We recently had a storage building installed and there are a few things I wish I had known sooner as I would have ordered differently.

First off, it's important to know that Alans is a retailer of Carolina Carports. Alans does nothing more than take your order, verify property placement, and pass you along to Carolina Carports for the product purchase and installation. An initial payment percentage goes to Alans at time of order and then the second payment gets made out directly to CC at the time of installation. Once you place your order and confirm installation, it's important to know that Alans wants nothing more to do with you and will not offer any customer service moving forward.

Secondly, Alans cares very little about the installation and success of your purchase. We ordered a 40x60 storage building through Alans at the end of March. When you build your shed online, you have the option of having the installers install common-sized doors and windows, -OR- you can opt to have the same sizes framed out for you to install your own. We opted to have two windows and an entry door framed out so we could install matching doors and windows to those of our new home. After spending $850 on doors and windows in those sizes, they do not fit. Alans conveyed to CC to make our window and door openings to that exact size, leaving the holes too small for installation of either.

Said another way, if you have the team install doors and windows, they cut the rough openings large enough for a window or door. When you request to have them framed for you to install yourself, they don't offer you the same courtesy.

Anywhere else on this planet, when you tell someone you want to install a standard-sized window or door at a set size, they ALWAYS leave a rough opening ½-1" larger to accommodate. Not at Alans. I went back and forth with Melissa and Suzie from their customer support team and they had no interest in helping me resolve the situation or offering any refund to help absorb the custom window and door cost. We're currently in this nightmare for I'm $2100 for custom doors and windows for a $6400 shed.

I will add that I am happy with the shed itself and the installation crew did a great job.Again, zero of that credit goes to Allans.

Where do I start this has been a very stressful interaction! I order the building, I make my deposit and I get a email telling me that I need to give them more money because the building is in a hurricane area which it is not a problem I pay the extra money on the deposit so now I get my concrete contractor out and we go over the web page for Alan's so after our meetings and review of Alan's web page we decide on the plan for the concrete I ordered a 30x40 building by Alan's web page they want a pad that's 31x41 which is a recommendation not a requirement, so when finished with the pad I send pictures and then the emails go on for two weeks that I poured MY pad wrong I guess their sales staff are engineers also but it goes on and on till I say just send me my building I'll take responsibility for any problems so now I'm told I'll hear something in about 4 weeks at the end of that time I get a text from Carolina carports wanting pictures ok. I send brand new ones and send a text back when are you bring the building? So I can arrange the day off to pay them and nothing so I wait a week and still nothing so I call Alan's back and talk with someone I just want some information you've got thousands of my money I just want to know when and where I'm not being ugly about this if it's a another month ok that's fine but at least I know but now I'm on the phone getting a lecture again your concrete is wrong! What the hell I had a concrete guy plus myself review their information on line this had become unreasonable I just want my building put in place what's the problem I don't usually get bothered by much but these guys immediately began wanting me to give them a review I responded with when the jobs complete then I will but after this wow not so good the customer service after they get money is awful I began this process on Jan 17 2022 and now it's mar 11 and still no date for delivery or anything So now what do I do cancel or just wait till they decide to show up now I see why they try and get a review after the deposit and not at the end Be careful doing business on line