Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  06/24/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I have called about issue of cracking and other concerns with work three times. Today was first time owner came to assess, and he seems to be gaslighting my concerns with reasons the work cannot be done to speck. tiling on floor is uneven. grout not cleaned properly off tile. grout is uneven between tiles. tiles not properly aligned to wall. sharp edges on tiling on door to shower. shower tiling uneven on one side of door and the other. overuse of caulk under baseboard. door jams don't line up with floor. grout on tiles uneven. window of new shower outsourced through Lafayette Glass is not properly lined up with wall. lip of shower indented and yellow-orange substance beginning on shower floor. The baseboards are not flush with tile, but seem bowed with gap. I spoke with business owner at 11:30 am on 6/24/2024. Although there was a suggestion that some issues--grout not cleaned properly off tiles--could be fixed, others were just not possible to fix, like caulking under baseboard or the gap between bottom of door frame and floor. At this point, I do not believe the owner is acting in good faith, and, also, he seems to not really care to address with any seriousness the shoddiness of workmanship. I believe that this work has not increased the value of my house, quite the opposite, and so I am requesting a refund so that I can have this bathroom redone. I would be happy to have an expert assess the work done in the bathroom.

  

  Business response

  07/08/2024

  Shanes Cabinets and Flooring sets out to make every customer happy while giving them the best experience possible as we tear apart their home transforming it into their dream. As we walk them through the process, we let them know it will be dusty and messy as we do the demo work. We placed two high power HEPA filter air purifiers in the space where we would be working, but every morning we arrived to find the cats had torn the plastic allowing some dust out.  Each day we sealed up or replaced the plastic. 

  Almost every day we had to clean up cat urine from where the cats had come into our work space. 

  When working with mosaic tiles, they are glued to a sheet and most of the time they have uneven spacing for grout lines.  We showed this to the customer before we started and she said it was okay.  When I was there last, she even made the comment that the grout lines were fine in the other bathroom we had done at the same time.  We completed two bathrooms for her at the same time, under the same contract. She had no complaints whatsoever on either bathroom at that time. As we started laying the mosaic tile each morning, we would arrive on site to find cat prints and cat urine on our freshly laid tile. This caused some tiles to become a little uneven. She has 12 or *********************************************************************** this bathroom. 

  When we had completed the job, she paid the invoice in full on 12/15/23 and was happy with the finished product.  She even had us come back and do some carpet on the stairs in two different areas.  

  On the glass, she said they forgot to caulk the edges so on January 29th, between 3-4 pm, Lafayette Glass came back and took care of the issue. Because she never called, emailed, or texted otherwise, I thought the issue had been taken care of. **** 6th, 6 months later, I received a nasty email stating she was filing a complaint. I set a date and time to meet with her to go over her concerns. At that time, I called Lafayette Glass and they were more than willing to come and add a piece of trim to take care of the issue. We had it scheduled for July 11th, but she sent me an email the next day stating she was not happy and to cancel the Lafayette glass appointment. 

  On Thursday, Feb. 22nd, at 8:21 am she sent me a text stating that she had some grout coming up near the door of her bathroom. I replied on Thursday, Feb. 22nd at 8:22 am I would have someone there the following week.  1 minute is a good response time.  On Feb. 27th at 12:59 pm I responded that I would have my lead tile installer, ******, there the next morning to fix the issue.  He was there Friday morning and repaired an area about 4 long.  Again, I heard nothing else from her until we got this nasty email.  When I showed up this time, there was two spots about 3-4 long that were coming up. I told her I would order some more grout and we would get it fixed asap.  

  Then she pointed out black markings along the bathroom trim where something has been rubbing on it.  She said it was from the caulking turning it black.  I said I could wipe it off when we came back, but that the markings have nothing to do with us.  We caulk around the bottom of the trim to water proof.  It is a very fine line on the floor, not on the trim itself. 

  Because she had issues with there being left over grout on the tile, on Jan. 12 at 9:30am, *** and ****** stopped by and cleaned some tile that again she had never mentioned anything about not being happy with after they left.  This led me to believe all was good.  

  We did not do anything with the door trim.  Her new tile is a little thinner than her older tile leaving a small gap. Yet again she was fine with this at the time of install as well as at final payment. 

  She has a wood rack in her shower that is dripping down onto her shower floor which is  turning it a yellowish color. Im not sure how this has anything to do with my workmanship.  

  She has white grout and the only spot where she has issues is under that rack.  The grout we use does not need to be sealed.  If we added a sealer to the grout that was not needed, it would not prevent the color from the wood rack bleeding onto the floor or the cats urine from staining the grout. 

  When ****** and I showed up, I told him that I feel like no matter what we say, she will not be happy. I was willing to clean up the tile, clean up the caulking lines, clean the black rub marks off the trim and fix the glass. As well as try to fix the yellowing on the floor.  She proceeded to send me another nasty email stating that was not good enough and she would be filling a complaint.  I feel she had her mind already made up on filling a complaint.  

  As long as she will let us make the fixes while not being nasty to my guys, I am still willing to fix the grout at the door and Lafayette glass is willing to add a trim piece on the glass to fix that issue. 

   

  *************************

  Shanes Cabinets and Flooring 

  Owner/Lead installer

  Customer response

  07/10/2024

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined the response would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. 

  ***** IS CORRECT IN THIS: THE ***** THAT WAS SENT TO HIM THE **** BEFORE OUR FINAL MEETING WAS NASTY. THE **** WAS AGGRESSIVE AND UNPLEASANT.
  I AM ALSO NOT DISPUTING THAT 2 HIGH POWER FILTERS WERE PUT INTO THE BATHROOMS. HOWEVER, THE BATHROOM ITSELFSCREENS, WALLS, TILESWAS NOT PROPERLY CLEANED AT THE END OF THE ***.  STAFF SUGGESTED ZR CLEANERS, WHOM I CALLED, SINCE THE **** WAS BEYOND THE CLEANING TEAM WHO WORK AT MY HOUSE ****LY.  THEY CHARGED $1500 TO CLEAN.  I SPOKE WITH SHANES SON ABOUT THIS AND THEN WITH THE SECOND SON (THE ONE WHO SERVED IN THE MILITARY) TO SAY THAT I WAS BEFUDDLED BY THE FIRST SON'S LACK OF CONCERN OR RESPONSE ABOUT HOW TO GET THIS TILE CLEAN.

  
  I AM NOT SURE HOW THE **** FIT INTO ADDRESSING MY COMPLAINT, EXCEPT TO INDICATE THE EMERGENCE OF A LOOMING COUNTERCOMPLAINT.  CERTAINLY, I WAS CLEAR ABOUT THE ISSUE OF THE ANIMALS BEFORE THE PROJECT BEGAN.  I REMEMBER ***** HAD CAUTIONED ME THAT RIPPING OUT A BATHROOM IS VERY LOUD AND MAKES ANIMALS ANXIOUS.  I DID NOT GO INTO THE BATHROOMS WHILE THEY WERE CLOSED, SO DID NOT KNOW OF THE ISSUE OF CAT URINE.  HOWEVER, I AM SURE THAT CLEANING CAT URINE MUST HAVE BEEN VERY DISHEARTENING FOR THE WORKERS.

  
  THAT SAID, I DO NOT THINK THE **** WOULD HAVE CAUSED TILES TO BECOME UNEVEN, ESPECIALLY SINCE THEY ARE UNEVEN ON BOTH HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL SURFACES. 

  
  I WOULD ALSO SAY THAT *****, ***** OF THIS COMPANY, IS CORRECT THAT IT TOOK ME A WHILE TO BEGIN TO NOTICE SOME OF THE ISSUES, AND IT TOOK ME A WHILE TO WRAP MY HEAD AROUND THE **** THAT THE *** WAS NOT DONE PROPERLY.  I AM NOT AN EXPERT IN BATHROOM REMODELS, SO MY EYES ARE NOT TRAINED TO SEE MISTAKES.  FURTHER, I MADE ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT WHAT COULD OR COULD NOT BE DONE.  I THOUGHT IT WAS NORMAL TO HAVE EXCESS ***** ON TILES,FOR EXAMPLE. 

  HAVING A BATHROOM DONE IS SOMETHING YOU DO ONCE IN A LIFETIME, SO I WAS UNABLE TO EVALUATE THE *** ON THE ***** WHEN PAYING *****. PEOPLE--NOT EXPERTS, BUT MUCH MORE HANDY THAN I-- CAME TO LOOK AT THE RESULTS.  THEY CONFIRMED THAT THIS *** HAD NOT BEEN DONE PROPERLY.  I HAD THOUGHT UNEVEN TILES, EXCESS *****, OVERUSE OF CAULK ON BASEBOARDS, AND SOME OF THE ***** AND HOLES IN KICKBOARD AND SHOWER WERE NORMAL. 

  BEFORE THE UNPLEASANT ***** SENT TO ***** IN EARLY JUNE 2024, I HAD CALLED HIS COMPANY TO FIX THE ISSUE OF THE ***** ON TWO DIFFERENT OCCASSIONS.  IT WAS CRACKING AND IT HAD NOT BEEN CLEANED PROPERLY. THE FIRST TIME I CALLED ONE OF HIS SONS CAME OUT.  THE SECOND TIME TWO WORKERS WHO ARE NOT RELATED TO THE ***** CAME OUT.  THE CRACKING STILL HAPPENED A THIRD TIME.  FURTHER, I HAVE FOUND A LACK OF SEALING AT THE KICKBOARD OF THE SINK AND IN THE *** OF THE SHOWER FACING THE DRAIN.  I NEEDED FURTHER TIME SINCE LAFAYETTE WINDOWS COME OUT ONCE ABOUT THE SHOWER WINDOW.  THE WAY IT IS INSTALLED NEXT TO A WALL LEAVES AN INCREASING GAP BETWEEN THE BOTTOM AND TOP OF ONE OF THE ***** PANELS.  LAFAYETTE WINDOWS, WHOM I PAID THROUGH *****, DID NOT ACKNOWLEDGE THIS MISTAKE, JUST PUT SOME SORT OF SEALING ON IT. HOWEVER, ***** DID SEE WHAT NEEDED FIXING WHEN HE CAME TO MY HOUSE AT THE END OF JUNE AND SAID HE WOULD GET THEM OUT AGAIN.  FURTHER, I HAD CALLED MILLERS PAINT COMPANY ABOUT REPAINTING THE BASEBOARDS, WHICH WERE STICKY WITH WHAT SEEMED TO BE CAULK.  ******* SAID THAT SINCE IT WAS NOT THEIR MISTAKE, THEY WOULD NOT DO IT. THE CHARGE WOULD BE ABOUT $1000 TO PAINT THE BASEBOARDS IN QUESTION. 

  FURTHER, THERE IS A GAP BETWEEN THE DOOR FRAME AND THE ***** THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ADDRESSED AS THE WORKERS REDID THIS BATHROOM. I DO RECOGNIZE THAT THIS MAY BE DUE TO A THINNER TILE, BUT THE *** WAS A MAJOR BATHROOM RENOVATION.  WHY WOULD THAT PIECE OF BATHROOM RENOVATION BE LEFT UNADDRESSED?

  SINCE I HAVE ALREADY HAD THE COMPANY BACK TWICE TO MAKE REPAIRSAND IT WAS NOT DONE PROPERLY EITHER TIMEI FEEL THIS SHOULD BE SENT TO A TEAM OF PROFESSIONAL CONTRACTORS WHO CAN EVALUATE AND ASSESS THE NATURE OF MY COMPLAINTS AS SOME SORT OF LEGAL MEDIATION. THIS WOULD IN MY MIND BE THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO RESOLVE THIS ISSUE AND PREVENT FURTHER BACK AND FORTH THAT WILL BECOME INCREASINGLY A FINGER POINTING ACTIVITY.    
  

  Regards,
  
  ***********************

  
  

  

  Business response

  07/14/2024

  Shanes Cabinets and Flooring takes pride in our work. I have tried to do everything within my power to make this customer happy.  But as I said in my last email and when talking to you on the phone she has her mind made up and nothing will make her happy.  Her reply in all Capital letters shows that.  So after seeking legal counsel Shanes Cabinets and Flooring has acted in good faith and has done everything to resolve this issue. There is no issues with our workmanship. It is unfortunate that she is unsatisfied with the quality of our work. In our many years of business this is our first complaint with the Better Business Bureau. So Im asking that Better Business Bureau see that and close this complaint.  
  Thanks

  

  Business response

  07/15/2024

  Shanes Cabinets and Flooring takes pride in our work. I have tried to do everything within my power to make this customer happy.  But as I said in my last email and when talking to you on the phone she has her mind made up and nothing will make her happy.  Her reply in all Capital letters shows that.  So after seeking legal counsel Shanes Cabinets and Flooring has acted in good faith and has done everything to resolve this issue. There is no issues with our workmanship. It is unfortunate that she is unsatisfied with the quality of our work. In our many years of business this is our first complaint with the Better Business Bureau. So Im asking that Better Business Bureau see that and close this complaint.  
  Thanks

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