TOMPKINS & ASSOC

DO NOT HIRE. He was hired to perform an engineers report for slab repair done on a home we purchased. Within months of purchasing our home we had huge cracks open up in the walls (not an exaggeration, we could see sunlight through them). Upon having the foundation repair company called, they informed us the engineers report Mr. Tompkins provided was a lie. They had installed less than half of the piers needed and Mr. Tompkins stamped a report saying the full amount had been placed. We paid thousands of dollars out of pocket to fix this. I called his office several times hoping this was a simple misunderstanding only to be ignored for 6 months.

Mr. Tompkins came over on the 11th to measure the foundation to get numbers to come up with a plan for repair. I was told the report would be sent to me in 3-4 days and I ended up receiving it on Sept 17th which was 6. Once I had his report I had a contractor come out and repair the foundation on October 18th. After the repair on the house I began trying to contact Mr. Tompkins via phone and email for the final inspection. After not hearing back from Mr. Tompkins I had to find another way of contacting him so I turned to Home Advisor to obtain other numbers to try to contact him at. I finally got a hold of Angela which was his office help and thought that I had set up an appointment to meet him. Saturday rolled around and Mr. Tompkins did not show up. I called his office and got confused for another customer after I was greeted "Who is this." I explained that I was suppose to meet Mr. Tompkins that day and he had not shown up. She said "I will get a hold of him and call you back." I never heard back from her but got a text telling me to call him- in which I did and got voice mail. I never heard back from either of them the rest of the day. That following Monday I got a hold of Mr. Tompkins and he very rudely explained to me that if he was going to come back I needed to pay another $125 even though my receipt said I had paid for a beginning and post inspection. He explained it was a clerical error, but I'm pretty sure we discussed exactly why I was hiring him as an independent inspector. I didn't want someone who was just going to go with what the foundation company said I wanted an actual inspection and I discussed that with him in the beginning. After that discussion I did not hear back from him and was aggravated over the whole situation. I began to write complaints on him in several different place. A couple different companies began to contact him on why he was not getting back with me to resolve this issue. I finally ended up hearing back from a guy from one of the foundation companies he works with. They worked it out to come over and resolve the issue. He remeasured and concluded the back of the house was still about an inch low and instructed me to call my contractor to come back out. So I did. At that point I was told he'd send me over the final report in a couple days. On November 30th I finally got the report BUT it was incorrect. He had put the wrong foundation companies name for repair and I emailed him back that day and let him know. December 4th he managed to send over the final letter with the correct information. I was actually considering using him again after he completed the final inspection, but at this point I would not. The time it took him to return and revise reports was ridiculous. It took me multiple times of trying to contact him via the other guy that came out and it was just not very professional. That is just not the way to do business as far as I'm concerned.

I would not hire Mr Tompkins again. Kent Tompkins was referred to me as the engineer that RS Foundations used for their foundation assessments. He showed up on time and billed a fair price for an engineer's report on the foundation but in no other way was this a positive experience. If I had been more informed about subjects like post-tensioned concrete slabs, I likely would have turned him away before work began as his first comments showed his lack of knowledge on the subject. When the foundation contractor showed up (with alcohol on his breath) to "assist" with the report, it became clear that the engineer's report was going to be used as a sales tool instead of an unbiased report. To further reinforce this, Mr Tompkins sent his report to RS Foundations instead of the customer (me). Only after 2 requests did I actually receive my own copy to review. Contact an independent engineer if you are considering foundation repair and I would not recommend including Kent Tompkins in your search.