Gable Signs reviews and complaints

The sign looks ok, says there's a carwash. Fine. Those chintzy icicle lights gotta go though.

Awesome! I was part of the install crew that installed the Canton Carwash sign in Baltimore. Interestingly enough, that sign was not built by Gable, it was subcontracted out to a different vendor for the manufacturing. This is the reason for the sign being twice it's expected weight, if it were built to Gables "Value Engineering" specs. it would have been half the weight due to cheaper materials. Gable's subcontractors are even worse than they are, hence all the issues. I've worked there for a very long time and let me tell you, it is very rare to see a "happy" customer. Deadlines are very rarely met (unless your the USPS or Starbucks or GIANT grocery stores). Gable will always be an industry leader due to their low ball pricing, their cheap materials, and their low paid workforce. Although I do admire how their propaganda machine works, due to how addicted our society has become with social media, the internet, and technology, Gable importing cheap digital boards from China and slapping their name on the front is brilliant, the GableVision showroom is exceptional, the service bills you will pay for the crap internals will probably be astronomical. Their website is wonderful, the giant sign in front of their building is awe inspiring, their facility is bar none the nicest in the state of Maryland, maybe even the whole east coast, all of that glitz and glamor will surely get the sales, but once you sign that contract keep your arms and legs in the vehicle at all times because it will be a rough road ahead. When the economy took a dump a while back they canned most of the higher paid shop employees (with years of experience) and started hiring inexperienced "kids" off the street and using temp services. This used to be an industry full of craftsmen, but Gable has lost that somewhere along the way, turning the industry into sort of a fast food business where you can teach a bunch of inexperienced kids the basics, let the product roll out the door knowing (yes knowing) it's messed up and hoping the customer doesn't notice, and if they do, use every possible excuse to convince the customer it was probably their fault, and if that doesn't work, give them a free apple pie. I guess to sum it all up, if your going to use Gable, actually "READ" the drawings your signing off on, "LOOK" at the specifications, "VISIT" the facility (your allowed to do that), stay in constant contact with your Salesperson and/or Project Manager, don't give up, if there is a problem and your getting the run around, work your way up the ladder, if your product is not up to your standard or doesn't match the spec's "REJECT IT" until "CORRECTED"! A BAD COMPANY WILL BE AS HORRIBLE AS "YOU" ALLOW THEM TO BE! And last but not least, a quote from Gabriel Bell from the fifteenth century "You Get What Your Pay For" - If you get 3 quotes for the exact same sign project (Apples for Apples): (1.) $18, 650 YaDa Sign Co. (2.) $19, 000 Square Signs (3.) $13, 300 Gable Signs, it's tough not to pick the one that's 30% cheaper, and a savvy salesman can iterate tons of technical sign jargon to confuse you into believing your getting the same quality everyone else is offering.

The primary philosophy of Gable Signs is to "low ball" the bid and then kill you with change orders. They are not a partner for any customer. They look for the weak areas of bids and exploit poor specifications to demand more money. The ownership is dishonest and treats their employees even worse than the clients. If you hear the phrase "Value Engineering", it is code for "giving you a turd instead of the quality product you believed that you were paying for."

I know, I worked there long enough to see it.

Ok, in the interest of being fair I thought I should post an update to our issue. Gable finally came out to try and resolve our last issue several weeks ago. They are hopeful they have figured out the problem and replaced all the transformers at their own expense (the sign is under warranty still). It seems like the ones installed might have either been part of a faulty batch or perhaps larger ones were needed. Gable has hired a new service manager who is way more responsive and knowledgeable about the issues we were having. His response has been in sharp contrast to the way our issues were previously being handled. He actually called me back today to follow up and make sure our sign is still issue free. This is the service we had originally hoped for when we bought the sign. I'm not sure what went so wrong in the beginning, but I'm glad they are finally trying to resolve our problems and have hired someone to hopefully prevent what we had to go through. If you don't hear from me you can assume we didn't have any more problems.

I deal with many vendors and contractors in my business and my experience with Gable has been bar none the worst I’ve ever had. It pains me to post anything negative about any business as I feel it is just bad business Karma, but I’m reaching the end of my rope. In doing some more research about Gable I came across Rogers comments, which ring very true to our own experiences with Gable.

We own two very similar signs, one constructed by Gable and one by Belsigner also of Baltimore. Our Belsigner sign has never had a single issue. NOT ONE! Our Gable sign, however, has had 12 outages in about 15 months of operation. The sign constantly breaks. Even worse is the service and treatment we’ve received from the company. This is not an issue of just a bad experience with a single employee as the owner is well aware of our issues.

Every time the sign goes out it takes weeks if not months for the sign to get fixed. I have to make phone call after phone call and send email after email. Even worse is the fact that they constantly try to place blame on us for the outages which I assume is an effort to get out of having to do the warranty work. At first they said we had the timer on for more than 12 hours, which we never did…why would we even want that? Then they said the timer was broken despite that our other sign is hooked up to the same timer and never has an issue. Even though two separate electricians stated the timer was fine we had it replaced so they couldn’t use this as their scapegoat. The sign broke two more times shortly after the timer was replaced.

I’m now working to have our 12th issue resolve. Although the new service manager seems more knowledge than others in the past I’ve gotten radio silence for over a week and I'm now going into our third week since the issue was first reported. I’ve had to turn our sign off because so many parts of it are out that it has become a horrible reflection on our business. Keep in mind this is only the part of the story after the sign was installed. The installation was equally horrible. This sign weighed almost double what they said it would weigh causing structural issues as it went on our roof. The colors were totally off despite having paid money to match the paint of our other sign and the neon colors don’t match our other sign. These are just a few of many problems we had. Some were resolved by Gable, others we had to absorb additional costs to resolve and others we’ve just decided to deal with. The one thing that remains constant in my experience with Gable is that they hardly ever take any responsibility and rather place blame somewhere else than just resolve the issue.

I will say that on the sales side Gable was top notch, which was really the reason we went with them. They provided excellent drawings, were very prompt in providing estimates and were hungrier for our business than anyone else. We figured we were safe as they are a fairly large company and we even negotiated for a 2 year warranty instead of the standard 1 year since the quality was a big concern of ours. They were great on sales, but a total failure on delivery.

This company has been completely negligent and harmful to the reputation of our business considering that a sign reflects who you are. I’m sure it’s also cost us business considering that we wanted a sign to increase the volume to our business. Essentially we have a lemon on our hands, which the company seems unwilling to take responsibility for or incapable of repairing. Save yourself money and problems and choose someone else to do your sign or don’t do one at all. These guys are downright awful.

I deal with many vendors and contractors in my business and my experience with Gable has been bar none the worst I’ve ever had. I hate to post anything negative about any business as I feel it is just bad business Karma, but I’m reaching the end of my rope. In doing some more research about Gable I came across Rogers comments, which ring very true to our own experiences with Gable.

We own two very similar signs, one constructed by Gable and one by Belsigner also of Baltimore. Our Belsigner sign has never had a single issue. NOT ONE! Our Gable sign, however, has had 12 outages in about 15 months of operation. The sign constantly breaks. Even worse is the service and treatment we’ve received from the company. This is not an issue of just a bad experience with a single employee as the owner is well aware of our issues.

Every time the sign goes out it takes weeks if not months for the sign to get fixed. I have to make phone call after phone call and send email after email. Even worse is the fact that they constantly try to place blame on us for the outages which I assume is an effort to get out of having to do the warranty work. At first they said we had the timer on for more than 12 hours, which we never did…why would we even want that? Then they said the timer was broken despite that our other sign is hooked up to the same timer and never has an issue. Even though two separate electricians stated the timer was fine we had it replaced so they couldn’t use this as their scapegoat. The sign broke two more times shortly after the timer was replaced.

I’m now working to have our 12th issue resolve. Although the new service manager seems more knowledge than others in the past I’ve gotten radio silence for over a week and I'm now going into our third week since the issue was first reported. I’ve had to turn our sign off because so many parts of it are out that it has become a horrible reflection on our business. Keep in mind this is only the part of the story after the sign was installed. The installation was equally horrible. This sign weighed almost double what they said it would weigh causing structural issues as it went on our roof. The colors were totally off despite having paid money to match the paint of our other sign and the neon colors don’t match our other sign. These are just a few of many problems we had. Some were resolved by Gable, others we had to absorb additional costs to resolve and others we’ve just decided to deal with. The one thing that remains constant in my experience with Gable is that they hardly ever take any responsibility and rather place blame somewhere else than just resolve the issue.

I will say that on the sales side Gable was top notch, which was really the reason we went with them. They provided excellent drawings, were very prompt in providing estimates and were hungrier for our business than anyone else. We figured we were safe as they are a fairly large company and we even negotiated for a 2 year warranty instead of the standard 1 year since the quality was a big concern of ours. They were great on sales, but a total failure on delivery.

This company has been completely negligent and harmful to the reputation of our business considering that a sign reflects who you are. I’m sure it’s also cost us business considering that we wanted a sign to increase the volume to our business. Essentially we have a lemon on our hands, which the company seems unwilling to take responsibility for or incapable of repairing. Save yourself money and problems and choose someone else to do your sign or don’t do one at all. These guys are downright awful.

Mr. Director and Bean Counter are company shills. All the company responses are unprofessional and condescending. That alone would maje me choose not to do business with such a company.

Hey Roger17756, it's about time someone has exposed Gable for their deceptive practices. I have been doing business with them for many years and I could tell you stories that would blow your mind. The owners have lost touch with the customers that have helped make them successful over the years. I will be visiting Google reviews very soon to tell it all

Excuse me...What is so "unprofessional about the principle's response? Seems to me they are making a statement about their position. Its far better than most comments I see on this website. Aside from that, the originator of the complaint has still yet to make any further details available to the audience. If there was any authenticity, they would provide more information. For the record, this writer is employed by the subject company (for many years) and based on my in-depth tenure, I would bet a month's pay on whether or not the above noted event truely occcured, as we have a 31 year history of being one of the best in the business.

Scammer? I firmly dissagree.

If I had a legitimate complaint like that to make, I wouldnt have a problem verifying the customer's name or other relevant details for confirmation. If the person complaining wont provide that, than I agree with the principle's response above

To whom it may concern,

As a principle of GableSigns for more than 27 years with thousands of satisfied customers I can assure you that whatever situation this person is referring to, although "possibly" an unpleasant experience, was surely not intentional, and absolutely not a "scam" as his complaint alleges.

GableSigns has not only been a Industry leader setting a high bar for excellent quality, fair prices, and above average customer service, we also do our part to assist in community needs, donations, and helping the needy. You would not find this from a "scam" company as alleged in this complaint. Since this issue does not sound familiar to any complaints we have recently heard, I will assume this is some cruel attack on our company with hopes of defamation.

Matt Gable; Executive VP / COO