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Initial Complaint
10/15/2023
- Complaint Type:
- Service or Repair Issues
- Status:
- Answered
*************************, The General contractor/owner for ****************** was hired to be a ** by the homeowner for a Bathroom Addition. The overall 5% fee for the ** service was the agreed upon sum for the entirety of the build, meaning, he would receive 5% of the total build price as his compensation. After the homeowner down payment to a sub contractor of $20K for building material, The ** then told the sub that the contract/agreement was that he gets 10% of the total build costs, The sub paid the ** $2350 WITHOUT A CONTRACT and without talking to the homeowner. The ** lied to the homeowner and sub. The ** pocketed $2350 off an initial $20k building material costs, then sought an additional $1000 (5%) from the homeowner for the same exact thing he just charged the sub. ************************* is a scammer intent on stealing as much as possible. There are several long emails chains and threats by him to the Sub and the Homeowner threatening legal action if he didn't get paid and also remained on the project. This is a brief, pointed description on what **** did, there are more issues he failed to due in the run up to starting this project. If needed I can supply contract between the homeowner and **. There was no contract from the ** to the Sub Contractor. I can also supply any and all emails, videos, text messages.Business response
10/16/2023
HISTORY ON PREVIOUS REQUESTS BY ****.....
This was my second project development and consultation with ****. The first was to build a 2 car detached garage. He didn't want to pay for my services then either.He must have appreciated by services and experience as he called to get my help again on this BATH ADDITION AUG 2023 I was hesitant when he called me back in August to help him with this project and made sure my services this time would be compensated for under my contract. I presented my services to **** were under agreement to assist as a construction consultant and owners representative to help him with a bath addition he accepted these terms. **** is correct that he agreed to my contract and proceeded to pay my invoices for upfront fees of $1,000.00. He has contractually agreed to my services and my fees for me assisting in product selections, specifications for engineering involvements and assisting with all up front city permit requirements. He agreed in this same contract to my fees of 5% of the contract cost from the General Contractor. These fees were for my time for trips for construction site inspections, city code and Zoning meetings and calls, General Contractor invoicing reviews, GC progress billing approvals and quality control inspection.I interviewed several General Contractors I know to be reputable and began developing a workable price and budget and finding a reputable General Contractor to build the Project. Additionally I was to sent weekly reports to the owner once the project started. I have 46 hours logged on his behalf for this project to date.
Customer response
10/17/2023
Complaint: 20736586
I am rejecting this response because:
Please see attached word document.Business response
10/27/2023
The homeowner is confused about the contractual agreements ***************. There are two contracts one with the homeowner for a 5% consultation fee in helping manage the project. It clearly states that there will be a general contractor involved working directly with the homeowners hire.
The second contract is with the general contractor who clearly understood a 10% commission was involved for me recommending them and helping include them in the project for construction. This was a sales commission and clearly stated and agreed to by the ** not only on this job but also another. This contract is not part of this inquiry as **** was not a party to this agreement for marketing this opportunity to the **
Abam has canceled our contract so I am finished with the permit assistance and building process inspections and help for *********
His complaints and request for refunds are contractually without merit. And he actually owes me for the $1,000 00 of my time I billed him for.
*************************
Customer response
10/29/2023
Attached is the INITIAL contract.
**** was to rewrite it before the construction started. He never did.
There is no other contract between myself or Him or between **** and the Sub Contractor.
He had 6 weeks to get a new contract and get things done. He never did anything he was supposed to do.
Initial Complaint
02/27/2023
- Complaint Type:
- Product Issues
- Status:
- Answered
On 27 Apr 2022 I signed a contract with an employee of *******************************, owner of Firststar Painting to hang drywall in our garage 6-7 May. A different contractor was painting our house **** May, we needed the garage completed first. He promised he would complete the job within our timetable, I wrote Start project on Friday, 6 May 2022 on the work order but never received a copy.On 2 May ******************** came to our house to collect a $600 deposit, insisting the check be made out to him personally, NOT his business account. The employee failed to show on 6 May, when I spoke with ******************** he said his employee was on another job and couldnt start until next week. ******************** called 9 May and asked ME to buy the materials at *********** I refused and asked what the $600 deposit was for? He stated it was a scheduling fee, I was responsible for buying the materials and would deduct the materials/deposit from the final bill. He said this was normal, customers were always responsible for buying materials.On 10 May ******************** brought over a blank contract, NOT the one I signed. I reminded him I accepted the bid because we were assured he could start on 6 May. ******************** said he didnt know we were promised to do the job 6-7 May, we had to wait until his employee was free. After more discussion I stressed this was unacceptable and ******************** said he would refund the $600 deposit later that day.******************** broke our contract and failed to refund my $600 deposit after telling me eight times he would: 10 May in person, 11 May text, 24 May voicemail, 9 Jun phone, 14 Jun text, 22 Jun text, 7 Jul phone, 9 Aug phone. Over time he became rude/belligerent, after 9 Aug he refused to take my calls or respond to text messages. I eventually gave up trying to contact him and sent a certified letter on 15 Dec demanding he refund my $600 deposit. I gave him until 20 *** 2023 to refund my deposit or risk legal action. He signed for the letter on 15 Dec and has not responded.Business response
03/07/2023
PROJECT OVERHEADS INCURRED ( PARTIAL RECOVERY OF ACTUAL LOSSES)
2 site visits at 2 hours 4 hrs @ $75.00 per hr ( my average INCOME/HOUR)$300.00
2 hours vendor calls and estimation 2 hrs"$300.00
texts and phone time with ***************1 hr$ 75.00
total preconstruction overheads $ 675.00.
PRODCUCTION PROFIT LOSS50 % PROFIT PROJECTED$ ****** PER DAY ON 4 DAYS$ 600.00
TOTAL EXPENSES LOSS AND LOSS DUE TO CANCELLATION$1,275.00
RECOVERED FROM SCHEDULING FEE (see BELOW FOR CONTRACT WORDING}- $600.00
ACTUAL LOSS$ 675.00
PARAGRAPH FROM MY COMPANY CONTRACT
2.1 SCHEDULING PAYMENT
A payment of 30 % of the contract price shall be made upon execution of this agreement and
credited to the final project payment at the time of conclusion.This payment will secure the allocated time on our schedule and be applied and accounted for at the final payment.
It covers a time on our schedule held for your work, pre-construction overheads, initial materials, mobilization, ordering, scheduling, and demobilization for this project.
This fee is refundable only if this contract is canceled 14 calendar days prior to the start date.
This provision does not waive any rights Firststar Painting has for loss of income from any lack of production days for this
contracts scheduled reserved days for the client, materials ordered, and preconstruction overheads.
I HAVE ONLY ATTEMPTED TO RECOVER ABOUT HALF BY ACTUAL LOSS BY THIS CANCELATION.
*************************
Customer response
03/10/2023
Complaint: 19493556
I am rejecting this response because:We had 3 companies bid on the project and we accepted Mr. ********* because it fit with our timeline. I dont know if he is trying to take advantage of me because Im a senior-citizen, disabled vet, or both? I dont understand how he is trying to charge us $600 for the estimate on 27 Apr,two short site visits (to pick up deposit on 2 May and argue about the schedule on 10 ****. These are bogus charges and should be a normal part of doing business. I was never told he was going to pass on $675 in preconstruction overheads to me. *** spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get our $600 deposit back after he failed to adhere to the contract. To reiterate, he told me 8 times he would refund our $600 deposit: 10 May in person, 11 May text,24 May voicemail, 9 Jun phone, 14 Jun text, 22 Jun text, 7 Jul phone, 9 Aug phone.
The contractor we eventually hired to complete the job only took one day, not the four days ******************** citied in his reply to my complaint.
Excerpt from his contract in his reply: This payment will secure the allocated time on our schedule and be applied and accounted for at the final payment. It covers a time on our schedule held for your work, pre-construction overheads, initial materials, mobilization,ordering, scheduling, and demobilization for this project.
The dates we accepted with his estimator / installer (6-7 **** were NOT met. ******************** NEVER gave us a firm start date during follow-on conversations, so how can he say he lost income? If he didnt live up to the contract, why does he feel he is entitled to keep the $600 deposit? On 10 May it became clear he couldnt meet our agreed-upon timeline and he said (in person) it best we move on and stated hed drop off the check later that day. He did not complete the job 6-7 May as promised and NEVER committed to a schedule afterwards, which reinforces the fact that HE is in breach of contract.
Sincerely,
***********************Business response
03/13/2023
I suggest we take out better business bureau's offer to do mediation or arbitration in these matters. they will have to follow the contract and the excess overhead clause and why I think my pre-construction expenses are your expenses not mine due to your cancellation.
you're incorrect about the start date we did have a agreed upon start date to begin with.as I explained earlier we had other work ahead of yours and had to complete it prior to being able to man your job.
construction start dates are contingent on the availability of material labor and acts of God that will be my argument not mybeing irresponsible or not adhering to what was possible to do here. the problem was you just couldn't accept it and couldn't wait another day or two.
al
Also you have failed to explain what the urgency was that would require you to cancel the contractand to exhibit none of the flexibilities that are clearly explained in the contract concerning start dates.
my suggestion is that we go to Better Business Bureau for arbitration or remediation and I will honor any decision that is fair to meet in the middle on this
****
Customer response
03/15/2023
Complaint: 19493556
I am rejecting this response because:I dont agree with Mr. ********* logic but agree this should go to mediation or arbitration with the Better Business Bureau. For over 10 months ******************** has failed to acknowledge the fact that we had a binding agreement with his estimator / installer to start the job on 6 May 2022. Weve made it quite clear the entire time the primary reason we signed the contract with Mr. ********* company was because we were coordinating other projects in our house, and we were assured the job could be started on 6 May. On 10 May we discussed our timeline, and after he admitted he couldnt meet our schedule, he agreed it best we move on and said hed drop off the check later that day. Since then, he told me seven more times he would refund the $600 deposit. After his employee accepted / committed to the 6 May start date and failed to show up, this became a company problem that ******************** needed to correct.
If we had known up front Mr. ********* company could not complete the job when we needed it done, we would have accepted a bid received from another contractor. Its not a matter of me being inflexible, from the beginning we clearly stated our timeline, and his employee assured us he could do the job starting on 6 May. There is no basis for ******************** to say he is entitled to pre-construction expenses when he failed to start the job on the agreed upon date.
For me there is no middle ground, we had a binding written agreement with Mr. ********* employee, and his company failed to honor the contract. We expect ******************** to follow through with the eight times he said he would refund my $600 deposit. I must point out again he insisted the deposit be written to him personally, NOT his business account. I find this highly suspicious that he demanded my wife write the $600 check to him and not his business.
Sincerely,
***********************Customer response
03/17/2023
[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of Mediation. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Better Business Bureau:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID .********, , and find that Mediation is necessary.
Regards,
***********************
Business response
03/21/2023
[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of Mediation. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Better Business Bureau:
I have reviewed the response made by the consumer in reference to complaint ID .********, and find that Mediation is necessary.
I have not been able to upload my contract explaining my scheduling fee policy and my clause on start dates and reasons for delay that are beyond my control.
Thank you.
*************************
Customer response
04/09/2023
[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of Mediation. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Better Business Bureau:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID .********, , and find that Mediation is necessary.
Please let me know when ******************** has located and provided a copy of the contract I signed on 27 April 2022.
Note: he never provided me a copy of the contract and I signed on 27 April 2022. The only paperwork I've received is a BLANK contract he gave me on 10 May 2022 when he came over to discuss why he didn't meet the original start date of 6 May 2022. During our discussion I stressed (again) the continual delay and his unwillingness to commit to a firm start date was unacceptable and ******************** stated he would refund our $600 deposit. ******************** said it's best we move on and said hed drop off the check later that day.
Regards,
***********************
Initial Complaint
02/07/2022
- Complaint Type:
- Service or Repair Issues
- Status:
- Answered
Hired on 1/25/2022 to perform popcorn ceiling removal and texturing the ceilings and walls throughout the house. Work was expected to take 5 days. Its now 2/7/2022, the work is still not completed due to several issues:1. Work was sloppily done. Inconsistent work from upstairs to downstairs of the home. My husband went to review the work done. Owner (****) talked over him the entire time not listening to the issues and not willing to resolve the issues financially to compensate. He was told to leave the property due to his behavior and inability to listen to our requests. Told my husband he would not adjust the price by even a *****. 2. After a weekend of dealing with text messages from ****, he finally agreed to a $300 credit for the crappy work done (not enough in our opinion) and we allowed him back on the property to clean up his mess. He showed up on 2/7 at 8:30 am with 3 of his guys and started disputing with another painter that we hired to work on the property. The situation escalated due to Gregs yelling and cussing, and the police were called to get him off of our property. The work is still not cleaned up. 3. We had two occurrences of **** charging our credit card unauthorized for another customers fees. Although this has been credited back, this eroded our trust early on between **** and us as the homeowners. **** talks over us, constantly trying to sell new services and I think he did a terrible job just to continue getting access to our house to attempt to upsell more services. **** is an aggressive person who is no longer allowed on our property, including anyone who works for him. We dont want him to fix anything at this point due to his unprofessional behavior. The total job cost close to $15,000. Weve paid $500 in cash, and charged $3975 and $5225. There is a remaining balance of $5225 (minus $300 credit) still owed according to the original contract. We are unwilling to pay this remaining amount when the job isnt done.Business response
08/30/2022
My response ....
Summary : Work was good and they are in breach of my contract for non payment for work properly completed. A credit of $300.00 was give for cleanup and 2 areas needing minor touch up. 4 ohours for 3 men. Balance due $4,926.00
This is rather long but cover the items of fact I feel important for the ***** to understand my contract is sound and for small claims court if not resolved by us.
Response.
I was blamed for being pushy and I resent that. I did remind them that replacing doors and painting was our speciality and we were glad to help. My dry wallers were there working for most all these owner in house meetings. They will testify I was not anything like she is alleging. Merely" staging" for non payment on an item of discussion that would not be grounds for nonpayment even if it were true.
This is my response to BBB for the contractor side of this unfortunate sequence of events tryong to outline completely the sequence and timeone of this job.
Our construction contract was for a whole house ceiling popcorn removal and to retexture all the walls for **** and *********************. We were contracted with our standard contract signed by ******************* only. Our standard scheduling fee in the amount of $500.00 was due at the time of signature to hire and was offered in cashby **** and accepted with a receipt.
The ***** asked us to adjust our schedule to accommodate their desire to move in asap and to start the job immediately and to try to get them moved in this newly purchased house as soon as possible. We told them we could get it started in a day or 2 and we proceeded to assign the labor teams and materials to the job to begin.
The start up was smooth within a day or so and the Progress was good removing all the existing popcorn ceilings in the first day by my texture man *********************** and crews. Quite a amazing task that they finished this portion of the Drywall the first day. I supervised the scheduling and quality of the work daily and we professionally manned this job each day with 2 or 3 workers thst continued to make good progress. There was only one weather delay with a few very cold days with daytime highs of 20 degrees. This held us up from texturing for 2 days. Up to this point the homeowners were very happy and complimented us on the progress and the efforts. The ***** 2 payment for work completed went smoothly. There was no problem.
Work continued..towards completion.
Payments on this job were by credit cards, something we never had done before. I set up a Merchant Services account with my bank at ***** Fargo to process these payments. At the same time as this job had started, I was also asked by another customer in Monument (***************) to process their payments by CC for a separate contract.
We did not yet have our swipe machine since it had not been shipped yet, so with the ***** approval I merely entered the numbers in each time ( some times off site from my office) for payment on the vendors Android app on my phone. The decline in this relationship and contract trust seemed to began with an honest mistake on my part with payment processing.
I made an error while processing a progress payment for another customer on or about Feb 1st. I had 2 credit card numbers in my portfolio and entered the Meeeks card instead of the other client **** *** card card numbers. The amounts due by **** *** were $ ********. The result was getting my second customer Neki *** charges on the ***** card.
The payment mistake was noticed immediately by me.
As I processed the payment request the ***** Fargo CLOVER APP did not show that this request to process charge had gone though and been processed after I entered it. so I backed arrowed in the app to the entry site and ran it again. I discovered then that it was sent to be processed twice in the amount of $******** each time. . I followed the software guidelines and begin to fix the mistake and immediately hit the button and asked for a refund. The screen showed this request as refunded in less than 4 minutes later.
After I hit the refund button for both charges I assumed the problem was solved. Far from it.
The app clearly showed that the refunds were processed. Or refunded . I told *********************** about the problem and that the "refund went through". The problem was that it had NOT actually been refunded yet at all, even though it it said it had.
The problem in trust with ***** began to decline as they didnt believe this was a honest mistake I guess. They didn't wait for the ***** ********** timeline for this .instead being on their end and their bank sayimg the refund had NOT been processed. It was a process out of my hands
I tried to speef this but that refund did not finally clear for days, I have dozens of ***** Fargo calls and emails as evidence of my efforts to speed this up. Please see my Feb 15th letter attached by separate email that show the dates ***** Fargo finally cleared this up. This 14 day accounting delay had nothing to do with FIRSTAR or our continuing progress and completing the the job.There was no indicstion we we not tp finish. This delay was unexpected and not caused or controlled by Firststar or able to be resoled quickly by any banker I could find.. Quite a long delay with dozens of calls, 5 to 7 meetings with ***************************** my personal banker could not speed this process.
The construction work went on towards completion and the ***** were still complimentary on our progress and our work. ***** then began to show her anger and loss of trust with texts and called me a liar for the statement to her about me stating that the charges showed as refunded in the Clover App as that it had been refunded.....which it did. I said the refund delay was explained to her as an internal ***** Fargo delay as to the reason. This was not acceptable or deemed as truth by her.
I told her to believe me to just call my banker ***************************** if she doubted I was trying my best to speed this refund. She never did.
The ***** then decided to go ahead on their own and to file a charge back claim of unauthorized transaction through their card company. I received emails from their bank about this contesting the charge and responded immediately when the bank asked if their request for a refund was to be contested by me. I entered it was uncontested, so they would get their money back sooner. I believe it was in a day or so.
All the meanwhile the job had progressed to completion and I called **** to meet to review the work an fill our our FINAL COMPLETION CERTIFICATE.
On that same call, we reviewed the work to be completed. **** said the work was really good but a few items needed attention for final payment. His tone was normal and he was not ***et at all as I told him we easily would fix the irems. Those items mentioned would be a verbal version of our FINAL COMPLETION CERTIFICATE. The items mentioned were:
1. Clean overspray on a couple doors, watet and a rag in minutes removes this.
2 clean bricks, one hour
3 fix wallpaper seam pop **** one hour
4 repair the skylight texture from plastic drooping onto wet textures. 1 hr of time
.
ON this same call he said he liked our workers and their work. They were praised by ******************* during this job on how well the job looked and how well it went.
The next day I went to the house with ********************* as to address the final items and to meet **** to fill out this FINAL COMPLETION CERTIFICATE.
The meeting was 8 am or so and **** was very ***et on our arrival. he accused us now of unprofessional work and damaging the home. Much different that our last conversation.
He laid out the credit card for final payment and said to run it and also in the same sentence told me he didn;t want any more work done by us..
I told **** the texturing work was completed and that as defined in our contract we needed this finalCOMPLETION CERTIFICATE items( punch list )filled out and signed by him as to any items that needed final attention for payment in full. I then asked **** to do a punch list noting everything he wanted to be completed. I never got his digniture stating oficially what they wanted only verbaly....so I tansferred the items to the FINAL COMPLETION CERTIFICATE (enclosed) and emailed it to them. I documented the items he mentioned at that meeting to be finished. **** at that time said to get out of the house and not come back. He got very Mad and insistent on us leaving. Also at that Jobsite meeting Saturday I tried to calm him and discussed that we wanted to finish.
I said we could and would fix the final items and after he cooled down convinced him to be allowed to finish on Monday. I indicated the work was good throughout the house and was done correctly and that it would take half a day and $300.00 labor to finish these requested items. We ended with an agreement to do it the next day. (Saturday) .
At that point, the final bill was a little over $5,200.00. At that Saturday meeting, **** gave me
another NEW SECOND credit card number and told me to use it to pay the bill and they would
be done. I told him I would process it in the near future after they got their refund once I know what ***** Fargo timeframe was. I felt it would be best to wait on the ***** Fargo refund before I ran the approved Discover card and because of the likelihood of a disputed charge. I felt it unreasonable to process the charge before their refund.
I followed my contract and said I would finish the work or document and come to an agreement on the deductions and to credit the bill after with the labor time it would have taken to do the 4 final work items and cleaning. **** finally agreed he would let us do the final hours of clean up and touch *** on Monday.
The next Monday, I brought my crew to finish and clean up the remaining plastics and texturing
work. Upon entering our worksite we were met with another person not the *****. He said he was a painter who told us that the ***** had hired him and this was now his job. He seemed not to know we weren't finished with our cleanup.
I said we there at the homeowners request to finish and had some work to finish at the homeowner's request. The painter called the ***** to tell them that we were there. Then ****** told the painter to tell us to leave and not finish the work. The painter was very unprofessional and ******* us as if we we working for him. He then threatened to call the police. The painter was very excited and agitated from the start and then began verbally insulting me and my company as unprofessional and that I was "stealing money from the *****." The **** thing to desculate this was to leave as reqested. I then left.my workers and crew gathered their tools and also left. I decided to come back to stay in my truck in the street to see if indeed the police could document this incident in a report so we were not accused of anything we haddent done and they cant aledge that we were just "quitting." ********** comment were a bluf I emagine to get us to look like we quit or something. They never did never arrived in 20 min so I left. I wanted a copy of the report to show how crazy this staging for nonpayment was.
I then was sent texts the next day and told by ****** to not return to the site. We were fired.
My salesman **** was asked to call ******************* ( signer of the contract) and he too said we were not to return.
Now the ***** are refusing to pay the final balance for 5 days and ***** sq ft of ceiling and wall texturing work properly completed. The final PAYMENT APPLICATION FORM shows a $300.00 discount for the labor time his crew was not allowed to complete.
They refused to pay. The ***** with a $300.00 credit for final items subtracted still owe us $4,926.00 ( see FINAL PAYMENT APPLICATION)
They refuse to honor payment for services properly done and how tell us wed have to take them to court to get it
Thats where it was at the time of her filing with BBB and still is where is left.
I will send them a notice of Breach Letter if payment is not recieved in 30 days, which is required in our Firststar Services Contract
as Dispute **********, and will file for collections and proceed in small claims court.
*************************
Firststar Services LLC
Since 1985
On Tue, Apr 5, 2022, 6:39 PM ************************* <************************************> wrote:
I will send my first version of my response as it covers most of this but to highlight this non-payment breach of contract situation.
Its simple the work is ***** % done and I deserve to be paid for work properly completed.
In construction,types there are documents that prevent these type of statements by owners like" the work was terrible or they did a bad job"
In reference to her fabricated facts, she distorts the facts to seem like this was a bad job ."
These are easy words to say thinking it will prevent them from having to pay. That is why I have a FINAL COMPLETION CERTIFICATE.
**** nor ****** never once said to me our work was bad. All they said was on or 2 places needed attention and I told them to fix the spots would only take a few hours and i agreed they needed attention.
The problem is they thought they could not document these items legal as required in my contract just chase us off and not pay.
Concerning delays ....there was none...we had 3 men there every day working hard to sand skim and texture all these walls. The only missed days was when temperatures prevented us from texturing due to below-freezing days that will freeze the big texture machine outside.
This was explained to ****** and they took it as such and didn't even complain. They understood the machine would not work those days. only a delay or 1 o 2 days I believe
It was a normal job and as all jobs go at the conclusion was not 100 percent complete
When we were asked to leave and I have made compensations of $300.00 for the labor and materials it would take us to finish. This was all I felt fair for work they refused to even allow us to clean and correct.
These final items are common on every texture job as we begin the final closeout items to completion.
We have liability insurance requirements that prohibit others from being in our work area. We went on Monday to finish the touch up items requested and to clean the remaining texture off a few doors and base trim.
The painter was trying to paint in a house that was not turned over to painters yet.
that was there clearly thought he belonged in the middle of my business and job site. He was rude and began insulting me and my company and in fact was the aggressive one from the start. Once he passed the line with his insults, I I did become angry and asked him to leave us to our work. That is when he called ****** who alleged to have asked him to call the police. All this is staging to not make a final payment and will be easily seen as such in a small claims court of law.
I will send my full response letter attached as a separate document or sent by separatehouse email tomorrow.
Please ask the ******'s how they expect a $5,200.00 credit for 3 or 4 hours of final finish work they refused to allow us to do.
Ask them what it cost them to pay others to clean up our final items? With valid receipts and sworn statements from the subcontractor doing the work I will consider any settlement credit that is fair to Firststar..
*************************
Firststar Services LLC
In business since 1985
website firststarservicesllc.com
On Mon, Apr 4, 2022 at 9:38 AM Aja'***************** <************************************> wrote:
Good morning, Grey
I apologize for the delay. Here are the complaint details you may send me a response directly from this email thank you.
Consumer: *********************
Date Filed: 02-07-2022
Complaint Detail / Problem
Complaint Type:
Service Issues
-- Please Select the Nature of your Complaint --
select
Problem:
Hired on 1/25/2022 to perform popcorn ceiling removal and texturing the ceilings and walls throughout the house. Work was expected to take 5 days. Its now 2/7/2022, the work is still not completed due to several issues: 1. Work was sloppily done. Inconsistent work from ***tairs to downstairs of the home. My husband went to review the work done. Owner (****) talked over him the entire time not listening to the issues and not willing to resolve the issues financially to compensate. He was told to leave the property due to his behavior and inability to listen to our requests. Told my husband he would not adjust the price by even a *****. 2. After a weekend of dealing with text messages from ****, he finally agreed to a $300 credit for the crappy work done (not enough in our opinion) and we allowed him back on the property to clean up his mess. He showed up on 2/7 at 8:30 am with 3 of his guys and started disputing with another painter that we hired to work on the property. The situation escalated due to ***** yelling and cussing, and the police were called to get him off of our property. The work is still not cleaned up. 3. We had two occurrences of **** charging our credit card unauthorized for another customers fees. Although this has been credited back, this eroded our trust early on between **** and us as the homeowners. **** talks over us, constantly trying to sell new services and I think he did a terrible job just to continue getting access to our house to attempt to ***ell more services. **** is an aggressive person who is no longer allowed on our property, including anyone who works for him. We dont want him to fix anything at this point due to his unprofessional behavior. The total job cost close to $15,000. Weve paid $500 in cash, and charged $3975 and $5225. There is a remaining balance of $5225 (minus $300 credit) still owed according to the original contract. We are unwilling to pay this remaining amount when the job isnt done.
Desired ********** / Outcome
Desired **********:
Other (requires explanation)
Sincerely,
AjaDae ****** Dispute ********** Specialist
Better Business Bureau of Southern ********
25 **************. Ste. 100
****************, ** 80903
Tel: *****************
Fax: ************
Bbb.org Start With Trust
************************************
Other (requires explanation)
select
Desired Outcome:
Billing adjustment; No further contact by the business
From: ************************* <************************************>
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2022 9:27 PM
To: Aja'***************** <************************************>
Subject: Re: BBB: Complaint: 16738082Aja'Dae,
Not received....not in inbox or spam. Please be so kind as to resend (if possible from original showing as it was sent.) I have had my response written for many days now but want read her complaint first.
Thank you.....
****
On Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 3:49 PM Aja'***************** <************************************> wrote:
Good afternoon, ****
It looks like we have sent the complaint to ************************************ please double check your span and junk folder a new link as been sent to this email. Thank you.
Sincerely,
AjaDae ****** Dispute ********** Specialist
Better Business Bureau of Southern ********
25 **************. Ste. 100
****************, ** 80903
Tel: *****************
Fax: ************
Bbb.org Start With Trust
************************************
I got the test email but not the complaint. Thank you
On Wed, Mar 23, 2022, 12:31 PM Aja'***************** <************************************> wrote:
AjaDae ****** Dispute ********** Specialist
Better Business Bureau of Southern ********
Customer response
08/31/2022
Complaint: 16738082
I am rejecting this response because:
Summary: Work was NOT properly completed. Our house was left in a complete mess with returning cracks when there were guarantees of repair, use of improper materials that caused damage to our property, lack of project management on Gregs part for inconsistent removal of window covering equipment, railing, etc that was not removed and now have hole where there should be texture. Due to his crews unprofessional work and unwillingness to work out the issues (not once, but twice offered!) and resulted in him being asked to leave the property due to his unruliness against my husband and then again with the professional that we hired to clean up his mess which resulted in us calling the police (they did show and the officer called me to say that all parties had departed).
I have bank deductions showing that we paid a professional in total $3000 during the period of 2/4/2022 (initial upfront cost when we hired) and other incremental payments as work was done through 2/22/2022 to repair the issues in the texturing including the cracks that he "guaranteed" to fix. We want this additional $3000 deducted from the remaining amount of the contract quoted by ****: $4962. Our balance would be $1962.
I find it ironic that he responded to this claim when he said the BBB isnt going to do anything and the BBB claim was closed due to his unwillingness to resolve the issues we requested on August 9th. Yet, now hes allowed to respond and re-open the claim making outrageous accusations and demands when we just wanted him to agree to adjust the amount owed and part ways.
***********************Business response
03/10/2023
I stand by my offer to fix these minor punch list items listed on my Completion Certificate sent to the ***** by email to follow my contract for close out of my work.
I will file in small claims and will claim the balance due as the unpaid balance minus my agreed cost to fix the items listed.
This Final Completion Certificate lists exactly the only items they showed us they were wanting fixed and unhappy with.
*************************
Customer response
03/13/2023
Complaint: 16738082
I am rejecting this response because: IT'S BEEN A YEAR SINCE WE'VE FILED THIS CLAIM. ****************** ** FOR MONTHS AFTERWARDS BEGGING ** TO REMOVE A NEGATIVE REVIEW FROM ANOTHER PLATFORM. HE WAS OFFERED SOLUTIONS WHEN WE LAST SAW HIM IN PERSON AND HE DECLINED. HE DOES NOT LISTEN TO THE CUSTOMER CONCERNS. HE KEEPS PUSHING THIS PUNCHLIST THAT DOES NOT INCLUDE EVERYTHING WE'VE DISCOVERED WAS DAMAGED IN THE HOUSE OVER THE LAST YEAR. HE'S NEVER BEEN WILLING TO DISCUSS REAL SOLUTIONS. HE WOULD TEXT FREQUENTLY THREATENING US WITH SMALL CLAIMS COURT BUT WOULD NEVER DISCUSS REAL SOLUTION.S WE'VE ALREADY HAD TO PAY ANOTHER CONTRACTOR THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO FIX HIS WORK (STUFF THAT WAS WRONGLY DONE THAT WASN'T EVEN ON HIS STUPID PUNCHLIST). ULTIMATELY, THE *** WAS INCOMPLETE AND THERE WERE SEVERAL INSTANCES OF DAMAGE TO OUR PROPERTY THAT WE'VE SINCE HAD TO FIX ON OUR OWN AND/OR HIRE SOMEONE TO FIX OVER THE LAST YEAR. WE DO NOT OWE A BALANCE WHEN THE *** WAS NOT COMPLETED AND THE WORK WAS NOT DONE PROPERLY IN THE FIRST PLACE. THE AMOUNT OF STRESS AND ANXIETY THAT **** HAS CAUSED OUR ENTIRE FAMILY IS UNNECESSARY, UNPROFESSIONAL AND I WILL CONTINUE TO PROVIDE AS A NEGATIVE REFERENCE FOR THIS COMPANY.
Sincerely,
***********************
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