Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/02/2023

  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 construction company subcontracted Olympus Electric to complete the electrical component of my home renovation. Out-of-scope work for undercabinet lighting was requested. Olympus sent me an invoice on July 12 for $1,827.84. I questioned this amount since I provided the actual lighting and connectors for them to hook up the lighting. I asked for specific dates and times they worked on the undercabinet lighting, and they could not provide me with timecards or specifics for this work. Olympus then stated their billable rate was $135/hr. I was not aware of their billable rate before this work was done, I was not provided an estimate or a quote, nor did I ever sign an agreement for them to do this work. It became obvious that Olympus Electric was billing me for work already paid for by the construction company. I offered to pay Olympus $1000 for the work provided (which is way over a the reasonable cost/billable rate in WA). They declined. On August 1, 2023, ******** finally provided me with work dates that do not align with previous communications (all via text message). They updated the invoice with dates, but it does not indicate the time and what was worked on that day. It hasn't even been 30 days since the bill was released to me, and they are putting a lien on my home because they are overbilling me. Olympus has been entirely unprofessional to work with. I informed Olympus that I would consult a construction lawyer since they put a lien on my home. Their response (I can provide the text message) "I'm actually not spending any more time of my life arguing with somebody that prepares food next to kitty litter. Have a great time with your life being miserable in every moment taking it out on anyone you come in contact with". Olympus is unnecessarily harassing me because I questioned their bill, and they could not provide proof of the work and time spent.

  Business Response

  Date: 08/15/2023

  In response to ******************************* Markers complaint against Olympus Electric Group,
  Picture this from my standpoint, I have everything changed on my design. I sink two days of unpaid labor into this building just trying to make sure the job is done and we can walk clean... For out of the sake of reputation of the company I built on my own from the ground up.
  Multiple times during this project when ****** would come unhinged on somebody who was being polite and trying to do their job but maybe had the wrong information. ****** multiple times would say to any other trade after the one she had attacked had left: "Im not a b**** I swear".
  
  After these outbursts she would immediately retreat to her room because she knew you could not maintain a presence after that level of outburst. I finished my subcontractor job for ******, for additional work that ****** wanted completed, I decided to bill hourly at a bare minimum because it seemed like ****** was going through a lot mentally. Therefore, ****** was charged an hourly rate and the cost of materials. We worked 12 total hours for ****** outside of subcontracted work, on June 20, 2023, and July 10, 2023.
  Once I presented her the bill, she asked me to itemize it. I reissued it after itemizing it with the appropriate material and hourly.After ****** was presented with a bill, she again had an outburst about the cost of the job done. ****** then sent me a screenshot of a ****** search. Telling me that **************** electricians only make $50 an hour so I would have had to work on her project for 30 hours. This is an intensely illogical misunderstanding of thinking that an employee rate is what a company bills. Companies have overhead that they must account for when they bill customers, where a flat rate employee does not. I explained that to ****** as well. I,again responded by telling her what we bill hourly explaining the breakdown of the bill.
  She then proceeded to try, and bargain based off this rate that she didn't understand and downgrade our work. After I would not succumb to HER harassment about what I choose to bill for my company that own, again a company that she CHOSE to do private out of contract work, she then told me I do not believe that you were working on it this amount of time. I want the *** stamps that you were here, and I want the dates. I provided her again with the dates. ****** also has a security system that alerts her when someone is present at her house.
  ****** completely ignored this information and then moved on to devaluing our hourly rate. She then told me that she found a local electrician who would charge $90 an hour. I asked for the company name four times ****** ignored me every time. 
  
  She would not provide it. 
  
  Beyond this ****** threatened to call another contractor and have him come over and look at what I had done and bid my work,as if there is a set of rules and regulations on how we as private contractors bid jobs, there is not.
  
  Completely disregarding an individual who provides for his familys time as if he would want to join this ***** argument of an hourly rate and a material bill. 
  
  I contacted ****** under legal requirement to make sure she was not going to pay the bill before I proceeded with filing a lien against her property. She again demanded the same information I had already given her; the hours I worked and material I used. This was still not good enough for her.
  Every time I have given her the information that she wanted, or updated paperwork in the way she wanted it. She disregards it.
  I've realized at this point that this is how she plays her game, she enjoys fighting. As well as harassing companies that have done work for her attached is pictures and posts from her ******** page, complaining about another company and publicly blasting them. So, I took the liberty I'm telling her I'm not actually here to argue with you and I did it in a ***** way. As she has done with me, constantly requesting changes in documentation. 
  
  I have NEVER contacted ****** in a harassing way other than asking if she was going to pay her bill to which she took great joy in trying to get me to change documents and provide her with information I already gave her. I gave ****** the benefit of the doubt, I gave her the time to pay her bill. We as a company take payment the day work is done unless we have a contract or payment plan set up ahead of time.
  
  I have all the information proving that we did the work this is our hourly. I will attach the bill to this as well. QuickBooks software, which is what we use also shows us how many times an invoice is viewed, ****** has viewed it 11 times. ****** is in the wrong with this complaint and the lien filed against her house is well warranted.
  
  Thank you,
  Olympus Electric Group
  
  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/19/2023

   
  Complaint: 20409545
  
  I am rejecting this response because: Olympus Electric is lying about the hours they claim took to do the additional work for the under cabinet lighting. Olympus is making this a personal attack instead of admitting they are trying to take advantage of me by double billing.

  1. Olympus electric did not provided many different possible dates they claimed they worked on the under cabinet lighting.  I did not request GPS time stamps, I requested the hours and dates of the work.  I did this because all of the other work that Olympus did was under a contract with Cumberland Construction. 
  2. All work was done under a contract with Cumberland Construction.  Olympus would often belittle this construction company and call them useless and claimed they were incompetent.  Something I adamantly disagreed with. Olympus said this because they were angry about having to do rework for them because Olympus FAILED to follow instructions.  It isnt my fault that Olympus had to spend extra time.  Olympus screamed at me multiple times telling me how nothing is their fault.  
  3.  On June 20th Olympus was working on the wiring for the stove and fridge.  Olympus was angry and was yelling at me because they had put the electric box in a different place than what had been outline on the wall by the construction company.  They had also drawn all over my white cabinets with blue pen marker.  They did not do any work on the under cabinet lighting on this day.

  4. On July 10th Olympus did not spend 6 hours at my home.  I have security footage to prove this.  They also had a punch list of things they needed to fix from the contract with Cumberland Construction.  This punch list included things such as installing a fire alarm, fixing crooked light boxes, installing a dimmer, hooking up the garbage disposal, fixing outlets that were not working, cleaning up pen marks off of my new white cabinets and multiple other issues.  All of this work was under a different contract.
  5. I never yelled or screamed at any of the workers.  As a matter of fact, **** was the one who yelled and constantly spoke down to me a belittled me.  I would retreat to my room because I work from home and I did not wish to be subject to his abusive and unprofessional behavior. My home was under constant security because I did not feel safe with this company in my home unless the other contractors were present.
  6. I consulted a friend whos father owns his own electrical company and explained the situation.  He said he would bill $90 an hour for the work. He also said there was no way under cabinet lighting would take 12 hours to complete.  Olympus rate is way above average and is made up so they can get more money from me. **** demanded I tell him who I spoke to.  I declined to provide the name because I believe **** would begin harassing him as he has been harassing me. I believe he inflated his rate and time because **** told me multiple times that he makes $2,000 a day and is wasting time here because of the incompetent contractors.  I told him that was something he should work out with them not me.  I informed the contractors and they confronted him. He of course denied any wrongdoing because that is what this company does.
  7.Olympus has sent my family members text messages where he complains about me and made false accusations against me. They willingly shared this information with me.  I took the liberty of sharing the harassing text messages I received from Olympus with my family who agree that **** is messed up in the head.  It is obvious that this company has been stalking me on social media as well. I had an issue with Leafguard gutters because I had a tree growing out of my gutter that they refused to fix.  They have a no clog guarantee which I held them accountable for.  This has nothing to do with this case and is just another form of harassment and making this personal and not about business.

  7. I also noticed that Olympus did not work safely when doing work at my home.  I have constant light flickering and I am questioning their quality of work.  I will require their work to be inspected.
  8. Olympus did not provide me a quote for this work.  If I had known they would overcharge me then I would have gone with a different electrical company for the under cabinet lighting.
  9. Olympus sent me a pre-claim notice which I will provide to my lawyer.  It should be noted that Olympus sent this notice and the bill wasnt even 30 days old.

  In conclusion, Olympus Electrical is trying to take advantage of a single mom by billing me for work that was already paid for under another contract. I am standing up for myself and I will not allow this company to take advantage of me. I am willing to go to court or settle this matter if this company will not own up to their false billing tactics.

  It leaves me to wonder how many other homeowners they have taken advantage of.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************