Businesses are changing, times are tough, but that doesn’t make abuse acceptable.

Here in the office we received a very disturbing phone call the other day. A kind woman recently got a pipe and stone system from another company for $9000.00, which failed this past week.

As a professional it wasn’t the fact that it was a obsolete basement waterproofing system that made me angry, it was the following tail of what happened to get to that point.

“The company” (which shall remain nameless; they already have enough complaints) sent a crew out to do the job like any business would. The foreman however started acting strange and became verbally abusive to the homeowner. This went on for so long that the homeowner got scared after being threatened and called the police. The police removed the foreman and the crew leaving the job unfinished.

Calling “the company” they set up for a crew to stop by the next day to finish the job. Lo-and-behold, it was the same crew, same foreman, and again the same thing happened.

I couldn’t believe it. How could any company continue to have on staff a man with a blatant inability to be civil? How could a company let the same guy go back to job a second time, which got him removed by authorities the first time?

She confessed on the phone that she should have come with Pioneer, but I couldn’t feel proud at that statement. There’s no excuse for any person in you invite into your home to become verbally abusive and “the company” should have reacted.

So we learn two sad things:

1.) Verbal abuse by anyone you let in your home is not socially acceptable, especially a service company.

2.) Anyone selling a pipe and stone system for $9000.00 is over charging you.

A pipe and stone system for $9000 should be build by hand-forged steel made in the bowels of a Hawaiian volcano. And knowing the install habits of this “company” I know for a fact there is no wall protection and they use sand for a backfill that will help clog the pipe. You’d be paying $9000.00 for a product that will fail, period.

I’ll detail why pipe and stone systems are obsolete, why they fail, and the design flaws with using them.