Complaints

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  Tri-State Restoration Services

  4278 Hillside Ave Cincinnati, OH 45204-1022

  
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  Tri-State Restoration Services

  5838 State Route 128 Cleves, OH 45002-9529

  

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. 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.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/30/2022

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I needed a ceiling repair and my contractor, ******* M, said to do it right it needed to be framed/secured/attached. He didn't have a crew, so I called Tri-State because I trusted them. I said if the cost was over $2000 a USAA claim was approved. *** texted me on 12/2/21: "As you know it's not a typical repair with the additional framing and extra drywall we will need to remove. 1st day 2 guys will need to fix & frame out flush so repair is secure, there are multiple layers of drywall and nothing to secure too... 3 trips including framing and drywall materials brings cost to $1,500." This was what ******* said so I authorized the work.
  
  *** told me when they were done and I paid $1500. The repair failed CMHA inspection immediately after that. I called *** and he said he knew why it failed and that his crew just wanted to be done and get out. I had a renter and had told *** to let me know if there were any issues. Apparently there were, but no one told me and instead they just did an incomplete job and charged me anyway. *** guaranteed he would make it right and agreed to wait until the house was vacant.
  
  After the job was done the second time, ******* noticed nail pops. He ran a level across the ceiling and the repair was about 2" lower than the rest of the ceiling. I contacted *** and again he said he'd make it right. He didn't show at our meeting and instead sent his employee who had done the work (****). I called *** to see if he was coming and he said he was on vacation. He was very rude, told me he'd refund my money, and hung up on me. **** said he was told only to patch the ceiling and there wasn't any framing, securing, or attaching. **** said he'd talk to *** and they would call me. I never heard back and when I contacted *** he told me he wasn't refunding my money and then said he would, but he hasn't done so. I already paid *** $1500 and now I have to pay my $2000 deductible for the repair to be done correctly by another contractor.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/31/2022

  I have all conversations on recording, I bid to do repair a small damaged spot see photos she sent for repair, not one photo of entire ceiling like she wants done only on damaged spot in kitchen.

  The ceiling has multiple layers of drywall and was approx. 4ft x 4ft repair (see photos) . NO way could I remove 3 layers of drywall throughout entire house and reframe  living and kitchen area for $1,500. Her dining room along at her house cost $8,926.11 Not sure why she is trying to get me to do entire ceiling a it was never mentioned, it's a mis communication on her part.

   I would of had to fame out the entire ceiling on first floor a its a continuous ceiling would have been over 500 sq. ft of work. We thought we may need to frame out the damaged area to get flush with ceiling because of the thickness and multiple layers of ceiling, she mentioned it's a small job on recording, what she wants done NOW is an entire house, she need to call her insurance and make a claim, it will be denied because the entire ceiling is wavy and has miscellaneous cracks from having 3 layers 1 plaster on the ceiling. .  I just her dining room 12 x 15 room at her residence for $8,926.11, how could I do a job 5x bigger for $1,500, it's common sense . I have her saying she is not sure if it can be an insurance claim, if she wants entire ceiling done get the insurance involved as that repair would be over $15,000 based on  square footage from pervious ceiling fix in her dining room. 

   

  Her maintenance man has zero to do with our conversations, he told Mrs. ***** the roof we repaired was not complete, the reason he had no idea what we were paid to do. If Ms. Urner not happy with repair then Mrs. Urner can go ahead and make a claim with USAA.

   

  The September 28th conversation is identical to her new complaint, we had contractor fixed roof on garage, maintenance man said it was still wavey, yes it was still wavey because once again we were only paid to fix one spot not entire roof for few hundred dollars. The maintenance man complains about others work that he cant do and feels threatened and has no ideal of what we were paid to do and hsould not be involved.

   

  I'll take a loss on her job, even though she only wanted the hole repaired and now it's the entire ceiling.  On the repair I will give her back $500 to go towards her deductible as she need to claim this entire ceiling, no one can fix it for $1,500,. it's not practical,  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/13/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ** ********* and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, reasons for rejection are included below.
  
  
  Regards,
  
  
  **** *****

   

  I'm not sure why *** is having such a difficult time
  understanding this, so I’m going to repeat much of what I’ve already said and
  written and perhaps that will make it clear.
  
  ***** $1,500 bid was in a text (submitted in my attachments)
  and was as follows: “It’s not a typical repair with the additional framing and
  extra drywall we will need to remove. 1st day 2 guys will need to
  fix & frame out flush so repair is secure, there are multiple layers of
  drywall and nothing to secure too. The job will take 3 trips total.  I think $500 x 3 trips including framing and
  drywall materials brings cost to $1,500.” 
  
  I was comfortable with the bid because it mentioned FRAMING
  and SECURING.  This is what my trusted
  contractor, ******** had said would need to occur for the job to be done correctly,
  but he couldn’t do it because it’s a two-person job and his partner was unavailable. 
  *** continues to belittle ******* and refers to him as just a maintenance man, but *******
  has had his own successful contracting business for over 40 years and knows what
  he is doing.
  
  *** keeps bringing up a previous job that he did for me at
  my personal home.  Frankly that shouldn’t
  even be a part of this conversation, but now I’ll need to address it.  Last July, my insurance company ended up paying
  for my entire dining room ceiling to be torn out and replaced due to water damage
  that only occurred in a small area because they wanted the job to be done
  right.  *** is aware of my insurance
  coverage because he did the rebuild of that ceiling for me.  In this case, he could have said that it
  looked like we were in a similar situation and that to make the repair properly
  so that it would hold, the whole ceiling was going to need to be redone.  Yes, it would have been a more extensive (and
  expensive) job, but he could have submitted a revised bid to my insurance company
  and it would have been approved.  I know
  this because they did it on my personal home and have now already approved a
  full ceiling tear-out and rebuild on this home (which is already underway with
  a reputable and professional company).
  
  Instead, *** chose to simply PATCH the area without doing
  any of the additional framing, removing extra drywall, or securing anything (even
  though those were all included in his bid).  The cost of the bid wasn’t what was important to me—it was the way the work
  was going to be done that mattered.  At this
  point, I’ve paid $1,500 for a repair that wasn’t done correctly and was sinking
  almost 2” lower than the rest of my ceiling (pictures were submitted).  *** claims that it’s level, but he only ran
  his level across the PATCHED area and not where it joined the surrounding
  ceiling. 
  
  *** wants to cloud the issue by bringing up CMHA, prior
  repairs at other properties, disparaging my contractor, and complaining about
  the renter (even though he clearly states it’s not relevant).  *** thinks in trying to make me look bad,
  that he’ll look better.  I wish I could
  just stick to the facts of this complaint, but I feel that I need to address some
  of the things *** has thrown into the mix so that I will be taken seriously be
  anyone who is reading this complaint.
  
  As for my renter, I had told *** that he was an older gentleman
  who was unreachable by phone so I wouldn’t be able to let him know when ***’s
  crew would be working.  I had already
  told the renter that I’d be putting a lockbox on the door and that ***** crew
  would knock and if no one was there, that they’d come in to do the work.  My renter also understood that if he was
  there, that he would need to let them in and he was fine with that.  I went over all of this with *** and very
  clearly said to let me know if there were any problems.  A few weeks later when I called to check and
  see if they’d be done in time for a CMHA inspection, *** said yes.  He didn’t mention any problems and sent me
  the invoice for $1,500 (which I paid). 
  
  This is where CMHA enters the picture.  They went in a few days later and failed the
  repair.  When I called ***, he said he
  knew why it failed and that his guys had just wanted to be done and get out of
  there.  Only then did he tell me about
  the marijuana, smoking, drinking, parties, danger, etc.  He said there were days that they hadn’t been
  able to work because of that.  He never
  once called to tell me any of that when they were in the midst of the project.  If he had, I would have told them to stop working
  immediately.  I also don’t think any
  reasonable person would expect me to know any of that was going on.  I had seen the renter a few weeks before this
  and there were no indications of anything like that.  Not to mention that if *** and his crew felt
  it was dangerous, they should have made the decision to stop working.  Instead, they chose to rush through the job
  and charge me for it even though *** admitted in one of his recorded calls and
  also in his text that he wasn’t happy with the work (including saying that it
  looked like sh*t).  And another thing
  that will be on one of ***** recordings (that I never knew he was making) was
  when I was surprised by what he told me and asked why he hadn’t called me
  earlier.  He then said something to the
  effect that “it wasn’t that big of a deal and the worst part of it is this
  phone call.”  I was never rude to him
  about it.  I had simply expressed
  surprise and shock and was apologetic about what had happened.    
  
  As for CMHA, they are not the reason for this
  complaint.  They failed the job for cosmetic
  reasons and I mistakenly thought that was the only problem.  *** said he’d make it right, so I wasn’t
  worried about it because it seemed pretty minor.  I asked him to wait until I had evicted the
  renter and then ***** crew went back a SECOND time.  After the second round, this is where the problem arises.  When ******* was
  working on getting the house ready for a new renter, he found the ceiling was
  already sinking and was off-level where the patch had been done.  The ceiling was already closed up so ******* didn’t
  know that *** hadn’t done any of the work that was in his bid.  This is why I had asked for *** to meet us
  there—so that he, *******, and I could all take a look together and figure
  things out.  His texted response was “Can
  meet 1st thing tomorrow so on same page.” Then he texted additional
  work that they were going to do and again said, “Cen meet in morning or
  afternoon to review your happy with repair.”  I agreed and *** said “8:30-9:30 am great time.”  I replied “Sounds perfect!  See you then!”
  
  At about 8:30 the next morning *** called to tell me it would
  be later because his employee was having tire issues.  I hadn’t expected that anyone else would be coming
  and when I asked *** if he was on his way, he said he was on vacation in
  Florida.  When I expressed my surprise,
  he was rude, said he’d refund my $1,500, and hung up on me.  His employee who did the repair arrived and
  confirmed that there hadn’t been any framing, securing, or attaching to
  anything and that no additional drywall had been removed.  *** had told him just to patch it.  That is NOT the work that was listed in ***’s
  bid. 
  
  I was pretty shocked by all of this, but ***** employee was
  very professional and courteous and told me he would discuss the situation with
  *** and that they would get back to me because they were proud of their five
  star and BBB A+ ratings and that they didn’t get those by having unhappy customers.  After almost two weeks with no call, I texted
  ***.  When he responded, he had apparently
  changed his mind and decided he was not going to refund my money and texted: “$500
  a trip.  We had no idea what it was going
  to take.  The hole is repaired and that’s
  what I was paid to do.  No money back
  after finding out your mad because you wanted the whole room done.  Keep ******* out of it if he wasn’t happy
  with the roof repair either cause he didn’t know what the h*** was involved.  I’m done with it.”
  
  At this point, *** has gone from agreeing to meet (and not
  doing so), offering a $1,500 refund on the phone (before hanging up on me), to
  offering nothing in his text (because I supposedly decided I wanted the whole
  room done), and then when I said I’d file a BBB complaint he texted: “Ill give
  you full refund, not wanting to argue over doing entire ceiling like you want
  for $1,500 vs repairing hole which is all we talked about. Never did you
  mention waves in ceiling only a hole, but I first remove my material used for
  repair from kitchen ceiling, not happy with repair anyway. That’s fair.” I was
  confused by the material part, but then he texted, “The day I remove my work is
  the day I pay you the 1500 and not until then. That’s fair.”  I replied that I’d contact BBB and get back
  to him to which he responded, “Sounds fair.” 
  
  I decided I just wanted to wrap it up rather than going the
  BBB route so the next day I responded that he or his crew could come and “remove
  the materials” (basically punching a hole in the ceiling to get his “materials”
  out) and then refund my money.  I asked
  him to let me know when they could do that.  *** never responded.  So, I was
  left to file this BBB complaint in the hopes of getting a refund so that I could put that money toward the $2000 deductible I'm now paying.  After I filed my complaint, *** decided that
  even though he had offered me a full $1,500 refund THREE times and said “that’s
  fair/sounds fair” three times, that he would only offer $500 in response to my
  complaint.  When I rejected that offer,
  he is now offering nothing and saying it can go to court.  ***** “offers” change every time this goes
  back and forth.  I’ve also had to respond
  to every single one of his attempts to discredit me so that I don’t come across
  looking like an idiot.  I own nine rental
  homes and have interacted with many contractors and tradespeople over the
  years.  I have never encountered anyone
  as rude as *** and it’s shocking to me that he is a business owner.  Even if there’s a disagreement, there is no
  cause to be nasty and unprofessional.  Especially when *** had the chance to make this right by revising his
  bid and being paid for a larger project.  That was the discussion that I had thought we’d be having at the meeting
  *** blew off.  I didn’t have any
  intention of asking for a refund and I certainly didn’t expect all of this!
  
  The issue boils down to this: *** gave a bid to do a job
  that involved framing, securing, and removing extra drywall, and none of that
  was done. The patch that was done at ***** direction didn’t hold and this just proves
  that my contractor, *******, knew what he was talking about when he said any
  repair would need to be framed/secured/attached.  That is how the bid was written and that’s
  what needed to be done.  *** refers to
  this as a “measly $1500 job” and says that he gave me “a break” in taking it
  on, but that’s clearly not the case.  I hope
  that anyone reading our comments will get a clear picture of the type of person
  *** is and will choose to take their business elsewhere.
  
  

  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/21/2022

  $0, I will not be extorted, let go to court.