Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  08/30/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Met with ***************************** and asked if he was a licensed General Contractor. He said yes and we signed an estimate document with Stringers ******************** (SCS) showing License #*****. Websites for ********************** ********************s and Stringers Property Maintenance for examples of him advertising this license number.License belongs to A *******************. A ******************* is the ** and qualifier for A ******************* - no mention of any Stringers companies. When we questioned ******, he revised his estimate document to list ***************** Construction as the business and told us A ******************* was a co-owner of the company. A ******************* has very little involvement with the company and did not visit our property until after we fired Stringers ********************s. He agrees that funds should be returned to us, but has no say in the company. Received the quote for the project - $53,480, broken into 3 parts (gazebo relocation $2000, concrete work $14.000 & roofing and scope $40,480 Several incompetent crews, along with ****** spent a total of 7 partial days on site trying to relocate gazebo and pour 4 footers to support the gazebo. They had no idea what they were doing, destroyed the yard, and had to dig up the footers twice before we stopped all work. The gazebo is currently hanging from 4 trees with ropes and a few boards propping it up.We met with ****** to terminate the contract. He acknowledged and apologized for all of the issues and asked if he could fix them. We said NO. He said he would not feel comfortable keeping any of our money and would work with his office staff to process a refund. We offered to pay $2000 for the gazebo relocation. Witnesses to this conversation are available.To date ****** refuses to refund any money. He did not complete any part of the project.He misrepresented himself and his company. He and his crews are unqualified and have no knowledge of standard residential construction procedures necessary for this project.

  Business response

  09/09/2024

  Stringers always endeavors to please its customers and provide them with the quality construction they asked for at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, in this particular circumstance, the homeowner inserted himself into the project, interfered with our work crew by telling them how to do their job, and forced the crew to do work that was incorrect. Even still, we tried to make the customer happy, agreeing to redo some work at our expense and adding on a different job that was not originally included in our quote. However, the customer banned us from the job and had demanded almost all of their deposit back, failing to acknowledge the significant work we had already completed.
  
  We are still willing to finish the job for the original contract price, but the customer refuses to allow us on the **********************.

  Customer response

  09/11/2024

   I am rejecting this response because:
  
  1) We did not interfere with the ******** Construction crews daily activities.  When my husband, a retired general contractor in multiple states, saw the crew pulling out the first set of gazebo foundations that they had poured, he offered a suggestion for a fairly quick and easier method to reinstall them which is what they were apparently trying to do.  He did not demand anything of them and left the yard.  ***************************** was not on site, and his crew didn't choose to call him for guidance, so they did what was suggested.  A few days later, we see one of those foundations being dug up.  This time, my husband saw that fully half of the depth of concrete was still dry powder and there was no gravel in the bottom of the hole to provide for proper drainage.  The bag concrete did not get properly mixed with water necessary to turn it into concrete.  At this point, my husband did insert himself and told them to remove all four foundations because there was no way to be sure that all of them weren't in the same condition (i.e. dry powder).  The crew did dig them up and started on attempt #3.  My husband asked a few questions to determine the crews capabilities and also if they had any of the necessary tools to complete the job; for example - a wheelbarrow, a contractors level, gravel for under the concrete, rebar for the next set of holes.  The crews response was negative to all the above.  They were not provided any of that from Stringers Construction.  Their last attempt (#3) to dig the foundations for these four gazebo footers resulted in failure as well.  They were not at the same elevation to each other and the crew was making no attempt to make them the same elevation.  That is when we fired Stringers Construction.  

  2) With regard to an additional job, that is absolutely not correct.  Before project started, we requested a change to relocate the gazebo rather than demolish.  ****** sent us a change order which we approved.  We offered to pay 100% of the quoted amount for the gazebo relocation even though it was not successfully relocated and is still propped up by 2x6s with rope strung around surrounding trees.  In addition, our yard is completely torn up since they did not use proper equipment to move the gazebo.  Due to their demonstrated lack of construction knowledge necessary for this portion of the project, failure of management oversight and propensity to blame their customer for their failures, we will not allow Stringers ********************* back on our property and feel it is necessary to recommend same to other potential clients.

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