence is now straight and I am told that it should stay that way. I was further told, any future problems, I should re-​contact Tru-​Link. The fence looks great and I am now a satisfied customer. Thank you John and thank you Unilocal for having provided a forum for my problem.

Wow, all these bad reviews here! I understand. I’ve had them give me quotes twice, and both times that was such a bad experience, I gave the work to someone else. Amazing how they stay in business.

If I could give this place a big fat ZERO!!!, I would–
So I called Peerless, who actually referred me to these guys because of our location (Chicago).
I was immediately transferred (good) to someone who could provide rates over the phone. The guy was RuDE, belligerent, snide and just horrible to talk to. I explained my issue over and over again, I explained that we were residential over and over again, I explained that they did not complete the install (just once was all it took) and was told to adjust our settings would cost $ 680.00… there are no words to express my disgust, Unilocalers, you would have to see my face to understand… Bottom-line…HELL NO!!! Run now!!!

So we decided to go with these guys. Installation date was set, I took a day off work. 9am rolls around, 10am… at almost 11am Dan from Tru-​Link calls my husband to say they are going to have to reschedule the installation. The lead guy called in today saying he had a funeral to go to. Um — aren’t funerals scheduled days in advance? Even if they gave me a call last night, I could have not wasted a day off waiting for these people to show up. But no they call us at almost 11am the day of.
My husband says this isn’t acceptable and wants some kind of compensation for the inconvenience if we are going to give them our business. Dan says «I can’t do that — all I can do is reschedule.» Not cool.
So I call the sales guy and magically he offers us 10% off. It’s amazing what people can do when they are on commission and don’t want to lose a sale instead of some schmuck in the office who can give two shits if you cancel your order.
Furthermore, the sales guy informs us that in the «notes», it says that my husband was offered a 10% discount from Dan. Lying does not make this situation better Dan. Shame on you.
The only reason we are sticking with them is we already have a permit in place and all the electricity/​water/​gas lines are marked and ready to go. It would be a pain to start at square one with another company.
But I caution you before you give this place any business.