Perma-seal basement systems reviews and complaints

WARNING: Read the contract very carefully. The final clause in the contract is an Arbitration Clause that dictates any and all disputes must be handled through a mandatory arbitration. This means if and when they perform their shoddy work on your basement or crawlspace, YOU CANNOT SEEK LEGAL ACTION AGAINST THEM in a court of law. I tried and failed. The cost of this mandatory arbitration is currently $775 for any claim between $0 and $10, 000, plus another $200 final fee for any case that proceeds to a hearing. How many consumers can afford to spend another $1000 when they've already spent several thousand? Especially when you can t expect to recoup all of your money, even if you were to resolve your dispute through arbitration.

Do your homework on this company. Reading reviews such as this is a good step. I foolishly relied on their A+ Better Business Bureau rating, but have since learned that Roy Spencer, president of Perma-Seal, is also the chairman of the board of the BBB of Northern Illinois and Chicago. Feel free to draw your own conclusions on that. The overwhelming majority of reviews of Perma-Seal on sites such as this are negative. It is a rarity to find a 4 or 5 star review.

Briefly, our experience with this company was that their salesman lied to us about them leveling out the uneven dirt floor in our crawlspace. We were later told they don't do that. It also wasn't until after the work had been done that we were informed that the base of the concrete support pillars in our crawl being uneven with the ground wouldn't allow them to tighten the plastic they had laid and that we d be stuck with a floor that looks like an unmade bed. Perma-Seal performed service calls on two occasions to attempt to address our complaints and both times we were told that there was nothing more they could do. Instead, we were told that our crawlspace looked good "for a dirt crawl". Yet when we were sold on this system, there was never any qualifier that it would only look good for a dirt crawl. I paid $4500 for it to look good. Period. The dirt crawl displayed in their promotional materials looks good. It's not unreasonable that I expect mine to look comparable.

If our crawlspace were in good shape to begin with, we would've had no need for a company such as Perma-Seal. We were never informed that our uneven floor would be an issue before signing on the dotted line. Silly me, I figured a company that specializes in sealing crawlspaces would have some sort of system for dealing with these situations. Something more palatable than draping the plastic between support pillars like a circus tent.

We feel that we were mislead, if not lied to by these people. Don't make the same mistake we did. Look into any and all other options. In my opinion, when you deal with Perma-Seal you deal with nothing but aggravation.

In March of this year I contracted with Perma-Seal Basement Systems to find a water problem in my basement. At first we thought it was a water leak but when the village and a plumber said it was not we contacted Perma-Seal to install a drainage system. From the beginning, we discussed with them the possibility that it was a water leak and the salesperson agreed that they would dig around the water pipe first and then dig the rest of the trench. When the workers arrived to do the job I discussed this with him and I thought that he agreed to do this (dig around the water pipe first). He then proceeded to trench the entire job and ended at the fresh water pipe. He told me wife there was a water leak and that it would need to be fixed. He already had all the trenching done--which destroyed a part of my finished basement--so I had no choice but to let him finish the job. A plumber came and fixed the leak and I now had a nearly $3, 000 drainage system that I did not need. I agreed to split the cost of the job with Perma-Seal but they refused. The contract specifies any dispute must go to arbitration that is administered by the American Arbitration Association. When I contacted them (after several attempts to deal with Perma-Seal and my credit card company stopping the hold I had on the payment to Perma-Seal) and the person at the Arbitration Association informed me that I would have to pay another $775 to get the process started. (This seems like a great way to stifle any complaints that there might be!) Even he (the arbitration service representative) thought this was unreasonable and he put me in contact with a consumer mediation service that does not charge consumers for helping them. Perma-Seal (of course) refused to work with them. They have no incentive since they have my money. I am exploring every option to get a refund.