Strauss Homes owners Chet Botch & Amy Strauss destroyed our basement and turned their back on us, blaming us for their mistakes. That's their style as it is shown by other consumer complaints at this site and others. Chet has made remarks about New Yorkers; uses the 'n' word often; has left offensive voicemail messages using vulgar language and making threats; all recorded. They are known for this by other consumers and past employees. They accuse their customers after they create destruction. Shame on them!
Per contract, Strauss Homes owners Amy Strauss and Chet Botch were hired to do excavation work and they had no insurance for it. They were to to clear our back yard, create swales and tie them to the street drainage. The disturbed soil was poorly graded, sloped toward the house, our basement window wells were buried, swales were not created. They claim they were supposed to tie our swales (which they didn't create in the first place) to our neighbors swales. Our neighbors did not sign a contract to authorize tying our swales to theirs.in fact, our neighbors had to threaten Chet with the police for dirty work and other unethical and inappropriate beheavior.
We moved into our home during rainy season and had no water problems. We visited the home while under contract and during rainy days and there were no water problems. The yard had swales that took care of water drainage. It was disturbed with Chet's excavation that he was supposed to re-grade; it is required when doing excavation work. He did not. The worker he hired to do the excavation work and started the work did not return to the site because Chet did not pay him his wages. This worker warned us about Amy's and Chet's rip-off style, but we had already begun the work and prayed that things would turn out okay. The results? Chet had to continue the excavation work himself. Obviously, his workmanship was a disaster. The result? During a rainy day, water came through our basement windows, flooding our basement and causing extensive damages.
We called Amy & Chet the morning after the flood when we learned the cause of it to be that of Strauss Homes poor work. We tried contacting them by phone and emails; asked them to correct it; they refused to do what was right. Their insurance company had denied the claim as STRAUSS HOMES HAD NO EXCAVATION INSURANCE. We were in no position to allow them to return after all our findings and the illegal contracts they attempted to propose.
Strauss Homes did not do anything to regain our trust. What they consider help might be the several attempts to have us sign other contracts that did not adhere to the PA Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act. They also claim we signed an HVAC contract. False. We never did. Thats FRAUD. We were in no position to allow them to return to our property after all our findings and the illegal contracts they tried to propse. We have sought legal counsel.
If Strauss Homes owners give you a price on a job that is too good to be true, then it is too good to be true. We ended up paying much more than the work proposed and had to them and having to pay others to clean after their mess.
We also entered into a mediation process with their advertiser, ServiceMagic, and these two people lied so much they could not agree on their stories during the teleconference. They were yelling at each other and speaking over each other. What a poor team they are! They also claimed we signed an HVAC contract. False. We never did. Thats FRAUD. We did not continue the conference as they obviously don't have the ethics to hold a professional discussion.
We have discovered other consumers that this couple have ripped-off and a lot of the emails these people exchanged with us and other consumers indicate how they can't keep up with their lies. Their statements are very contradicting. We have a lot of documentation and the other consumers do too. We have sought legal counsel.
We entrusted our home to Strauss Homes and paid a high price for it. We have chosen to tell our story to the public because it is a public matter that Amy and Chet want to keep private. We have nothing to hide. What are they hiding? See public records under their names and you'll see for yourselves.
DON'T BECOME THEIR VICTIM. If Strauss Homes owners Amy and Chet give you a price on a job that is too good to be true, then it is too good to be true. We ended up paying much, more than the work proposed and had to them and having to pay others to clean after their mess.
We don't judge other contractors based on our experience with Strauss Homes. Amy and Chet are unethical and post remarks blaming consumers. An honest professional contractor takes responsibility for mistakes & corrects it.
CONSUMERS BEWARE! Make sure contractors are fully insured, ask to see their policy, ID, make sure their business location or office is a real building; not a box or vacant lot like Strauss Homes has. If you become a victim, don't let them get away!
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