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:01/02/2025

  Type:Customer Service 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 want to file a complaint with the BBB on this company for poor workmanship, failure to provide a written contact and for uncompleted work. This house is 14x36 with one bath. We have had numerous conversations with **** and ***** his wife and asked for how much more is the job going to cost after we have not received half of the fixtures, the two heaters promised and other items and they refuse to give us that information, only state once the job is finished, we will know then what the final bill will be. In fact, they sent an email stating, "let us know when you want us to stop" since our budget is very tight. He has been billing for the work he starts and has never finished and we have paid him $24, ****** to date and he billed us another 2 days with nothing competed for an additional $2,637.50. To date, he has quit our job, damaged our roof in three spots, and damaged other things as well. He has not completed any of the plumbing he was paid for to be able to occupy our home. Since then he has quit our job, At the advise of the Code Enforcement Officer, we have contacted the State Plumbing Inspector and he has done a site visit and listed two pages of violations, etc. We are having to continue to rent a home over an hour away since the house is not livable at this point. I have enclosed other letters of correspondence with this company and will provide pictures if needed.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 01/13/2025

  I have not heard from the business in response to my complaint.

  Please review the attached letter for the response I am submitting. 

  Business Response

  Date: 01/16/2025

  See attached response 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 01/20/2025

  Better Business Bureau:I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ********. Please add your rejection comments below; if you do not provide any details, your complaint will be closed as Answered. 

  Mark Babin has not completed the code violations per the State Gas Inspector or the Plumbing Inspector. Please see the attached documents for a complete breakdown on the complaint. Thank you. 
  
  Businesses and Customers should be civil, courteous and polite in their responses to complaints. It is important to remain professional and productive when participating in the BBB complaint process.
  
  FAQ
  
  Regards,

  Mark

   

   

  Business Response

  Date: 02/09/2025

  See attached 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 02/17/2025

  Better Business Bureau:I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ********. Please add your rejection comments below; if you do not provide any details, your complaint will be closed as Answered. 

   2/17/25
  Better Business Bureau
  Complaint No. ********
  I am responding to the letter from **** ********************** that I received from your office. I wanted to give some background information that is pertinent in this matter. In July, **** ********************** obtained a plumbing permit that was supposed to be submitted to the state along with the fee that we paid that was for a bath and a half, and I was supposed to receive a copy. Neither of those things happened and the permit was lost. Since then, a new permit had to be issued from the Code Enforcement Officer for the single bath we have.
  In July, **** ********************** started work on the plumbing to rough in the slab. I met with **** to explain that we had the underside of the cabin specifically built with rodent guards that were to be removed for the plumbing to be under the floor and in between the insulation and put back on. **** stated he was going to put in a second Rinnia heater under the house so he didnt want to remove the guards and insulation, and proceeded to put all of the water lines under the house in the crawl space between the cabin and slab that I skirted. Only when he was back in late October did he realize that he didnt measure correctly and couldnt put in the second heater, thus leaving our main water line, (that he turned on in December without any heat tape) and all of the water lines (without heat tapes and exposed) since he stated he cant install a heat tape on all of the plastic water lines.
  We then had to hire an electrician in December to put in an electric heater under the house in an effort to prevent frozen pipes, (that we have had to run since then), and we will have to run every year going forward. He also incorrectly installed the Emergency Shut Off switch for the gas water heater in the closet that (had to be removed and was another code violation to be installed in a closet) that had to be properly installed by the electrician. Since he hasnt finished correcting the code violations from the previous two state inspections and the towns final inspection including sanitizing the well and system, he hasnt turned on the rest of the water throughout the house for us to be able to use it or our sewer, rendering the house unlivable. He even sent me a text stating if we have a bucket and a hose, we can use the flush if we check for leaks and get rid of the outhouse!
  **** started this job in JULY and as of February 17th, he has not competed the job he was paid for and what he has done has been poor workmanship (per the town Code Enforcement Officer and backed up by the State Inspectors numerous citing of code violations. He has damaged our roof in multiple places, drilled a hole in it in October or November for the water heater stack that isnt installed, fell off our roof and broke his foot (by not following OSHA fall protection standards), damaged the water heater, the sheetrock in multiple places and severed the kitchen/bathroom wall in half thus compromising it so we cant place kitchen cabinets or anything else on these walls to mention a few.
  As to professionalism and quality work, We have since learned that he didnt even have a current copy of the plumbing codes, (the one he had was 4 years old). In speaking with both the town Code Enforcement and the State Plumbing Inspector, both of them have stated whats taken him so long and that his billing is in question since he has billed us for the same work multiple times and for 24 hours of work in two days.
  **** quit on December 13th after I pointed out the damage he did to the roof after walking along the ridge vent and roof multiple times, as well as the damage in the closet and if it wasnt for us having to contact the town Code Enforcement Officer and the State Plumbing and ********** did he even agree to come back to correct any of the ***** plumbing code violations he made. He has since been back two days to correct the violations found on the first inspection and now after the second state inspection, he made even more code violations. This will be the third time the State Plumbing Inspector will have to come back, the town Code Officer twice and the second time for the Gas Inspector. Time will tell if he fixes them all then. He will still have to come back in the spring to fix the sewer line that he installed incorrectly. He also was not licensed to install any propane equipment that he did install and made violations on that as well that have to be fixed. He even did the gas inspection on his own work that had to be signed off on. I have also filed with the ** on that and await a response.
  In summary, the estimate we received from **** was for a bath and a half, all of the fixtures, the well hook up and sewer and we have paid well over that amount for work that is not up to code, poor workmanship and with no usable plumbing or sewer 7 months later for a one bathroom house.  Also with the way **** left all of the plumbing exposed and incomplete, I have had to postpone finishing the work a couple of times now that we are in the middle of winter with below zero temperatures each night. I had hoped to not have to open the underside of the house to let in the cold after having to heat it since December and to avoid frozen water lines and also with the snow on the metal roof that they be on to put in the water heater chimney.
  In conclusion, we hired what we thought was a professional plumber to do this work and rightly expected to receive quality work and workmanship that should have at least met the minimum standards for State and local plumbing and heating codes. That was not the case. Had the work been performed professionally and legally for what he was paid for. The work would have met code, been completed in the fall (at the latest as promised), and **** would not have quit without finishing our home and leaving us in such a bind and with a mess. Without having to get Code Enforcement and the state involved, we would have been able to live in our home months ago after paying **** over $25,000 and not having running water or a usable sewer.
  
  I have also enclosed a couple of pictures for you review on a second pace, Thank you.
  
  This is the text from **** the day after he quit.
  
  This was going to be a closet for my desk. As you can see, the poor workmanship on the plumbing and water filter above an electrical outlet.
  
  
  Businesses and Customers should be civil, courteous and polite in their responses to complaints. It is important to remain professional and productive when participating in the BBB complaint process.
  
  FAQ
  
  Regards,

  ****