Premier Construction & Property Maintenance

YOU BEEN WARNED – DISASTEROUS CONTRACTOR
This one is definitely one that many people fear of i.e. Contractor hired, deposit paid, contractor and contractor starts works and damages something and quietly walk away from the site leaving the home owner hanging.
Well this is exactly what happened to us with the contractor suraj I hired to replace a sewer pipe outside my property on my front lawn. I got his contact from Facebook marketplace and gave me a quote over the phone and next day came checked out the location of the dig and asked for a deposit to get an excavator. He got the excavator and dug a few inches deep before realizing that he could hit buried lines (Gas, Electric, Water etc…). So he stopped the work and decided to call One Call to do the marking. I was okay and the markings was done around 6-7 days. Kept on calling Suraj after to see if he could come and start the work but he was giving me the run around. Tried calling his two numbers and both were going to voice mail. I had no choice but to contact Suraj via Facebook chat. Of course asking him to call me fell on deaf ears, he made excuses that his phone was broken and lost contact. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and continue asking him about when he could start.
He finally said he would come on a date. I was glad we had some traction. The night before when he was suppose to come he said that he can’t find any excavators available as they were all rented out and he would have to bring in a bigger one that would add to the original quote he gave me. I had no choice but to go with it since I needed to get the work done before it got cold.
Suraj came the next day with the excavator and asked me to sign on a contract with agreed breakdown of the job. He also proceed to ask for more deposit which I gladly e-transferred to Suraj. Work finally started around 9:20AM. He had another friend of his on the site (just the two). Suraj started to dig and went around 6ft or so until he hit the main water line causing the water line to break. While noticing he messes up he quickly decided to back fill the 6ft hole. When I came out Suraj was already wrapping up and replacing the excavator back on his trailer.
He went on to give me water works number to have the main water line shut off. He said a plumber needs to come and fix the water line, while he said that he is a PLUMBER himself. I asked him if he will call someone and he said he will call someone and he will go and get parts to fix the water line. I told him I was concerned now that its around 10:20AM and this job may not get done today and my family may be out of water. He had no response. Meanwhile I called the water to be shut which was done around 12PM or so. Suraj by 10:45AM or so had already left and soon after I get an e-transfer for the 2nd deposit. I msg him again on Facebook chat and he called back from his apparently broken phone to let me know that he returned it because he saw me concerned (his words). I asked him if he was coming back and he said he will call someone. I waited patiently to hear back from him or the plumber and he finally msg me on Facebook chat that he doesn’t have any plumber available to come today. Which lead me to believe that he is no longer interested and this job was over his head because he has NO SKILL. By this time he provided me contact number to call to get the issue fixed.
I franticly started calling people but no one would take on this job last min, at the same time trying to ask S to call me but he wouldn’t at all. I knew that I am now left on my own to handle this. I was finally able to get the job done which costed me 4 times more than he quoted me to not only fix the issue with the belly in the sewer line but also replace the entire main water line from the main shut off till the house.
Suraj has no skill – the guy is a young guy who advertises himself as a plumber with 20yrs of empty experience. He has no value on how customers should be treated and after msg him back to return the original deposit he still hadn’t responded or returned the deposit. I would have been okay if he came the 2nd time and said this job is too big for me to handle and I will return the deposit and I would have been okay knowing that I didn’t feel I got ripped by Suraj.
I hope customers take note of other reviews here to avoid going with this contractor. HE WILL LEAVE YOU HIGH AND DRY. I had disable parents and small kids with no water in the house and a 2ft hole in front of my steps.
The silver lining to all this was that the person I called understood my issue and he went over and beyond to get the issue fixed and get my water back on. The other contractor that fixed the problem said all professional contractors should have main water line key to shut it off, the fact that Suraj didn’t shut off the water shows that he picks up jobs that he is not qualified to do so.
ONCE AGAIN I HOPE PEOPLE READ REVIEWS BEFORE HIRING HIM FOR ANY WORK. HE IS CERTAINLY NOT QUALIFIED TO DO ANY CONSTRUCTION JOBS.