First Day and the Incompetence Becomes Apparent

On the day (it was a Friday) of the scheduled “One Day” installation, the installer, (Oscar) showed up late. He brought a helper that we later learned was an illegal alien and not authorized to work for anyone including Re-Bath. Later Oscar denied having a helper at all, said he was there alone, even though he was with him at our home for two days, and we as well as our neighbors all witnessed this fact. We also found out Oscar was not a licensed contractor. It showed, what a hack. Being late, Oscar pointed out that they may not be 100% finished by the end of the day, but the shower would be usable; they would come back the next day to finish the “minor” cosmetic items they may not get to. We trusted Re-Bath and its employees to install what we were sold; instead they tore out the old shower and installed a cheap generic shower pan, not even a Re-Bath brand shower pan that we were sold as being such high quality. We were asked to review the wall material they were installing and compared it to the sales samples we still had. It was significantly thinner and softer. A case of Bait and Switch, in other words, Fraud in our view. We called Re-Bath. They tried to tell us it was the same exact material and thickness, but when you have both materials at one time to compare side by side, it is very obvious they were not the same. They kept telling us it was ¼ inch thick (0.25 inches). Not a chance, it was closer to 0.090 inches thick (well under 1/8 inch). That is more than one half the thickness, to be clear…
They lied to our faces about the thickness. Unfortunately they had already torn up our bathroom so we had no choice but to accept the sub-standard thinner material they brought. It was rapidly becoming obvious they were not going to be done in one day as we were sold, and that the shower would certainly not be usable by the evening. We allowed them to do their job uninterrupted, but when we checked on their progress we noticed they had installed the first wall without centering it. This was something discussed thoroughly with the salesman as the enclosure, walls and window are symmetrical. The salesman told me they always center the tiles to the wall, it was the way they always did it. The installer also told me he knew what to do and had discussed it with the salesman and had the drawings made by him. To not have the tile pattern centered (as it was on the existing design) would look awful. And it did look awful the way they cut and installed it. We again called Re-Bath and explained the situation. Randy, a “manager” copped an attitude and actually blamed us right off the bat for the problem for “not supervising them”! These guys sell themselves as the professionals, why should the customer have to supervise them when they say they know what they are doing? Then the two Re-Bath “managers” both argued “the way it was installed is the only way it could fit”. It’s a square wall they cut the material to fit. It fits however they want it to. By the way, neither of these jerks had even been to our home. Great customer service, blame the customer when you screw up. But the stupidity did not stop there… We had told Oscar to stop before calling Re-Bath, when we got off the phone he had already marked the panel with a pen to cut, again in the wrong place no less! We told him to wait so measurements could be made to show him how it should look. In the short time of about two to three minutes it took to measure the wall and existing tile and come back to show him his error, he scored it, and ruined that panel too. Unbelievable! Randy was called back and we (THE CUSTOMER! Not the INSTALLER who MADE THE CUT) were promptly blamed for the cutting mistake Oscar had just made too. Do you see a pattern here? We do, Re-Bath not taking responsibility for anything they do wrong. Next Randy threatened to leave our (primary mind you) bathroom torn up for four weeks if we didn’t agree to accept the crappy work and improper installation that was being done at the time. He even had the audacity to tell us we had approved what had transpired so far. We don’t know in what world one would think that multiple phone calls complaining about the terrible work that does not match the contract constitutes approval. We began to think he has psychological defects as well as being an apparent liar. Since there was no way to finish the installation that day due to the installers incompetence of destroying two of the three panels that needed to be installed, we agreed to have them come back the next day with new materials and redo and finish what they had started. We were assured they could finish the next day. So much for “One Day” or “No Inconvenience” as we were sold, let alone the sub-quality materials they installed. They were to contact us by 8:30 AM…

The Beginning of a Nightmare

Back in August of 2007 we contracted we Re-Bath to do a "One Day, No-Mess, No Stress, No Inconvenience” remodel of our small upstairs bathroom shower.
What a mistake it turned out to be for us!
The salesman showed up late both times he came over. We found out later he was not even licensed, as required by California State Law, and the Re-Bath of Long Beach owner was later fined by the California State Contractors board for that fact.
After we contracted with him (Re-Bath) the salesman was apparently either terminated, or came to his senses and left on his own accord, before the job was done.

We thought we had done our homework about the company; we had seen their national ads on T.V. and found nothing online that would lead us to believe they were as bad to deal with as they turned out to be. In retrospect we get a D- for that homework assignment… But considering the lies and cover up tactics this company showed us subsequently, it is not entirely our fault we did not find references to their abysmal work ethics and practices before contracting with them.

The pictures and samples the salesman showed us looked very nice, too bad it is not the same product they installed or the level of quality they did either. We even went to the local Re-Bath showroom, and the quality of the displays there looked good too. We did our best to be informed before contracting with them, but when a company is programmed to cheat as this one seems to be to us... Guess we should not have trusted what they said or showed us… 20/20 hindsight.