Troubleshooter helps Wake County residents get refunds after fence company shuts down

A Triangle fence company closed up shop leaving customers asking "where's our money?"

I've heard from several viewers all with the same story about Robco Fence & Deck. They say they paid deposits to Robco to put a fence in their yard, but the job didn't get done and they couldn't get in touch with anyone from Robco.

Clinton and Jenny Tierney paid Robco $2,754 in September for a fence at their new home in Apex. After paying the 50 percent deposit, they said that despite countless emails and phone calls to the company, they did not get a response.

When Clinton finally went to Robco's Raleigh office on Gavin Street, he found no one at the business and the gate locked.

It was the same story for Raleigh homeowner Dana DeTurk. Through a financing company, she paid Robco 20 percent down for a new fence on her home, also in September. After paying $912.49, she also didn't hear anything more from Robco.

I also heard from three more of Robco's customers in the same situation.

With no answers at Robco's Raleigh office, I emailed several company representatives and while Robco didn't get back to me, they did issue refunds to several customers, including the Tierneys who said they are very happy to get back their $2,754. DeTurk is still waiting to hear about her refund, and she said she is also working with the financing company.

Robco also recently sent this email to its customers.

On behalf of Robco Fence and Deck LLC, we would like to apologize for recent lack of responsiveness and communication. For as long as we have been operating, we have taken great pride in providing excellent services. Regretfully, because of recent issues with a reduction of crews and other economic factors, we will be forced to close our doors and discontinue operations. We will no longer be accepting new jobs and will not have the crews or support necessary to begin or complete currently scheduled jobs in the manner and with the quality we are known for providing. During the recent turmoil these last few weeks, our lack of direction affected many of you and we are terribly sorry for this. Our only intention was to do right by our customers as we have since day one, but unfortunately our attempt to further plan with a limited staff and resources only caused more confusion and delays.

Moving forward, we plan to review all pending contracts and currently scheduled jobs to get an accounting of the customers who have paid deposits for services that we cannot perform. However, with limited manpower, this process will undoubtedly not be as timely as you deserve, but we ask that you bear with us through this process and know that we are doing our best to make things right during this difficult time. Once we have completed the review, we plan to send another letter updating everyone. You are welcome to contact us by phone, but with our limited resources, we cannot guarantee that someone will be able to answer or return your call.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.

The Troubleshooter Takeaway to remember is when you sign a contract and you have to put money down, try to pay via credit card so this way you can dispute the charges if you have problems like these.