ComplaintsforDelaware Plumbing Professionals

• Initial Complaint

  01/18/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I hired Delaware Plumbing Professionals (DPP) for a sewage line repair. Three days after their repair, it started raining. Water from their failed repair flooded my basement. The damage was extensive & required professional water remediation and restoration services. A week of industrial fans and dehumidifiers, ServPro’s moisture readings continued to show high levels of moisture. Newly installed carpet and padding had to be completely torn up and removed. New furniture, pillows and linens, never used camping gear, & decor items were a total loss. By the time DPP was able to get out to our house the results of their work was devastating. They told us that the water would continue leaking into the basement until the ground dried out, which our tech said would be at least a week. There was no attempt to try to mitigate damage, divert water, or to show any empathy. We had to dump a shop vac which ran 24/7, every hour in order to keep up with the water coming in. The room was completely destroyed. Multiple calls to the manager, George Keenan, went unanswered and when I was finally reached him, his attitude and demeanor was so dismissive and unprofessional, I was frankly shocked. We spent $5k with DPP and their work resulted in what was described by another plumber as a “catastrophic leak” that flooded my house. A forensic engineer from the highly respected Plick and Associates found “the cement installed by Delaware Plumping Professionals was compromised of weak material and was not properly installed”. He concluded that the “Groundwater infiltrated the basement of the residence as a result of a reported defective/deficient cementitious mortar seal at the subject pipe penetration that was installed by Delaware Plumbing Professionals.” All advised us to refrain from letting DPP attempt to repair their failures as the risk of a significantly worse outcome was too high. We had to hire another company to repair the chaos and mess Delaware Plumbing Professionals caused.

  

  Business response

  03/29/2023

  Numerous attempts at negotiations with Ms. ****** have failed. There appears to be no amicable solution. 

  Customer response

  03/30/2023

  Better Business Bureau: I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to my complaint and have determined that this does not resolve my  issue.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. **In order for the bureau to continue to assist you, you MUST provide your view on the matter or your complaint will be closed as answered. I just spoke to a wonderfully helpful person at the BBB about adding the reason I reject the business's response of "Numerous attempts at negotiations with Ms. ****** have failed. There appears to be no amicable solution." I did not see the box to do so before hitting submit. I reject this because it's not true. At all. That statement is a lie. This company has both my phone number and my husband's, as well as our emails. If "numerous attempts" were made, as they claim, surely we'd have some record of such attempts. I have provided my attempts at reaching them - I'd welcome them doing the same and encourage them to provide the BBB with their current and ongoing attempts to prevent our bank from refunding us as they also found Delaware Plumbing Professionals at fault. I'd like to add that this company charges $200 as a membership fee on their invoices - there is not opting out, nor something we asked for. If Mr. ****** would like to discuss refunding me, as 4 separate and independent licensed businesses have now found Delaware Plumbing Professionals to be at fault, I am ready and waiting.The irony of claiming in all ads and promos to provide superior customer service and then destroying someone's home, causing lost wages and months of headache dealing with a mess they created, and leaving us in a place where we'll have to disclose the leak on future home sales and potentially take a loss there AND YET STILL, refusing to refund us, is not lost on us. I'd like this claim updated so future customers can see what lengths this company will go to to avoid doing the right thing and refunding us. If this is superior customer service, potential new customers should know and I greatly appreciate the BBB for giving a platform to consumers like me. Delaware Plumbing Professionals, please do the right thing and refund our money so we can both move on. Thank you in advance, Regards, Complaint ID: 18830140      

  

  Business response

  04/05/2023

  This project entailed cutting out a section of sewer line and replacing it from inside the house to the outside. In doing this, it was necessary to open the penetration through the foundation and proceed to reseal the penetration upon completion. The plumbing work was completed and no claim has ever made that our work is improper in any way as far as the plumbing is concerned. When the customer called in to tell us about the leak, we responded with a technician to the home to get a report of what was going on and what was needed. It was discovered then (and discussed with the customer) that the penetration was not sealed properly and we would need to reseal it once the ground dried out as there had recently been a substantial mount of rain. In the meantime, we hired a restoration company at our expense to go out to the home and restore the damages to the customer's home from the water intrusion. Before we were able to return to the customer's home, the customer called in and informed us she did not want us to repair the penetration and would rather have another company out. In this way, the customer denied our attempt to rectify the one problem from the project and is now attempting to deny us all funds from this job under the justification that we did not fulfill our contract and did not attempt to remedy the problem. The representative of the customer also states "Our customer has no benefit from this charge." This either an outright lie or the representative is simply ignorant as to the true timeline of events in this dispute. The customer is still to this day utilizing the sewer we repaired without any problem and we would have sealed the foundation to prevent any further groundwater intrusion, had the customer allowed us. Please read carefully through all the supplied documentation in which the merchant company found us to be without liable toward this customer as the job was completed and the only further expense the customer incurred was due to her insistence that she hire another company out instead of letting us rectify the mistake. 

• Initial Complaint

  01/05/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On November 9, 2022, I hired Delaware Plumbing Professionals to replace a broken sewer line. After the work was completed, my yard was left so damaged that every time it rains, the yard becomes a swamp with a stench of sewage. Additionally, the company removed a piece of sidewalk to install the new pipe. When replacing the piece of sidewalk, the company failed to put adequate dirt underneath for it to be leveled with the remainder of the sidewalk. This puts me in a clear liability situation that should someone trip over the sidewalk, I would be held liable. I contacted the company and was told there is nothing they could do. They just don't care.

  

  Business response

  01/11/2023

  I am sorry to hear that we fell short of your expectations.  We would like the opportunity to further discuss matters; please give us a call at 302-832-1111.

  Customer response

  03/15/2023

  Better Business Bureau: I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to my complaint and have determined that this does not resolve my  issue.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. **In order for the bureau to continue to assist you, you MUST provide your view on the matter or your complaint will be closed as answered. previously filed a complaint against Delaware Plumbing Professionals ("DPP") on January 5, 2023. On November 10, 2022 ("DPP") replaced a sewer line in my front yard. My yard was completely destroyed. Additionally, this company left my sidewalk in a very dangerous condition. On January 11, 2022 I received a call from "******" at DPP. This individual was rude, condescending, disrespectful and unprofessional. He laughed through the brief conversation and offered no resolutions. He repeatedly insinuated the job was completed, which is a blatant misrepresentation. My yard did not look the way it does now prior to the line replacement. The sidewalk was even and not in a hazardous condition. ("DPP") needs to make the repairs to my yard and sidewalk. I will continue with my complaints against this company until a resolution is reached. Ignoring me is not a resolution.Desired Resolution:Finish the Job Regards, Complaint ID: 18690861      

  

  Business response

  03/29/2023

  Numerous attempts at negotiations with Ms. ******** have failed. There appears to be no amicable solution. 

• Initial Complaint

  05/08/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We had these guys install brand new sewer pipes in our house - new stack, new plumbing feeding the stack, and new line outside to the street. They used 3/8 PVC instead of 1/2 standard size for the drain pipes. Here’s my real problems with them. We experienced MAJOR FLOODING as a result of their work. We had them rough the concrete and plumb for a new shower in our basement as well - the hole was NOT filled in properly with concrete. I ask on site if that was a flooding concern, and was told no. Fast forward to 3 months later when the ground thawed out (job in January, now April) and we had heavy rain - we had a CREEK in our basement. Over 1,000 gallons of water in a day. We filled in the hole ourselves to quick stop the issue - now water is flooding through ONLY where they put in new concrete. Front office management’s only solution for me was to jackhammer and redo the concrete with the exact same material - we said no. I was told there was nothing they could do monetarily to help close the issue. Here’s some other issues we had with the work. 1. We had to call them back out to fix a leaky pipe 2 days after install - guy told us that they were rushed on install day. They did this job free of charge. 2. They didn’t leave an access point for my kitchen sink plumbing as we had discussed prior - this meant more work for me, as I didn’t want to delay my own projects an additional several days for another person from the company to fix the mishap. Overall, despite the great HR staff they have and good communication which impressed us, the work itself left MUCH to be desired, with a real flooding issue. We are now having a different company install a sump pump drainage system, which is costly but needed as we cannot have our basement continue flooding every time it rains. There is no clear evidence there was flooding prior to the new sewer pipe install.

  

  Business response

  05/26/2022

  Delaware Plumbing Professionals stands behind our work.  While we are sorry for what Mr.**** has endured we did speak with him directly and believe all issues were resolved.

  Customer response

  05/31/2022

  Better Business Bureau:

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to my complaint and have determined that this does not resolve my  issue.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

  **In order for the bureau to continue to assist you, you MUST provide your view on the matter or your complaint will be closed as answered.
  
  From my point of view, the matter was not resolved when I spoke to company management. As I noted, they did say they’d offered to re-do the concrete, but that was the only solution - no monetary offer was made to rectify flooding damages, or the cost of the sump pump that we had to put into place. I noted that the fix for this needed to be a true fix, not a guesswork of re-concreting. Now that I’ve had a sump pump put into place, I was informed by the foreman of that job that the concrete laid by Delaware Plumbing Professionals was thin, and not laid thickly enough to prevent water - which is contrary to what management told me twice. I cannot see how this could be seen as acceptable. We’ve had items damaged, and multiple days of our own time and labor spent pumping water out of a flooded basement due to the oversight made on this job. My hope for resolution is a monetary one - for a $10,000 sump pump to be needed, and many personal hours and time off work to rectify a flooded basement, I don’t see another solution I’d be satisfied with.

  
  
  
  Regards,

  Complaint ID: 17179522

   

   

   

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