A Plantation-based installer of electronically controlled roll-down hurricane screens has been beset with complaints from consumers who say promised installation dates have come and gone for months, they’ve had trouble securing refunds, and the owner hasn’t answered phone calls or text messages seeking updates.
John Wohlford, owner of OG Living, acknowledged the complaints in an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel and says he’s committed to doing better.
“They’re not wrong,” he said of customers who became upset after waiting for installation for months. “They have a right to be upset. I’m not saying by any means that it’s been a good experience.”
The company’s website offers to create “amazing outdoor living areas” by installing motorized hurricane screens, solar screens, insect screens and pergolas — outdoor structures with roofs that can be opened and closed. The website states that the company employs “a team of highly seasoned and skilled professionals.”
Although headquartered in Plantation, the company primarily serves communities in Southwest Florida, according to its website. The Florida Division of Corporations website shows that Wohlford registered a new company in March, Struxure Outdoor Austin LLC, based near Austin, Texas.
Unhappy customers of OG Living have been submitting complaints to state agencies and to the Better Business Bureau. The Florida Attorney General’s Office received complaints from four homeowners since February. A spokesman said consumers with complaints are typically directed to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation or the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
DBPR has not yet confirmed that it received complaints, while the Department of Agriculture said it received complaints from two homeowners about OG Living.
The Better Business Bureau has published 21 complaints about the company since August 2023 and recently revoked OG Living’s BBB accreditation and gave the company an F rating.
“BBB files indicate that this business has a pattern of complaints concerning service, refund and customer service issues,” a statement on the Better Business Bureau’s OG Living webpage states. “Specifically, customer complaints allege that the business took payments ranging from $1,400 to $100,000 but did not complete work, as well as failures or delays in responding to customers who attempted to reach them.”
Customers waited a year or more
Among consumers who complained to the state attorney general, Kevin Murphy, who owns a house in Venice, said he signed a contract in May 2023 to install a roll-down screen system over the openings of his lanai. The screens were supposed to eliminate the need to install stainless steel shutters over six sliding glass doors, as well as allow him to store patio furniture on the lanai during hurricanes, he said.
“The ideal thing with this product is you put those shades down, you can actually open up all your sliding glass doors, and it’s pretty airtight,” he said.
His complaint states that he made a down payment of $10,513 and waited nearly a year before directing his attorney to send a letter demanding a refund. He wrote to the attorney generalin May that he received no response from Wohlford or anyone else at the company after sending the letter and filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
Asked about the complaints as the interview with the Sun Sentinel was getting underway, Wohlford asserted that “Anyone who has requested a refund has been refunded.”
Murphy, on Thursday, said he received a check for $1,000 on Aug. 19. He says he won’t deposit it until he speaks to his attorney to make sure that accepting the money doesn’t create a legal agreement to accept multiple payments.
Wohlford declined to specify what he sent to Murphy and when he sent it. “I’m not going to get into details at this point now with all this stuff,” he said. “I’ve been taking care of everyone and doing everything that I need to do as fast as I can get it taken care of.”
Other homeowners who filed complaints with the state include Joseph Dondalski of Naples, who said he paid $6,904 in February 2023, waited a year to get his screens installed and was promised a refund in February after he requested cancellation of his project. On Friday, he said he received a check “for a complete refund.”
John Fishel wrote earlier this month that he paid $5,508 in June 2023 to install hurricane screens at his Manatee County home and after waiting more than a year, canceled his contract and demanded a refund. Wohlford, he wrote, “concedes we are entitled to the full deposit but he does not have the money. Claims he is waiting on money to pay money.”
Reached on Thursday, Fishel told the Sun Sentinel that he received a partial payment the previous Friday. “I also spoke with him by text and he indicated he would be paying the remaining balance as he’s able,” Fishel said. “He’s been saying that since May, and this is the first payment we have received. Hoping he follows through quickly.”
Esma Dahbali wrote to the attorney general in February that she gave the company $4,921 last September and was told to expect installation at her Palm Beach Gardens home in two to three months After six months, she demanded a refund but was told it would take 60 days. She finally received her refund 10 months after signing the contract, she said. “I bombarded him day and night with emails copied to the manufacturer’s executives and all his employees,” she said.
‘Bad employees’ have been fired
Wohlford said he has refunded more than $700,000 to unhappy customers over the past six months.
He said the company dug itself into a hole after taking on too many contracts in a short period of time. Prior to that, he said, “we did have a very good reputation for several years of getting installs done. Our installs that we get done, we don’t have problems with. The ones that I’ve had to go back and take care of, we’ve taken care of and fixed even stuff that the customers didn’t know.”
He said he fired 43 employees in November and replaced them with a crew of 11. He’s out every day, he said, completing installations.
“I had bad employees, and we got backlogged with work. We took on way more work than we could handle and I had to go back and reinstall a bunch of work that wasn’t to my satisfaction. We had to close out a lot of permits that were still lingering. We’ve got lots of money that’s still owed to us from customers that we’ve finished jobs on that haven’t paid us.”
The company began the year with 260 installations on backlog, he said. Only 60 remain, and Wohlford says those will be completed by the end of September or early October. OG Living has stopped scheduling new jobs until it works through its backlog, he said. And it has reduced its down payment requirement and won’t provide estimated installation dates until after all required permits are in hand, he said.
He said he’s also returning customers’ phone calls and texts. Complaints claiming he failed to respond “just has to do with I’m dealing with trying to do as many phone calls as I can a day, and trying to respond to people as much as I possibly can and I always end up responding eventually.”
Customers who filed complaints included Timothy and Janine Neuschwander of Punta Gorda, who signed a contract with OG Living in July 2023 and made a $7,106 deposit. They also filed a lawsuit against the company in Charlotte County Court in June, saying the company failed to respond to their cancelation request in May.
On Thursday, Janine Neuschwander said the couple finally received their refund and deposited the check on Wednesday. It cleared, she said. “At this point, we are out all the filing fees [for the lawsuit], but Tim just wants to be done with it,” she said.
Later in the interview, Wohlford acknowledged that “a handful” of customers are still waiting on full refunds.
“I’m literally just trying to get jobs installed, get paid on the jobs that I’m installing, take the money that I get from installing the jobs, and I’m paying deposits back and paying whatever I can to, you know… It’s not a good situation.”
Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com .
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