How to get a company to fix their mistake?

May 30, 2007 4:21 PM

New shower installation botched, but the installers don't seem interested in repairing it. Next action?

My mother recently decided to have her bathroom completely remodeled (new floor, paint, shower, etc.). She hired a semi-retired former home builder to do the job. The only thing he didn't do himself was replace the shower. He had another company put in a marble shower when he was ready. He then finished the bathroom. She was happy with everything he did.

A few weeks later mold was appearing under the shower caulking where it couldn't be cleaned. I told her this wasn't normal. She called the original guy who did the work and he said to call the marble company. She did, they came out, and after a discussion told my mother that they fixed the mold, but that the shower hadn't been installed right and would have to be completely redone (I wasn't there, not sure exactly what the problem is). They said they'd call my mother back during the week to set up a time to do the work.

The call never came. My mother has called every other week asking when they will do the work. Each time they've said they would call in a few days. Each time, no call. It's now been 2 months since they first said they needed to replace the shower, and it hasn't been replaced. They never call back. She has kept detailed records of all communication.

I really feel they're giving her the run-a-round because she's female. I would love to help her at this point but am not sure how. I want to take a ride to the marble company and start throwing things, but I know that's not the answer.

What is the best course of action? Call the original guy, since he's the one all money was paid to, and ask him to take care of this? Go down to the marble company and threaten legal action?

I'm ready to get involved and help, but I'd like to do the right thing. Any thoughts?

posted by justgary to work & money (7 comments total)

I would have her call the original guy, threaten him with legal action unless he dealt with his sub-contractors, then call the marble people and tell them the same thing - if he throws any amount of business their way, they will want to correct this before their referrer starts referring to someone else.

I would also have her send a certified letter to both parties stating the facts (timelines, payment details, etc.), cc'ing a local attorney that she finds in the phone book dealing with product liability or something similar (she doesn't really have to send them a letter, but make sure that it looks like she is all ready to go with them).

Have her give them a date to reply directly to her with their decision to correct the errors.

She could also specify that if she doesn't hear from them within that time frame, that she will get additional quotes from other firms to repair the work and will be billing them the average.
posted by blackkar at 4:36 PM on May 30, 2007

We got hosed by home depot's at-home services and I definitely got the runaround due to being female. Women give up easy and shady contractors know it. I ended up writing up the facts of the case for my husband (since I was the one who'd arranged the work originally). He just called and made demands repeatedly in his manly basso voice, and eventually they fixed it. It also helped that we had paid using Visa and they allowed us to cancel payment based on the work being defective. I think you could help by being the manly man who makes the calls. Sound angry, threaten legal action, all that stupid stuff. It actually works. Small claims court is actually shockingly easy as well. Just making it look like you are serious about filing a claim may well force them to do what they should. Persistance pays.
posted by selfmedicating at 4:42 PM on May 30, 2007

Also, be sure to ask them questions that pin them down on their stance on the issue. "Are you refusing to finish the job?" "Have you used this subcontractor before?" "How long will it be before I hear back?"...things like that, like if you've ever had to put an employee on a short leash.

Consider recording the calls (telling them so, of course).
posted by rhizome at 5:10 PM on May 30, 2007

selfmedicating: you're not the only person who hates Home Depot's subcontractors. Consumerist has a long archive of articles about shoddy work done by them.
posted by mrbill at 5:27 PM on May 30, 2007

I find this absolutely infuriating.

You've gotten good advice already about how to handle it. Frankly, if my finances were in good shape I would be modifying blackkar's advice slightly to try and get them into court. It sounds like your mother has a lot of leverage and mold can be very expensive to fix. I hope she has been photographing the shower regularly. If not, start now.

If one or both of them doesn't come around on this quickly you could well end up breaking them on this. Of course by the time it's all over with the house could be destroyed by the mold...

IANAL

Follow the savvy advice. Still, I would be sorely tempted here. Anyone who works in bathrooms knows the consequences of mold. Make sure the house is free of mold before the marble goes back up.

Hmmm. Considering that it has been two months, I probably wouldn't just be satisfied with it getting 'fixed'. Read a little bit about mold before you decide on how they can make it right.
posted by BigSky at 6:46 PM on May 30, 2007

(Another person jerked around by Home Depot. I'll never deal with them again. They broke and attempted to break so many state laws because they thought I didn't know better or I wouldn't call them on it. Hah. That's for another time.)

With my bad experiences with contractors, uh lately, I had the leverage of holding the job balance over their head. I didn't pay until things were fixed. I did a lot of homework too.

Gary, get involved on your mother's behalf.

Couple things right off the top. Call her local Attorney General's office. Ask them about advice on dealing with contractors in this instance. Tell them what's going on -- they're going to have advice on how you should proceed. If your attempts to resolve it fail, they likely have an entire process where they'll go after the contractor on your behalf, investigating your claim and their negligence. (By the way, take lots of photos of the area where you're having troubles. Document every contact made -- time, who you spoke with, date, etc. Work with your mom to do a timeline on past contacts to the repairman and the marble company.) Google local state laws on the matter. Find out what her rights are as a consumer. In all likelihood, there are going to be Consumer Rights in regards to contractors. Massachusetts, for instance, had an entire PDF pamphlet on the matter, plus a website and pages upon pages of laws. You might even want to check out the Better Business Bureau to see if they have a listing or if there have been problems with them in the past.

Check out more about mold. You might want to call other bathroom contractors and ask about the issue -- if the mold can lead to other problems, etc.

Go down to the marble company that keeps brushing her off with the promises of call backs. Schedule an appointment to make the repair while you're there. Contact the original contractor as well. In both discussions, keep a cool head, but let it be known that you're severely displeased that it's gotten to this point where you have to be involved now because her calls have been unreturned and her concerns have been neglected.

In these conversations you can mention that you've made initial contact with the state AG's office in regards to handling this complaint. Something along the lines of "We really don't want to get the AG, the Better Business Bureau or lawyers involved if we don't have to... As you know, mold can be ridiculously damaging to a home, not to mention a person's health. Time is of the essence here. We'd prefer you settle this with us directly, appropriately and in a very timely matter before we have to seek out other routes of resolution."
posted by jerseygirl at 7:07 PM on May 30, 2007

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'll be emailing you soon jerseygirl.
posted by justgary at 10:01 PM on May 31, 2007