- Report: #662367
Complaint Review: STRAUSS HOMES LLC - Long Pond Pennsylvania
Reported By:
john & Damaris -
East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Not Confirmed
Why?
STRAUSS HOMES LLC
356 Emerald Boulevard Long Pond, 18334 Pennsylvania, United States of America
Phone:
610-871-0079
Web:
Categories:
Business Rating:
(0)
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STRAUSS HOMES LLC - LONG POND PA NO NO NO NO - BEWARE Owners Amy and Chet Excavation Work to clear our back yard resulted in extensive damages. Work not functional. Soil not graded properly and sloped toward the house, window wells buried. During rain, water came through Long Pond, Pennsylvania
Amy,
John and I 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 public records that we acquired, which include questionalble financial transactions, moral and business ethics. 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. As per Chet's voicemail messages to John, it was clear that we were dealing with prejudice, hostile and ignorant people. Your poor workmanship, unethical practices, use of the 'n' word in our home, and negative remarks about New Yorkers were a clear sign of your poor ethics.
As you well know, you never made us aware that you had taken corrective action regarding your lack of insurance nor did you even offer that as information or documentation to regain our trust. I wonder what the effective date of this new insurance policy is? Was it already in effect when you attempted to push other illegal contracts to us? You continued emailing us poor written contracts that were unacceptable to us for its unclear verbage and mostly because the terms were in clear violation of the Pennsylvania Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act (
http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/uploadedFiles/Consumers/HIC/Act_132_Home_Improvement.pdfI 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. Their situation lasted over 2 years of unsuccessful attempts to have you comply with contracts. Meanwhile, you had been promising to have Chet come to their home and complete the work. Once Chet was available (as per public records), you contacted the consumer and promised to have Chet return to the site and do what you claimed as work that was above and beyond the contract and not charge them for the work (THIS SOUNDS AS YOUR CUSTOMARY BUSINESS DYNAMICS AND PROVES THE REMARKS CHET LEFT ON JOHN'S VOICEMAIL MESSAGES). 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 working the machinery and caused some damage to the home that we did not even address. 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.
John and I, as well as others who have been hurt by your company, will join our efforts to make sure that we do everything that's within the legal means so that other homeowners do not experience what we have. I hope that our efforts, John's and mine, have at least resulted in better screening of contractors promoted by ServiceMagic and pray to God that your conscience and heart change and that you both 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 saved yourselves and 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 indignation and arrogance. Instead of admitting wrongdoing and offering 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.
Your apology and corrective action could have been less damaging and costly than denial. It is evident that when ocompanies and individuals that own them screw up, 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 that the Ethics Program of ServiceMagic 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 home improvement contractors and its human resources, including their top executives, managers and contractor relations personnel.
As you previously mentioned via a telephone conversation and as per telephone conference/mediation with Nicole Taylor of ServiceMagic 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 others. Keep in mind that there's a lot more information that we have and it might enhance your case if you're at least honest with him or her.
Doing business with you was of great disappointment to us, particularly when we entrusted our home and family to you, but we are counting our blessings and this one, as a life experience, we will use to our advantage.
Sincerely,
Damaris Rodriguez
John Phillips
3 Updates & Rebuttals
Inspector
Tobyhanna,Pennsylvania,
USA
Thank you John and Demaris for your report.
#2Consumer Comment
Thu, January 27, 2011
I was looking in that area and came accross the name Strauss Homes.
I can tell by the unprofessional manner in which the owner Amy addressed you with threats and then stated "I'm not saying you did anything wrong", that these are people I would not want to do business with. Amy sounded like a thug.
Buying a home is one of the largest investments a person could make and the last thing we need are unscrupulous people like this.
jetames
North Hollywood,California,
USA
GOOD LORD!
#3Consumer Comment
Thu, January 27, 2011
Does ANYONE understand what EITHER of the people are talking about?
My god, the run-on sentences, poor grammar, composition, punctuation andthehorrible syntax; I couldn't get through it all!
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT???
In order for anyone to assist either of you, proper, understandable English is and absolute MUST!
Strauss Homes
United States of AmericaUpdate
#4REBUTTAL Owner of company
Thu, January 27, 2011
Damaris,
Ifyou would like to see poor and written contracts, I will resend you theproposals you sent into ServiceMagic. One looks like it was written byavery young person.
You should also be very careful what kind of information you are posting about people on the internet,asthis seems to beyour path of least resistance,as it canget you into some trouble are not prepared to handle. Sometimes you need to think about things before you write them and that seems to be the case with you. I understand your situation and I sympathize for you, but they way you and John handled this matter is not reasonable at all. I hope that you may be prepared for whatever may come to you as a result of you false and misleading accusations. We tired every means to reach out to you and John.
Please continue to read and feel free to call with any questions, comments, concerns
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
