Aberdeen Company Ascs-Afld LLC

This is a very long story, but I will give enough details to allow the reader a good understanding of our experience. We were asked to pay $2881.61 up front and $1350.00 upon completion of the project. Before we paid the final installment to Aberdeen we had come to realize that the chimney was not straight, but was instead "out of plumb". We also realized that we were considerably over charged for labor costs. $2700.00 for labor. Ivory K. Crump, who goes by the name of Ken, of Aberdeen told us that brick work was very labor intensive. We thought that with this cost for labor he would bring at least a couple of assistants and work on the project for a few days. He came alone and did this in one and a-half days. However, for the first time in awhile, the air in our home was fresh and we felt that this fellow had done his best. We live out in the woods far from town, the chimney is on the back of the house and not visible to traffic, so the cosmetic issue did not matter as much as the functionality. I came, in time to regret, ever giving him the last installment. We called Artic Energy, our pellet stove installer, to repair our pellet stove on October 16. It was raining that day and he was the first to notice the chimney leaking. I was surprised and told him that we had a new one built a couple of weeks ago. He came out to look at it and said that, though he was a furnace man and did not build chimneys, our chimney was improperly built. We asked Tom from Artic for the name of a brick mason we could talk to so that we could understand the problem. The brick mason came and explained the problems and suggested I call the supervisor of Aberdeen Company to come out and rebuild it. I called, but Ivory K.Crump was the only person I could reach in this company. He then came out and used a rubber flash seal kit to repair it. On 10/20/12 another strong rain came and our chimney leaked terribly. Ivory K.Crump came out the next morning when we e-mailed him and said "We have a mystery! It wasn't raining at the time, but we asked him to look in the basement to see where the water was going. He said that wasn't necessary, but he would do a hose test in the middle of the week. He told us to get additional advice from the brick mason that had examined it, which we did. The brick mason, Mr. Sullivan, told us he would seal it and for the time being we should be protected from the leaking. He said the bricks should be allowed to dry for a few days before he did this. We e-mailed Aberdeen and told him to postpone the hose test until after the bricks were sealed. We told him that we would mail him the bill for the sealant. Ivory Crump from Aberdeen came out on October 24, about two days later, and climbed up on the roof without even knocking on our door. I went outside to let him know about delaying the hose test, but he had already received our e-mail. This man was very angry and accused us of damaging his work. I was completely shocked by his behavior. We called Brooks Brick Company, and Mr. Hein the division manager told us that the contractor, Mr. Sullivan, recommended by Artic Energy was very good. He also told us the sealant Mr. Sullivan applied, would likely work for awhile, but eventually the cement bricks would soon deteriorate. We talked to Mr. Sullivan for a length of time and decided to have him tear it down and build and new masonry chimney before winter set in. It was finished in early November and we are very satisfied with it. Mr.Sullivan charged us $1300.00 to re-build the outside portion of the chimney. We wrote a formal letter to Ivory Crump and asked him to return that portion to us. He sued us for defamation of character and damaging his work which completely surprised us. The judge dismissed the case against us. We filed a counter claim and learned we had to file it against ASCS-AFLD, LLC. Mr. Crump would not give us the name of his agent, and it took a long time to find him in the Secretary of State's listings. We again filed a suit to collect about $2500.00, though we would have mediated for $1300.00 and tried to do so with Mr. Crump before the court date. We lost the suit, mainly because we really could not afford to subpoena Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Hein, though Mr. Hein did write a letter to the judge. We had just dealt with some extraordinary hospital bills and the subpoenas would have been quite expensive. However, the judge said we needed an expert witness. Mr. Ivory Crump is very experienced with law suits and understands the legal system much better than us. We had never been to court before and were rather blindsided by his false attacks on our character. Our case was about the quality of his work as far as we were concerned, but he did not address that issue much at all. Ivory Crump also gave the judge several papers ahead of time that we were not able to see, as well. I have an autoimmune disease that caused neurological damage, and affected my memory ability. I cannot remember facts and order of events. I asked the judge to let me read sections of the written e-mail communications between Aberdeen and my husband and me. For instance, Mr. Aberdeen told us he had been a dentist and minister in his e-mail. And he told the judge he had this business in Maine since 1976, though he was not even 50 years old. But the judge would not allow me to read parts of the e-mails, nor would he accept them as evidence. The court was very busy; there was a time constraint. The judge was new and inexperienced, we learned later. And, of course, the judge knew nothing about building chimneys. It was all very disappointing, and terribly expensive, but at least we have a very well built chimney, and we have learned a great deal on how to find a reputable contractor. Angie's list will also be invaluable to us as we continue with projects for our home.