What are people saying about Bay Area Retrofit?
This is a review I found on the Berkeley Parent’s Network.
“Hi Shelbysmom,
We used Bay Area Retrofit https://www.
We got selected for the EB+B program too and the process was really painless. I think I actually wrote in to thank them for providing such a great program.
For what it’s worth, we also got asked by EB+B afterwards to help with some media to promote their program. This is us in the LA Times: https://www.latimes.
As part of the filming for that, the Chief Mitigation Officer from the CEA (and Structural Engineer) Janiele Maffei actually walked through our retrofitted basement and gave it the thumbs up, so I guess that’s as much certainty as we can get.
Yelp, Google, and Angie’s List
I could pick and choose testimonials that will say nothing but good about us, but I think the most honest approach is to show you the good, the bad, and the ugly as found on YELP, Angie’s List, and Google. We have 100 reviews on YELP with an overall 4+ star rating, 18 five Star reviews on Angie’s list and one 1 Star (which we deserved) and 36 Five Star reviews on Google.
Here is a recent review on YELP dated 5/27/2023.
This is a review dated 4/17/2020
“Excellent! It’s so hard to find someone with this level of diligence, dedication and integrity!”
This is my experience. I contacted the company through the website, submitted my info, and got on the schedule.
After waiting for some time, on the scheduled day, Jason’s team arrived, and they finished the work very quickly. Then I contacted Jason again and asked if he could come check the retrofit. To my surprise, Howard the owner responded to my request and agreed to come and check. So, he came, put on his protective clothing and gear, went inside the dusty crawlspace, stayed there quite a while to check, and then came back all covered with dust.
He coughed a bit because of all the dust, carefully took off the protective clothing, and then he explained in detail what he found. He told us that the anchors were properly put in place. But there was one wall that did not have any anchor because it was not needed, and he reduced the price for the job!
The point is, not only does it take time, but it is also tough and not comfortable to go into the dusty crawlspace to inspect. I don’t know how many owners would be willing to do the same for their customers. But Howard did, and he valued the quality of the work and safety of his customers’ homes.
His inspection has given me great assurance that everything is in good shape.
Thanks Howard!”
Some Bad Reviews of Bay Area Retrofit
A few of the bad ones are genuinely our fault, a few are because we had impossible clients. If we were able to, we would have given them 1-star reviews to warn other contractors. Some of them boiled down to poor communication and we saw our part and learned from it.
George Bernard Shaw said, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” Incomplete understanding of our proposals is fertile soil for future misunderstandings. PLEASE read yours carefully and let me know if something is not clear.
We are like every business or every person for that matter, we don’t always do everything perfectly. Often, we take longer than expected which upsets people, but we refuse to cut corners just to hurry things up. When the earthquake hits, people will be happy we took all the time necessary.
We make sure a job is done well even, if we lose money, and this can cause delays in completion times. Unfortunately, clients often think that because we are there longer than we had expected, we don’t know what we are doing. In any event, we and our clients are human beings who make mistakes and misunderstandings do happen.
We are aware our work might preserve your life’s savings and maybe even save your life. We take this responsibility very seriously and therefore will do the very best job we possibly can no matter how expensive it might be.
Angie’s List Reviews of Bay Area Retrofit
Angie’s List won’t let you see the reviews without paying them. The only thing they will let you see can be see here, which does not tell you much. Here is a screen shot of the information available to the business owner and paid subscribers. Angie’s List uses a graded system where A is for outstanding service and F is for terrible service. We have eighteen As, one B, and one F, which unfortunately in this case we totally deserved for not showing up when we said we would. It is the same 1 star on YELP where we completely failed in every way.
