ComplaintsforHarvey Contractor LLC

• Initial Complaint

  04/24/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My home warranty company (***) sent Harvey's Contractor LLC on 4/20/22 to repair a leak in the middle of our kitchen ceiling, The water was dripping through and had created a small hole in the ceiling. As soon as he walked in he saw that our ceiling was plaster and said that was a problem as *** would not allow him to access behind plaster. I immediately brought my contract up on PC, the word plaster is nowhere in the contract; we called the company and got disconnected while on hold with first tech who was elevating the call to a level 2 employee. He insisted that if he called them they would deny the claim because the leak was behind plaster. This made no sense to us as our entire house is plaster and we have had this home warranty for 5 years now. He became angry at me for being so insistent and then went upstairs to our bathroom and insisted that it was caulking that was causing the issues. We were pretty sure this wasn't the case as it did not make sense in relation to the location and frequency of the leak. He was so angry and stormed up the stairs, running our water for a good period of time. He then came down and went to our CUPBOARDS in the kitchen and grabbed a bowl out of the sink and asked if we knew that we had a leak in our CUPBOARDS?? We did NOT have a leak in our cupboards prior to him pouring water through our heater upstairs!! We responded that we NEVER had a leak in our cupboard and pointed out that all of the items that were in the cupboard were in pristine condition; not water damaged, which he acknowledged and said he "got the bathroom really good". He said this should just leak a few more minutes and LEFT!! We have a built-in microwave under those cupboards and we realized the water coming through there was getting worse; he sure did get us good! Our ceiling over that area is damaged; the insulation in wall is wet and our microwave is damaged; not to mention ORIGINAL LEAK NOT FIXED!

  Business response

  04/29/2022

  Our Company was dispatched by ******** **** ****** dispatch #********* for ********** *************** *************************** Harrisburg Pennsylvania ********* on April 17, 2022 for leaks.
  
  Our office called the *******s to schedule an appointment on April 20, 2022 between 11:30 am and 2:30 pm.  Our tech arrived at approximately 10:56 am per our records.
  
  Our tech noted a small hole in kitchen ceiling which was created by the homeowner. Complaint was that water will drip out of this hole while someone is taking a shower. Our tech instructed homeowner that ******** **** ****** does not cover access through a plaster ceiling per their contracts. Harvey Contractors has been with ******** **** ****** since 2012. Not once has ******** **** ****** instructed Harvey Contractors to open a plaster ceiling at the expense of ******** **** ******. Harvey Contractors instructed the *******s that the plaster ceiling would have to be opened by others contracted by the *******s as the warranty would not pay for access through plaster. Harvey Contractors does not perform any work related to the removal of plaster. Homeowner pulled up her contract on her computer and stated that she could not find the word plaster in her contract. Harvey Contractors does not have access to contract details. Homeowner proceeded to call ******** **** ******and they told her the warranty does provide access but did not specify through which materials they provide access and said that Harvey Contractors did not want to make access.
  
  Harvey Contractors tech never raised his voice to the homeowner. Homeowner was very angry and screaming at our tech. Our tech asked homeowner if she could lower her voice at him and said I am just trying to help solve your leak. Harvey Contractors tech proceeded to go upstairs to the bathroom and ran water from the shower and was unable to duplicate a leak. As per normal proceedure Harvey Contractors tech used the shower head to angle water toward the shower faucet and diverter spout to see if water would get behind fixtures and shower walls since there was no caulk present around the fixtures.
  
  After applying water directly to fixtures like when someone is in the shower, water did leak down and came out above cabinets. As soon as water was seen the water supply was shut off. Our tech advised homeowners that the fixtures in the shower needed to be caulked. Homeowner disagreed. Harvey Contractors tech told homeowners that if the fixtures were not caulked water will still leak down when someone takes a shower. Nothing was leaking when Harvey Contractors left the property. If cupboards and the microwave have problems its due to the original leak making its way to various areas traveling along pipes and such.
  
  Harvey Contractors did not caulk the fixtures because American Home Shield does not cover caulking per their contracts and homeowner stated that they will caulk the fixtures themselves.
  
  In closing we would like to say we tried to perform a plummbing service to the best of our abilities. We did not cause damage to property as there was already damage to the ceiling from a water leak issue as this is what we were called out to investigate.
  

  
  

  Business response

  05/16/2022

  We never ran any water between the shower and a heater. We ran showerhead water against the wall of the shower where the shower faucet is located and found that since it was not cauked around the fixture it leaked into the ceiling only during testing. We only run water for 3-5 minutes and this would not have caused damage  she is claiming however continual shower usage without the fixture caulked would definately  cause water to leaki down into the ceiling over an extended period of time. Once water was turned off the leaking stopped. In the ceiling where there was already a hole we advised the homeowner that her warranty does not cover for us to access through plaster of any kind which homeowner stated whole house was plaster ceilings and walls. Once homeowner made access we would have come back through the warranty to repair any leak found at no cost to homeowner since the warranty would cover. Homeowner chose not to make access and call  an outside the warranty contractor at her expense to repair the leak. As stated before there was a leak that had been leaking for an unknown time causing damage to kitchen ceiling hince her intial call to the warranty. As stated previously our Tech Kyle did not raise his voice with the exception of telling the homeowner to stop yelling at him.

  Homeowner stated her warranty company had reached to us several times with no response. The warranty never called or emailed Harvey Contractors regarding this issue. Typically with the warranty during complaints such as this they would refer them to call contractor directly which was never done. For further investigation we are turning this over to our insurance company. We still feel we were at no fault during this service visit.

  Customer response

  05/17/2022

  [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
  
   Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  

  In reply, we are not aware of who the “we” is in their response.  There was ONE person here; Kyle, let’s clear that up from the start.  ALL of the hardware in the bathtub had caulking and/or gaskets, located behind it.  Of course Kyle wasn’t aware of that because, as previously stated, he never removed the hardware.  A REAL plumber did and confirmed this.  The damage that we have evidenced and Kyle saw for himself was caused by him flushing water outside of the bathtub beside our baseboard heater; TWO certified plumbers can BOTH attest to this fact, as can the home mitigation company that had to come to run fans and dehumidifiers in our home to dry out the damage. 
  
  That is a straight up lie that “once the water was turned off the leaking stopped”.  Kyle turned off the water upstairs, ran downstairs and grabbed a bowl out of our sink and was trying to catch the water that was running down through the cupboards; NOT WHAT WE HAD CALLED THEM FOR, MIND YOU! We called for the leak in the copper pipe in the middle of our kitchen ceiling, as evidenced in the first complaint initially filed.  There was, and still is, no leak from our shower!!!!  The copper pipe that was leaking was in the middle of the kitchen ceiling.  It was a cold water pipe and we have sent the pictures.  Kyle is the one that told us it was plaster and I (the homeowner said that if my ceiling was plaster then my entire house was plaster and that’s where he and I got into a back and forth and he got angry and I called the home warranty company).  For the record, our entire house is DRYWALL.  Surely, an experienced contractor should know this as we’ve already stated.  We were only going on HIS word and again, we believe this was his ”out” so that he did not have to replace the small section of pipe that we called about to begin with!  We never called about “shower issues” or leaks where he caused the problem.  To this day there are no issues where Kyle flooded our cupboards and ruined our microwave so how does he explain this????  How does he explain all of that damage when the only repair made was the ORIGINAL REPAIR THAT WE SENT THE PICTURES AND RECEIPT FOR???  It was a pinhole leak in a small section of copper pipe.
  
  After Kyle left, in real time when we saw all of the water continue to pour through our cupboards and microwave, we had the home warranty company ON THE PHONE while they tried to contact Harvey’s Contractors to have a senior tech address this problem, to no avail.  They said they left a message for them to contact us WITHIN 24 HOURS!!!   There was no way we were going to contact Harvey’s; we had no contract with them and surely did not want them back in our home after all of the damage they had done and the behavior of Kyle while in our house.
  
  We are not sure why Harvey’s is handing this over to THEIR insurance company since this is merely us contacting the BBB to warn others about their incompetence and behavior.  However, our insurance has probably contacted them by now, so that point is moot.  We want this complaint lodged against them and their rating so other homeowners don’t go through such an expensive lesson.
  
  Regards,
  
  ***** *******

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