I had a good experience about 9 years ago and a bad experience several weeks ago. When John first came to my house he managed a very polite and clean crew who dug up the earth around a portion of my foundation, did waterproofing, and also replaced mouldy drywall.
Recently, I noted water seepage from the foundation near the edge of the area that was waterproofed. I called John a few times before he called me back. Since then I found that I had to call several times and wait a few days between each call.
Finally, he came over, had a look around and said "The leak is not our fault, it appears to be coming from beyond where we worked. I feel sorry for you, I won't charge you a lot".
We agreed on a small project over three days involving work from the inside of the basement. John said $1300. I agreed. We shook hands and he left.
I called twice. A few days later his office assistant called to arrange to send me a proposal. The proposal was for $2300, not $1300. I wrote an email to John. I had given up on calling by that point. John wrote back to say: "After I gave you a price (that I would lose money on) we went outside and you said this is where the wall is leaking – where the waterproofing ended. The wall did not leak through Ascots job."
But that is not what happened. We agreed and shook hands on $1300 after he looked at everything. I never doubted that it was not Ascot's fault.
I really liked John and his company 9 years ago, but I think something has changed. I tried to discuss the matter with him, but he didn't reply in any way. That was 2 weeks ago.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $8,500.00
- Company Response
I'm sorry that we were not able to discuss this first as I did in fact attempt to contact you but did not hear back from you. I'm not sure what happened there. Unfortunately, my account of the situation is different than yours. I only looked on the outside after spending some time in the basement, and was under the impression I got from you that the leak came through the wall Ascot waterproofed (partial north side foundation wall). Once we went outside I realized the leak was through the wall that we never waterproofed. I told you it would be best to continue the waterproofing first along the north wall to the corner, but you informed me that my price ($4,000) was too expensive and that you planned on selling your home. So I changed my price to waterproof the complete wall from $500 to $2,300- because the leaking was not Ascot's fault.