Customer communication is extremely poor. Great product and installation. Failed county inspection and still waiting for final.

If I could give zero stars I would. This company is a complete joke. We went with this company for the sole reason that they were local and my husband knew a guy that worked for them... sadly, we have regretted this decision ever since. 1- The completion of our shutters took about 5 months LONGER than it did to build our entire house. The salesman we were working with quit, so that did not help matters. Apparently, they don't follow up with customers when one of their employees leaves; you just get pushed to the back of the line and have to start over again after calling them asking what the status is of your shutters. 2- They were given our deposit in May. We went to get our CO at the end of December, but they couldn't get out here until mid-January to put the shutters up and take the pictures that the city requires. It does not take 8 months to get some shutters measured and cut. We had to argue with them to throw up some temporary shutters on the front of the house because ours were not done and because without them, it held up getting our CO from the city. Now to the fun part.... 3- Insert Hurricane Ian- We decided to put up our shutters on Tuesday morning before the hurricane was set to arrive. Upon backing out the screws from the wall, we quickly realized that 75% of the pieces that are to stay in the concrete in the wall came out along with the screws. At that point our only option was to epoxy almost all of the concrete screw portion back into the wall and wait for it to dry the next day. Bright and early on Wednesday, the day the hurricane was arriving, we were outside in the rain again attempting to hang our shutters. After the issues before, we thought we were golden... WRONG. 4- On just about every single metal panel, we realized that the screw holes that you should just put over the screw heads and slide it down were literal tiny drilled holes, and not a big enough hole to slide over the hurricane screw heads. We had to back out every single screw yet again and screw them back on, as one side of each panel for each opening was like this. It defeats the ease of how the system works. 5- About half of the panels have VERY sharp raw edges instead of the rolled edges that they should have. 6- Several of the holes in the panels do not line up with the holes in the walls. I know it is easy to assume maybe some of these issues were user error, but we own a construction company and my husband is a general contractor, so I am confident that the issues were not due to our own lack of know how. Thankfully my husband is knowledgeable because I can't help but think that if he didn't have the tools and knowledge that he does, we would have been completely screwed. The average homeowner wouldn't know how to fix the issues we had and they wouldn't have been able to put their shutters up at all. I literally can't say enough awful things about this company. Their lack of care, their lack of craftsmanship, and their inability to communicate with their customers is inexcusable. Stay far away from this company, because when you need your shutters the most, you may find yourself without them because you literally can't put them up. read more

Southern Cross Storm Protection - These are not supposed to come out of the wall - Shutters Near Me - Punta Gorda, Florida

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Automatic shutters are great and the installation was great. Everything else with this project was terrible. HOA approval was never submitted and I ended up getting it, while being bumped back on the installation schedule. Called several times to get a detailed invoice after I paid. It took a while to get it and all it said was storm shutters and amount paid. The County permit was never displayed on site before or during the installation. The shutters were installed October 20, 2023 and we are still waiting for the County inspection to be completed today (December 1, 2023) . I will not be working with this company again. read more

Wd had Southern Cross install our accordion shutters. They were fantastic. We did need a few minor adjustments the first time we tried to close them and Brant sent a team out immediately. They are responsive, professional, and they cleaned the entire area after finishing the work. I could not ask for better service from any company. Thank you Southern Cross! read more

The storm shutter I had bowed and is off track, during a hurricane. It's only 6 months old. Not sure if it's just off track or needs to be replaced. As I've called the company and their response is, they are super busy and will call me when in they are in the neighborhood to come look at it. It's been two months. They will not schedule a day other then to tell me they will call me the day of. So it might be broke, it might not be. And hopefully the day they call to come look at it I'm actually home. Good product, I think, but they don't seem to honor any type of warranty or repairs. read more

I would give them zero stars. Terrible job. Waited 5 months for them to show up. Kept telling us they couldn't get materials. Shutters finally installed and the bang and clang loudly. Sounds like they are going to break. They are not installed uniformly. Front shutter fell off house and broke the day after installation. One shutter doesn't go down all the way. Worker told us we have to bang on it ???? Owner refuses to come out to address issues. Had his brother come to our home and harass us for payment. He was in our driveway screaming for money and giving us the middle finger. No signs on truck, no company logo anywhere. They are the most unprofessional contractors I have ever used and i would never use them again or recommend them to anyone. read more

We met with & ultimately hired Brant with Southern Cross to supply & install three decorative powder-coated aluminum Bahama shutters on the front of our house. Brant was far cheaper than the two other companies from which we received bids, he was able to think outside the box to get us what we wanted, and his product is very good. We had a special circumstance in which our gutter on one side was impeding the ability to hang the shutters at the angle we desired. The other two companies who bid our project stated that what we wanted couldn't be done or that there would be an unsightly support arm visible from the front. Southern Cross was able to engineer a fix to account for the offending gutter and still hide the arm support on that side. I highly recommend them. read more

Southern Cross Storm Protection - Powder-coated decorative Bahama shutters purchased from & installed by Southern Cross. - Shutters Near Me - Punta Gorda, Florida

Southern Cross Storm Protection Co. accepted a $2,500 deposit from us in August 2021 for updates to the storm shutters they originally provided. They have persisted in claiming supplier issues when we asked for status and haven't delivered. They continue to post two-page ads in magazines - presumably continuing to accept deposits from others. There are other vendors able to deliver what we need prior to hurricane season, so we requested a refund of the deposit. Per posts with Better Business Bureau, others have similarly been left hanging - no product / no refund. Dispute has been filed with credit card company, but we are in limbo. Brant talks a good game - don't be deceived! read more

I have a shutter that failed in the storm but no one will answer the phone or respond to message, if you want security find another company, warranty is not good if nobody responds read more

Southern Cross was out this week installing a roll down shutters. We were so happy with the finished product installers were very professional and clean. read more

We hired Southern Cross to install a hurricane rated garage door and 10 window hurricane shutters based on a referral from some friends, an impressive sales job by Brant Smith, and a competitive quotation (both in terms of dollars and schedule). This should have been a straightforward project resulting in us being happy customers. Instead, we were lied to, treated like 'marks' rather than customers, and the project was actually never fully completed: With a 6-12 week completion schedule quoted, we waited 1 month with no contact from Southern Cross. So, we contacted them to learn that nothing had yet been submitted to our HOA for approval. They blamed the HOA and a death in their family for the delay. Okay, fine. We waited another month with still no result and contacted them again asking for an update and a copy of the architectural package (that should have been submitted to the HOA) for our files. January, Brant's wife, was unable to do this so, instead, printed out an email she had sent to the HOA, scanned it, and sent it to me as a pdf. I could see images of the attached documents in this scan but, of course, could not access them. Bizarre! At this point, we were very skeptical that Southern Cross was even a real company so we drove by their address to see if a building actually existed. After several more prods from us, January got approval from the HOA to move forward. Next, I asked her about the building permit. She said she would submit the request to Lee County when they returned from their family vacation. We waited yet another month and contacted them again, pointing out that the whole project was now beyond their quoted maximum timeline. What is the status of the permit? "Lee County is running behind". When will the shutters be installed? She reluctantly gave me an installation schedule. When that time arrived, 15 weeks in, I received a call that the garage door would be installed and to pay that company separately. I told them my contract was with Southern Cross and it was 50% up front and 50% when the job was fully completed. We could tell that they were very off put by this. I also asked for a copy of the building permit but they didn't actually have it. So at this point, we are late, have no documentation of what they are going to install and they don't actually have a permit to install whatever it is! Eventually, their 3rd party installers put in the garage doors and shutters. These guys were very professional and did great work. The foreman told us that Brant wanted us to write a check and give it to the foreman for the final 50% of the cost. Brant told him to tell us that we could be assured the final inspection would pass and that Southern Cross would fully finish the project because Lee County could take away his contractors license if the work wasn't done. So, we reluctantly wrote the check hoping for the best but deep down suspecting that we wouldn't see Southern Cross again. We were correct. The Lee County inspector did come out and approve the installation. All that was left was for Southern Cross to come out and plug the screw holes with decorative caps (left off for the inspector to check proper anchor screws). We had sent Southern Cross the approved inspection form and requested they put in the plugs. They said they would get to it eventually, when a crew had some time. Fine. We waited a month and called them again. Lo and behold, we got a new lady and thought "thank God, we don't have to deal with January again". When we asked her to schedule Southern Cross to come out and complete the installation she said she didn't know when they could get to it, she wasn't going to schedule it and basically implied that we could wait until hell froze over! Wow. We sourced the plugs ourselves through McMaster-Carr. They cost $20 total and took us 15 minutes to install. This seems a very trivial item that Southern Cross would want to address and enhance customer satisfaction rather then one more thing to ignore, compelling us to write a review warning all future potential customers to beware of Southern Cross! Again, the 3rd party field people were excellent (electricians, garage door sub-contractor (Prompt Garage Doors), 3rd party window shutter installers) and the installed products are very nice. They appear durable, function properly and passed county inspection. The issue lies completely with the office staff and project administration at Southern Cross. If we had to do this over again, we would avoid Southern Cross like the plague. read more

Southern Cross' product is good. Their installation team is top notch. Their ability to communicate with me was an utter failure. Everystep of the way I had to call them to find out information about installation dates, etc. Too often they said they were coming and didn't show up. They didn't follow through with securing the inspector (until I called again) and now I am still awaiting the buttoning up of a cosmetic finish....and they didn't show up again. They just don't know how to finish a job properly. I'll be telling my story when asked. I would not recommend based on this frustration. Maria J. read more

Here is my story: Paid deposit on June 28th, 2018. Now: October 18th...NO work done. So, if you like to pay out money, and have no work done as contracted, this is the company for you. Waiting 1 more week then contacting BBB, Lawyer, and Charlotte county Licensing division. read more

Beyond frustrated with this company and owners. Today is 5 months since they received my deposit. Still no idea when they are installing.

Hi, Its been 6 months since I signed my contract with Southern Cross. Contract signed 5/2/18. I have been waiting since Sept. when they told me our panels were going to be installed soon. What kind of christian based faith company does that?? Very disappointed and still waiting!! Jerry K Update: Spoke to Brant and he gave me a positive update on our storm panels. Based on what he told me I am retracting my previous comments until I hear back from Southern Cross. Thank you read more

The team from Southern Cross Storm Protection worked well together to install our hurricane shutters. They were professional, thorough and polite in answering any questions and concerns. I would definitely recommend them! Karen A. read more

Said they would be out to measure within a week after they took my money, but it's been 4 months and they haven't shown. Keep calling but they just make excuses and won't commit to when they'll do the work. Finally hired a local attorney and had a demand letter sent. Waiting for a response. More to follow. read more