August 2025 — a deck, a catalog, a check
In August 2025, work had just finished on a long renovation of my home. New siding. A brand new deck. I wanted an awning so I could actually sit out there on sunny days without being cooked. I looked at a few companies on Google, called Atlantic Awning in Melrose, and spoke to a woman named Cheryl. She was warm, professional, and quick to arrange for a salesperson to come to the house.
The salesman came out, walked me through a few catalogs, took measurements, and helped me settle on an awning that totaled $5,425.89. On August 27, I handed him a check for $2,712.94 as a deposit — half up front. He told me installation would take 6 to 8 weeks. I had no reason to doubt any of it. The company has been around since 1888. The salesperson had measured my deck in person. Cheryl had been responsive. I went inside expecting an awning by mid-October.
Late September 2025 — the first “we’ll call you back”
By late September I hadn't heard anything, so I called. Cheryl told me the crew was tied up on another project and that she would call me back in a few weeks with a date. She did not call me back.
I called again. This time Cheryl apologized and said they had the awning in the warehouse, but the weather was turning cold and they would rather install it in the spring. I did not love this — I had paid them in August so I could use the awning that summer — but I agreed. I imagined my awning sitting on a shelf in their warehouse with my name on a tag, ready to go up the moment the weather turned.
April 2026 — the ghosting begins
Spring came. I called Atlantic Awning in April. I left a message. Nobody called back.
I called again. This time I got Cheryl on the phone. The crew was busy on a big project, she said. People in her office were out sick. She or a colleague would call me back later that week, or by Monday, April 27 at the latest. Nobody called me back. Not that week. Not on April 27. Not the week after.
I left another message later that week. Silence.
The discovery
By this point the suspicion I'd been pushing away wouldn't stay pushed away. I started to wonder whether Atlantic Awning ever had my awning to begin with. Whether the “we have it in the warehouse but it’s too cold to install” line back in the fall had been true at all. Whether my $2,712.94 had ever been turned into an actual order to an actual manufacturer.
So I did the thing I should have done before I wrote the check. I searched for online reviews. And what I found was not three or four unhappy customers — it was a pattern, repeated for over a decade. Customers paid deposits. Customers were told 6 to 8 weeks. Customers were told the awning was “in the shop” or “at the manufacturer” or “ready for spring.” Customers were told someone would call back. Nobody called back. Some of those customers eventually called the manufacturer directly and learned that no order had ever been placed. The 2019 Boston Globe consumer column on Atlantic Awning describes exactly that scenario, with a different customer and a different deposit and a different summer.
And then I did one more thing. I pulled up 270 Franklin Street, Melrose, MA— the address on Atlantic Awning's website, the address on every contract and every business card — on Google Maps. I clicked into Street View. I expected to see what a 137-year-old awning company should have: a showroom with awnings on display, a warehouse loading dock, a sign with the company name, something.
What I saw was a residential house on a residential street. Two- and three-story homes with cars parked in the driveways. No storefront. No warehouse. No factory entrance. No business signage of any kind. Google Maps itself was offering me an “Add your business” prompt at the address — meaning Google has no verified business listing there at all. The address on every piece of paperwork I had with Atlantic Awning is a house in a residential neighborhood near Franklin School and Franklin Field.
That was the moment I realized I had been scammed.
I blame myself for not doing this research before I signed anything. I never would have done business with Atlantic Awning if I had read what was sitting on the public internet about them. I never would have done business with them if I had spent two minutes looking at their address on Google Maps. That is a mistake I cannot undo. What I can do is make sure the next person who Googles them sees what I wish I had seen.
Where I am now — May 2026
It is May 2026. I paid Atlantic Awning nine months ago. I do not have an awning. I do not have an install date. I do not have a refund. I do not have a returned phone call. The address I sent the check to is a residential house.
My next steps are to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and to file a claim in small claims court. I am documenting both on this site as I go, in case it's useful to anyone else in the same position.
Why this site exists
I want to be clear about why a website like this even has to exist. It exists because Atlantic Awning took my money in August, spent the fall telling me the awning was in their warehouse, spent the spring not returning my calls, and operates out of a residential house. It exists because the same thing has been happening to other customers since at least 2014, and the company's polished, century-old website is still the first thing a new customer sees on Google.
If you are about to hire Atlantic Awning, please read /complaints, /timeline, and /get-your-money-back before you sign anything or write a check. If you have already paid them and the calls have stopped getting returned: you are not alone, and the refund guide is the most useful page on this site.
What I wish I had known before I wrote the check
- Look up the company's address on Google Maps and Street View. A real awning company has a real showroom and a real warehouse. If the address on the contract is a house in a residential neighborhood, walk away. Two minutes of Street View would have saved me $2,712.94.
- Search the company name plus the word “reviews” before signing anything. Don't stop at the company's own site. Look at BBB. Look at Angi. Look at Yelp. Look at the second page of Google.
- Check BBB accreditation status. Atlantic Awning was already notBBB-accredited and already had a “failure to respond” notation when I paid them. I didn't look. I should have.
- Pay by credit card, not check. Chargebacks are the fastest path back to your money. I paid by check. That path is now small claims and the attorney general — slower, but still real.
- Get the manufacturer's name and a P.O. number. When the install date slips, call the manufacturer and confirm they actually have the order. The 2019 Globe story makes clear this is the single fastest way to find out whether an awning company has done what they said they did.
- Put a backstop date in the contract.If the awning isn't installed by [DATE], full deposit refunded within seven days. Reputable companies will sign that. The ones who refuse are telling you something.
- Believe the public reviews. A pattern of identical complaints across a decade of independent reviewers is not bad luck. It is a pattern.
Sources for the broader pattern
Everything above about my own dealings with Atlantic Awning is firsthand. The address observation can be verified by anyone in sixty seconds: search “270 Franklin Street, Melrose, MA” on Google Maps and click Street View. The broader pattern of complaints is documented in:
- The Boston Globe— “Owner of Gloucester rental property is seeing red over awning dispute” by Sean P. Murphy (June 24, 2019) — a published consumer-protection column about a customer who paid a $3,825 deposit, was repeatedly told the awning was already in the shop, and discovered after calling the manufacturer directly that Atlantic had not placed the order.
- BBB profile — B- rating, NOT BBB Accredited, “failure to respond to 1 complaint” notation as of profile review.
- Multiple Angi, Yelp, HomeAdvisor, Birdeye, and Facebook reviews spanning 2014 through late 2025 documenting the same recurring patterns: deposits cashed, install dates missed, calls not returned, awnings never delivered.
Last updated . Personal first-hand account. The address observation about 270 Franklin Street, Melrose, MA is verifiable on Google Maps Street View. Specific factual claims about Atlantic Awning's broader business pattern are sourced from the public record cited above.