ComplaintsforPST Renovation

• Initial Complaint

  12/13/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We agreed to pay *********************** (owner of PST Renovations) $735 to complete a list of various tasks around our house. He required $260 to get started, so we paid him on Dec. 7 with the understanding he would start work the next day. He ended up not coming on the 8th or 9th with various excuses as to why he couldnt come hours after he was supposed to be there. He finally showed up on Dec 10 and sent his employee (who had been hired the day before) to repair a leak in our shower with very little supervision. The employee did a horrible job leaving globs of caulk along the metal frame of the shower, making a mess of many other areas and not fully sealing cracks along the base of the shower. The shower is still leaking and nozzle is now at an angle whereas it was previously straight. When turning the water off, either ***** or his employee also caused a leak in our hot water heater that lead to water damage in our utility closet. During their time here, ***** did start power washing the side of our house but in doing so removed paint from our siding that now has to be replaced. None of the other items on the contract were attempted before we asked him to cease working.

  Business response

  01/10/2022

  I am responding to the letter I received from you regarding the above complaint. The details reported to you are not accurate. This customer also filed a grievance with Thumbtack, who I advertise through, and their decision was that no money needed to be refunded. I have enclosed copies of the email communication for you to see.

  The agreement to do the various tasks around the home was made with ****************** and the first day that we went to the home to start no one came to the door. Upon calling ****************** he simply states, "oh she must be in the backyard'. The employee that is referred to was not hired the day before. He has worked with us on several occasions, and we have known him for several years. The first task completed was the shower. After it was completed, we asked for them to inspect in which he did and then said, "everything looks good." The water heater was not messed with, however there was a problem with it and had been for a long time for the drip pan was full and there was rat f**** everywhere behind it. The side of the house was power washed, but no damage was done to the trim. We did have to leave to get materials and when we were on the way back, we received a text stating not to come back because their schedule could not be disrupted. The next morning, we received another text demanding their money back and threatening to write a bad review if we did not refund the down payment. We did nothing wrong and if there had been something not right it would have been before the job was complete had we been given the opportunity to complete the job.

  No refund was given due to the cost of the job had already taken up all the down payment. As a matter of fact, we took a loss on the job. I sent copies of the receipts and a breakdown of the cost to Thumbtack and will be happy to forward copies to you should you need them.

  Respectfully

  *******************

  ***********************

  PST Renovations

  Customer response

  01/11/2022

  Complaint: 16355990
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  
  

  OVERVIEW: Generally, we would be content to just let this go, as Thumbtack has already refunded us the full amount that we paid PST on their behalf (We are however still out the $210 in repairs for the damage PST caused just to make our shower usable. More repairs are still needed).  Whats prompting us to share this is PSTs insistence on lying.  It seems they just cant take responsibility for what they did, as their response focuses on nitpicky, minor details but overlooks the meat of the matter.  So, here is our rebuttal to their rebuttal:

  1.       They claim that Thumbtacks decision was that no money needed to be refunded.  See attached:  They refunded us the full $260.  We expect that, having tried to deal with PST, Thumbtack realized very quickly that PST wasnt interested in refunding the money or taking any accountability.  Thumbtack just ate the money on their behalf.  But thats quite different than concluding that we werent owed a refund.  Companies like Thumbtack dont shell out $260 to people like us unless the evidence is overwhelming.

  2.       ***** with PST claims we werent at the house on the first day they came by.  See attached email.  On 12/7, he said: OK I dont think Ill be finished with this job Im doing right now with enough time to come today and start on anything but I would like to stop by when I do finish here to*do several things to prepare for the job*   I responded that wed be there until 5pm, which we were.  He didnt give us a time that hed be by, and he wasnt aiming to start the job that day.  He claims to have the rang the **** twicemy wife was home all afternoon.  I offered that maybe she was in the backyard with the kids, which---maybe she was.  But, its not like we didnt show when hed given us a concrete time to begin the work.  If you expect us to sit by the door because you might stop by when you finish a job, thats not reasonable.  And, as I saidmy wife was home all afternoon.

  3.       ***** refutes our claim that the man he hired to do the work was hired the day before.  Primarily: this doesnt matter one way or another, he still destroyed our shower.  But see the attached text in which ***** says I cant get my guys to come work I have a guy I hired today and Im having him meet me there tomorrow so we can get everything knocked out.  Later, when we questioned him about why the water heater was leaking, he texted and said Im trying to get ahold of the guy who helped me and ask him if he did anything.  I suppose this doesnt prove anything, but it doesnt seem like a colleague youve worked with a lot.  Most importantly though, if this is someone hes worked with before, that just makes the matter considerably worse.  If one of his trusted associates wrecked our shower, what does that say about the quality of people hes comfortable working with? 

  4.       He claims we were asked to inspect the shower after the work was done.  I did go up to look at the caulking, and I did notice that the leak had stopped at that time. However, they didnt tell me the water was still off.  Immediately when they turned the water back on and the shower was flooded with water because they had neglected to turn the shower off.  I had maybe 15 seconds to look at it before this happened.  I had to scramble to turn it off so that the caulkwhich they said to let dry for ***** hours--wouldnt be ruined.  I did notice that the angle of the shower nozzle was awry when I turned it off, but I suspected this might be something that could be easily corrected when I had more time to look at it.  But I was not comfortable with how it felt, and not comfortable with the fact that they had just doused the drying shower with water.  This absolutely factored into our decision to terminate them in the middle of the job, and our instincts were certainly correct.

  5.       He claims in his rebuttal that the water heater was not messed with.  In the text Ive already referenced, he claimed he was trying to get ahold of the guy he had worked with to see if he did anything to the water heater.  He doesnt know what was or wasnt done to it, but I can guarantee you the pan in the bottom of it wasnt half full of water when I initially showed him where the water heater was.  I can agree, logically, that nothing they shouldve done wouldve caused a leak.  But it did.  When we hired a real plumber to come and fix the damage to the shower, he didnt do anything to the water heater.  We only showed it to him so he could stop the leak PST caused.  Otherwise, he was able to perform the maintenance on the shower without accessing it at all.  Againthey had no clue what they were doing.

  6.       ***** points out there was rat f**** in the closet where the water heater is.  We did have a ***** problem over the summer, and I think those are the droppings hes referencing. Im not claiming it was nice and clean in there before they arrived, but what bearing does some p*** in the corner have on anything at all?  If we were really alleging damages that they hadnt caused, Im not sure why theyd take the time to mention that our utilities closet was dirty when he opened the door.  

  7.       What ***** did not address in his rebuttal were the actual reasons he was fired.  Showing up late time after time, doing little work when present, and badly damaging our shower.  Theyre not denying that happened, despite those issues being the centerpiece of the complaint.  The attached invoice shows what we had to pay to fix their damage.  If they DID NOTHING WRONG, as their rebuttal claims, they must think we went up and twisted the copper pipes in our shower at a 45 degree angle just to make them look bad.  While the plumber repaired it to a point that it could be used, he recommended full replacement.  Well have to do that eventually, and itll be far more than the $260 we were refunded and the $210 we had to pay to make our shower usable again.

  8.       And, a final comment on PSTs character.  We asked multiple times for them to provide us with a refund.  We also filed our initial complaint with the BBB on Dec 13.  Isnt it interesting that ***** didnt bother replying to the complaint until January 9^th, one day after our complaint went public on their site.  We also noticed that after posting our review on Thumbtack on Dec 12, suddenly a couple of other, much shorter reviews popped up from other customers, as if to refute our claims.  Im guessing that wasnt spontaneous, but rather engineered by PST.  I know this kind of thing happens all the time on those sorts of websites, but it says a lot about their lack of integrity.  Theyve not once apologized for any of this.  

  In closing, we understand that sometimes things dont go well when you work with contractors.  Sometimes projects go wrong, sometimes damage happens, sometimes schedules arent adhered to.  We were at a point where we were willing to cut our losses and move on without filing any reports or asking for any money back.  I even told them no hard feelings.  But that was before we discovered the extent of the damages.  Their refusal to take accountability and their attempts to deny what was clearly provable when reviewing emails, texts, and photographs is what prompted us to so aggressively file these reports.  Theyre not ethical people, and potential customers should know that before they do business with them.

  
  Regards,

  
  Trent and ******** Terrell 

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩