Loved the guy, Michael Gaertner (MG) is very personable. Hired him on a contract (10/2022) for plans and permitting with a new build in Galveston. MG said he completed the job (02/2024) and asked for final payment. After final payment MG quit responding to email or phone calls. Plans were not completed, permitting was not completed. Over the last year I have contacted Steve Ramirez - Managing Investigator www.tbae.texas.gov and filed a official complaint. read more

Michael Gaertner Architects - Affidavit Notorized - LeRoy Grubbs - for Case #165-25A - Michael Gartner - Architects Near Me - Galveston, Texas

The man never met a deadline and he was the one setting the deadlines. Also completely ghosted me with out finishing the job. I have him the emeritus of the doubt for several months. Finally have has enough. Completely unprofessional. Never finished the job after I paid him. read more

We hired Mr. Gaertner on 5/31/23, to design and complete architectural construction documents for a home in Galveston. He requested an initial retainer of $2,500, which we paid immediately. He sent an additional $4,200 invoice on 6/21, which we promptly paid. Initially, Mr. Gaertner was very engaged with our project, taking our calls and responding promptly with progress drawings. We did notice that we were always the ones pushing him to send us updates, but weren't too concerned. The concerns began when Mr. Gaertner promised progress drawings by specific dates but did not deliver. He then told us he was 99% complete with our drawings and sent another invoice on 7/26 for $2,000. We again promptly paid believing he was almost finished. He sent us the progress set, but after reviewing the drawings it was obvious they were not 99% complete. After many lies about when he would send us finalized documents, he finally sent us a set on 11/7, only to discover that they were not complete and had conflicting information. He even admitted after sending them that he had not included an entire page. He again promised to send corrected, revised drawings by 11/17. After not receiving them, I called him on 11/20. He texted me that he was at a doctor's appointment and would send documents when he got to his office. After receiving nothing, I sent several requests begging him to send the documents. The only thing I received was a forwarded email on 11/27 that he allegedly sent to our structural engineer on 11/16 with very basic drawings and no dimensions. I sent them along to the structural engineer who said he had never received these before. Mr. Gaertner will not return our calls, texts, or emails. After 6 months and $8,700, we still have not received complete or accurate construction documents per our agreement. Today, we learned he stopped communicating mid-project with another of his clients who also paid him thousands of dollars requiring them to hire and pay another architect. read more

We had the same experience the two other reviewers had. He completely ghosted us, never met a deadline, and always had some lame excuse for not meeting a deadline. We emailed him after several months of not getting any where letting him know how absolutely exasperated we were with his failure to have completed our drawings and after that he completely cut us off. This was supposed to be a small simple remodel and we basically laid out the floor plan we wanted but for whatever reason he could not complete the construction drawings. We did file a complaint with the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners. We are waiting to hear back from the TBAE and hopefully they will be able to deal with him. read more

This guy will take your money and run... save your self the headache we had a 15k commercial contract on a property for him to do his work on he took the initial 3500$ deposit responded for about 2 weeks gave us a rendering that took him maybe 10 minutes with no measurements no stamps nothing legitimate and then has disappeared off the face of the earth this guy is a scam artist I will be seeing him in court read more

When I hire Mr. Michael Gaertner he seem very professional, knowledgeable courteous and nice. My project was, and is suppose to be small ( Simple and pretty quick)  On October 9th, 2020 I hire Mr. Gaertner. Project was suppose to take approx. 2 months.   Which I was seeing progress at that time. Now As of today May 10th, 2021   It has not been completed yet. after long periods of non communication We finally met on March, 2021. At that time on March my project was at its final stage. It just needed a few more hours of work.   He said he would have it ready in 2 or 3 days.    2 to 3 Weeks went by Mr. Gaertner does not reply to emails, and does not return calls. After several attempts, I caught up to him on his office on April 20th, 2021 He apologies for the delay and explain to me that he had been in a car accident. He said that he would email me the plans in 1 to 2 days.  It is Now  May 10th, 2021.   And I have not heard of him. Mr. Gaertner does not reply to email, does not return calls, and he is not at the office.  Zero communication on Mr. Gaertner behalf. I have gone by office it is always closed. Mr. Gaertner if you read this please contact me regarding my plans Project "La Perla" -  Marcelo read more

Approximately 7/30/2021, I entered into an agreement with Michael Gaertner Architect, I sent via Venmo $2500.00 and the next day $2000.00 of a requested $5000.00. Total contract amount was unknown due to it being a percentage of the total cost. I gave him a floor plan and several pictures of which to give design Ideas. He said he would have some preliminary drawings within a week or so. On August 2nd, I received an email of my floorplan with furniture laid out and some grid lines. Then nothing, On August 11 I text Michael to see how thing were progressing. No reply. I emailed on Aug 13th, still no response. I was unable to get any communication until I emailed him on September 1st. My email went as follows." I wanted to touch base, seems very drawn out right now. I'm trying to move forward but haven't received any communication from you in quite awhile. I understand that you may have other obligations happening at the moment. For that reason I would like to request a refund in the amount of $4000.00 paid, so I can proceed to move the process forward. I appreciate the time speaking with you and hope that all is well. Thank you " I was only requesting $4000.00 because I figured $500.00 was well worth our first consultation. He did reply saying " My folks have been moving along with the drawings even though I've been on hiatus. I'd like to get together to review progress, if you are amenable, I'm available Friday through next week at your convenience. Let me know what your think. The more I thought about it I just was not satisfied with the Lack of communication. Time was of the essence and he knew that going in. He stated that if at anytime I didn't feel like they were meeting my expectations he would refund the deposit. after many calls emails and text asking for full refund of $4500.00 since September January 2022 he finally replied saying he would send me a refund. Today 4/13- no response no refund. Terrible communication. read more