Fine Line Powder Coating

Below is an e-​mail I sent to Fine Line Powder Coating detailing my bizarre experience and disappointment in their lack of customer service. I have waited a week for them to respond but I am not surprised that they haven’t. I have tried not to take their handling of this too personally but now unfortunately I do. The only reason I can think of for why we received such a cold shoulder may be the fact that we are two guys who obviously share a home together and they didn’t want to «bake our cake», so to speak. I just don’t understand why, for whatever reason, somebody would chose to sabotage their own business this way!
E-​mail sent 1÷13÷16:
Hello,
I am hoping this email will reach the owner of this business, as I had a hard time finding an email contact. My name is Owen and my partner and I approached your business this past summer regarding a project to get some steel kitchen cabinets powder coated for a kitchen renovation. When we first described the project and brought in one of the cabinets, we were given a rough quote which sounded quite reasonable and similar to other quotes we received from other businesses. Once Fall came around, we were ready to get the ball rolling and brought in the rest of the cabinets and picked out a color and began to work out the rest of the details.
Up to that point our dealings with you were professional and friendly, but soon after we noticed a sudden change in attitude. It started with a lot of waiting, first for a sample of the color we had picked out. It took at least a week or two and a few delayed replies to hear anything about the sample, which was fine at the time but in retrospect it just added to the frustration we experienced afterwards. Once we had officially decided on the color, we brought the rest of the cabinets and it was around that time that we noticed an awkwardness with your staff. It was as if they were uncomfortable dealing with us and that made us feel uncomfortable as well.
At that time we were given another quote which was substantially higher than the one we had received in the summer which also took us by surprise but we were told once all the cabinets had been assessed we would have an official quote. This is where the second waiting game began. It took several more phone calls and emails over a few weeks to hear the progress, often with days passing before receiving any replies. When we finally got an official quote it was over twice the amount we were expecting, at around $ 3,200. We were given an invoice with nothing but the final total at the bottom. When I emailed back, I explained that the total was much higher than expected and asked to have it broken down so we could see where we might be able to save some. Perhaps we could choose a less-​expensive color or save on labor cost by disassembling the cabinets ourselves, or see which cabinets cost the most and leave them out for the time being, etc. We just wanted to see how the final total was reached. When I finally got a reply, I was told that the final total includes labor, the color, the square footage of each cabinet, among a few other things, but was still not given a copy of the invoice showing how it all added up. When I emailed again asking once more for a detailed invoice, I never received a reply again. We were ready to pull the trigger on this project and we were ignored.
After waiting a few days for a reply and receiving none, we came into your business and told the girl at the front we were picking up our cabinets to take them elsewhere and all we got was a blank look and an «OK» and she led us into the back. As we began to load our cabinets into the truck, we were met by an older gentleman from the office who offered us a hand truck, literally helping your sale out the door. Nobody asked us what was going on, why we were canceling the deal and taking our business elsewhere, no thanks, no apology, nothing. That only solidified our impression that we were not a priority and our business wasn’t wanted.
We took our cabinets to another powder coating place down the street and were greeted by friendly, enthusiastic staff who were able to immediately produce a detailed invoice and handle our requests within a week, at a price that was less than half of what your company offered. It is my hope that our experience with Fine Line amounts to nothing more than a misunderstanding and perhaps some disorganization that let us slip through the cracks, which would be forgivable. But I can’t help but feel bothered by the interaction we had and take it personally. Whatever the issue was I am writing you this letter to let you know that because of this your company lost out on a potentially $ 3200 deal, and not only that but it was literally ushered out the door by your own staff without a single question. I hope you can take this email not as an attack or mere complaint but rather as a show of concern for how your business is run.
Sincerely, Owen B.