TransOlympic Engineering, Inc.

Subject: Response to Complaint ID [redacted]Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the complaint above. After providing engineering services forhundreds of satisfied clients over the past 34 years, this is the first time that I have had such a complaint.Let me clearly state that the complaint is...

incorrect and has been filed after repeated communication with thecomplainant in efforts to resolve her concerns. I won’t speculate about the complainant’s motives, but stick tothe facts about her situation.She retained a drafting service, not affiliated or part of TransOlympic Engineering in any way, to provide plansfor an addition to a used mobile home that she wanted to turn into a senior living home. The drafters sent usdrawings; we reviewed them, and provided a contract for the complainant to sign. She signed the contractand returned them to us.Based on the drawings provided, we performed structural engineering services for the addition. We invoicedfor our work and were paid. During review, it was found that the used mobile home had a roof that was noteven strong enough to support the local code required snow loads, even without an addition. This requiredmodification of the plans and an alternate way to connect the new addition to the used mobile home.Subsequently, we received a new set of plans from her drafter. We performed additional engineering servicesfor those alterations on the new plans provided to us and the revised engineering and calculations wereprepared. The complainant and her drafting service were notified that the revised engineering andcalculations were ready for her to pick up and she was invoiced for the additional engineering according to ouragreement and contract.We were asked to provide an electronic review copy for the complainant, which we did. At that point, we didnot hear from either the complainant or the drafter for several weeks. The complainant never came to pick upthe engineering. When the next billing cycle passed, we enquired as to the status. The complainant neverresponded, but her drafter told us that the project was too expensive for her and that she had decided not tofollow through or do the addition. We told him that if things changed, we would put the engineering in thefile and it would be available. We never received any payment for our additional engineering services.A few weeks ago, we were surprised to receive a call from the complainant. She was agitated and declaredthat we were “holding her project hostage.” I listened and explained that we were told that she no longer wasgoing to do the project, but if she wanted to proceed her engineering was complete, and that it was ready forher to pick up. She complained about the costs, and I explained that we performed services based on theplans that she provided to us and that during review, given that it is an addition and no plans for the existingconstruction were provided to us, things came up which required additional services.This is clearly addressed in the contract that she signed. The contract states that we are entitled to becompensated for our additional services. We do not have a menu of services with everything available for afixed cost. That is why we provided an estimated range of costs, not a firm, fixed fee cost in our contract. Thisis commonly done by architects, engineers, mechanics, contractors and other service providers.After my explanation, the complainant then became very agitated, unprofessional, spiteful and usedextremely abusive language. She threatened to “ruin your reputation” and complain to the better businessbureau and the state.As of yet, she still has not paid for the additional engineering services.If you have any questions or I can be of further help, please call me at [redacted]Sincerely Yours,TransOlympic Engineering, Inc.Mark J. L[redacted], PE SEPrincipal Engineer(State of Washington Professional Civil and Structural Engineer, certificate 33424)