Sextonandson Avis 3

great communication great craftsmanship great coffee table thank you

We booked Sexton & Sons for two bits: a kitchen cabinet install and alcove shelving in the living room. The craftsmanship of the kitchen units was generally good, but we ended the job without completing because the overall experience was horrific and our interactions with Jay were completely unacceptable.
Jay’s approach was marked by persistent unprofessionalism (blame and accusations), disorganised time management, poor communication, and a tone that became increasingly inappropriate whenever we asked for clarity or firm dates.

The central issue was that Jay never provided meaningful advance scheduling — the most notice we ever received was one week. Although we accommodated countless shifts and delays, on the rare occasions when we could not move things around — despite communicating our limitations well in advance (once due to pre-booked travel, once because our puppy had just arrived and needed a short settling-in period) — he treated our unavailability as the reason the project fell behind. This was despite both jobs having been booked and deposits paid well beforehand. Instead of holding a week for us and booking us in, he constantly claimed things needed adjusting as he worked on other jobs, which led to months of delay and no firm installation date in sight. Instead of taking responsibility, he framed the reasonable boundaries we set as obstacles. He expected us to adjust our lives to his schedule despite never offering a reliable, confirmed timeline and our many inquiries.
The kitchen job became a particular point of tension. Originally we gave a deadline in late August for installation as that was when we needed it, and booked the job on this agreement. This deadline came and went and we had no choice but to do an instal in September. Jay came to install in early Sept but did not ever reserved adequate time to finish the job. It was left incomplete (he said he didn’t even get to finish painting the interior) and then when seeking to reschedule he said it was our fault because he wanted to finish but we wouldn’t let him because of the new puppy needing to settle in, instead of accepting that he did not book enough time to finish before the deadline we gave.
The next issue that arose - after only installing the outer carcasses and after months of us following up, he claimed none of the interior labour was included and that he was never responsible for completing them. The interior components — access panels, shelves, pull-out mechanisms, bin system, and cleaning insert — were discussed continually, with him requesting dimensions, recommending products, and having items delivered directly to his workshop. This contradicted months of messages in which the interior layout was referenced as part of the final kitchen setup. We could not understand why he thought we would ever book an unfinished kitchen installation. Even if he believed this interpretation, it became the key deterioration point in the relationship. Responsibility was shifted back onto us (as though expecting the functional interior of a custom cabinet was unreasonable), and the tone of the messages became increasingly aggressive and blaming.
For nearly a month he cited personal issues, other client jobs, weather, travel, and vehicle problems, all of which we were sympathetic to but offered no contingency planning, and never secured a proper booking for the shelves. Eventually Jay came and spent a day on the kitchen interior (at our request) but did not complete the job and failed to return the next day as discussed. He blamed another client, and then blamed us — claiming we cancelled on him, which was categorically untrue and another example of twisted blame-shifting. He said he would do the shelves at the same time and of course, didn’t because he had not booked in ample time for either job but instead blamed our request for “Extras” in the kitchen. He later said he wasn’t free until May except for weekends, making it clear we were not a priority, so we ended the engagement.
Even being incredibly generous and assuming his version of events, the communication around the original scope was muddled at best, and when questioned he defaulted to defensiveness rather than accountability. The result was a process that operated entirely on his terms, with zero ownership of the consequences of his own delays and poor planning.