ComplaintsforZebra Construction Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  09/27/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Unresolved

  More info

  City of Los Angeles required me to install seismic earthquake retrofit. I hired a qualified licensed contractor, Zebra Construction of Los Angeles. Signed contract March 28, 2022. Total work estimate including pre-work launch fees officially $42,300. This estimate appears on July 20 Zebra document, with City of LA letterhead. Work began August 15, finished September 13. Work was conducted under five work stages defined by Zebra. Zebra informed me work proceeded smoothly and very fast throughout, encountering zero difficulties which would necessitate additional costs. Zebra never informed me there would be a need to go over estimate, nor is there evidence such need ever arose. 1st complaint: Zebra has never met my request for itemized billing, nor even acknowledged my requests. I sought an itemized bill that disclosed total hours of labor, brief description of materials and their cost, for the work stages. Instead, Zebra has only provided me throughout a highly simplified schema for an itemized bill, which discloses only lump sums under five total headings for work stages. The schema is completely non-explanatory, making me vulnerable to fraud, and I have made it clear this is unacceptable. I have not received a response from Zebra. 2nd complaint: I have paid Zebra $42,300 + $2500 fees per contract's Schedule B. Zebra is demanding additional $440.59. I see no point in paying this charge (see 1st paragraph). Zebra doesn't justify additional charge, nor acknowledge my requests for justification. On September 24, I rec'd in mail revised bill demanding $290.00, crediting me $150.59. Zebra gives no explanation or justification for arriving at this new figure. I have not paid it. 3rd complaint: Zebra has abandoned portable toilet on my property. Flies accumulating around this facility. Zebra kept haphazard record locking toilet at daily closing time. Toilet left unlocked by Zebra for past 13 days. Toilet is street accessible, danger to my tenants left unlocked.

  Business response

  10/12/2022

  Consumer Response /* (-5, 6, 2022/10/04) */ 4th complaint: Through the dates September 2-8, Zebra Construction and I had arrived at agreement in email correspondence that the work, brought to completion, did not incur cost overruns. This correspondence was conducted with ******** *****, co-owner of Zebra, as well as through Zebra's office email. On September 8, I emailed ******** I had mailed a check payable to Zebra for my final payment of $10,749.41. In this same email, I specified that $2500.00 of this amount was payment for inspectors' fees which ******** had brought to my attention, and that the remainder of the payment brought me to full payment on Zebra's bill. In the 20 days since then, ******** has not replied to my Sept 13 email, nor even acknowledged receipt of it. Today I have learned that Zebra pocketed the $2500.00 portion of my payment, clearly earmarked by me for inspectors' fees, for itself. I called one of the two inspection companies, and they confirmed they had not received any reimbursement from Zebra. The inspectors are sending me bills for their fees I paid to Zebra that Zebra has failed to transfer to them. This is an outrageous theft of my $2500.00 by Zebra. Business Response /* (1000, 7, 2022/10/12) */ Contact Name and Title: ******** ***** CEO Contact Phone: ******************************************************* To whom it may concern: I am very transparent when signing agreements with clients. Before signing an agreement, I give a worksheet showing what exclusions might cost. Our contract does not include seismic gas shut off valves, city fees for plan check or permit, deputy inspector fees, or engineering fees. ********* sent me an email stating that he was sending a check, but I never agreed to the amount being final. I was out of town at the time and not able to check the numbers. After reviewing the amounts, it shows that ********* still owes the engineer $900, the deputy company $900, and Zebra Construction $290.00. Our contract amount for work was $42,300. Excluded Costs: Seismic gas shut off valves: $1862 Permit Fee (City Fee): $582.29 Plan Check (City Fee): $506.30 Total amount Zebra received from client as off 10/12/22: $44,810.00 Consumer Response /* (3000, 10, 2022/10/18) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) I appreciate Zebra's reply, but it does not address any of my four complaints in my filings reviewed by the Better Business Bureau and initiated on October 4. I am already aware that my contract with Zebra excludes seismic gas shut off valves, city fees for plan check or permit, deputy inspector fees, and engineering fees. I have paid all of the billings for the services excluded from Zebra's contract with me, including each of the ones named by ** ***** in her October 12 reply of this complaint, and have the records to prove it. Payment for the final four inspection fees which ** ***** cites, totalling $2500.00, were included in my September 8 check of $10,749.41 to Zebra. My email to ** *****, previously cited in my 4th complaint, earmarks $2500.00 of this check for these final four inspection fees. Additionally, the memo line of my September 8 check assigns $2500.00 of the check payment for these inspection fees. From her October 12 BBB reply, ** ***** appears to have become aware of the email I sent to her which directs the earmarked amount, more than 30 days after I sent it to her. Zebra still has not distributed the final four inspection fees to the inspectors to which they are owed. There are two inspection companies owed these fees, which in this document I will name AI and SS. Since AI and SS have not been transferred payments by Zebra out of my $2500.00 earmarked portion of September 8 payment, these inspectors lately have demanded payment from me. I have paid AI and SS in full by direct payments. Zebra's failure to distribute to the two inspectors has forced me to make double payments. The $2500.00 earmarked portion never belonged to Zebra and that amount in full must now be returned to me. Zebra's October 12 reply also does not address its non-transparent billing practices with me (see 1st complaint above). All of my bills have been presentations of lump sums, bearing an industry code heading such as Project is Complete & Ok for C of C is Given, but with zero itemization such as materials and hours of labor. I have sought itemization from Zebra consistent with the ordinary business practices I have been offered from services as landlord for 21 years, but to no avail. Further, Zebra never advised me of going over estimate (see 2nd complaint above). Throughout the job, Zebra reported no delays, obstacles or cost overruns to me; I was informed the opposite, that work was proceeding smoothly and very fast. Why should the bill for the job, then, go more than $2000.00 over the $42,300.00 estimate? What accounts for the overrun? Zebra consistently refuses to discuss billing with me beyond the lump sums mentioned above. I expect a good-faith estimate, meaning it closely tracks projected cost, but if the job must come in over estimate, then I will be consulted promptly by the service with generalized itemizing in explanation. I have not received any supplementary information along these lines at all. I am a reasonable person and do not expect everything to go perfectly as planned. Since I received no consultations of going over estimate, nor was evidence supplied for the necessity of overruns, I believe paying the estimate is adequate and fair. I finished paying the estimate in full on September 8. ** ***** has asked if I am aware of payments due for inspection fees? My answer is I have informed Zebra of literally every such payment, including the final four inspection fees detailed in this reply. Zebra has no right to hold onto the $2500.00 portion of my September 8 payment that is earmarked for these four inspection fees, as Zebra did not use it per my explicit direction to reimburse the two inspection companies. I believe I should be compensated by Zebra $1500.00 for the stress and pain incurred upon me by improperly withholding the $2500.00 for themselves, and continually demanding payments above the estimate for which the company gives no rationale. Furthermore, I believe there should be $700.00 compensation to me for enduring the two-week period in which the portable toilet Zebra rented was left abandoned and unlocked on my property's front lawn, easily accessible to passers-by from the sidewalk around the clock for that duration (see 3rd complaint above). One afternoon while at home during this period, I witnessed a delivery person (not for my property) enter and exit Zebra's rented toilet in broad daylight. It was Zebra's responsibility to keep the toilet locked during non-business hours. Consumer Response /* (4200, 21, 2022/11/14) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) My initial four complaints, reviewed by the Better Business Bureau and posted as Case #******* on October 4, 2022, together with my Consumer Rebuttal at BBB to Zebra Construction on October 18, 2022, make sufficiently clear Zebra appropriated $2500.00 of my September 8 payment installation to itself, an amount which was clearly earmarked by me for Zebra to reimburse to two inspection companies. My 4th complaint in my October 4 BBB posts notes that, in my Sept 2-8 correspondence with Zebra, the company did not dispute that "work did not incur cost overruns." Accordingly, my September 13 email, previously cited in that same complaint, notes I had mailed a check to Zebra for the remainder of the estimate plus the $2500.00 of inspection fees. Zebra never replied to my September 13 email, yet received my check and deposited it. If Zebra believed our billing had not been settled by my September 13 email, it would be legally required to either a) distribute the $2500.00 portion to the inspectors owed, or b) return a $2500.00 refund to me, so that I could pay the inspectors directly from this fund. Zebra would be within rights to submit a new bill to me with an explanation of further costs. A new bill would be predicated upon Zebra now justifying that costs did run over the estimate. However, none of that happened. Zebra has not addressed a single point at issue in this BBB case. In my opinion, it has been thoroughly negligent in addressing my complaint and working toward resolving it. It furthermore missed the November 4 BBB deadline to respond. The company hasn't supplied any reason for going over estimate, which would give cause for further billing; nor has it supplied evidence the September 13 email wasn't a satisfactory reckoning of payments, because that email was never answered. I have attached in this post two screen shots from my correspondence with Zebra, 1) my email from our September 2-8 correspondence, dated September 7, that details added expenses did not arise, consistent with Zebra's communications with me throughout the work, and questions one of its bills due to my not having received explanation for it; and, 2) my September 13 email noted above, and in the 4th complaint from October 4.

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