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:09/19/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  UnresolvedMore 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 hired this company for a redecking. I was quoted **** for a redecking starting August 4th, I was told the job would take 2 days. This ended up being 2 weeks and it is still incomplete and not up to code. ******************* and his a few of his workers(the ones that we he could not keep consistently to do the job) worked maybe 3 hours a day. They would stay for an hour, leave for two hours and come back for maybe two hours. We were very upset with the craftmanship of the work, crooked poles, slanting railing, gaps inbetween baseboard, lack of correct fasteners, uneven stairs, spindles were uneven, etc... It looked a mess. He never was able to finish it because he clearly did not have the knowledge how to do it correctly. He then tried to give us another bill to say we owed more than the **** we gave him. We ended up having to give one of us workers a check because *** could. not pay him. So in total we gave him *******. We are left with an uneven deck and railings that are not stable, missing a stair and gate as we were quoted we would have in the original contract. We could no longer trust *** at our property because of the "shady" workers he was bringing to our home. We gave him the remainder of the original bill and sent him on his way. He then committed mail fraud by faking a certified letter in my mailbox. Certified letters should be signed for however this was just an envelope he received and put it in my mailbox saying we owe him more money for a job that is incomplete. *** is a fraud and should not be allowed to take on any customers. I now have to pay money to get it fixed.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/23/2023

  S&S PRO CONSTRUCTION  
  *******************************;   
  ****** ** 60450            
   
  September 23, 2023 
  BBB COMPLAINT #******** 
  
  ****************************;
  *******************************************;
  ****** ** 60450 

  
  Thank you for contacting the Better Business Bureau, as well as ******* Your feedback is appreciated as we strive to learn and grow as a business.   
  

  Unfortunately, you are displeased with your deck project. Leaving a client dissatisfied is never our goal.  
  I will address each of your concerns, as it seems there may be confusion about a few key factors contributing to your complaints. 
  

  Unfortunately, we faced a setback when we lost a laborer. The loss slowed our routine and for that; I apologize that your project was affected.  
  The extreme heat caused shortened workdays and extra breaks. It often reached over 100 degrees. We were instructed by you on more than one occasion to stop work because of the unbearable heat. Holding our departure from us now is unjust on your part. You claim that the condition of the deck is "embarrassing," but I must mention how you threw a party on this embarrassing deck before mentioning the extent of your issues with the deck with your contractor. Not only did you put large patio furniture in the work area, but instructed your Contractor to move everything out of the way to continue working just to refuse to pay him later that same day, as if you did not already know you were going to withhold payment from him, instead you expect him to move all your furniture and continue to work having the same outcome. A General Contractor does not work for you, he is not an employee of yours, nor your servant. If the deck was indeed embarrassing, you would not have hosted a party on it so soon, nor allowed him to continue. Just days prior, you were so in love with everything, but the spindles needed straightening, and the gate changed out. How that turned into every single thing was wrong. *** has built many decks at this point and has not received one complaint.  
  

  It's crucial to understand that our service offers estimations, not quotations. An estimate is our best approximation based on our expertise and experience. Its clear in our contract that your final invoice will provide your completed price. 
  

  I also want to clarify your complaints regarding the deck not being level. If your deck is not level, the substructure framing would be the cause, which you opted out of replacing. Replacing? the deck boards would not alter the deck being level. The county inspector can clarify that for you.  
  Regarding other issues such as spindles, stairs, and ********************** offered to make any alterations, fixes, or changes you were unsatisfied with. If you had read your contract, you would have seen that it includes a 1-year warranty for our work. This means that any issues you were unhappy with could have been addressed. 
  

  It's important to note that gates are not included in the contract; they were added to the scope of work after the fact, which means your original estimate of $5,400.00 did not include them. You also mentioned to ***** that you did not want the gates, so that caused confusion about whether to install them. I would also like to bring to your attention that material purchased by S&S PRO CONSTRUCTION remains the property of S&S PRO CONSTRUCTION until the final invoice has been paid in full, only then will the rights of material be released to you, as well as lien rights.  
  Before I get into the next issue, I'd like to say that its important to understand making false accusations is unacceptable, just as using derogatory terms, such as referring to our workers as "crackheads" or "shady is inappropriate, unprofessional, and classless.  
  

  Our company follows a pay-when-paid clause. Most of the time, the deposit is used for materials, and the last payment compensates for the crews wages. The Crew is aware everyone is paid upon job completion. As far as consistency of crew, the same 2 men were on your job the entire time. In the last 2 days, another laborer came in, ??seems pretty consistent. 
  

  Your final invoice amounted to $6,375.00, which exceeds the estimate by $975.00. Instead of paying your invoice, you withheld payment and voiced criticism of his work, work ethic, and professionalism, and attacked his employees. Referring to his labored as a "crackhead" and implying he's undeserving of payment is both judgmental and unacceptable. Since you seemed to favor *****, who only worked for 2 days, offering him $800.00. However, that was not within your authority to determine who should be paid and how much. If you settled your invoice with S & S, the contractor with whom you have a signed contract would have ensured everyone involved received their payment and prevented the current situation from arising. Offering him $800.00 would have meant he was making over $50.00 an hour, not fair for **** or ***. 
  

  Claiming you paid ***, or S&S $5,800.00, is inaccurate. Any money you claim to have given ***** should not be considered as any payment to *** or S&S or on behalf of S&S. You were not required nor asked to help pay our laborers. You are, however, required to pay your outstanding invoice with S&S PRO CONSTRUCTION. 
  

  Last, our issue with the certified letter mailed to you. I am at a loss for words over this issue. Let me just say that you, being a teacher, should think before you speak. Most of the statements you have made here are untrue or twisted. The letter mailed to you bears a *****certified stamp. I am unsure of how or where you proposed this ******** idea that *** faked a certified letter delivered it to your mailbox. 
  
  Accusing him of committing mail fraud is absurd and out of line. Then posting it online is slander and defamation of character. You are accusing him of committing a federal offense. Why would anyone fake a certified letter? What would be the purpose of doing so? What would be the benefit of that? I sent the letter certified to have proof of delivery, which I got through the tracking information that shows **** handed the mail piece to an individual at your address at 3:56 pm on September 18th. If you need any further clarification, or issues with **** not getting a signature for your mail piece, you can take it up with them.  
  

  I would suggest removing the false statements you have made about S&S PRO CONSTRUCTION as well as ******************* from *******  
  We look forward to hearing from your attorney  
   
   
  **********************;
  S&S PRO CONSTRUCTION 
   
   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/25/2023

   
  Complaint: 20624323
  
  I am rejecting this response because of so many fallacies that were told in it.  So I, the teacher as you said will address them one by one.

  Let's start with ***'s work day and your servant statement.  No, I don't consider him a servant, but I hired him to do a job in as my attorney stated in "a *******-like manner."  He definitely did work for me.  I hired him and paid him.  Let's talk about ***'s workday.  The day I gave *** the check it was 8:30am.  *** originally told me that he would be starting that day after he got the lumber.  Why didn't *** show up till 4:30pm with the lumber, did a half hour of work and that was it?  Then Saturday, showed up for three hours.  There in lies the problem.  He was never there consistently.  Showing up at 10,11, and even noon on some days.  He would work an hour or two then leave for two and come back for one more hour.  When *** ran into losing a laborer, he should have been there all the time knocking out the work out, but how often did I hear "sorry, I slept in," after he told me he would be there early in the morning and showed up at noon.  He was very rarely there to get anything accomplished.  You are absolutely right, I told you to not come on two of the days because of extreme heat, but where was he the rest?  We had one morning that rained and we thought we would see him in the afternoon but nope.  Also zero communication was ever made.  My husband and I had to contact him to see if he was coming and if he was coming back that day?  Again, a seasoned and reputable contractor would be there early morning to get work done if the day is going to be hot, not show up at 11 and play the "hot game".  We have all the video footage of when he came and went.  He should have communicated with us as well that the job was going to take longer than two days and of course never did, but he never communicated only when he needed money.

  Now, lets address the day we had to put our patio furniture back on our deck.  Saturday, we were told he would be done that day, as we all know he wasn't.  I told him Sunday I was putting everything back on the deck for a party.  Of course, he never came to communicate to us on Saturday that he wasn't done even though we could tell clearly he wasn't done.  He just up and left, like everyday.  We put the stuff on the deck on Sunday for our party that was planned well in advanced.  We figured the deck would be done because we were told two days, not two weeks.  I was unaware that you weighed my patio furniture since you called it heavy. You never lifted a finger or had to move it because on Monday you came back for ONE hour and filled a few holes and that was it.  My original 30 year old deck held our furniture just fine so if *** was worried about it being so heavy then that is a problem in his confidence of his construction.  

  As far as the things that are wrong and or missing, we were told going to get fixed while we pointed them out to *** as he was building it.  I pointed out to him right away that I wanted the spindle width fixed it looks ridiculous, asked why the railings were not level with each other, why are the railings leaning, where is the missing stair and gate(sorry but these were not additions and were talked about when he hired him), why are certain spindles lose, why is a stair crooked, toe boards are not correct, outside base boards have large gaps or are crooked and the list goes on.  *** told me like I read in several other yelp reviews that I was being nit picky, that is funny.  I can nit pick all I want, I paid for a job to be done well and safely.  We had to get rid of the gates at the last minute because *** did not know how to construct them, he cracked the poles trying to do one.  Oh not to mention the poles are not level as we were told by an inspector.  These are things that should have been remedied when he was in the process of doing it, not something I would call him out for.  I paid for a job to be done correctly not to have to call you out to fix things you messed up during installation.  Do it right the first time, obviously you don't know what good workmanship looks like if you think I should have to call you out to fix things that were not put in correctly in the first place.

  So let's talk about the "crackhead" issue you brought up.  *** said it to us!  That is hilarious because you also know it is bad when another adult who was in our home at the time said to us, what is wrong with that laborer?  He is pacing back and forth, punching the air, and talking to himself.  We told *** that, hence came the remark he made.  I had a baby in my ****************** should not have been bringing anyone to anyone's home that had questionable or suspicious behavior.

  Wait what, who was consistent?  You had five different people there including *** and the job still is incomplete.  Why would I pay you more money when you did not finish the job as stated in the contract in a "*******-like manner".  *** knows the job was not done or done well.  Ask *** where are the pictures of the issues of my deck.  He took the pictures from so far away with the "enjoy your deck comment".  Ask your last guy if it was done well.  It is not my problem you cannot pay your employees then maybe you should not hire them.  I was promised a job and ended up paying way too much for a job that is NOT done or done well.  Not sure where you are getting 800 from we gave ***** 400 because he was the only one that knew what he was doing and we didn't want him to get screwed by *******  

  Now lets talk money!  I have paid in full my original contract for ****, plus 400 for one of your workers to get paid, and I paid for the last set of wood and materials that were needed 200 plus.  That is a total of 6000.   We would love to see the receipts for all the supplies that you supposedly bought.  Never seen one receipt for the lumber or hardware.  Hmmmm, why not?  Most contractors would have them readily available.

  Lastly ,lets talk the certified letter business.  We went to the post office the following day to find out where this letter came from and they could not produce a signature card, so hence the reason we have no idea how it got in our mailbox since it was certified and all certified letters are not left in mailboxes.  No one was home at that time for it to be delivered.  

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