ComplaintsforBasement Waterproofing Nationwide, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  02/15/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I contracted with Basement Waterproofing Nationwide, Inc. last April 6, 2022 for a basement waterproofing job at the cost of $5900.00. I had a hole in the front cinder blook wall of my basement, which was allowing water to flow in and flooded my basement. After a few conversations with staff, my project was begun on 4/15/22. Instead of running the discharge pipeline to the rear of the property as was mentioned in our discussions, the company ran a pipeline across my front lawn (which I share with my neighbor in the townhouse next door). The force of the water that was being pulled underground the lawn area has caused underground erosion (confirmed by various inspections by Horizon plumbers and *** ****** ************ ******** technician), and consequently my lawn has been soggy, pocketing, dying and sinking ever since. I've contacted and spoken with representatives from this company several times over the past 8 months, but they have refused to rectify the situation. I recently (1/13/23) spoke with a project manager at this company who "softly agreed" to send a crew back and dig up the offending pipeline, but still refused to backfill my lawn with soil, grade and reseed my lawn and restore it to its original state.

  

  Business response

  02/22/2023

  Ms. ****** did retain BWN and BWN did correct a water problem at her residence.
  After a complaint regarding the location of the sump pump discharge line, BWN returned at no charge to relocate that discharge line to a more preferable spot selected by the HOA, at the rear of the home.
  Later Ms. ****** called complaining her yard was “eroding” and “sinking”. Her thought was it must be related to the downspout work BWN did. It is not.
  Before hiring BWN Ms. ****** had a downspout buried to a landscape basin in her front yard. BWN extended this existing front yard downspout and extended the landscape basin 15’ further away from the home. There was no change to the original design other than that extension. The same amount of water collected by the downspout remains the same.
  BWN has not increased or decreased the amount of water that flows to the new landscape basin. We only carried the water further away from the home which is consistent with professional waterproofing discipline.
  We met with Ms. ****** on several occasions including, most recently, today and will continue to work with her towards an acceptable conclusion.
  During today’s meeting, it was agreed that contacting a landscaping service company is in the best interest of Ms. ****** to address her lawn care concerns as this responsibility rest solely with the home owner.
  The erosion she complains about is not due to any negligence or faulty workmanship on the part of BWN. 

  Customer response

  03/25/2023

  Better Business Bureau:

  I would like to reject the offer of Arbitration for complaint ID ********.

  After many conversations with various representatives of Basement Waterproofing Nationwide Inc,. the company returned to my property on 3/13/23. The agreed upon remediation was to dig up the 30' pipeline that had been run across the lawn, remove the drain basin, reconnect to the downspout from the roof, and install a 10' buried corrugated line with pop-up landscape basin for rain water discharge only. This remedy in no way affects the lower lawn, or the 1/2 lawn portion that is connected to my neighbor's property. This is the way things were situated prior to the pipeline being installed last April 2022. My lawn did not have any damage to it at that time. The damage occurred after the pipeline was run and has continued to deteriorate. Although I am happy that the pipeline has been removed, I am not happy that BWN has refused to take any responsibility for the lawn damage and has refused to offer any restitution for damages. They have left the cost of refurbishing the lawn to me, which I am not happy with. I have begun obtaining estimates for the lawn restoration, which so far have been $1,600 to $2,600. I will go with the company that seems to offer the best bang for the buck as well as quality. I wish this matter with Basement Waterproofing Nationwide to be closed.

  Sincerely,

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

  3/25/23

• Initial Complaint

  06/10/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Basement Waterproofing Nationwide, Inc installed two sub-pumps in my basement, let me start by saying that the grew was amazing and they did an awesome job. The sub-pump took two days to complete, I was in contact with the Mr. Connor the gentleman in charge of the crew and overseeing the job via phone. We discussed the time that they would be arriving and finishing each day. During demolition and the start of the project the crew members found a few items in the wall of my home; baseball cards (which I never saw), raffle tickets for a church fund raiser that occurred in 1955, and a dollar bill. I was told by the crew that they found an old crunched-up dollar bill in the wall, baseball cards, and raffle tickets from 1955. The raffle tickets were the only items left on the table in the basement. I contacted the supervisor of the crew and requested that he return the items that were found in the wall. The Supervisor stated that the baseball cards were in bad conditional, so they threw them out and one of the guys in the crew has the dollar bill at his home. The supervisor told me that he will get the Dollar from the crew member and mail it back out to me, the Dollar that I received in the mail two weeks later from the supervisor was a newer clean dollar. I then contacted Mr. Michael (Basement Waterproofing staff) to inform someone on a higher level of what had taken place. I mentioned to Mr. Michael that the dollar that was mailed to me was a new clean newer dollar bill. The dollar that he took home was not the dollar that I received in the mail; it took so long to get the dollar bill in the mail I figured the gentleman spent the dollar no aware of its value. I explained to Mr. Michael that after conducting some research I found two different quotes for the dollar bill one for $ 5,000.00 and one for $1,500.00, Mr. Michael told me to forward him the estimates for the dollar bill (which I did). I mentioned to Mr. Michael that $1,500.00 is a fair request.

  

  Business response

  06/22/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/06/15) */ Ms ********* Thank you for the detailed commentary including a complaint you recently registered with the BBB. I appreciate the time and effort you took to succinctly express your concerns, concerns I will attempt to respond to in detail. Yes, my firm, Basement Waterproofing Nationwide, was at your home to perform remedial waterproofing work contracted by ******************** on your behalf. I am pleased to hear of your high opinion of the crew that performed the work, I agree: our crew chief and his crew are truly exceptional men and it is our privilege to have them represent BWN as they perform these critical services in important homes such as yours. In the course of selectively removing construction materials as a part of the scope of work he was tasked with our crew DID discover the three items you describe in your complaint Baseball tickets which were discarded Raffle Tickets which were left on site A dollar bill which was removed for safe keeping by a crew member and returned to you The dollar bill which was found was returned to you. There is no "other" dollar bill which you speculate about. The raffle tickets were left on site for you The baseball tickets were discarded being in a condition that can be only described as decomposed meaning to handle them was to destroy them. While possibly our crew could have made an effort to save the scraps and pieces of these tickets they discovered alas, they did not. Their instructions, the work BWN was contracted to do, were to waterproof not to preserve history. I must point out that a waterproofing job site is a loud, dirty and dangerous place. Think jackhammers, shovels and crowbars. Men doing manly things. As such I applaud our crew's efforts to preserve for your interest both the raffle tickets and the dollar bill. I FURTHER applaud our crew chief for contacting you to notify you of what he had found. While there is no way of knowing when these items were left behind the walls and in the places found or by whom I assume you had no knowledge of them prior to our crew notifying you (you would have given us instructions to perhaps look for them if you were aware of them wouldn't you have?) and, as such, our crew has done a good service in providing you with a glimpse into the past of this old building. A glimpse, I might add, that you not have, indeed would be completely unaware of had our crew not taken the step of communicating these things to you. BWN operates on 4 core principles Honesty Integrity Respect Excellence I find we have done so with every respect of your waterproofing job. Enjoy your new basement Ms. *********. It has a lifetime warranty. As to your request for a billing adjustment there is no appropriate billing adjustment to objectively make. We found a dollar and we returned the very same dollar we found. I remain Yours very truly Steve T***** President and founder Basement Waterproofing Nationwide

*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. ↩