Ecocor Construction

My husband and I found Ecocor online and arranged a meeting to discuss the finishing of our basement. They were dressed in uniforms and appeared to be friendly. We asked to see some basements they had worked on but they made it seem very difficult (suggesting that most of their work were far).
Per the contract and per their advertisements, they were supposed to have completed the basement in 3 weeks and pay us $50 for every day they exceed the three weeks. They started our basement on June 6th and it is still not complete. We haven’t received a dollar and Ecocor (the owners Rami and Ahmad) are nowhere to be found.
The parts of the basement which were done by sub-contractors were done in an acceptable manner. But any work done by Ecocor owners themselves were horrible (very amateur work). Throughout the engagement, the two owners (especially Rami) were very friendly and worked hard to build our trust, which he did. He would respond to calls and promise faithfully to fix their mistake and miscalculations until the day we made the last payment – He stopped responding. By the way, when you call Ecocor Construction, it goes to one of the owner’s cell phone and he chooses not to answer or return your call once you have pail him. In our case, they were working on the basement for someone else on our street, so he answered our calls and promised to come on three different days – we cancelled our plans to meet with them but they kept us waiting without a call or anything. Once they got paid by the other victims on our street, they never answered or return our calls/text messages again.
During the job, they kept the place extremely messy. Even after they were gone, they left dangerous tools and chemicals behind (even though they know we have kids). The garbage container, they had on our driveway has ruined our newly done driveway, which we raised as a concern and they promised it wouldn’t happen.

As of today, the following are still outstanding:
• Electrical Permit never received – as part of their sales pitch, they promised proper electrical inspection and electrical permit. We never received this. We have no idea whether an inspection was actually done.
• Complete replacement of our floor (floors are bubbling - they said it was due to moisture and will correct itself. Once this proved not to be the case, they promised to replace it as part of their “warranty”
• Washroom mirror – not installed. Instead an electrical outlet is there, so a mirror cannot be centered.
• All doors make loud noises and cannot open smoothly (doors get stuck when trying to open them)
• Washroom light fixture not working.
• Door locks not working
• Range hood installed crooked and light on range hood not working
• Hole in the ceiling patched sloppily and covered with different color paint
• Backsplash poorly installed – large holes in the grout

The owners have a strategy – to share personal and made up stories (about how they are having difficulties with other jobs and losing money, to promise freebees and to convince you that you are the best clients so you can cut him slacks when they are falling behind or do substandard work. Also, their tactics help to persuade clients to trust them and pay them before they complete the job (pay them on the agreed upon end date, even though they are not done). Once you pay him, they disappears. They also tell you they are losing money on your job and are personally pitching in (part of the plight)
Beware of their tactics!

Additional note - the owners use their charm to convince you to write positive review before the finishing is done. As such, I had written a favourable review pre-maturely.