Bath Fitter Franchising review: unethical behavior

In May we entered into an agreement with BathFitters of San Diego to resurface our downstairs shower and as part of the job redo the plumbing associated with changing out the existing valve components. We paid a down payment for them to order the insert materials with the remainder to be paid when the installation was completed.

At the time of the order we were assured that the installation would be completed by fully trained and certified installer including a licensed plumber who would do the plumbing part of the installation.

The last week of June our installer showed up and proceeded with the installation. The installer assigned to our project also did the plumbing. The job was completed in one day.

Several days following the installation the townhouse that adjoins our property noticed some evidence of water in the bathroom that backs up to the shower that Bathfitters had just done the installation on. Since he had previously had some water problems he thought the issue was in his townhome. Several weeks went on and on the 8th of August we saw evidence of water as well.

Since the water problem at our neighbors mirrored the installation by Bathfitters on the 8th of August I contacted Bathfitter's to have them check the installation that had been done by our installer. They sent another installer who was not a plumber to examine the work and he said the valve installation was not leaking. An hour after he left I called our plumbing service and they examined the plumbing where the valve was installed and found a leak in the feeder pipe just below where the valve was installed.

In order for our plumber to repair the leak the insert that was installed by Bathfitters needed to be removed and the wall opened up. The plumber found that the feeder pipe to the valve assembly had been compromised and he made the repair at a cost of $450.00. Because of the way that the installation is done by Bathfitter's the only way to get the insert off is to render it unusable, meaning the money that we paid to Bathfitter's was totally gone.

Because this leak had gone undetected for weeks we have had substantial water damage to our property and our neighbors. Our walls and the walls of our neighbor were water soaked and needed to be taken out. Our wooden floors also needed to be taken out as they were water soaked. Both properties needed remediation and were treated against mold.

To date in our residence alone were has incurred damages over $10, 000 and I anticipate our neighbor's bills will be about the same.

Not only do we not have a functioning bathroom all of the work that Bathfitters had done for us is destroyed. The work that they did was obviously not done properly and it caused a great deal of problems.

I have emailed Bathfitters on 3 occasions regarding this situation and have not heard back from them. I sent him the plumbers report and pictures of the repair that needed to be done. I also asked him to supply me with the plumbing credentials of our installer which I have yet to receive.

Had this installation been done properly this situation would have never happened and now we are forced to deal with the damage that they caused.

Do not go down the road with this company