In September 2007, we hired Chet Botch, owner of Strauss Homes, LLC to build a 2-car garage with an upstairs room. We paid them in full and they promised to complete the job within two (2) months. Several months later, towards the end of 2007, Mr. Botch told us that he would have everything finished within the next few weeks but the pouring of the cement in the garage floor would have to wait until April 2008, in order for the cement to dry in warmer weather. After that we had a flood inside the house. We hired them again to renovate the interior. They took the check from our insurance company (in excess of $40,000) plus we paid them several thounsands for some extras. The interior was never completed. Approximately 60% of the work remains undone. Todate August 2009, the garage is not finished. The cement was never poured on the garage floor. The upstairs room was never finished. The sheetrock that we purchased (in addition to what we paid them) was thrown on the floor by them breaking each piece. I purchased a front door in the Spring of 2008, Mr. Botch returned it to Home Depot, with a promise to replace it. Todate, he never replaced it. We call him continuously and he never responds. We email and when they do respond they promise to do the work in the next couple of weeks but months and years go by. It is obvious that they do not intend to complete the job. He claims to not have enough funds to have his guys complete the work and he has long spent all of the money we paid him. Please help!!!! We have lost everything to a con-artist.

Maritza

Kresgeville, Pennsylvania

U.S.A.

Click Here to read other Ripoff Reports on STRAUSS HOMES, LLC

7 Updates & Rebuttals

Strauss Homes

United States of America

UPDATE

#2REBUTTAL Owner of company

Thu, January 27, 2011

Heres the TRUE side of the story. Anyone that has any questions, comments, concerns, please feel free to call, email, fax, call our insurance company, whatever means you see to fit, to stop people like John Phillips and Damaris Rodriguez Coon, from posting this kind of information over the internet. These people should be ashamed of themselves!

John Phillips and Damaris Rodrgiuez Coon,

It is to our dismay that we must let you know that way you have went about handling your situation is and was very unfair. You took your unfortunate situation and turned into a personal matter and felt obligated to post false, misleading, and personal information via the internet.

The truth to this matter is that John and Damaris, is that you had a very unfortunate situation and we sympathize for you, but you turned it around and had to point to point the finger at someone and that someone just happen to be us.

The chain of events that lead up to your misfortune are and were disturbing and we had every right to question them. You tried to take away that right and got very defensive when we opted to seek advice from our insurance company and attorney. We were not stating that you did do anything wrong, but for the safeguard of our business we had to make sure any resolution we were to propose to you, would have been the acceptable way to move forward.

We were also informed, by a family member in your home, that he was not too sure what the fuss was all about as Strauss Homes did nothing wrong, but in deed the gutters on the home were clogged as well. We were flabbergasted by this information and immediately called and John and Damaris, but John hung up the phone on me when I introduced myself.

Handling our business in the manner we chose saw fit, made John very angry and perturbed. He wanted an instantaneous answer and immediately requested to be reimbursed for having FRESH START CONTRACTING in their home, before us, ripping it apart and putting it back together in less than 48 hours. Damaris had great concern for mold, so if that was case your basement would have needed to be totally dried out, they would have been blowers, dryers, etc which when we came two days later there was nothing! Well, my apologies, there was a small household humidifier. I did take pictures at this point and Damaris tried to state otherwise (that it took FRESH START CONTRACTING, over a week to put everything back together), so when I informed her I had these pictures, John and Damaris shortly there after, ended our conference call with our advertising company.

I really hope the two of you know what you are doing are far as posting very personal and misleading information via the internet. Strauss Homes has tried to reach out for John and Damaris on various occasions, but they hang up on the phone on us! Yet they state on the internet we are hiding and they are looking for us and wondering where we are. Well, John and Damaris we are right here. We are NOT hiding behind the internet, as are you. Damaris and John have posted middle names I have never had; they even went as far as to post information on the death of my grandfather. I have an email from Damaris, actually apologizing for this.

We/I have NOTHING to hide. Would you like to come to our office? Youre more than welcome. Would you like to call our insurance company and find out why your claim was denied? Youre more than welcome to. In fact I encourage you and any other person out there who is going to hire a contractor do their homework before hiring as well! Some of the contracts you sent into Service Magic were not even registered with the state of PA, and yet you have the impudence to say anything about Strauss Homes, when you hired someone anyway, who was not registered???

Damaris, you have your sister writing things about us on the internet and emailing us. I appreciate her sincerity to you, but really, you have gotten to use your Fifth Amendment rights, and have shown your true colors as a person.

You took our advertising company for a ride as well. You violated four of their Service Guarantees and deceived them into giving you $500 back. Anyone can check the Service Guarantee at servicemagic.com/serviceguaranteedetail. The one that stands out for us is #iv. not applicable for the work that extends beyond the scope or description of the original Service Request you submitted to Service Magic. EVERYONE, WE WERE CONTRACTED, HIRED AND REFERRED TO THESE PEOPLE BY SERVICE MAGIC FOR HAVC WORK. CAN WE GET OUR MONEY BACK FOR THE LEAD INFORMATION, PLEASE? Another one would be #vi., if you have not contacted Service Magic customer service via phone, email, letter, fax, or online live chat within 30 days following the completion of the project, which, once again, was not done.

We have obtained a 427 customer lead base from adversting,word of mouth, etc. in where we have 3-4 customer complaints. You do the math. I dont think that is too appalling. Being in business we understand you are not going to make every customer happy, all of the time. We spent thousands in advertising with Service Magic. Check out their reports online, some good, and some bad. Comes with the territory.

John works for SimplexGrinell. He knows the ins and outs of a business as well. He also used to be an excavation expert, and approved of our work, so once again, not too sure what your true problem with the company and personal complaints are all about, but we are more than willing to converse them with you at any time. You have all our contact information, so feel free to call at any time.

Respectfully,

Amy

Owner

Strauss Homes

Anonymous

cresco,
Pennsylvania,
U.S.A.

FALSE ARREST/DISMISSED CASE/IRS???

#3UPDATE EX-employee responds

Sun, December 05, 2010

Dear Amy and Chet (Strauss Homes),

In response to your "EMPLOYEE THEFT", i would love to see this file that you have??? Yes, you did have me arrested on a FALSE report of stolen tools! But you fail to tell people the truth of how the tools that i did have were stored on my property for 2yrs cause you didnt have a garage to put them in. The fact is that i withheld the tools that i did have (NOT EVERYTHING ON YOUR FALSE LIST) for wages owed! Nothing was "STOLEN", not to mention that you also got them back! The Commenwealth of Pennsylvania entered a Nol Pros in the case which means ALL charges dropped, No restitution, and NO criminal record!!! So, why dont you stop lying about that and deal with your pending IRS issue regarding the incorrect W2 and the FALSE 1099 form. A quick response to this situation would be greatly appreciated. You know my address!!!

Thank You,

Mark

john Phillips

East Stroudsburg,
Pennsylvania,
United States of America

Strauss Homes, LLC - Total Disappointment

#4Consumer Comment

Tue, November 16, 2010

Amy,

John and I waited for weeks for you to provide us, as you offered, your attorney's name. To this date, you have not provided us with that information. We have extensive documentation and are prepared accordingly.

During the mediation with your advertisor, we didn't have any positive expectations from you and Chet. We know that you could not afford to compensate us in any monetary way, but having you in our home, after all that's happened, was unacceptable, particularly given the fact that we know about what you've done to others and other public records that we acquired. We knew you were going to offer what you refer to as FREE work and not adhere to the blacks and whites of the contract. This FREE view that you have of us contradicts the statement you made about John offering Chet an additional $500.00 and our ability to pay Chet an additional $1500.00 for more excavation work.

We entered the teleconference led by your advertisor with an agenda containing facts. We were not going to get into a yelling match with either one of you. We were unable to understand what either of you was saying because your lack of team skills led you to speak over each other and disagree with each other. Nicole, the contractor relations mediator, was not able to hear you as well. You were not active listeners nor did you allow us to respond to your questions. Why ask them then?

As you well know, you never made us aware that you had taken corrective action regarding your lack of insurance for excavation work nor did you even offer that as information or documentation to regain our trust. We were left with the impression that you only had the insurance for CARPENTRY only as your insurance company indicated on their letter to you that was cc to us. Instead, you continued emailing us poor written contracts that were unacceptable to us, as these violate the Pennsylvania Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act.

I was analyzing the timeline of another consumer that Strauss Homes LLC ripped-off and noticed that your inability to comply with the contract matched the timelines of the public records we have. Chet was not available (as per public records), while were contacting the consumer and promised to have Chet return to the site and do what you claimed was work above and beyond the contract and not charge them for the work. This verbage is very familiar. The deception and losses these people suffered were way worse than the ones we suffered. The work was never completed, damages caused never corrected and these people were never compensated in any form or shape.

Also, the gentleman that started the excavation project to clear our back yard said to us that he was not completing the work because he had not received wages for over a month. This gentleman did not show the following day and both Chet and a younger worker were operating the machinery and caused some damage to the home that we had to pursue Chet to have it fixed. My daughter witnessed this and was frightened by the loud impact of the machine hitting the side of the house. Other workers at the site had also made very concerning comments about Strauss Homes' rip-off dynamics and that a lot of people had been victims of your poor ethics. Other very serious concerns were shared with us.

I hope that our efforts, John's and mine, have at least resulted in better screening of contractors promoted by your advertisor and pray to God that your conscience and heart change and at least understand that an apology and taking responsibility for wrongs is a business skill and like any other skill, it can be improved with reflection and practice. As owners of a company that serves homeowners, you should understand that apolegetic and corrective behavior makes your business more effective.

Keep in mind that apologizing and making amends are more than just good public relations. Something deeper is at work. Companies are edging toward a higher standard of accountabilityforced in part by a deterioration of public trust and wider availability of information in the age of the Internet. Indeed, the revolution in communications pushes companies to greater transparency. You could have spared your company's reputation with a straightforward and appropriate action.

Instead you denied, misled, minimized, obfuscated, and deceived us. Instead of contrition and remorse, you offered an indignation and arrogance. Instead of admitting wrongdoing and offering appropriate restitution, you backpedaled and offered cover-up. Your company and you as individuals would have come out measurably better had you taken a few concrete steps in the direction of apology and corrective action appropriate to the Act mentioned above. By doing the right thing, you could have regained your reputation. However, your denial is counter-productive.

Moving forward--we trust that given this experience, you enhance your business ethics and the Ethics Program of your advertisor becomes more effective as one that properly investigates, deters and detects unethical behavior as well as violations of the law to gain competitive advantages through improved relationships with cunsumers and other competent home improvement contractors.

I can't deny that many times it crossed my mind that you were constantly trying to do damage control while your partner continued making inappropriate and racial remarks in my home. I even felt sorry for you. We chose to have the situation mediate through your advertisor because of things escalated and we felt our conversations and email communications were ineffective.

Of great concern to us is that you are claiming that we signed an HVAC contract with you. The only way you might have a 'signature' is by artistically copying, cutting and pasting the signature from the Excavation Contract unto the HVAC proposal that we never signed. In my view, your claim is quite ridiculous but laughable, particularly while you attempted to bring this up and because HVAC is in no way related to CARPENTRY, which means that you proposed work without proper insurance.

As you previously mentioned via a telephone conversation and as per telephone conference/mediation through your advertisor on Friday, November 12, 2010, at 1:00pm EST, please forward your attorney's contact information to us. My suggestion to you is that you at least be completely honest with your attorney in relation to what you've done to us and others.

Bottomline--we trusted Chet and that was the reason why we went into the Excavation Contract. However, doing business with you was a huge disappointment to us, particularly when we entrusted our home and family to you. Fortunately, there are many competent and honest home improvement contractors out there and John and I don't judge them based on this negative experience. However, we know that next time we will not use Internet advertisors to hire one. We will do our own investigation. Overall, we are counting our blessings and this one, as a life experience, we will use to our advantage.

Damaris & John

Strauss Homes

United States of America

Rodriguez/Coon/Phillips

#5REBUTTAL Owner of company

Tue, November 09, 2010

Mr. Phillips,

First, when you are finished hiding behind the internet and can find it in you to either answer your phone or call us we are more than willing to speak to you.

Second, I have more respect for Ray and Maritza so I will not comment further on there issue.

Third, When you mention tools of a customer, I have no idea what you speaking of. We did have an employee theft and it is public knowledge as you seem to know so much about, so feel free to look that up as well. If you are interested in seeing this file I will be more than willing to share it with you. This mans wife, two years, almost three years, after he is gone still feels compelled to get her digs in. And god bless her, if that is what makes her happy then what can I do?

Fouth, I hope that you and Damaris Rodriguez Coon are proud of the people that you are. It was after the death of my grandfather and Damaris posting that on the internet that Chet said some things he did not mean, but he saw how upset I was about it and immediatley called you. You say that we did nothing to help you but you did not call us right away, we were informed TWO days later in the evening after dinner and yes Chet had a drink, but was not intoxicated, as you felt so compelled to post on the internet. We could not go home without seeing the damage you were claiming at your residence that evening, so yes, we came to your house at 830p. Chet and I walked around the property and say no signs of downpours as you stated, so yes our curiousity rose. The downstairs was stripped of everything, but there were no signs of water sitting anywhere, so yes our curiosity rose. There was a garden hose along the window you stated the water came in, so yes our curiosity rose. Only partial sheetrock was removed and IMMEDIATLEY replaced and there was nothing industrial size or any size of that matter to dry out the basement put in by the other company you had there.I would think this would be priority since you were so concerned with mold, if the walls behind were wet, they were closed in right away, so that would not have helped either. You have to say you can't blame us for making a phone call before offering you a resolution.

You said you had an emergency Sunday, and we were there Tuesday evening after receiving an email later that afternoon of you stated had happened two days prior. We came back several times since your allegation and after rain, no water runoff...

We came back on a Saturday and John wanted to attack Chet, and we were where there to help you, on our time and money, but you still wanted more. You wanted drainage and a guarantee that you would have no water problems. You live on a mountainside with a foundation that is cracked beyond repair, basement windows below grade, I felf uncomfortable doing so. But you as the experienced excavator stated that was the fix.

I usually don't respond to anything on here, but then again never have been slandered like this either, but I know that we did nothing wrong, and I will go to whatever measure to do so to prove that, and it won't be just buy typing false information over internet, nor slandering someone's character the way you and Damaris have done. You have owned an excavation company before (so you say), you are in business with Simplex Grinell (spelling), so you know how it is to deal with the public. I have all day to explain it to you, but not all day to convince you that the way you are handling this matter is absurb.

We can own up to our faults, but I am not hearing you own up to any. We honestly can say we offered a fix, I have to emails to prove so. Now your claiming $25,000 in damage but will settle with us for $8,000.00????

You know as well as I, that we were doing what was legally right and that made you mad. It made you made that we called our insurance company for help. It made your made that we consulted with an attorney. Mad to the point you went after Chet, mad to the point that you can not speak to me and would hang up when I was trying to work out a resolution with you and Damaris, mad to the point that you must stoop to this level to get your point across. I am sorry that you are such an angry person and can not delegate your repsonsibilty in this matter. I am more than willing to sit back and listen, if you can do so.

Respectfully,

Amy Strauss

OWNER
Strauss Homes

If this situation is as bad as you state, then let's move forward and handle it legally. If we come out the bad guys I will be more than happy to share that, but until a legal decision is made or a mutual decision for that matter, it is unfair of you to slander myself, Chet and the company in the matter that you have.

I feel good and confident about the decision we have made. We offered a resolution just to keep you happy, but I had to start to wonder when that was not good enough, then what would be good enough? We have reached out for our adverstising company to help mediate since you can not pick up the phone to do so yourself. You have agreed to this, tells me your are still looking for our assistance, but you were so quick to make all these accusations once again without a final determination being made.

john Phillips

East Stroudsburg,
Pennsylvania,
United States of America

Strauss Homes LLC Amy Strauss, Owner's Rebuttal Lacks Credibility

#6Consumer Comment

Fri, October 29, 2010

It's quite interesting how Chet Botch, aka Chester P. Botch, Jr., shareholder of Strauss Homes LLC - Long Pond PA, told us another story all together about the tools and never mentioned that it was a customer. Chet's side of the story is clearly another indication of lack of credibility which reflects on the integrity, culture, and reputation of your company. Also, based on Maritza's original report and some of the research that I've done, it appears that the work was not completed because as per Pennsylvania's public records, Chet Botch was unaivalable to do the work. I'm sure you have an idea of where he was--right? I take it that's part of the puzzle as to why Maritza's job was not completed. Take responsibility for your actions.

Strauss Homes

United States of America

Please Call

#7REBUTTAL Owner of company

Fri, October 15, 2010

Maritza and Ray,

We have been more than willing to discuss this with you. We have tried to contact you many times and we get no response. We also have very pricey tools at your residence we would like to get back from you as they also belong to not only us but other employees who have worked at your residence.

Thank you for your time in this matter.

Amy

Owner Strauss Homes

mikegeogman

Pennsylvania,
United States of America

Strauss Homes

#8Consumer Comment

Fri, July 23, 2010

Chet Botch remodeled my home as well. The deadline was delayed due to unforseen circumstances. He was paid in full and completed the job beyond my imagination. He was a real pro and always took my call with any concerns. He was referred to me by three other people he did buisness with. I have no problems with any work he did. At All. I believe your statementis lacking facts as to why this isuue arose. He has done work for me for nine years. Never a problem. Any questions, feel free to write.

Michael

Reports & Rebuttal