Homestead Quality Mobile Homes, Inc.

Homestead Quality Homes sold and delivered a home for [redacted] in Saranac Lake, New York on May 7,2014.  Per our agreement we delivered home and  leveled home on older cement slab using leveling stands.  In addition we installed the sewer run from the home to the inlet in...

the cement pad.  We have performed this type of work for thirty one years on each home we sell.  As the owner, I was present for the delivery of the home.  Each customer I sell a home to receives my personal business card that includes my personal cell phone on the back.  I encourage each and every customer to call me night or day, weekends or holidays if there is any problem I can help with.  I received a call from Ms. [redacted] in March at the office to say that her sewer line had frozen on an extremely cold stretch of weather.  From experience of past situations I asked her if she had drizzled her water and she said she had.  I told her that that is the worst thing you can do because letting water drizzle down on extremely cold sewer line will freeze almost immediately and when solids or paper goes down it, it all gets clogged and backs up.  I told her we could see what we could do, which would be to take the long sewer line off and warm it up to thaw it out.  She said she had already hired someone (The company she works for which is a propane heating company)  They had already disregarded our sewer line rather than thaw it and ran a new one, a job that could easily be done by two men in a couple of hours maximum.  I asked her why she had not called me personally and I was told she just called her company.  It was not until after the work was done that she called me.  I told her that was kind of unfair because we back up our work and even though she might have created the problem herself we would have dispatched someone right away.  We have always responded to her service requests (See enclosed).  In addition it should be noted (per enclosed documents ) that the sewer froze while she had no heat in the house going through the belly which would have kept the sewer line from freezing—This is another situation that happened at the same time that she failed to inform myself or our company until the company she works for went out and fixed it.  She wanted me to pay this bill as well because her company put in temporary heat because they could not get the part right away.  With no heat in the crawl space and drizzling water and extremely cold weather this is a recipe for disaster. If she had called us I could have taken a part out of one of the homes on the lot and had her heat on right away and the sewer pipe would not have been an issue.  Ms. [redacted] had not experienced slow drains, backing up toilet up until that time, which would have been an indication of an incorrect slope to the sewer line.  Having said all that what I was amazed at was the charges her own company charged her (an employee) for work done.  I have shown both the furnace manufacture for warranty that bill and they couldn’t believe what she was being charged.  They are still willing to come up with a warranty amount that is reasonable to reimburse her.  I showed the bill for installing a new sewer drain from a “propane company” to a plumbing consultant locally and they could not believe their eyes. We have and will continue to give Ms. [redacted] our good service when notified.  I can’t fix what I don’t know.  I’m sorry that she had problems, we have always been ready , willing and able to help any customer with a service problem, whether it is warranty or not.  I feel bad that a good customer relationship  has been hurt by this occurrence, but I don’t know how to ratify that which we didn’t know about, were not offered an opportunity to repair (if it was our fault) and then receiving a bill after the fact, that (if we were responsible) was unpayable based on an inflated amount). Unhappily  [redacted]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. For starters Homestead Quality homes does not have their facts correct. One the sewer pipe freezing occured PRIOR to my furnace having a propane leak and needing to be turned off! The dates the work was done were on each statement submitted to them. Two [redacted] states he gives all his customers his business card with his cellphone on the back. That is fine if customers have the card available to them! I did not have the card at the time. Both my sewer pipe freezing and furnace malfunctioning occurred after normal business hours or on a weekend day. Calling his company was not an option at either time because there would not have been anyone there and neither incident could wait until business hours (a day or more after they occurred) to have someone sent from over 3 hours away to repair or "looked at" them. I told [redacted] several times (with no response any time) that the sewer pipe that his company pitched too much is still there (the same as it was set) and his company is welcome to come see for themselves. Third the company that attempted to restore my sewer found they could not do so after eliminated all other possible issues (frozen septic tank, clogged drains, etc). It took time to diagnose the sewer pipe to be 100% frozen its entire length from under my bathroom to my slab! The only option was to abandon the sewer pipe and run an entirely new sewer pipe over 30 feet to the completely opposite end of my slab (which is 80 feet long). The job required two men to complete the task and was absolutely not a 2 hour job! I may work for the company but their labor rates are fair and do not change. One technician was billed at $68/hr and the second technician was billed at only $48/hr. Lastly the water trickling in my one sink was to prevent my water lines from freezing and had not been trickled in almost a week when the sewer pipe froze. The trickling was not the issue. A proffessional stated the sewer line was pitched too much (at 1/2") and caused the liquids to run away from the solids inside the pipe. The solids got left in the pipe and froze! I still expect Homestead Quality homes to take responsibility for the damage that was caused and determined to be their fault (by a progessional plumbing company). Regards,  [redacted]