Armstrong Steel Reviews

But I wish they would listen to the customer more. Their people hear you talking but they don’t listen to you very well. When I explained something to them like what I needed and what we were doing, they would ask me a question and then I was gonna pick the building up myself. But they sent us another thing out for scheduling a delivery and it’s like, “No, we’re picking it up.” I’ve told them that four times. Apparently, it doesn’t sink in. Also, they shouldn't be hasty. They’re very hasty and high pressure than what I prefer. I don’t have the building yet and this is just the sales part of my experience with them. We’re hoping to have our building up by July. This will be our office and shop.

The reps were a little pushy. They push you to sign but that's just part of the business. I always have to have a deep breath, but I thought it was worth doing. Armstrong Steel also gave means. I worked with half a dozen people. They had a design engineer involved and she was there. Then, once they started shipping the goods, which were as good as they could be and were delivered on time, we made some changes. It all worked out and Armstrong Steel did a good job.

Between Armstrong Steel and my customer, I had my markup in the building. But somehow, they FedExed my contract to my customer and now, he has all the information about my price versus the price on that paper that I was supposed to get. He saw the markup on my building and now, I'm a no-good ** because I marked his building up. I got that all ironed out with the customer though.

The structural steel that Armstrong Steel sent on the truck wasn't tarped and I wasn't too happy about that. I work with steel and I know steel. You can't haul it this time of year in the Midwest with all the salt on roads. Now, we're putting up a rusty building. But they've agreed to send me the primer when I needed and pay some the labor of getting it primed on-site when we get the building up, which was expected of them.

Moreover, I thought the truck was going direct to me, but it didn't. It went from Colorado to Wisconsin, and then from Wisconsin, down to Illinois. There was another stop that I wasn't really happy about. Whenever that happens, there's a chance of the stuff getting damaged. The second truckload was tarped, but it had galvanized products on it, which didn't need to be tarped. I was glad it was tarped though. There is another issue with some bracing and they're gonna correct that. It seemed like it was hard to get ahold of people sometimes. They talk like they had a lot of demand. If they got that much demand, they need to put more people on the payroll. There were a few times where I was gonna call and that person went home sick and wasn't in.

Armstrong is the first steel building I bought, and I have high hopes. When I called them, they announced that they had left 30 contracts for the year at a 25% contractor discount. I thought that that is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I better not let it pass. I had awesome interactions with the rep at Armstrong, and every time I have called, their assistants help me. My sales rep answered every question I had, and even when I could not get answers from other people in their organization, she went out of her way to go find them and get answers because I needed to know.

There was a math error on one of the forms. It was not a big deal and something that we all knew existed, but she worked with them to get them to correct it and resubmit the form. Math errors turn into accounting errors, which turn into legal errors, which turn into courtrooms. It's necessary to nip stuff like that in the bud when everybody can agree that it's still an error before it has gone too far. She was tremendous in facilitating that. It only took her a few minutes.

The overall quality of the service at Armstrong is good. But we're only halfway through this. I have to finish my portion, which is to complete the permit, and Armstrong needs to see that the building gets shipped to me undamaged, which I anticipate won't be any problem, because I've got a professional construction crew that will offload it and set it for me. They're gonna also erect the building. Still, considering the 50% that I've been involved in, I'm extremely satisfied.

I messaged their reps to ask for a basic quotation as I'm doing a 40 x 60 foot steel building. They gave me a rough estimate on that and from there, we pursued further to where they were able to send me rough diagrams of the building to the specifications I asked them. I really liked that the reps very accurately took down notes of what I said, and the first PDF they sent me was dead on perfect. From there, I did the downpayment so that I could secure the old price on the steel that they had available. That helped because I went on their website after and noticed that there was a major price change. It wasn't just a gimmick to get me to do the downpayment. Instead, it saved me a lot of money.

My favorite thing that they did was that I got three full pamphlets, and then three full booklets of all the blueprints. Those had all the specs and everything for the county. They've already gone and looked at the place where I'm building, and made sure the whole building was to code spec on the materials, angles, windshear and snow load. They made it so simple that all I had to do was take my packet to the county and put it on the desk. They looked at it for 10 minutes and just asked me for my fee and approved the blueprint. It was the most simple experience with the county ever to get any building project done. It has been an amazing experience with Armstrong Steel. I've been super busy with other projects on my property and communication of their reps has been really good and really on key to where it hasn't thrown me off with any of my other projects. The process has gone really smoothly.

Another problem I had was that they sent all of the things in a couple of trailer trucks. However, their guys had to be gone by the end of the day and they expected me to inventory the delivery before they left. I have to take it off the truck which takes a little while and then inventory every piece in there. If anything's missing, I'm responsible for it. Though the cost is comparable to the quality and I got my money's worth, I don't think I got the deal I was looking for.

I bought a 56 x 72 ft' with 16' walls to store my 5th wheel camping trailer and a lot of misc. items. First, they forgot to mention all the door openings cost extra. Not exactly an obvious extra charge, but not something I could do without. Then they told me if I didn't sign the DocuSign contract agreement by Friday (it was Tuesday) I wouldn't be eligible for the rebate which was $11000.00. Really rushed my decision (which could have been their plan all along).

Part of that rebate was because I ordered the insulation for the building through them. They did forego some of the door openings as part of the rebate but I'm sure there was an upcharge on the insulation. The insulation is being provided by a different company. Seemed like a good deal and I signed the contract. Of course one week later they called and said THEY screwed up on the square footage and needed to order more insulation AT MY EXPENSE. Had to sign another DocuSign contract before they would go ahead with the building. I needed my permit drawings from them so I could get my township to approve them. When the paperwork finally did arrive 2 WEEKS LATE for me to get approval, I couldn't get my concrete poured before the freezing weather set in.

Now that I have my building, (haven't started putting it up yet) I'm not getting any support. I was promised a project manager but she is not returning my e-mails or phone calls. Go figure, now they have my money so what do they care. My building came and I was told I have 2 hours to unload it from their truck (by myself) or I would be charged extra. Once delivered, I have found numerous places of rust and corrosion on the metal. They gave me a week to inventory the delivery of the building, but I'm not going to put it up until spring (it is now January) and I can't make sense of all the abbreviations on the parts lists. I inventoried what I could and will hope for the best.

They put a lot of demands on the customer but take on no responsibility on themselves. Buyers beware! The other negative reviews I have read on this site are all true, and all of it has happened to me from the time they got my first deposit to now. The reason for the two stars is because I still believe in the quality of the building and engineering-but time will tell. I plan on putting most of the building up myself but was counting on Armstrong Steels product support. Will keep trying to contact them but as the days pass I'm not going to hold my breath.

This company is bait-and-switch. You'll never get your deposits back. Your building will be several months late. To get the rebate you must sign off on the engineering of your building within 30 days and accept delivery in 60 days. This will never happen, you will never get that rebate. And "customer service" - meaning Kade and Kitty - will be insulting to you. Get your building from Behlen or General Steel. Deal with honest people.

I made the mistake of specifying insulation which was also added to the cost of the contract (another ~8k). In a rush, I signed off on the additional charges because my deadline was looming and I didn't have time to argue. I thought I could revisit some of the choices (mainly the insulation later). Armstrong Steel's delivery of engineered drawings caused me to miss my deadline with my Township (which caused undue stress) despite my heated attempts over several weeks to request stamped engineered drawings.

To make matters worse, when I got back in touch with my project manager, she said, 'Sorry, you are under contract to purchase the insulation and the additional building charges.' Their lawyer soon after sent me what I perceived as a threatening letter. So my "great deal" turned into doubling the cost of the building with contractually binding terms and a lawyer making threats to me. In my opinion, Armstrong Steel has no concept of customer management and employs dishonest tactics to get you hooked on the idea of their building all the while engaging in dishonest up selling. I am out the 4k deposit I made when I received the initial quote for a steel building of $16k.

I told him about my husband and I don’t have much money and I have to take this from our savings account and it will take a few days to get all the money together. Richard didn’t care. He said, “Have it all ready by 5pm Friday to lock in this price.” I said, “Does this include designing and cutouts?" (because I read about steel buildings before) and he said yes, all that is included along with a project manager. He said I had nothing to worry about and that they had built many homes in Southern California before. Okay. Then he says, “Did you get my email... let’s go over the contract together so you don’t have any problems. Did you mark where to sign it...” Okay. He says, “You are all set.” THAT WAS MY DOOM RIGHT THERE. HE WENT THRU THE CONTRACT THAT HE SENT ME THRU email and went thru it with me to make sure I signed it and that was it. I WAS OVER.

I went to Los Angeles County and they said make sure they had an ICC approval code. Of course I try to call back Richard but no way of touching him and then I email Kyle who sent me the paperwork and he said he couldn’t help me. Then the project manager Trish emails me another contract to sign and this one is 25k which was the layout I asked for with the cutouts and the extra steel to reinforce it. So now I owe them 20k plus 25k… So the building that was 20k including shipping is now 45k after cutouts with project manager. I can’t afford it now and of course they won’t give me my 5k deposit back. No one is calling me back about my money. I was counting on this building for my disable husband who lives in our garage. Please read everything before you SIGN. Please ask for everyone’s phone number.

After trying to explain to him multiple times that that wasn't even a drawing we were interested in, I emailed the paperwork again. With no response our project manager sends us docu-sign agreement for another chunk of cash. Only problem was just about everything listed was incorrect sizing, wrong insulation and additional parts never requested. After 2 emails and multiple phone calls we received a response. We asked to speak with his boss to find a new building manager and have been refused multiple times. Can't even get the contact info. They are only interested in pushing buildings out the door. Their salesman, who then contacted me 1 1/2 months into the purchase about buying the same building again, will tell you they are on record pace this year and are swamped with work.

Please let this be a big red flag to you as I didn't pay attention to it. You will not get there Armstrong Value promise "Work, for us, is about educating customers so they're able to make the best and most informed decision". We are first time buyers of a shop with friends in construction to help assemble, but not the full knowledge to do everything. We have received absolutely zero help or advice as to what are building is even going to be used for or if there may be a better option. Please don't make the same mistake I did.