My husband and I found Ecocor online and arranged a meeting to discuss the finishing of our basement. They were dressed in uniforms and appeared to be friendly. We asked to see some basements they had worked on but they made it seem very difficult (suggesting that most of their work were far).
Per the contract and per their advertisements, they were supposed to have completed the basement in 3 weeks and pay us $50 for every day they exceed the three weeks. They started our basement on June 6th and it is still not complete. We haven’t received a dollar and Ecocor (the owners Rami and Ahmad) are nowhere to be found.
The parts of the basement which were done by sub-contractors were done in an acceptable manner. But any work done by Ecocor owners themselves were horrible (very amateur work). Throughout the engagement, the two owners (especially Rami) were very friendly and worked hard to build our trust, which he did. He would respond to calls and promise faithfully to fix their mistake and miscalculations until the day we made the last payment – He stopped responding. By the way, when you call Ecocor Construction, it goes to one of the owner’s cell phone and he chooses not to answer or return your call once you have pail him. In our case, they were working on the basement for someone else on our street, so he answered our calls and promised to come on three different days – we cancelled our plans to meet with them but they kept us waiting without a call or anything. Once they got paid by the other victims on our street, they never answered or return our calls/text messages again.
During the job, they kept the place extremely messy. Even after they were gone, they left dangerous tools and chemicals behind (even though they know we have kids). The garbage container, they had on our driveway has ruined our newly done driveway, which we raised as a concern and they promised it wouldn’t happen.
As of today, the following are still outstanding:
• Electrical Permit never received – as part of their sales pitch, they promised proper electrical inspection and electrical permit. We never received this. We have no idea whether an inspection was actually done.
• Complete replacement of our floor (floors are bubbling - they said it was due to moisture and will correct itself. Once this proved not to be the case, they promised to replace it as part of their “warranty”
• Washroom mirror – not installed. Instead an electrical outlet is there, so a mirror cannot be centered.
• All doors make loud noises and cannot open smoothly (doors get stuck when trying to open them)
• Washroom light fixture not working.
• Door locks not working
• Range hood installed crooked and light on range hood not working
• Hole in the ceiling patched sloppily and covered with different color paint
• Backsplash poorly installed – large holes in the grout
The owners have a strategy – to share personal and made up stories (about how they are having difficulties with other jobs and losing money, to promise freebees and to convince you that you are the best clients so you can cut him slacks when they are falling behind or do substandard work. Also, their tactics help to persuade clients to trust them and pay them before they complete the job (pay them on the agreed upon end date, even though they are not done). Once you pay him, they disappears. They also tell you they are losing money on your job and are personally pitching in (part of the plight)
Beware of their tactics!
Additional note - the owners use their charm to convince you to write positive review before the finishing is done. As such, I had written a favourable review pre-maturely.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $38,000.00
- Company Response
You keep on asking for the electrical permit. We can't give you a physical electrical permit because there is none- you let the inspector in yourself twice on rough in inspecition and final. If you are asking for the electrical certificate you could purchase it from ESA (Electrical Safety Association)
And thats avilable to you at anytime.
Backsplash- please could you refer to the contract and tell us if there's backsplash on it.
Mirror- we purchase the rectangle mirror but both homeowners didn't like the style of the mirror and asked for a credit because you wanted to install and oval mirror.
Electrical plug on top of vanity. As you said we do it through a permit so for us to pass inspection we have to insure there's a GFI Plug which needs to be located there.
Doors - you said it gets stuck when you open it. If a door is off center it will give you problem when you open it and close.
Door handles - all doors are interior doors so there's no locks.
Hole patched- we did not leave holes patched and painted poorly. You hired us to do you basement is that hole in the basement?
Floors - what's bubbling we visited your home 3 different times and we did not see any bubbling. You contact us because you wanted our electrician to fish you electrical wires to your dishwasher upstairs.
And Lastly CONSTRUCTION BIN
We put 2by 4 wood on your driveway and put the bin on top. We usually don't fill up the bin because our waste is minimal. But if you recall you just moved into the house and you filled up the bin with your old carpet and all your move in stuff. Where we had to take our construction waste with our trucks. We have messages from you apologizing about filling it up.
So please don't shame us based on things that weren't in the contract and that we didn't do. We go above and beyond for our clients. But what we have learned that no matter what you do some people are never happy.
Thank you
ECOCOR CONSTRUCTION