Tuesday, March 17, 2009

It’s apparently a national scam, not just local…

While doing research and trying to get help from anyone we could to straighten out this mess Re-Bath of California started and Re-Bath of San Diego perpetuated, we found an interesting and disheartening series of facts.

All over the country we found other people who have been treated the same as we were by both their local Re-Bath franchise operators and the national corporate office of Re-Bath in Arizona.

Testimonial after testimonial, all with so many common threads it is becoming nearly impossible to believe that Re-Bath is not just a poorly run sham of a company, but truly a scam operation backed by the corporate office. Every one of the testimonials that has progressed past the local level we’ve found winds up at the feet of the same people at Re-Bath corporate and the ripped off consumers are stone-walled.

It really does seem like they have a formula to rip off people wanting a bathroom make over.

The scam starts with complaints about the professionalism of the salesperson. If the consumer contracts with the Re-Bath franchise, they are overcharged, both in the down payment and the overall cost.

Next comes the part about them not getting the materials together in a timely manner.
Then they come late, are sloppy, usually unlicensed and rarely finish in the time the quoted. More often than not they cause damage and refuse to take responsibility.
This is happening across the entire United States.

Sometimes the workers never comeback and leave the customer with an unusable mess of a bathroom. Remember one of their slogans is One-Day, No Mess, No Stress, Blah Blah Blah. They are full of it.

Next the customer tries to contact the franchise only to be treated badly if they connect, but most of the time they are blown off by Re-Bath. Many times the customer is sued by the Re-Bath franchise before the job is done too.

Almost all Re-Bath scam operators pay their Better Business Bureau dues, so it looks like they are reputable, but we’ve found the BBB is not our friend either.

So the next step is for the customer to try to contact the corporate office after being blown off by the local cheaters. Here’s where we get some interesting alternate actions from Re-Bath corporate. Sometimes they are very sympathetic sounding “shocked that such a thing could happen”. Other times they are bullied or stone-walled. But the constant is before anything gets resolved, Re-Bath corporate refuses to help, they always back the franchise no matter what. Even if they sounded like they were on your side at the beginning. Keep pushing and they start with the threatening lawyer claims.

Here’s a call to arms for all the customers who have been cheated by Re-Bath. Let’s stand together and demand a fair end to this crooked companies actions. Make them take responsibility. After all they have always said they would, they just haven’t.
The internet is a powerful tool, let’s use it and take back our bathrooms!

3 comments:

b_dazey said...

Reading these posts makes me nauseated. We are just beginning our process w/ the local Re-bath indviduals re: things not being installed correctly. Do you think it is possible to create a class action law suit? There have been class action cases with as little as 30 people involved. ??? How unfortunate.

Anonymous said...

Well this month it will be a year since we signed for our Rebath installation. The whole thing is horrible. We are victims of bait and switch for what we did actually get and the rest of the job has been left unfinished. Many of our items are cracked, stained and peeling away but does Corporate uphold their warranty, no way! We have had to pay a lawyer thousands of dollars just to get those cowards to speak with us and now they want us to sign our rights away just to get them to uphold the warranty they advertise and are legally responsible for. If they do not keep to what they are legally obligated to we are suing them and we encourage others who have been cheated and bullied by this horrible company to do the same.

Anonymous said...

Former E. said, "I have a lot to say about all of this. I suppose the owners did a few great things for some people and had a good clean record. I was only there for Rebath's last year and it was terrible. When I got on I was replacing a woman who was only there for 3 weeks. She started looking for a new job as soon as she found out how the owners operated. The Springs location was closed for many reasons: the owners owed Rebath corporate (Am Bath) a lot of money, lead times became excessive, meaning it would take on average 8-12 for install once the customers signs a contract. The owner sold all of the jobs my year there and he would put 4-6 weeks, if not shorter lead times on contracts. I'm sorry, no ones bathroom got done that fast except for a certain newcaster from fox 21 local news. Another reason we got shut down was because many customers got tired of waiting 8-12 weeks when they were told by the owner 4-6. They then cancelled. So it took them forever to get their money back. The owners already spent it. When customers were given a check, the check would bounce. This happened all the time. Which is why the owner would bounce around town opening and closing bank accounts all the time. Employee and vendor paychecks bounced all the time. I think one of the main reasons that we were closed is that too many customers called corporate and complained that the owner was charging their credit cards without their permission. Am Bath stated that they thought "it was an isolated incident". No. If you gave the owner your credit card number, you were more than likely charged for the remaining balance way before product showed up to your home, that is if product even showed up to your home. Sometimes the owner would charge customers credit cards to other businesses he used, such as Televox, Hartung Glass, George T. Sander and C-Beyond to name a few. Another reason Rebath was closed was because the owner liked pulling off the ol "bait and switch". Wall systems came from Rebath but chances are counter tops, shower doors, shower bases and tubs came from Lowes and Home Depot. He and his wife pocketed the rest of the money to pay for a nice car, wedding rings, watches, 3 story house and numerous trips. In the one year I was there, they took 6 trips. Sometime in October they went on a cruise. While they were gone all of our paychecks bounced. We had to get paid from his elderly, legally blind father. After the owner got back, he closed that account and started another account with another bank. After we closed, 2 sources stated he went to Mexico. I noticed someone mention the name "Stace". She used to work for Rebath a long time ago. I have no doubt that "Stace" is the co-owner, the owners wife posing as former employees. This is something that the owners did all the time and it made the rest of us upset being used like that."