C. Sellman Enterprises, Inc.

I set up a septic system inspection with Sellman Enterprises on July 22, 2013. It was for a house I'm considering buying in a neighborhood that hasn't yet been connected to city sewer services. They initially scheduled me for the next day, 7/23, but I ended up rescheduling for Thursday, 7/25. I've made an offer on a house with a septic system before so I have had septic inspections in the past. [redacted] Septic (the company I used previously) came with permits pulled which included original drawings of the system. I was told that they always pull permits for these inspections--the only time they don't is when the records don't exist with the city or county.

In the case of this second house I was getting inspected, I knew the owner knew nothing about the septic system. So, I called [redacted] twice to make sure they were able to successfully pull the permit--I didn't want them to show up and have problems finding the system (which is exactly what happened). The first time I called, I was informed that the usual dispatcher had the day off and the man filling in didn't know anything about permits. So I called again in the morning to make sure that the permit was pulled. The dispatcher ([redacted] I believe?) told me that their inspectors pull permits prior to the inspections so she assumed he had done his job. As soon as he arrived for the inspection I asked the inspector if he pulled the permit and he said no. He told me that when the dispatcher helped me reschedule he thought that I had canceled--he didn't realize that I was simply pushed two days.

Anyhow, they had an educated guess as to where the tank lid was so they poked around with a probe for about 20 minutes, then dug a 2-foot deep/2-foot wide hole for about 10 minutes. After that, they gave up and decided that they needed to go downtown to pull the permit. I was all for that until they started talking about all the charges I would accumulate... $125/hour for the truck, $25/hour for digging. I said I will not be paying $125/hour for you to go downtown to pull permits that I specifically asked that you pull in advance. It's an industry standard to pull them in advance. They left, we ate lunch, then I got a call saying they were not able to get the permits from the county until Monday. I told the inspector that that wouldn't work because my option period expired at midnight on Saturday. I asked if they were expecting me to pay any fees for their visit since I did not receive a good or service in return. They said they would have the owner call me on Monday to discuss that.

On Monday morning, 7/29/13, I received 9 calls from [redacted] (or [redacted]. He did not leave a message until the 6th call. I had no idea who was harassing me all morning while I was working. At first I was worried that someone I knew was in trouble but then I came to the conclusion that anyone decent would leave a message if they blow up your phone 9 times. I googled the number and sure enough it was [redacted] Enterprises. So I called Mr. [redacted] back. I was honestly expecting him to profusely apologize and say they would not be charging me. Instead he demanded $300, and said that he was going to charge the credit card on file. I explained to him that that was the seller's credit card on file, not mine (the seller was paying for the pump-out, I was paying for the inspection). [redacted] had never asked me for paperwork or an address, only my phone number. He eventually said he'd 'give me a deal' and only charge me $150. I acquiesced and said I would pay him $50 at most, to reimburse his fuel. He said he would be sending a bill to my business' PO box, which I will not pay. Again, I got no goods or services from them. The original inspection cost was only $250... and he's demanding I pay $300 when I got nothing? Sellman Enterprises dealt with me in a completely inappropriate way. I can't believe he wouldn't take the $50 and write off whatever other losses he perceived. The inspector [redacted] contracted told my realtor and I that he would not be charging [redacted] for his time because he felt bad about the situation. So he'd be doing really well to get $50 from me.

I worked in retail and restaurants for years. Neither me nor any of my managers ever treated a customer the way [redacted] treated me. What happened to 'the customer is always right?' My realtor and I definitely will not recommend this company in the future and we are prepared to go on Yelp and other comparable review websites if [redacted] doesn't remedy the situation.