Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Oh Joy! We Get To Deal With A Subordinate Who Has No Real Authority And Only Wants to Cheat Us Out Of The Reimbursement They Owe Us

We’re sorry, is that too bitter sounding? (Yes, that is sarcasm again.) Well suffice to say that if it happened to you those would probably be the same emotions you’d have!

Soooo…, (yes, it is very exhausting to deal with these cheats), we sent an email (below) and we were in standard characteristically Re-Bath fashion ignored, so we re-sent it (on the same day) June 16th, 2008 with a little preface just to help Heidi along.
Courtesy is not a trait Re-Bath employee’s embrace.
Nothing like dealing with someone who has decided to go out of their way to cheat and screw you for being unlucky enough to have only done business with them in good faith...


“We have not received a response from you in the four hours since we originally sent this. Please contact us, at the very least, verify receipt. You say you want to resolve this quickly, yet you do not take any action in that direction.
Heidi, Norm said you are now handling the reimbursement of the damages. We would like to know when we can expect the money owed us by Re-Bath for the damage caused by the water leak Re-Bath of CA created. It is not fair to continue to cause us inconveniences.
Re-Bath said it would remedy the situation, but has not. To refresh you on the situation, $5050.00 covers the water damage. It is owed to us. Re-Bath, by law, must pay for the damages they caused. It is not negotiable. The lifetime warranty in writing is required, (from an email you sent us:

“Upon your agreement to the completion of the above work, San Diego Re-Bath will order the required materials and contact you to schedule the installation. Once the above installation is complete, you will receive the Re-Bath Limited Lifetime Warranty on the materials used. San Diego Re-Bath will offer their standard workmanship/labor warranty of one year.” ). A copy of the invoices from Pat's Pronto Plumbing for the work they did in our home is also required.If Re-Bath wishes to pay the partial out of pocket expenses we incurred because of Re-Bath CA for the total of $8130.00, we will release Re-Bath from the warranty responsibility. We still require a copy of the invoices from Pat's Pronto Plumbing.Re-Bath has already been sent release agreements for both options. We wish Re-Bath would uphold the commitment made by Norm Murdock in an earlier email:
"We would like to resolve these issues quickly to avoid any further delay & make sure you are fully satisfied."
That quote was sent to us almost one full month ago, yet still these issues have not been resolved. And we are certainly not satisfied because of that. We have provided everything we were asked to. Please find a way to resolve this now. You have my contact number; you obviously have my email address. Please contact me ASAP.”

"We would like to resolve these issues quickly to avoid any further delay & make sure you are fully satisfied." What a lie that line is! Yes, we’ve said it before, but they are the ones who lied by stating it.

For those keeping track of our time Re-Bath has wasted, this horror story has been running now for over 36 weeks. That would be 255 days. Closing in on 9 months.

For Heavens sake, it would have been easier to make a baby (certainly quicker) than it is to have Re-Bath do a One Day Installation. Good Grief! What a bunch of liars and cheats! Our recommendation: Do Not Deal With Re-Bath!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was going to use Rebath and then I read all of your blog to see if this was something I wanted to do; I got caught up in the drama. I think the Rebath San Diego or Presto Plumbing from the information I gleamed is the one that caused the damage to your home, I cant see from your explanation were Rebath California had anything to do with the work after the first installation but you continue to demand something from them. I think this is where you are losing the parent company. You might have better luck going after Rebath San Diego unless the two dealers are one and the same? Just my thoughts.

HelpfulHal said...

We thank you for posting your thoughts. But in response to your assertion that only Re-Bath of San Diego (or Pronto Plumbing) is responsible for the damage, we must say no, that is not the case.
It was the original attempt to “improve” our bathroom by Re-Bath of California that caused the leak that destroyed our ceiling. They created the problems and refused to do anything but lie to us (and the Better Business Bureau) about what they sold us, and refused to even finish the job when they were caught trying to cheat us.

Remember, this was sold as a One Day installation. And they had the audacity to sue us for payment of a job they not only did not complete, but did very shoddy work. Of course they lost that case, but they wasted our time instead of doing the honorable and correct things.
(Too bad they also just got slapped with fine by the California State Contractors License Board for some of the offenses they foisted upon us. We are pleased there is some justice here, but think they deserve even more punishment because we are not the only ones that have been screwed by Re-Bath of CA.)

To clarify the situation, in case you do not wish to re-read, and also to elucidate others who may be reading this:
That outfit is nothing but a bunch of liars and cheats that used bait and switch tactics to sell their low quality facade at an enormously overpriced rate predicated on a “One Day, No Mess, No Stress, and No Inconvenience” installation.
They did not even install the same thickness or composition of material the unlicensed and untruthful salesman left at our home as a sample of what they would be installing, let alone do the job without creating a colossal mess and causing us immense stress and inconvenience.
Randy Summy who claimed to be the owner (when it suited him) was even more dishonest (and rude beyond belief) than the salesman. And he blamed us for every problem his incompetent, unlicensed installers created just hours into the original (botched) installation. He even contradicted himself in conversations we had with him, yet stuck to his lying to suit his agenda of the moment.

Re-Bath of San Diego did make it worse when they attempted to repair the leak, but damage had already been done by Re-Bath of CA, and that is who we had the contract with.
Pronto Plumbing was called in to repair the leaks that Re-Bath caused. It was never our contention that Proto Plumbing was responsible for the damage the water leak caused. They did fix the leak after the damage to the ceiling was done.

Re-Bath of CA caused a lot of damage to our home initially, and never finished the job, we did not know about the leak they caused for months, until Re-Bath of San Diego found it. But we did contact Re-Bath Corporate the first business day after we realized what a crock that Re-Bath of CA franchise was; only three days after they first showed up (late as always).

Re-Bath of San Diego made a very bad situation even worse, and Re-Bath corporate was there to support them all the way, not help us. They made it sound like they were going to help us, but in fact all they did was stall and hide (not answering phone calls or emails, rarely calling back) until it became a total disaster. They could have helped early on, (As they really made it sound like hey would… Don’t believe the lies they tell for a minute, even their T.V. ads are full of lies.), and saved everyone involved a lot of work, time, hassles, money and distress, but no! That is not the way Re-Bath works. They are taught and or programmed to screw the consumer as we have found out first hand and second hand too….

While we don’t believe the two franchises are directly operated by the same people, they are both franchises to a common parent corporate company that is just as bad, if not worse, depending on how you look at it.
It is becoming very apparent that the corporate side of Re-Bath is the common denominator for all the problems the franchises cause consumers.
They back the “independent” cheaters that operate the franchises.
They do not help the victimized customers, they are in it part and parcel with the franchises to rip-off the consumer.

And after researching this more, we have found an amazing similarity of the offenses perpetrated by Re-Bath franchises all over the country as were committed to us, all supported by Re-Bath corporate. So appealing to the corporate side did nothing but teach us that they are as dishonest as the franchise operators. And all were as vindictive as all hell to boot.

HelpfulHal said...

Going after Re-Bath of San Diego is not an option as they lied to us by saying they would provide the legal paperwork we required, but actually then refused to once they realized we knew what sort of sham outfit Re-Bath is. Another good rip-off tactic by them orchestrated by Re-Bath corporate no doubt. They both said the other would take care of it, and then they both lied and both refused to honor their promises.

But the point of this blog is not to seek retribution from these swindlers, (because that would be like trying to get blood from a stone), but to inform and hopefully help other potential consumers from falling prey to this company’s scams and illegal practices.

Anonymous said...

I re-read you post. And I checked on Rebath San Diego, they are the ones who gave me an estimate. It doesnt appear they have a plumbing license but only a C61 plastics not plumbing and you said they replaced a better shower pan and shower valve for the low quality ones Rebath California installed. This one was the one that leaked and caused damaged to your cieling. Then, Pronto Plumbing fixed Rebath San Diego work. I dont know why but I made a Rubic of this so I could understand it better. You may want to contact the contractor board about the unlicensed work done by Rebath San Diego also.

Anonymous said...

To continue my last comment, I think I see your problem. Rebath the parent company offered to do something for you for free and used San Diego to do it. You cant complain to the contractor board because you dont have a contract with any of them. Just a gift so when Diego didnt do a adaquate job they hired Pronto. If you would have paid something to any of them however small then you moved from a gift to something for hire. Something like your neighbor helping you with a project when he doesnt have a contractor license then not doing a good job on it. There is just no one to complain to. It not like you can withhold payment. You might be able to get something for the damage but most likely you need to file on your homeowners insurance.

Goodluck. I dont think you are going to get what you are after. Unless, you can get San Diego to cash a check. But I am wrong so often.

HelpfulHal said...

Yes, you are correct in that Re-Bath of San Diego does not have a plumbing license. (Neither does Re-Bath of California.)
Re-Bath of San Diego installed the style and type of shower pan we were sold by Re-Bath of California; you may recall they used bait and switch tactics. Re-Bath of CA did not install a Re-Bath brand shower pan, but instead a cheap-o low end thin one that was the cheapest one sold by Home Depot. You may have seen other complaints about Re-Bath and Home Depot, apparently they were, or maybe still are connected somehow in some areas. And the nightmares people describe of what they went through by contracting that combo are just like we endured.

Our guess is was a left over pan Re-Bath of CA thought they could install and raise their profit margin even higher at the expense of the quality they originally claimed to sell us. Just a guess, but considering the facts we know, we think it is very likely an accurate assumption.

Re-Bath of San Diego however did not replace the shower valve. They made the connecting joints to it worse and made a slow leak into a faster leak. And they lied about it to boot.

Pronto did repair the leaks caused by both Re-Bath of CA and Re-Bath of SD, but well after the damage was done and it was like pulling teeth to get anything done. While we are hopeful the repairs done by Pronto Plumbing were done well, we were very disappointed in the ethics they displayed too. Never on time, hard-sell attempts for things we did not need, (and had nothing to do with the tasks at hand), even lied to us about some of the materials they used, just not a professional experience as we experienced it.

We have passed the appropriate information onto the Contractors License Board about Re-Bath of San Diego, and Re-Bath of California. They will get what they have brought upon themselves in due time.

HelpfulHal said...

Nothing is for free when dealing with Re-Bath, and if you think this was a gift, think again. We think the only reason Re-Bath corporate offered to help is because of the massive mess and the obvious fraud and lies we were treated to by Re-Bath of Ca, and they knew we would not take it lying down.
Sadly, it appears no Re-Bath franchise is able to install what they sell or do what they claim to be able to do. We repeatedly asked for a contract, but Re-Bath of SD claimed it would come from corporate, and after dragging their feet, corporate said they weren’t doing the work so we would have to get it from SD, who in turn “forgot” to bring it each time they came.

When we tried to pin them down, Re-Bath corporate said our contract was with Re-Bath of CA, who will not warranty Re-Bath SD’s work or their own work for that matter either! Re-Bath SD seemed to agree since it relieved them of responsibility.

WHAT A BUNCH OF LIARS AND CHEATERS!

It was all an end run around the contracting laws to keep them protected from prosecution by the State Board for working without a license and doing very shoddy work.
Supposedly our warrantee is with Re-Bath corporate now. But with no franchise capable of doing any quality work, and the way we were treated by all Re-Bath agents, please, tell us how much value does it really hold?

And to clarify, Pronto was only brought in because Re-Bath was caught red-handed doing unlicensed plumbing (and doing it badly) that caused thousands of dollars of damage to our home and they knew they were on the hook for it. Pronto only worked on the pipes, they did not finish the job for Re-Bath SD and did no cosmetic or finishing work except for caulking the escutcheon to the wall. But unfortunately that had to be redone since the plumber lied to us when he said the caulk would dry clear. Instead, it dried white and was not a very good caulking job either.
Why do so many people associated with Re-Bath have to lie? And to our faces even when it is obvious they are lying!? It’s not like it would have been that hard to do the caulking neatly, and with the right material. Yes, we are annoyed, to say he least!

And lastly, thank you for your positive wishes on a resolution, please stay tuned as there is more to this story to come…