HAS GENERAL STEEL RIPPED YOU OFF TOO?

In good faith we sent our deposit for a steel building we were purchasing. We were promised many things which have not happened.

They have over $35,000.00 of our money and we have no building as they breached the contract. We were promised they would furnish us with reputable contractors to errect our new building. The contractors they referred us to were unlicensed…with a bad history.

They keep hounding us to sign a release for the building and I refuse. Our $57,000.000 building is now up to $115,000.00. It took them 3 1/2 months to even get us our blueprints. During that time they were still trying to get us to sign a release on the building.

We could not even get approved by the city without blueprints.

I also found out they are not manufacturers but brokers. I would have never dealt with them had I known this. They lie, lie, and lie.

There is so much more but I would have to write a book. I can only hope we get our deposit back.

We have been waiting to get a new building for over 8 years and now they have our money and we have nothing. I do not want to do business with people that are dishonest.

Cathleen
Rialto, California
U.S.A.

To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Larry , Pastor of a small church in Mississippi. I signed an arbitration agreement with Anthem Steel asking them to rectify what has become a very difficult and unfair situation.

I wanted to believe that Anthem Steel did not typically treat its customers the way they have treated me but unfortunately it has.

Spirit Filled Life Christian Church gave Anthem Steel a $ 28,539.00 deposit on the 70′-100′ metal building. .The initial cost of the building was $47,621.00 and the price was only good for that day and I had to fax a copy of a $12,000.00 dollars deposit check as soon as possible to obtain this building.

That was ok, so I signed the Purchase order faxed to me by Anthem Steel. I am not sure if the Arbitration was sent along with the initial purchase order or not however, I signed the Arbitration agreement.

Later Anthem sent me forms to specify details such as doors, window, insulation, trim etc. with additions in what amounted to enormous additional cost. The church paid an additional $16,539.00 on an additional $55,000.00 accessories that cost more than the building itself.

I was told by a representative that Anthem wouldn’t stand behind the warranty unless the additional material was purchased from Anthem. I was not aware until later the additional purchase order would assist the first purchase order. I later realized that I had been mis-lead. This was not ok.

I noticed that Anthem prices on the addition such as, window, insulation, trim etc, were about 5 times retail. I have since asked that Anthem design the building be designed to accommodate our church needs. We were willing to purchase a larger building from Anthem hoping they would allow our deposit to be used on a larger modified building and cancel the addition such as, window, insulation, trim etc.

But, Anthem continued to inflate their prices to such a degree that would not allow us to purchase or make modifications to our order. Realizing that I had sign arbitration and contract I was felt helpless to do anything but try to work with Anthem but they have made it impossible. Our church needs help.

We have made several attempts to contact Anthem with little success. This has been an on going process since 8-28-2006 with no resolution. It appears Anthem Steel is notoriously dishonest company and I feel most betrayed. It is a shame and disgrace for a company to rob the Church.

Larry
Mississippi, Mississippi
U.S.A.

Wow, where do you start? I hope that by the time you are reading this you haven’t already been ripped off. More than likely you have.

My furniture store burned down completely on October 31, 2005, we lost everything including our delivery truck. I am basically a one man small business. I had to try to rebuild our building and try to pick up the pieces and get my store running again, very fast. The biggest time of our year was only four months away.

I am like all the others in that I did not properly research General Steel to see that this company has been convicted of consumer fraud in 2004. If I had known this, I would have never done business with a company with that kind of history. Nobody in their right mind would.

General Steel told me that I would be on an emergency program that would move my building to the top of the list. I would go before everybody and that they understood I was out of business until the new building was finished. My project coordinator, Kent Perenyi, asked me when I expected to be in my building, and I told him February 2006. He said that was a bit of push, but General Steel would do everything possible to have me in by that date.

Well, they never started even sending plans out until Febuary 2006, by March 2006 General Steel called me to give me a delivery date. That date would now be the middle of June 2006. Now they said it would be possible to be in February, now maybe by July. This company didn’t even have the building. It now has to be manufactured by a separate company that they have bought it from, this company would be Star Building Systems. What happened to the emergency program?

I told everybody i talked to in General Steel the situation I was in and that I only had $200,000 from the insurance policy to complete this job. General Steel told me they could be under budget and under time.

Well, I sent the deposit in to “freeze” the steel price on what General Steel said they could sell me the building for. The contractor that General Steel highly recommended, Worldwide Concrete and Steel, could more that put my building together for they erected buildings all over the country. I thought I was dealing with professionals. And I was. Professional con men.

The contractors gave me a price on basically a turn key operation. This is what I needed to get my business going again. The price he gave me had me under what I had to spend and I sent him deposits to secure them into pouring my concrete and erecting my building.

Now comes the second bill from General Steel that is higher than the first bill, just like everybody else. It was not easily read, I wasn’t sure what everything on this “components” invoice was, surely my building was also in there somewhere. In fact it wasn’t in there. This bill put the price of the building over 250,000, just for the building, not concrete or erecting it. Now Kent Perenyi says, oh he thought I had 200,000 just for the building.

You know, this story could go on and on. Let me try to shorten it. General Steel lied about everything they told me, the contractor is in jail now. The F.B.I. is building a case against them because they stole everybody deposits and never did anything. They stole from churches, schools, and businesses from Philadelphia to New Mexico. General Steel recommended everybody to this contractor.

I took over my project in November 2006. We finally got in by January 2007. We are in, but I have to sell our farm we have lived in for almost 20 years, because of the lies and the hidden cost of the building, the contractor, delayed time.

I did everything I could do to just get back in business and I believed this company could do it. I didn’t believe Paul Harvey would ever stand up and advertise for such a crooked company, but he doesn’t care, it’s all about the money.

Please , if you haven’t already been ripped off, choose another company or just search “General Steel consumer fraud” on line and see for yourself. General Steel has been stealing money and wrecking peoples lives for years. They also have other names they use, don’t be fooled. Remember, they don’t make buildings, they are just in an office with telephones in it, and destroying peoples dreams.

Vance
melfa, Virginia
U.S.A.

“I’ve been scammed by Jeffrey Knight & General Steel? Who should I call first?”

This is the by far the most popular question we’ve been hearing through Contact Us submissions. It can be a little confusing and A LOT overwhelming when the smoke clears and you realize you’ve been getting the run around from a company you thought you could count on [General Steel Buildings]. So we’re here to help.

Your very FIRST telephone call needs to be to Jay Simonson in the Consumer Fraud division of the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. His contact information can be found below.

JAY B. SIMONSON

First Assistant Attorney General

Consumer Fraud Unit

Consumer Protection Section

1525 Sherman Street, 4th Floor

Denver, Colorado 80203

Telephone: (303) 866-5079

FAX: (303) 866-4916

The second call you should make is to an attorney, IN COLORADO, who is familiar with the dirty tactics used by Jeffrey Knight, General Steel, and Anthem Steel Buildings. We personally know of a few attorneys who specialize in beating Jeffrey Knight at his own game. Feel free to contact us through the contact us section above and we would be more than happy to point you in the right direction.

Hi:

Our church has also become a victim of General Steel and Jeff Knight.

We have posted a short summary on one of the complaints sites,

http://www.liarscheatersandscammers.com/anthe-steel-scams-our-church-too/

We are trying to get approval from our attorney to tell the full story.

Would you be willing to tell our story here if we can get his approval?

Thank you.

WOW. Almost wound up buying a building from General Steel TODAY, then I saw this site. Thank you Thank you Thank you to whomever you are for saving me from going through what it seems you and many others have gone through. Very slick talkers over there.

General Steel Scam has quickly become an enormous success! Our traffic is up, way up! We’re just not sure whether to believe ALL of the submissions we’ve received in the Sound Off Section.

We’ve received stories and accounts from over a dozen current and extremely recent former employees. We were actually shocked at the amount of employees who reached out to us until one of these former employees informed us that half of the sales staff was laid off due to a…downturn in production. =(

Some employee submissions are legitimate accounts from salesmen who are or have been ON THE INSIDE; a treasure trove of information in regard to current internal business practices, sales training, Jeffrey Knight pep talks, the decline in sales volume, etc.

Other employee submissions seem to be rosy colored posts about General Steel while in the same breath, throwing mud at other companies.

News Flash! This site isn’t about other companies! These people, these customer accounts, and these lawsuits aren’t about other companies! We weren’t scammed out of our hard earned money by other companies, we were scammed by General Steel!

This website exists to save people from being harmed by Jeffrey Knight, General Steel, Anthem Steel, and the smooth talking scammers at General Steel and Anthem Steel. While the Sound Off section was originally created with wronged customers in mind, it has turned into more of a ‘tip line’ [which is GREAT news for the Colorado Attorney General's Office].

This website does not exist so biased employees of Jeffrey and General Steel can voice their opinions. This website exists for customers like us. So to all of you General Steel drones, save your opinions for the water cooler.

If you:

a)    worked for General Steel and feel like coming forward for the sake of protecting the general public, clearing your name, or assisting the California Attorney General or the Colorado Attorney General in their current ongoing Consumer Protection lawsuits against Jeffrey and General Steel,

b)    sent General Steel money and have nothing to show for it, or

c)    were mistreated by General Steel throughout the sales process

WE’D LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

If you:

a)    work for General Steel and are upset that this website exists

b)   worked for General Steel “a long time ago”, want to cry about how unfair it is that your name is here, and are upset you are listed as a culprit for having assisted Jeffrey Knight in stealing people’s deposits, or

c)    are interested in justifying your behavior by explaining it off simply as, BUYER BEWARE!

WE’RE NOT INTERESTED IN HEARING FROM YOU!

We have decided to turn the “Sound Off!” section Into “Contact Us [or the Attorney General]” because, well, let’s face it. All of these internal employee accounts, customer complaint submissions, etc will be turned over to the California and Colorado Attorney General’s Offices so they can do work.

THIS WEBSITE SERVES one PURPOSE. THE DESTRUCTION OF HARMFUL BUSINESS PRACTICES BY GENERAL STEEL, WHICH ACCORDING TO MULTIPLE EMPLOYEE ACCOUNTS, IS still TAKING PLACE.

So…. let me ask you this. Is reading a contract difficult when you are dropping multiple thousands of dollars? Its easy to assume things are included, such as windows, doors, insulation, etc.. we want it to be. That would be great. Its not included anywhere, so any of these posts that say “awww wahh the windows weren’t included” put you under the category of, well.. not the brightest of consumers. GS, and other business, not matter what their size, try to do honest business, and its over shopping, uneducated and paranoid consumers who end up going with the first lowest price, mom and pop shop and get much worse stories. But of course you won’t hear that, because assuming Maw and Paw get your order right, they are going to make a years profit on your project. This country needs to stop blaming the results, and look at their purchases. Read your contract, no what you are buying, and pound for pound, round for round.. you just won’t find a better deal with better service.

I also have given General Steel (aka Discount Steel Buildings) a large deposit for a building. The actual company drawing the plans will not work with them anymore because of confusion they ensued. Sounds like I don’t have to explain all the terrible details, I have read your stories and it’s all there, same thing. I am willing to jump in with someone against them (General). Just let me know. I’m not letting this go.

If you search General Steel, you will find my story over and over again. I signed a contract with the company. General Steel promised Site Plans, Foundation Plans, and full service to get the building built. I was told that I had to sign “tonight” because the discount will not be good tomorrow. Sorry to say I did. I faxed over my deposit and that is when the fraud started!

General Steel would not provide a site plan as agreed. The foundation plan was not appropriate to our ground conditions. If I wanted doors and windows, that would be extra. If I wanted to have the building sealed at the base and eves so bugs and rain would not come in, that would be extra.

After months of frustration working with them I thought I was finally on plan to get the building done, WRONG. I was then told the cost has gone up $33,000 due to increases in steel costs. What a joke!

I contacted two other steel building manufacturers and found out I can purchase the same building for $35,000 less than it would cost to complete the deal with General Steel. I contacted three law firms to sue for my deposit back. All three firms told me forget it, General Steel is a fraudulent company.

The Colorado Attorney General has sued General Steel and won, however General Steel is still in business defrauding people. DO NOT sign a contract with General Steel, you will lose your deposit and never see your building.

David
Cary, North Carolina
U.S.A.