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  St. Louis Foundation Repairs

  Villa Ridge, MO 63089-1992

  
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  St. Louis Foundation Repairs

  Ellisville, MO 63011-2207

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:09/23/2023

  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.

  ****, the owner of the above-stated company, Took the initial payment on 4/1/2023 for yard drainage and basement crack repair contract.
  On 4/28/23 The total amount of basement crack repair was given to his three sons who repaired, not ****, the owner who signed the contract. He then took another high-paid job and left the yard drain incomplete, blaming 'rain daily in Chesterfield area' despite multiple texts and even a copy of the weather.
  He gave excuses for rain until last week; he texted back and stated he was going to install the drains on 9.12.23, demanding the second check of 2885.00, which is due upon start per contract( after the initial deposit of 2385. given on 4/1/23-which he drove to my workplace to pick up that check).
  This second payment was given at the start of work, and I questioned why he was not installing the drains per the contract. He stated" I found the blockage in the existing gutter and I can clear that and no need for drain installation. I asked him if he would refund me for not installing the drain, and confronted him on the other drain(used gravel instead of French drain); he became outraged and asked his sons to cover the excavated 2 feet drain deep area of almost 80-foot-long back with soil and left it unfinished.
  He also broke the back fence gate and the key to bringing in a bobcat without my permission, removed all concrete paved landscaping bricks on the north side of the house, and said he would not finish putting them back, either.
  Since the three sons who performed all labor are assumed not licensed, and ****, the owner never worked for the basement crack repair (charged 25,000), is also a 'ripoff' like this. I hired another contractor/ inspector who saw the errors the sons made and had to pay 8,000.00 dollars to repair/rescrewing of the nails, re-patching with epoxy (due to insufficient filling found on the cracks) in addition.
  All I ask for is a fair outcome to this issue, and please advise.
  Thank you

  

  Business Response

  Date: 10/13/2023

  I have also attached before, during and after pictures. Some pictures are of the day I first came to bid the job when it was raining and I told ****** the storm sewer needs to be cleared and she should have her son or Fiance clear it to see if that helps the yard drainage issue. 

  Also are pictures of the gate NOT broken.

  
  

  First of all this complaint as well as the review on Google is blatantly false. I have screenshots of text messages, before, during and after photos of the job showing the installed French drains, the NOT broken gate etc. This complaint does not follow the actual chronological order of the events and she even mixes some parts together to try and make her point.

  We do 100 or more jobs a year, we always have very happy customers 99.99% of the time. They praise us for how respectful we are, kind and fair and how we go above and beyond. We always go out of our way for our customers and usually do more than what is contractually required by us to make sure our customers are happy and that their foundation repair needs are met.

  With ******, when we first got to the foundation repair project in April we even went above and beyond for her. She did not have the furniture and other items moved out of the way, we discovered the drop ceiling was not originally installed correctly so we secured it so the rest would not fall (we did not charge her for any of this).

  Getting customers to write a review is not easy and we ask every single customer with an email that has a link to all of our review platforms. And still most do not. However, when people are dissatisfied with your service or product they will go out of their way to declare to the world their unhappiness with you. It is no coincidence that the only (really 2) negative reviews we have is from customers wanting something for nothing.

   

   

  ****, the owner of the above-stated company,

  Yes **** ****** is the owner of St. Louis Foundation Repairs, LLC.

   Took the initial payment on 4/1/2023 for yard drainage and basement crack repair contract.

  False, I did not collect this payment until 04/03/2023, of which she asked me to come to her place of employment to pick up the check. (see below text message). Miss ****** did sign both separate contracts 1. A foundation repair contract, & 2. A Yard drainage contract. Each executed on 04/01/2023 via her electronic signature on ***** sign. (please see attached) Each of these contracts specified the scope of work as well as the amount, and the payment terms. It also specified how change orders are to be handled when unexpected work arises that was not in the original scope of work.

   

   On 4/28/23 The total amount of basement crack repair was given to his three sons who repaired, not ****, the owner who signed the contract.

  True the final amount was given on 4/28/23 for the crack/foundation repair project. Though I am not sure why it matters who did the work and who signed the contract. My 3 adult sons; one is 19 the other 2 are 26 years of age are full time employees of St. Louis Foundation Repairs, LLC.

   

   

  He then took another high-paid job and left the yard drain incomplete, blaming 'rain daily in Chesterfield area' despite multiple texts and even a copy of the weather.

  False, I did not take a high paying job and leave her yard drainage job incomplete. I actually worked her foundation repair project in between jobs I already had on the books in order to get her job done before she went to India to visit family. I originally told her I was 8-12 weeks out and she begged me to do her job before she left the country. I would not have even been able to do her yard drainage job immediately after the foundation repair because we do not do jobs like this when the homeowner is out of town.

  He gave excuses for rain until last week;

  False- I tried contacting her on May 31^st2023 at 7:30 am to let her know I had her Yard Drainage job scheduled for the following week and needed to know if that was okay. I did not hear back from her until June 19^th2023. (See below screenshot of text message)

  he texted back and stated he was going to install the drains on 9.12.23,

  False, as you can see from the above text she texted me on June 19^thto let me know she had just got back from India and while she was in India had limited wifi and service. ****** is her fiancé, there was no text or call from him, besides he is not the homeowner and even if he said it was ok to start the job we would not do the work with the homeowner not present.

  I did text her on July 11^thbecause we were going to try to do the job but the forecast showed rain in the area and since the work involved excavating we would not be able to schedule the job. My company has to stay running and keep employees working. So we scheduled an inside job to do in place.

  Actually on September 11^thI texted her to let her know we would be there the next day to start her job.

   demanding the second check of 2885.00, which is due upon start per contract( after the initial deposit of 2385. given on 4/1/23-which he drove to my workplace to pick up that check).

  False, On the 12^thof September we did start, and at the end of the day after my employees had finished for the day I texted & asked her to leave the start of job check of $2885.00 the next morning. I never demanded, I should not have to demand something that is clearly defined in the contract she signed and knows well when it is due. I really should not even have to ask. I also did not drive to her work to pick it up. I had called her and asked her to just leave it taped to her back door, she said she is not going to leave it taped to the door someone might steal it. I said I don’t think anyone is going to steal an envelope off her back door in a gated yard in Chesterfield. She said ok it’s on you if something happens to it. I did however drive to her work to pick up the initial down payment after she signed the contract. She asked me to come to her work (see text message)

   

  This second payment was given at the start of work, and I questioned why he was not installing the drains per the contract.

  ****** finally agreed to leave the payment on the door. She did ask and sent a picture why I was not installing drains as per the contract. I said I was, the picture she sent was part of the rocked portion of the French drain system and did not need an actual pipe. There are several types of French drain systems. We use a rockless system that entails a 4” perforated pipe with a sock around it that is filled with a type of packing peanuts called drain-ez. This gets backfilled with the dirt that was excavated after it’s placed in the excavated ditch. The other type is a ditch that is dug then a soil fabric is placed in the ditch then river rock is placed in the fabric filling the ditch ½ to ¾ of the way then the fabric is wrapped around the rock and pinned together with soil fabric pins. Then the area is back filled with the dirt that was removed, in this case it was a little dirt with the decorative rock that was saved. This creates an area where water can flow away from the house to the street. She insisted I was cheating her out of her pipe, I tried to explain that in this area of the house we did not plan to put an actual pipe that the rock acted as the drain. She was not happy and continued to insist I was cheating her, so I said fine I’ll put a pipe in, so I laid a 3” sock pipe within the gravel bed. (See picture below or attached.)

   

   

   He stated" I found the blockage in the existing gutter and I can clear that and no need for drain installation.

  FALSE- In the contract the scope of work included extending a downspout discharge with new pipe and extend it to where the French drain in the backyard would run. This would be a solid pipe and would lay in the same ditch as the French drain that would run from the sidewalk out to the back yard drain near the storm drain that was in the backyard. When I was there originally I had noticed someone had blocked the storm sewer with concrete blocks, dirt and rock. I had told her to have someone remove that before I got there to see if that helped her yard drain and if it did she may not need all of the French drain that I was planning to bid. I told her the storm drain is not supposed to be blocked.

  Of course when I got there to do the job the area around the storm drain was still blocked. (See picture of storm drain) So I had one of my sons start clearing the dirt and debris from around that drain (because at the very least I needed this drain cleared for the French drain that I was about to install to work properly. While he was clearing the dirt and rock he found a pipe coming from the direction of the house where the downspout drained. So I told him to dig around it and see if it was clogged. It was clogged, so he then proceeded to cut the pipe back until we came to a section of it that could easily be cleared. He cleared and ran water in the downspout drain at the house to make sure the blockage was cleared, it seemed to be. Keep in mind this was NOT in the scope of work but we decided to do this to make the job right and for what we were about to install to function properly. It took my son almost all day to do this. We were not planning on charging ****** for this extra work. I spoke to ****** about this and told her what we discovered and that we would clear the rest of the storm drain and just connect on to where we cut the pipe back since we had found and seemed to have cleared the blockage in the downspout drain. She did not like that because it was not what the contract specified and that she wanted new drain extensions and was worried I was not doing enough work to justify what she paid for. I told her we are actually doing more work because we were not supposed to be clearing the storm drain if you want to get specific on the scope of work. I told her sometimes we make adjustments when new information about the job is presented. She disagreed and demanded I do the work exactly how the contract reads or she was not paying. I said ok that’s fine, but I won’t be clearing the rest of the storm drain then. I started walking away. She asked why I was getting angry and upset. I said I’m not. I just don’t have the time or feel like arguing with you. This is actually after what she describes below about the rock and the pipe that was totally on the other side of the house.

   I asked him if he would refund me for not installing the drain, and confronted him on the other drain(used gravel instead of French drain); he became outraged

  FALSE-I did not become outraged and this is not when this transpired. I did walk away from ****** when we were talking about the downspout drainage.

   and asked his sons to cover the excavated 2 feet drain deep area of almost 80-foot-long back with soil and left it unfinished.

  FALSE- Later in the day after my conversation with ****** in her back yard when I decided to just leave the storm drain as is, we continued working, trenching, hauling off dirt and installing the Drain-ez French drain system. We were about to start digging for the downspout extension and the French drain coming from the house, but first we needed to see where the pipe was located coming out from under the sidewalk. We hand dug the area, cleared out the pipe and discovered this pipe had collapsed under the sidewalk. So I called her, to let her know that we could not connect to the pipe. We would actually have to cut and break out the concrete sidewalk and replace the whole pipe up to the house, and the scope of work did not have that in it. So there would be a change order for that. She demanded it was in the contract and cited a page and paragraph that was actually in the terms and conditions page of the proposal and was not part of the scope of work. She insisted it was, I told her I think I know what my own contracts say, and that the part of the terms and conditions she was referring to was about if replacing concrete was in the scope of work then we would try to match the finish as close as possible but was not guaranteed. But the scope did not include any concrete removal and replacement so it did not apply. (My sons [employees] were standing there listening to this entire conversation.) She demanded it be done exactly or she was not paying anymore. We hung up. I then just texted her to let her know we will not do the downspout extension of 79’ and credit her $790 which is the price I charged for this part of the job. She insisted it should be a bigger amount of credit and said the whole job should be cheaper, I told her the pipe is not the same as the French drain installation. She started mentioning lawyers. This is when I decided no matter what we do we will just not be able to agree on the scope of work or make ****** happy. We finished installing the French drain, hauling off the extra dirt, backfilling, and replacing some stone edging we removed (that was also not in the scope of work but had to remove when we discovered a pipe placement too close to the area where we wanted to put the French drain along the side of the house.) We graded out everything and left the yard in BETTER shape than we found it. (see attached pictures)

  I then sent her an email stating that since we could not agree to what the Scope of work is and is not I was going to cancel the remainder of the project, figure out what we did and did not do. The original discount would not apply since part of the yard drainage discount was based on footage of 225 ‘and we only Installed 112’ of French drain. We also installed the rock that was allowed in the scope of work, the excavation of the 112’ and hauling dirt off.

   He also broke the back fence gate and the key to

  FALSE- We did NOT break the back gate or fence. We cut an old padlock that locked(when I told her we had to cut the padlock she said she wasn’t aware there was a lock on the gate, I said regardless I will replace the lock, I told her this early the second morning) the gate in order to drive our mini-excavator through the gate.

   bringing in a bobcat without my permission,

  FALSE-She knew we were bringing equipment in, the contract states we would be using a mini-excavator to dig for the installation of the French drains. The Entire backyard is surrounded by a fence. How did she think we were going to get a machine in her yard? Plus the TERMS & CONDITIONS state the homeowner is to give us reasonable access in order to perform the work.

  removed all concrete paved landscaping bricks on the north side of the house,

  We did remove some stone landscape edgers on the north side of the house & I did not charge her for it.

   and said he would not finish putting them back, either.

  FALSE-We actually cleaned them up and re-installed them better than what they were originally. Again did not charge her for it.(see attached pics)

  Since the three sons who performed all labor are assumed not licensed,

  FALSE-I can assure you St. Louis Foundation Repairs, LLC holds and carries all that the State of MO requires in order to conduct business in the state as well as in the city and local municipalities of St. Louis and the surrounding areas. We also carry general liability & workman’s comp. (I can provide COI’s upon request sent directly from my carrier)

   and ****, the owner never worked for the basement crack repair

  I don’t even know what this means, I run the marketing, take care of payroll, set appointments, run leads, bid the jobs, design the repairs, meet with various vendors, schedule the jobs, order materials (& sometimes deliver them to keep jobs moving and my employees on the job doing the work). For the most part no I am not usually on the job performing the actual work. My employees (who also happen to be my adult sons who also have wives and children) do the work they have been trained to do plus are able to follow the repair plans and the scope of work on the proposals.

  (charged 25,000),

  Both the foundation repair project and the yard drainage job was $25,000.00 combined. It was originally more but she asked me to come down to $25,000 if she did both projects I agreed. She then was sent the proposal and was asked to sign EVERY SINGLE page showing that she read & understood the scope of work and the TERMS & CONDITIONS. She also had 3 days' right to cancel (required by MO law to give homeowners) which is at the end of the page of the last signature line.

   is also a 'ripoff' like this.

  FALSE-The work we do is not a ripoff.

   I hired another contractor/ inspector who saw the errors the sons made and had to pay 8,000.00 dollars to repair/rescrewing of the nails, re-patching with epoxy (due to insufficient filling found on the cracks) in addition.

  FALSE-I do not believe she had anyone come and go over our work. If she did, why

  would she ever let us even start or want us to do the yard drainage job.

  All I ask for is a fair outcome to this issue, and please advise.

  I think the outcome is that combined with this and the Google review she left that attacks my entire family personally would be considered hate speech today. She also curses my family and this pretty much borders on libel, slander and defamation. Especially since I have proof that 99% of what ****** claims and states are blatant Lies.

  Right now I am giving ****** an opportunity to remove the false Google review before I respond to it with proof of the mis-information she published.