Hi Saul
You emailed me for a job to do the followings, in Jan., 2011
1.Your bathroom ceiling is wet in the winter and the fan is not working properly
2. your basement needs a fan
3. several programmable timers to be installed
4. loose and broken plugs
We talked to you and said the price is $35/hr per person for this job.
I asked you to supply the fans and programmable timers, which you kindly asked us to buy the materials, which I agreed you pay the invoice plus the time I spend for buying them
When I came to your house I used drop sheets and had my own ladder as well.
A.
Your wife said that the bathroom in the winter pours water in the winter and probably a water pipe is leaking.
I went to your attic which were full of insulations(I had itches for many days after your job due to the insulations in your attic) and noticed that
a.the fan is not safely installed
b. there is no vapor barriers for the fan, this causes the moisture in the bath goes to your attic, and freezes around the fan, thus causing looking drain on the roof. That was the reason you were saying a pipe is broken or leaky
c. Full of molds in your attic due to this water in the winter and cold days.
d. there was no venting pipe for the fan
e, no inulated vent pipe were used
consequently, I had to go to home depot again to buy the extra materials to make sure the molds do not happen again
I installed the fan according to all the electrical codes and building codes, and cleaned the molds by my own hands.
B.
Then we went to downstairs and removed the fan, but like your fan in the upstairs there was no vent.
I explained to you, we need to install a new insulated duct and have to make access to outside. I explained to you this takes several hours.
Which your wife called you and eventually you disagreed to do the install for that. Which could be nothing other than to save money at my cost. As you know I gave that price of
$35/hr/labor for total job not part of the job.
You expected to spend more than two hours and go to home depot with the company truck and administration time and return the fan and get the refund.
Which does not make sense for any company to sacrifice so much to make you happy. You know that it is too much to expect from us for the labor .
The price of the fan is somewhere between 30 to 40$, which I can not remember exactly
C. I showed the programmable timers( I am not sure how many) and explained the functions of the programmable timers to your wife.
I explained to her what it does is that you can program to work for on a 24/hr day,and what you should expect from it.
She agreed and said that is what exactly she wanted( I explained to her several times and even told her it does not make sense what she wants, but she refued to explain the reason behind it, which she was later obliged to explain).
So I installed them and to install them I needed to modify the circuit to make it work.
After so much work and the timers installed, then your wife said this is not what she wanted
She said she wanted the timers so that the lights turns on and off at certain times at night so that our neighbors think that somebody is inside the house and stops the burglary.
She told me to open all the timers and put them back in the original box and return them. And put the previous switches back. Which I said this is not fair to the home depot, I give you the receipt and asked you do the return yourself.
Before leaving the job site, I cleaned all the debris, vacuumed your house, and made sure everything is in working. This is part of our routine and we do it in every jobsites
After we left I called you if you have provided the timers, for few weeks, which you were only interested to return the fan to home depot(and get the refund)which was supposed to be installed in the basement.
During these times you never mentioned about the mess, or something not working for several months, until I saw your comment in the homestars, this can easily proved and verified from the emails sent back and forth between you and me.
You said you are going to install the timers yourself, although according to the ESA(electrical safety code in Canada, this is illegal and an authorized person should do it and effect the insurance if a fire god forbids happens) you are not allowed to. But anyway it is your house. If something was not working if could be of unauthorized personnel doing the job
You said you paid $600, for you it may look too much, but for a company although i do not have overhead like other, is not sufficient event to cover the cost, as the much part of it was for the materials, and refued to pay $35/hr/labor. You only paid 35/hr for two of us plus the exact amount of the materials which I had to make three times trip to home depot for them.
Is it fair for $30 to $40 refund, I use gas, truck company, 2 to three hours, and administration job to do the reund, which I even was not supposed to buy them for you. Although I did
Reply created 8 Aug 2011
