ComplaintsforHybrid Building Systems

• Initial Complaint

  07/02/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  **** Merrill who goes by HBS or Merrill Builders. 4/1/21 we gave a check for $3k for a bldng plan for a house pln. I had an idea of what I wanted for a house & had a scaled draft of a plan view and elevations which I showed to ****. He put it on his CAD prgrm. This is about all we got from ****, a digital version of what I gave him. Digital ver would be handed to ******* Lmbr to make workable drawings from it. From the beginning I had some concerns consid I made the orig *********** not a house designer. I had specific ?'s that were rarely answered. Commun was through txt messages or emails. We have documentation of text messages and e-mails as proof that we were given the runaround, conflicting /no information. Many times we asked specific questions that were never answrd. This preliminary copy of the plan view and elevations is far from what we paid for and certainly nothing that a Builder could use to even start a house build or to get prices or quotes from other Builders/Subs or **** himself. On 3/31/22 **** stated that ******* Lmbr would have a completed/detailed plan within a week. On 5/12/22 he sent us a MODULAR PLAN which we NEVER asked for. We had made it ******* clear we wanted stick built, not mod. His story kept changing and then he tells us that he doesn't use ******* Lmbr. Communication was almost non-existent. We completely lost confidence and trust in **** & asked for a refund of $2,5k from the $3k given. This seems fair to us since I did all the plan work and he just simply plugged in all my work into his home CAD system so that we are paying him $500 for that. At this point he wants to give us a workable building plan. I'm like no, I'm done with you how can I trust you? The $3k was supposed to be for design, layout, orientn for the bst solar opt, enrgy effic ideas & plan. We didn't get any of this, we asked for it. All we got was my prelim plan plugged into a home CAD systm, a dgtl cpy unusable to anyone. Agreement was we wld hav workable pln

  Customer response

  07/13/2022

  I have not heard from the business in response to my complaint.

  Business response

  07/14/2022

  After meeting with customer several times at different job sites and giving many ideas customer sketched floor plans. I had preliminary plans done for review. Customer decides to get this design priced. I meet with subs for pricing. I set tentative start date with subs. Customer decides to wait because of rising prices do to Covid 19. I inform subs and they move on to new projects. Customer then decides to change plans so I have another prelim done for review. I explain that the subs schedule is a ways out and they informed me they are looking to hire a different contractor. My initial cost for energy efficient ideas, best solar orientation for lot and prints was $3000. I refunded $1500 for the costs of the prints of there new builder. 

   

  Customer response

  07/14/2022

  Better Business Bureau:I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ********. Please add your rejection comments below; if you do not provide any details, your complaint will be closed as Answered. 

  [You must provide details of why you are not satisfied with this resolution.  If you do not enter a reason for your rejection, your complaint will be closed as Answered.]
  
  Businesses and Customers should be civil, courteous and polite in their responses to complaints. It is important to remain professional and productive when participating in the BBB complaint process.
  
  FAQ
  
  Regards,

  ****

   

   

  Customer response

  08/10/2022

  Better Business Bureau:I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ********. Please add your rejection comments below; if you do not provide any details, your complaint will be closed as Answered. 

  #******** This is a response to the feedback from the builder. There were 2 times we met at two of his builds, this was all prior to any agreement. He was showing us his current builds. After this we decided to go forward to get a price on this build. We gave him a check to come up with a workable set of plans that he or any builder could use for pricing and building from. This never came about. A preliminary plan was made from my drawings and that's all that we saw. Information about finishes and details were never gone over.  Unanswered questions and little action left us not wanting to keep going with him. We expected to get together to finalize the details to come up with a workable plan for pricing. We never saw anything in reference to his subs for prices from the preliminary plan. At one-point he stated prices couldn't be figured because they were going up every day. A preliminary is what we started with, and we only received a digitalized version of what I created. He didn't help us with any ideas, design, layout, solar options, we had that figured that out on my drawings. All we wanted is a workable plan. From what we received, I believe an additional $1000. should be returned to us leaving him a payment of $500 for copying my plan to digital.
  
  Sincerely,
  ********************* 

  Business response

  08/10/2022

  Again the customer gathered ideas, concepts and years of experience from me in our conversations to design his floorplan. Customer changed his mind on moving forward with original design because of increased pricing. Customer then changed floorplan. At this point my subs had moved on to other builds and pushed this project to far out for customer. Customer looked for other builders which I said was fine. I refunded $1500 which was what customer paid for plans

  Customer response

  08/15/2022

  Better Business Bureau:I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ********. Please add your rejection comments below; if you do not provide any details, your complaint will be closed as Answered. 

  **** talks about us gathering ideas and concepts from his experiences to design a floor plan. We already had a preliminary floor plan at this point when we first met. He stated that to get pricing we would need a workable plan. So coming up with a workable plane was what we needed but was never done.
  
  His last sentence:  He refunded $1,500 for a plan? He gave us a plan for a Modular home which I never asked for!
  
  Again, this business owner ***********************, never came up with a workable plan to get prices from any subs. I had a preliminary floor plan that I gave him in the beginning. This was supposed to be developed into a workable plan for getting prices from subs. I asked many questions about his process or issues I was concerned about, but questions were rarely answered which left us frustrated.  Any conversations we had were before we decided to work with him.  After he got our deposit, no conversations took place. Emails and text messages were sent to him many times and very few of them were returned. This frustration left us with no choice but to look for someone else to work with. Us moving on was not because the project was being pushed out too far as *********************. **** never made a workable plan which is probably why he couldn't respond to my messages or emails. He couldn't possibly get any pricing from any subs without anything to work from.
  
  When he heard we wanted to move on to another Contractor, he didn't say that's fine, he wanted to then give us a workable plan. I said, "no we are done, I have zero confidence or trust in you after not returning messages or emails".
  
  After all we've gone through, we deserve another $1,000 returned to us since we didn't get anything from **** but frustration. Leaving **** with $500 for what he did is more than he deserves.
  
  ********************* 

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩