Cowboy Fence and Deck Company
aka Dallas Fence and Deck and many others

Another disgruntled customer of Cowboy Fence and Deck Company wrote in with his suggestions.

Why I would NEVER recommend Cowboy Fence and Deck of Lewisville

Before you THINK about considering Cowboy Fence and Deck, please do your homework.

1. Please ask for 5 references with PHONE NUMBERS and addresses – if you get at least 3 responses, ask them about the timeliness of their work and how they would rate their transaction with them and if you have their permission to view their fence or deck

I got burned by this, by only visiting the properties to review the work – had I likely spoken to anyone, I would have uncovered the truth in the details before the work ever got completed You must call all 5 references and wait for at least 3 to call you back, if not, get more references Ask what their relationship is with Cowboy Fence and Deck (it’s hard to get 3 people to have the same lie – in case he gives you the phone number and addresses of his friends, family, or sales persons of his own company) Use MUST go to www.dallascad.org, www.dentoncad.com, or www.collincad.org and verify their full name with the address on file at the previous websites.  (These are easy to use websites to search addresses or owner names)  If it doesn’t match, ask for more references We may decide to keep a private listing of the sales persons / employee addresses which will never be public, however, you may contact us and we can give just a yes, no, maybe if we think the reference they give you is somehow affiliated with the company itself After speaking with the people, please drive and visit the property to check out the fence or deck with their permission

2.  Ask if Cowboy Fence and Deck will require a deposit, a good and reputable fence company with credit will NOT require a deposit.  This is what burned me, they required 50% as a deposit (a substantial amount) and would have charged me an extra 3% for using my credit card (preferred) for my own protection.  Once they had my 50% deposit, they did not start work for a month and a half and stated I could not get a refund because of all material “supposedly” purchased.  Also, while charging an extra 3% for the use of a credit card is understood by low volume merchants, there ARE reputable companies that will accept credit cards (for your own protection) and NOT charge the 3% - credit card protection is your friend; it is hard to reverse a personal check that has been cashed in person at your bank.

3.*IF* you still want to choose them, then you MUST put the following in writing on the contract:

“Final payment upon completion of work done to homeowner’s satisfaction.” “Project completion date is a material term of this contract.”

You must put in a completion date and stipulate penalties for overages, foreseen or unforeseen (rain)

A good rule of thumb MIGHT be, allowance to add 2 business days to completion date for each rain day as printed out on www.weather.com where there was a higher than 30% coverage of rain during business hours for your zipcode

If you do not, this will come back to bite you and you’ll have no deck complete after 3 months after paying half the amount by personal check

4. Better Business Bureau really means nothing, use them as a consolidated list to find all of your fence merchants in the same spot, but you absolutely must do your homework above

5. I assure you, if you do the homework above (all very fair and objective homework), you will not choose Cowboy Fence and Deck for your next house project.  Truth is in the details.

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