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November 30, 2005

Bathfitter, Bath Fitter, Bath Inc. Saga Continues

"The BBB has determined that the company has addressed all disputed issues and exhibits a good faith effort to resolve the complaint; however, the customer remains dissatisfied despite the company's best efforts to satisfy the customer."

In case anyone was interested in the resolution of my Bath Fitter fiasco, I thought today would be good cause for an update. The Better Business Bureau sent me notice of the pending closure of this case last night, and along with this notice, I was given the first opportunity to read Bath Fitter's formal response to my complaint. I have included here, my full rebuttal to Bath Fitter's answer to my complaint should anyone be interested. Suffice to say, if you are not so inclined, I am not satisfied with the Better Business Bureau's acceptance of the company's inconsistent reply, and this is not the end of the matter.

To whom this may concern,

In regards to your closure of case# 117***:

To be perfectly honest, I am floored by Bath Fitter's response to this claim, and I am very suspicious of the BBB's inability to see the inconsistencies in their version of this problem. I think it best to respond to each of Bath Fitter's claims in their response individually, as it is ripe with falsehoods.

Bath Fitter stated:

“Jessica had a bathroom shower in her basement that we (Bathfitter)covered with our acrylic wall and floor system. Jessica called the office the following day and stated that her shower was not the same quality workmanship as the one we previously did on her second floor, and that there was stains on the new carpet she just had installed.”

The contracts were in my name as well as my fiance's, although she paid the initial deposit with her check. All communications since the initial meeting to sign the contracts were with me, Andrew Bryden, and my name is signed on the contracts. I called the same day the work was performed to complain about the damage and the poor workmanship. When I did not receive a promised call back the next morning, I called again several times the next day before actually getting to talk to anyone. Jesseca never called.

“I told Jessica that I would like to come out and look at the installation and her rug issues and set up a convienent time with her. After inspection of the shower unit I did agree with her that the workmanship was not up to our standards and offered to have the installer come back and tear everything back out again, and have the installer that installed her other bathroom come back and install this shower as well, and she agreed.”

Again, all communications were with me, not with my fiance, Jesseca, as the company is reporting here. I arranged for Bath Fitter to come and meet with Jesseca, as she had time off from school to meet with them at my house. All subsequent communications, including those regarding the previous installer coming to do the redo of the job were with me as well.

“I then looked at the rug issues and saw 3 spots of silicone the size of pencil erasers and admitted our installer did do these. The other spots near the door of the bathroom were discoloration spots and I explained to Jessica that nothing we use in the installation process would discolor her rug like that, but we were going to have the whole landing professionally cleaned to try and get the silicone out.”

Bath Fitter took pictures of the carpet immediately afterward. I would suggest you ask them for copies of these pictures, as they know very well the silicone spots were several long streaks, half the size of entire pencils, not “the size of pencil erasers” as they state in their response. The spots nearer the bathroom door (which are closer to the size of pencil erasers) were not there prior to their visit, so I am not sure what they are implying by saying there is nothing in their installation process that would discolor the rug like that.

“I contacted a cleaning company in her area,gave Jessica contact info to them so they could schedule with her a convienant time to come out and clean her carpet.The carpet company called me 3 weeks later stating that they have left 6 messages with Mrs. X to schedule the cleaning of her rug, but have still not received a return phone call from her. They asked me if I had another number and after pulling up her contract, found no other. I in turn left a message for Jessica to please call the carpet cleaning place as well, so they could set up an appointment.”

These are outright lies. There were repeated calls by myself to Bath Fitter for weeks trying to get the Carpet Cleaning appointment made. It was not until I called Steve (at Bath Fitter) and gave him the number for a local company here in Falmouth that we received a call from a different cleaning company the next day. We are talking about a month of repeated attempts to get this moving. To suggest we were dragging our feet about getting our carpet fixed is ridiculous. If you can not see that, then the Better Business Bureau is not about consumer protection, it is about protecting its members.

“Another week insued, and I recieved a call from an Drew Brydon who was calling on behalf of Jessica to find out what was going on with her carpet. Mr Brydon was yelling at me saying we weren't doing our job, it has been over a month and nothings been done. I then explained to Mr. Brydon about the repeated attempts to contact Jessica from the carpet company as well as myself.”

Again, blatant lies. All contacts were with me, not with Jesseca. There was yet to be any raised voices at this point, and I never yelled. The majority of my calls were made from work, and yelling would not be possible there (even if I were so inclined). There was never any suggestion of repeated attempts to contact us, as we were waiting anxiously to get the answer we already knew about the carpet: that it was damaged beyond cleaning.

“Another 2 weeks went by and the carpet company called me to say the job was completed and the silicone marks did not come out. I then called The Carpet Barn to speak to Jessica's salesman on the carpet and explained what had happened, and the salesman asked me why Jessica didn't call the store, because they would have sent a factory rep out to clean the carpet and if the stain didn't come out they would have replaced it for free because she paid extra for the warrenty with it.”

“Another 2 weeks went by,” is an obvious attempt to cover the fact that Bath Fitter had been dragging their feet on this for weeks. I suggest you contact the cleaning company that performed the cleaning and find out how long it was between the time Bath Fitter contacted them, and the time of our appointment. It was a matter of days. As for Carpet Barn, the damage to the carpet was not a warranty issue, and Carpet Barn explained that to us. This ignores the fact that the carpet was not cleanable. It also ignores the fact that Carpet Barn (our salesperson, Mark) made it clear from Bath Fitter's first call to them (months later), that they could not replace just the landing at the bottom of the stairs as Bath Fitter originally called and asked them to do.

“I explained to the salesman that it was our fault and we were ultimately responsible for the silicone on the rug, but no, she never mentioned that.he salesman stated that the dye lots may have changed since then and that it may be an issue, and we might have to replace all of the carpet for $2400.00 and I should let him know because there was a price increase right around the corner on that particular rug, and we should order the whole thing right away. I thought that to be strange, so we elected to have our insurance company handle it from there.”

I have had numerous contacts with Carpet Barn (Mark) since this incident, the first of which was questioning the warranty regarding proper cleaning methods. I was concerned that the cleaning company might void our warranty on the carpet. Subsequently, Carpet Barn remained in constant contact with us and with Bath Fitter trying to get the issue resolved before the dye lots changed. By the time Bath Fitter finally called Carpet Barn to request the job, they made it clear to them (Bath Fitter, Steve) that the landing by itself could no longer be replaced, as it abuts another room and the dye lots had changed.

“Mr Brydon called me and stated he filed a claim to the BBB, and put a story about our company all over the internet on a well known blog down on Cape Cod, so everyone would know how our company really was.”

I have made no contact with Bath Fitter since filing the claim with the BBB, nor have they contacted me. My final conversation with Steve was at the beginning of November. At that time, I finally lost my cool and heatedly asked him how he would feel if something he had purchased was ruined like this. I then threatened to file a complaint with the BBB and post my story on a popular blog here on Cape Cod. Miraculously, we got our first phone call from an insurance company the next day. A week later, I had still not been contacted for an appointment. I then filed my claim with the better business bureau and posted a story detailing the terrible customer service I was the victim of on my web log.

“The insurance adjuster called me to find out the details of the claim and then told me he would contact Jessica and take it from there. He also told me that they were only liable to replace the landing area that was damaged at the time of the install, and not the adjacent stairs or adjacent room. I then got a fax from the BBB which I am responding to now. Our company does have a contract with Jessica X, and would be willing to try and resolve the remaining issue of the rug with her, but we have no contract and no connection with Drew Brydon, and because of this, are only willing to settle this with Jessica whom we have the contract with.”

I have the contracts in my possession. They have my name and signature on them. I am also the owner of the property in question. I was finally contacted by the insurance adjuster yesterday, 29 November , 2005. When the insurance company called and spoke with Jesseca, she provided them with contact information and good times to call us. Despite this, two weeks ago we received a message on our answering machine from the insurance adjuster (at a time of day when we had specifically stated we could not be contacted in person). The very next day, we received a letter making it appear as though they had been attempting to contact us without success. We received one phone call, and our replies to the number provided and to the number on our caller ID went to two different answering machines (one the adjusters home, and the one on the letter head to the adjuster's business number). The messages we left at these went unanswered until yesterday.

I would strongly suggest you reconsider the status of this company as members of the BBB in good standing. Either that, or the superiors at Bath Fitter are totally unaware of their subordinates' actions or lack of action on this matter.

I am far from satisfied with this result, and I question the BBB's purpose if you are unable to recognize the time line of this situation and the blatant lies being told by this company's representative. Were my car's paint gouged by a dealership or garage when it was in for service, I would expect it to be resolved in a prompt and courteous manner. The destruction of our carpet was comparable, and the customer service since has been anything but. My story of this incident was basic and did not go into great detail about the number of unreturned phone calls and the extended waits for contact from this company. I did not feel these critical to the relating of the story. However, this story is not simply about a damaged carpet that nearly five months later has yet to be repaired. This is about horrible customer service and a blatant disregard for the customer by this company. If the BBB is not responsible for addressing this, then what is its purpose?

Sincerely,

Drew Bryden
Jesseca X

Additional rebuttal emailed to the BBB on 30 November, 2005:

To whom this may concern;

In addition to our previous rebuttal, I think it important to question why we were repeatedly told after the carpet was finally cleaned on 23 August 2005 that this was out of Bath Fitter's hands and now in the hands of their insurance company. The insurance company never contacted us, or attempted to contact us, until the day after I threatened a complaint to the BBB in the first week of November. We were repeatedly told any number of excuses: "It is out of our hands, our hands are tied." "I'll get on them about it tomorrow." "The claim was given to an adjuster who was on vacation," etc. etc. These excuses went on for three months before any contact from an insurance company. Is it Bath Fitter's contention that the customer service issue is the insurance company's? Or, were we being lied to, and strung along, until I was forced to make threats of complaint and publication of these abuses?

We would appreciate these questions be included in our rebuttal.

Sincerely,

Drew Bryden
Jesseca X

Later, I decided to forward my own pictures of the damage, to show that Bath Fitter was clearly lying and attempting to minimize the actual damage to the Better Business Bureau. I sent another email this afternoon:

To whom this may concern;

This is just to give evidence of the lies told by Bath Fitter when they claim they found "3 spots of silicone the size of pencil erasers." These marks were permanent. The third photo, although not as clear, shows the orange, bleached out discoloration closer to the abutting bathroom door. The carpet was two weeks old at the time these pictures were taken. You tell me who is telling the truth in this matter:

Like us, you are probably wondering how the bleached out chemical stains got on the carpet if there is nothing that Bathfitter uses in the installation process that could have caused this. It is my assumption that the original Bath Fitter installer attempted to clean additional silicone stains off of the carpet with the nearest cleaner at hand, which was a bottle of tub and tile cleaner we had in the bathroom. It contained bleach.

The saga continues...

To read my original post regarding this mess, please click here.

Posted by capecodcyclist at November 30, 2005 03:46 PM

Comments

Posted by: Darla at December 5, 2005 03:12 PM

Posted by: Drew at December 5, 2005 06:21 PM

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