Complaints

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:09/20/2022

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore 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.

  We hired this company in December of 2021 to perform remodeling projects at our home including moving a laundry room upstairs, retiling some bathroom floors, redoing a shower/tub, and finally to remodel our master bathroom. Though the owner of this company seemed like a nice guy, this project was fraught with mistakes along the way. The project was delayed, mismanaged, and the results from the first phase of the project so inadequate that we parted ways and took on considerable expense to both correct existing work and finish the project with another contractor. We ended up overpaying and being left with a broken tub, unfinished tile and an overall poor quality job. After several attempts to reach the owner of the company to resolve the final balance due back to us from overpayment on materials we never received, we are now facing mediation as outlined in our contract. We really tried avoiding filing any type of complaint online but after communication ceased, we were left with no other option. Still hoping to amicably resolve this if possible.

  Business Response

  Date: 10/20/2022

  Reply has been sent directly to Client.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/25/2022

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  

  Though the business admitted that they do owe me a significant amount of money, they are attempting to add markup charges that were never agreed to in order to reduce the amount owed. No mention of how they would be paying me back for the amount owed.  They have also ignored the fact that I had to spend money replacing a tub that was broken by their contractors at my own expense. I believe additional mediation is necessary to resolve this satisfactorily. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/28/2022

  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.

  To start, let me say I have waited as long as possible to file this report, but I feel I am getting nowhere trying to resolve on my own.Work began Feb 2022 to remodel a short term rental space, with discussion of completion within approx. 2 months. I have paid **** and RI Shook building $73,894.83 to date, which does not include countless hours of my own time, or an additional $30,930.54 to other contractors I have had to hire myself to help move the project along, fill the gaps that **** has left, or try and save some money elsewhere. Meanwhile, of the total paid to RI Shook, he will still collect nearly $26,000 as the "General Contractor" on the job once the project is complete. As the ** over the last 5 months, he has spent VERY little time here on the job, while I work from home and have divided my time to direct and, in many ways, do his job for him. As of today, work is still not complete, which has cost me an average of $4800-$6000 in lost revenue during each of the last three months we have been unable to open our short term rental. To make matters worse, over the course of this project **** has overextended himself by taking on several other concurrent jobs and while prioritizing ours less and less, to the point where over the last 6 weeks, someone from his team has only been on site working for 6 days, and it got to a point where several weeks went by with no contact and I was fearful he had walked on the job entirely. I estimate over the course of the entire project, nearly 3 entire months have accumulated with no work being done, and the pace is completely unacceptable for the amount of money being spent. Despite many emails, phone calls, and text messages we continue to go days and weeks with no progress. Finally, I have asked several times for signed copies of all contracts and agreements that include warranty language, as well as license, bonding, and insurance information and I have yet to receive these.

  Business Response

  Date: 08/04/2022

  To Whom It May concern,
  
  After reviewing the complaint details submitted from the Client, there were many opinions stated that we feel are more geared toward slander and for that reason we won't spend the time addressing them.

  
  It is these exact opinions/oversight/micromanaging/staring at installers while they are working by the Client that have added to typical impediments of construction all of which the Client failed to mention in this report. Why the Client did not want to bring up all pertinent facts are still unknown to RIS. We will simply state the facts we feel are left out by the Clients understanding of the situation to explain the gaps in schedule as mentioned by the Client.

  
  
  
  The most impactful of schedule delays stem from the Clients Electrician(not a gap in RIS labor force) finished their scope well beyond when the project was expected to have this scope completed. To my recollection this was approximately a month behind schedule. This and this alone was the cause for the Clients project to begin overlapping with other projects that are handled by RIS. Since then things have progressed slower than anyone wanted. To further compound this, the Client, in their micromanaging of the project trying to strive for more progress persuaded RIS to allowed drywall work to begin before the project was ready. This resulted in the Client's electrician butchering the brand new drywall in excess 60 holes that had to be patched. This required rescheduling of the drywaller multiple times as these holes were not all all at once made but instead happened over numerous weeks. 

  
  During this Electrician debacle, RIS did have an employee become hospitalized and could not perform the framing scope as quick as the Client wanted and therefore the Client went out and found another company to perform this scope. While the framing was completed as a whole, there were multiple times the framer had to return to correct their work for drywall to be able to begin. There were multiple requests by the Client to finish the other contractors tasks to move the project along. Items such as walls not secured at the bottom to ensure stability and to place backing throughout all rooms for drywall to be adhered. 

  
  Beyond that the Client, who was paying out dollars to his own subs(who were all more expensive than the costs RIS presented for those scopes), had to find a cheaper company for the flooring work. This has nothing to do with "gaps in RIS labor force" when the Client emphasizes calling in their on contractors to supplement RIS. 

  
  RIS has also found themselves on site performing tasks and not all the materials that are furnished by the Client were available to complete the tasks set for that day. 

  
  On top of those situations, that were out of the control of RIS, the Client did not mention adding another $16,000 in new scope intermittently across multiple change orders that each take their own timeframe to pull together and present to the Client. Once this info is submitted to the Client, the Client this has their own thorough review to ensure they are clear on everything but there is no mention of the lost time to piece meal a project through change orders. This lost time is attributed to revising all changes orders at least one time, some change orders up to 4 times over, countless phone calls above and beyond communicating scheduling, and lengthy email exchanges to scrutinize the cost presented by RIS about scope the Client is requesting to add to the Client's project.
  Now that the majority of the project scope is complete(prior to the submission of this "complaint"), the punch list presented to RIS for outstanding scope is not static and through the adding of tasks the Client has made completely this list inefficient and cumbersome at best. That being said RIS will still continue to chip away at the tasks as soon as possible.

  
  
  The documents requested by Client have since been sent to the Client again as the Client did not save when they were originally provided these documents.  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/11/2022

   
  Complaint: 17637534
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  In response to the business it seems RIS has many opinions of their own, however, all numbers, time frames, and dates presented in the original complaint are factual and accurate, and none were intended as slander.My point in filing this complaint was not to detail each and every pertinentcircumstance of the last several months, but to outline two main issues:

  
  1.The exorbitant amount of time this project has taken under RI Shooks management; during which, 12+ weeks have accumulated with no one on site and no work performed by RIS, which has subsequently cost me roughly $9,000 in unrealized revenue since the beginning of June.
  2.The lack of communication, scheduling, care, and project management expected from a General Contractor.

  
  Although my electrician did prolong the project, he finished work in the areas in question in early June, and finished work that would impact RIS completing progress with other portions of the job in late April or early May. This aligns and is in agreement with the 4-5 week approximation by RIS. However, to say this and this alone was the cause for the snowball effect of wasted time that has followed is reductionist at best, and a misdirection/deflection at worst. This same period of delay coincides with other aspects under RIS that were also being completed, change orders mentioned, and RIS employees being hospitalized. Drywall specifically had plenty to do over these weeks and was able to work around the electrician and framer until we all agreed these were done.If they caused problems, I was typically able to get my subs on site to fix by the next day or two. This did not necessarily follow the drywallers normal order of operations for efficiency, but there was also little to no butchering of their new drywall, as the holes mentioned were all made in existing drywall areas and the patches for them were done as a final pass.

  
  Regardless, this is not the real problem, and not important to my concern (though I was sympathetic to the hospitalization of a worker, which ultimately led to my hiring of another framer at RIS suggestion, while **** struggled to fill his open role until several weeks later).

  
  My concern and complaint is that since that time, ***** more weeks have passed with only 2 or so weeks of actual accumulated days of work and progress performed by RIS; and this pace of a few days, and sometimes only a couple hours, scattered here and there over several months has been an ongoing issue almost since the beginning.

  
  My concern is that RIS has only 1 handyman/laborer in his employment and has seemingly taken on too many projects to prioritize any one of them efficiently and effectively under this 1 worker. This, to a point where his office manager is often seen on site laboring as well (when anyone actually shows up to work).

  
  My concern is that RIS mistook my work from home career as open availability and oversight of his own companys progress, asking me for updates on his own scope of work and most recently, the punch list mentioned, which he requested I put together for him. And while RIS now categorizes much of this as micromanaging, there would have been little to no need for managing of any kind on my part if progress was actually being made and monitored/managed by RIS on site more than bi-monthly.

  
  RIS mentions several times that I, as the client, pushed for more progress. I agree. I believe this only further proves my point that progress was extremely slow, if moving at all. I have sent texts and emails numerous times not only asking to see more progress, but to ask that RIS inform me of scheduling for that progress, most of which have gone unanswered.

  
  RIS mentions the hiring of my own subs and calls out flooring while saying this was not a gap in RIS labor force. I agree. Flooring was never in RIS scope. What was in RIS scope, and ultimately a gap in labor force, was the hanging of doors listed on a change order dated May 31, 2022 to the tune of $2100. The final of those doors was the remove and replace of a complicated (so I was told) exterior patio door that went weeks and weeks with excuses but no work until I finally broke down and called someone else to complete it On July 25th nearly 8 weeks after the change order was presented and paid for. I asked for a credit since the work was not completed by RIS but already paid. I still have not received that credit, but RIS sent me another change order recently listing this labor at a mere $360. This is nearly the same dollar amount, for context, he charged me to put two dry wall anchors in a wall and hang a hood vent on them. With my help.

  
  Speaking of credits, *** was also supposed to complete a post-construction ********************* and after sending out two contractors and not answering their calls to authorize while they were on site, he decided to remove it from his scope and offer me a $400 credit against an estimated $1400 job. *** since hired another contractor for this work as well, and spent an additional $835 out of pocket in doing so for work that RIS should have completed.I am waiting for this $835 credit now as well.
  To conclude this lengthy rebuttal, my point has been proven over the last two weeks once again, as someone from RIS has only been on site 2 days (and not full days) since my original complaint was made, and Ive had little to no correspondence from RIS. As a result, I have recently asked RIS to conclude our business and billing immediately and am requesting credits for all work still incomplete and paid for. I have provided a document of these items to RIS but have not received a response, or any credits or billing adjustments to this point.

  
  RIS did finally send me signed copies of our agreements, but they still do not include any license, insurance information, or warranty language, which was what I had asked for specifically.

  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************************

  Business Response

  Date: 09/27/2022

  This has been responded to via direct email to Client. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/29/2022

   
  Complaint: 17637534
  
  I am rejecting this response because: The business owner has reached out via email directly, but the issues remain unresolved at this time. Despite his correspondence, work is still outstanding, including work already paid for and what has been agreed to as "warranty" work. Further, a conclusion has not yet been reached regarding finances and/or any billing adjustments as a result of the business practices. I intend to remain diligent on these issues and attempt to reach an agreement with the business, but I will not accept that anything has been resolved yet.
  

  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************************

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/18/2022

  Hello again.
  
  This case is still ongoing and I now have a lien against my house as a result of this business's practices, as they have failed to pay many of their subcontractors who are now looking to me to cover the debts. 
  

  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/28/2022

  Hello - 
  
  In regard to the complaint above, I've been asked by BBB to provide proof of subcontractors who have not been paid. So far, 4 different contractors have expressed issues in reaching the contractor in question and being paid, but I only have physical proof from 1 of them in the form of a lien letter. I also have a voicemail from another contractor, but I am unsure how that can be shared. The other 2 contractors have only verbally told me they haven't been paid and their concerns in being able to reach the contractor.
  
  Please advise how I should proceed with BBB on this matter. Thank you!
  
  
  
  *******
  

  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/31/2022

  Please see attached the voicemail I received on 8/17/22. Please also see attached the Lien Notice I received from Waste Connections on 10/12/22. Finally, I've included the list of outstanding work and repairs that I sent the business after it was requested by **** on 9/29/22. This list was sent directly to the business on 9/30/22, but no work has been performed or scheduled since then.

   

  I will try to upload these within the complaint portal as well.

   

  There are still two other subcontractors who have indicated to me they've not been paid -  ******* Masonry, and Red Line Heating and Cooling. Unfortuantely I have no physical documentation to add as both were verbal confirmations. 

  Business Response

  Date: 11/02/2022

  To whom it may concern,
  
  These items were resolved prior to the submission of this update to the original complaint. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/03/2022

   
  Complaint: 17637534
  
  

  An effort was made as of yesterday, 11/2/22, to resolve the outstanding work submitted to this claim prior. Some of that work was completed, but other items are still outstanding as of today, 11/3/22 at nearly 1pm. I believe the business has intention of fully finishing the work outlined, but based on past experience with ****, I am not prepared to accept any resolution until all loose ends are tied and a discussion of finances is had.

   

  As for subcontractors, Waste Connections and ************ (*********************) have now been paid by the company and liens on my home have been lifted. Though I only have actual confirmation of such from Waste Connections, I have not heard from Skyline Turf so I believe this to be the case for them as well. Two other contractors, **********************, and ********************************** had also verbally confirmed non-payment and an inability to reach ****, and I do not know if those accounts have been settled.

   

  The real issue, and unfortunate chain of events here is that it took his own subcontractors reaching out to me, and/or filing liens against my house in order to get ****** attention to handle his debts after I brought these to his attention. Every subcontractor I've spoken with has expressed the same frustrations I've had regarding communication (lack thereof), scheduling, and time management. I sincerely hope that if this company stays in business that they get a handle on these issues, and quickly.
  

   

  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************************

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/04/2022

  Outstanding work at this point is HVAC related and started by ****** subcontractor ***************************. To my knowledge, **** has not scheduled Redline to finish this work, but RI Shook has been paid for it.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/29/2022

  This is being handled directly with Client.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/07/2022

   
  Complaint: 17637534
  
  

  Unfortunately the situation is still dragging on since opening this case in July, and there is no way for the business to give me back my time. However, R.I. Shook has recently been making attempts with me directly to resolve and rectify. That said, I am not prepared to consider this case "resolved" until our business has been fully concluded in a manner I feel is fair and acceptable.
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 02/01/2023

  I want you to reopen this case and take action against this business. Though **** and RI Shook Building Company have tried to correct what is a giant mess of their own creation, he and his company are now sending me invoices asking for more money. 
  
  The resolution I was seeking through the BBB and this complaint was for them to finish the project scope I had already paid them for, and/or they had begun but left unfinished, and to adjust their billing to fairly account for the mistakes, headache, and time they have cost me. Instead, I have put up with more of the same for SEVERAL months (since late July when this complaint was opened) waiting for **** to get things together and bring this to a conclusion, only to be hit with another bill for $4322.
  
  I'll admit, recently **** has shown some effort, and has adjusted change orders ahead of the invoice I received, but these efforts are negligible in the face of yet another bill. Especially considering he hasn't personally stepped foot on the property more than 2 times since July, and all the work done since then has been to fix an issue, or finish a task already paid for. 
  
  This has been an absolute nightmare of a project with **** and I just want it to be over without owing any more money to him and his dishonest business practices. 
  

  
  

  Business Response

  Date: 03/01/2023

  To Whom it May ******************** see the Client is reiterating that we have tried to correct the "giant mess of their own creation", I believe this is misleading as the Client has stated the work is complete. While the completion of this came at a later date than anticipated, I'm not sure there is a "giant mess of their own creation" outstanding. There was a punch list created after substantial completion was surpassed and while things lingered on this list nothing was in disarray so as to be indicative of a "giant mess of their own creation". This statement feels grossly exaggerated as the state of the home was never left as a giant mess even during the bulk of the construction process. Seeing as how the Clients were living in the home and there has been not communication to insinuate that the Clients home was unlivable due to a "giant mess of their own creation" making this claim unreasonable and unsubstantiated at a minimum. With that understanding, our interpretation of this comment is that the Client is considering the length of the project and the punch list items that lingered therein to be referred to as a "giant mess of their own creation" while no mess was actually impeding the Clients. Basically, they are saying the conclusion of the work was messy from a logistical perspective which we feel is an important delineation to make. Our interpretation aside, the final punch list item was completed as of 1/27/23 and the final billing was then submitted to the Client.

  The Client's claim that I am asking for "more money" is nothing more than an insinuation that I am trying to ***** them for monies above and beyond what they have agreed to, rather than stating the truth for what it is. All monies billed were for scopes agreed to in writing, for work that was completed to industry standards, via contract and/or change orders. All ******** have been in arrears for work completed against the contract balance and/or change orders previously agreed to by both parties. The Client's claim that we are billing "more money" is in all actuality just the final in arrears billing of the remaining balance due against the contract value plus change orders and not a single ***** over that amount.

  Seeing that the Client had not paid 100% of their financial responsibility as defined by the contract and change orders, their statement that all the work conducted since July is to fix issues or for work already paid for is again insinuating they have paid in full and are being presented with an extra billing for monies above and beyond previously agreed to amounts. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/03/2023

   
  Complaint: 17637534
  
  I am rejecting this response only because our business is still outstanding as we work together to find fair middle ground to conclude upon. The business's response is noted, and correct in it's interpretations, so I have no argument there. However, I do wish for this complaint to remain open and considered unfulfilled until RI Shook and myself come to a final agreement on the balance due that fairly makes amends for the mishandling of this project at large.

  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************************