I hired Bitumen Insulation to install a radiant barrier and insulate my attic. I chose this contractor because I happened to hear Chris Burke (partner) on the radio on a live broadcast from a home and garden show. It seemed to me that if they were on the radio they had to be reputable, right? The radio broadcast, which now seems laughable talked about their "WOW" system because homeowners would get their electric bill and say "WOW".
The job was fairly well executed although instead of taking the one-day/two-day MAX timeframe, it took 3 days ending on a Saturday. Chris was there for most of the job and when it was almost done, he informed me that given the type of soffits that I had, the promised soffit vents would require him to drill holes in my soffit with a ship auger, and that he would come back the following weekend and do that b/c he didn't have the auger on him. Despite the job not being 100% complete, I decided to pay for the job anyway. I had just found out the day before (Friday) that my father had passed away and was preparing to go out of town, so I wanted to take care of payment before I left town. After the workers left on that Saturday, I went into the attic to look at the job and was quite happy with it. I noticed that one of the pieces of plywood in the attic was not screwed down to the floor properly and wobbled when you stepped on it. So I went to my garage to get my drill and some screws but could not find the drill anywhere. The drill was in a nylon bag, along with a spare battery, drill bits, drill chuck, and various and sundry other tools that I kept in there for convenience (tape measures, saw blades etc.). Over a period of several hours of turning my garage inside out looking for a piece of equipment that I always kept in that area, I concluded that it had been taken by the insulation crew. Despite my suspicions I called Chris and simply asked if he would check with his crew to make sure nobody had taken it by mistake, perhaps one of them believed that it belonged to the company. That was somewhat plausible since they had been working through the attic door in the garage. Upon calling Chris he remarked that he had seen a tool in the trailer that he had not recognized and that he would go the next day and look in the trailer. The next day, he did not call so I called him and he said he had looked in the trailer and that the tool he remembered seeing had turned out to be theirs after all. At that point I told him that it did not make sense that my drill bag was missing and that I thought it might have been stolen by one of the members of his crew. He said he felt terrible and that since it happened on his watch that he would buy me a new drill. I told him that I did not want him to do that (note: the day before in a conversation about his truck he had told me certain things which led me to believe that he was not in good financial shape). He promised to get with the owner and to interrogate the crew.
Later that night I could not find my $600 smartphone. Again, I turned the house upside down looking for it to no avail. It then became increasingly likely that it too had been stolen. I called Chris and told him that I had a very expensive smartphone that also was missing. He promised me that he would "launch" an investigation, talk to the owner and that he would get to the bottom of this and give me a call with the results of the investigation. However, I got no call. I called him and he very non-chalantly said that he did not know what to tell me. That the guy who was at my house for the longest period of time swore up and down that he had not taken anything. He added that this was the first time that something like this happened. He promised to talk to the owner again on my behalf.
So I left town for my father's funeral in what turned out to be an 11 day trip. 6 days into the trip I get a call from Peter Coleman, who said he worked for Bitumen and wanted to hear the story straight from me. I gave him the details and he promised me that I would hear from him, that he would get back to me. 6 Days after that, once I was back in town I still had not heard a peep from Peter. Sent him an email - no answer for three days. I'm then out of town on a business trip and get a call from my wife saying that she can't find her brand new GPS that I gave her for Christmas, which had been charging in the kitchen. Now furious, I sent Peter an email message telling him that and again asking for some sort of response - none. Called him that afternoon but the secretary said he was not there. I left the message with the secretary that I was very irritated at the lack of response, that they had had long enough to do the right thing and that I expected a call from Peter. Peter finally contacts me, although not by telephone, but rather by email. The email states that the investigation had taken longer than expected because every week I seemed to have additional items missing and that their "investigation" did not show any evidence that their crew took anything and suggested that I file a police report (which I did) and that I perhaps report it under my homeowners. He also implied that the items could have been "lost" or "misplaced"
I find it extremely offensive that any contractor would treat an allegation of employee dishonesty this casually and unprofessionally. Although it's not my place to tell them how to run their business they should have made all the employees who entered my house pass a polygraph test. What, did they believe that an employee would actually admit to stealing? Given the circumstances of the theft and what was taken and from where, it is obvious that the theft occurred. Furthermore, if I were going to make up an allegation to save myself $1300, why would I have waited until after I paid them $6,300 for the job? I only wish I had noticed the theft before paying.
Now, it's a matter of principle and I will not stop until they either reimburse me in full and apologize, or until I am satisfied that I have reached enough potential customers through forums like this, that they will have lost in new business many times that $1,300 they stole from me. Adding insult to injury, while I was on my 11 day trip out of town, mourning the loss of my father, I had to rely on my poor mother in law to check my email for me over the phone! I hated to do that because she is not computer literate and got very nervous but I felt like I had no choice. Oh, but it's ok, Peter Coleman told me he sympathized with me! Thank you for the forum to report this ripoff.
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