Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  03/03/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  1/7/2022 this company did a water inspection for a refinance. He didn’t know what he was doing and admitted he had never seen a system like ours. He used my filter I used for canning and a measuring cup from my kitchen. He was here for 6 hours and after 20 days he said our water failed and that we could pay for him to come out and do it again. He then demanded money even though after all that time he still did not have the report finished. I called another company and they came stayed less then an hour never had to come into my home and I got the results 4 days later saying the water passed and they sent the required documents to the lender. I paid this company Virginia water half the amount for a subpar job and he still wants full payment. He did not do his job and did not know his job. I am trying to be fair to someone who did not do a good job and he is now trying to charge me interest and past due fees.

  Business response

  03/05/2022

  The customer requested lead, nitrates, and bacteriological testing along with disinfection of their well.  The well failed the bacteriological portion of the test - as reported by the certified lab, and the customer became angry with the results.

  On Friday, January 7, 2022, at ******** urgent request we agreed to collect bac-t, nitrate, and a lead sample.  During this work we disinfected a 6” rock well located under her rear deck and had the filter from the filter housing in the crawl space removed.   The filter housing was cleaned and disinfected with chlorine.   We determined she has iron in the water and low capacity from the well which stopped pumping during the test.  We also determined the well head has a defective air vent – which was plugged with a threaded fitting – which did not match the threads of the vent hole.  The electrical conduit hole in the casing was also loose.  The well head should extend at least 1 ft above grade and it was very close to the soil which means it could be flooded during heavy rains/snow which we pointed out.  These openings can allow bacteria to enter the well during on-off pump cycling, which we explained these hazards should be remedied.  The well head area was surrounded by wet soil and the yard contained animal feces nearby.  The well was disinfected with a chlorine solution and yielded a free chlorine residual substantially greater than 10 PPM for greater than one hour.   The well was allowed to pump freely to purge the chlorine and disinfect the residential plumbing.  After the chlorine dissipated, a bac-t sample was collected and resulted in positive coliform, but negative for e-coli.  During our visit we connected the client with the past President of the Virginia Water Well Association (Owner of Water Well Solutions) to learn more about pump-storage options for low yield residential wells – during which we held a short conference call in her kitchen along with technical information she requested.  She indicated she had been told to replace her well; however, both we and the Water Well Association representative advised her that the well may not need replacement as rock wells can be highly variable in Powhatan and separation of 50 to 100 feet to locate a new well may likely not yield substantially more flow.  There was no charge for our professional engineering advice.  Our charge only reflects the lab and labor cost for her samples.  While bac-t samples can be analyzed in 24 hours, we explained that lead and nitrates have different hold and analysis times from the lab.  All the sample results were satisfactory except for the coliform.  As the past chief engineer for the one of the nation’s largest public utility companies and 30 years of engineering experience, we stand by our method of testing and sampling as requested by the customer.  If she only wanted a bac-t sample - of course it could have been analyzed overnight, but the lead sample takes 7 to 14 days depending on the sample volume recieved by the lab.  This is all documented in the text chain document which attached.  It is clearly not our fault the bac-t sample failed despite disinfecting the well.  Now she makes false claims about our method and does not pay her full bill.  I am a licensed professional engineer in Virginia and Licensed Water Works Operator.  I managed utility operations and trained staff for the bulk of the public waterworks in Virginia from 1996 to 2021.  While we took the samples, we never guarantee a certain result.

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