Carstin Brands Severe water damage due to improper countertop installation Arthur, Illinois

Several weeks ago my wife contracted with a local mom/pop countertop company, in Arthur Illinois, to have solid surface countertops installed in our home.  We have known them for years and they are also current clients of ours. They then ordered the countertops through Carstin Brands and they were installed a few weeks later.  During the install, one of the installers, in order to have the clearance needed to mount the sink, removed the discharge tube from our dishwasher.  This was not a matter of taking apart the plumbing etc rather he simply pulled it straight up out of the trap and laid it to the side.  Normally, this would not have created an issue, however, we were still actively using the dishwasher as we had a separate water line for it.  Because we have 2 kitchens in our home, I was not in a hurry to install the faucet etc.  When I finally got around to installing the faucet (5 days or so later), that was when I noticed that the discharge tube had been removed and that all of the soiled water from the dishwasher had been exiting under our cabinets.  

We contacted ServePro who came out and ran moisture and mold tests etc and were told that the cabinets and the flooring would need to be removed.  At that point, I contacted several contractors to also get their opinion of what needed to transpire.  The verdict was unanimous.  It was then that I reached out to Chris Binder at Carstin.  Chris told me to do whatever I needed to in order to get this corrected and that Carstin Brands would make it right.  Once the estimate came through Chris backtracked and stated that the Sales Mgr Emily, would need to be involved.  Emily and I exchanged numerous phone calls with each phone call ending in Carstin not accepting the fault.  It was only when Emily and I finally got onto the same page regarding how this transpired that Emily felt she had the information needed in order to get Joe Laszkiewicz to approve the repairs.  It was also important to note that Emily had stated all along that her installers are trained to not touch the plumbing.  However, in subsequent phone conversations with Emily she did confirm that her guys would, on occasion, rotate pieces of the plumbing out of the way.

The next day Emily called me and stated that Carstin Brands would not accept liability and that if I had any questions that I would need to speak with Vice President Joe Laszkiewicz directly.  Within a few minutes, I contacted Joe and everything went downhill.  Joe informed me that he was a licensed engineer and that I was an "idiot" for running my dishwasher without it being connected to the sink drain.  He went on to tell me that the dishwasher pumps work on a pressure system and that every plumber I would speak with would confirm that before a dishwasher could be ran that the sink connection had to be made (which, btw, I have 3 independent letters from plumbers telling me that Joe does not know what he is talking about). Joe continued to berate me on that phone call calling me an idiot several times and telling me that I have no common sense.  After a few minutes of us butting heads, Joe hung up on me.  I will be the first to admit that by the end of the phone conversation my tone of voice matched that of Joe however I never resorted to calling him names or degrading him.  It's also important to note that Joe informed me that my beef was not with Carstin and that I should sue the mom/pop store that we had ordered through.  Despite his acknowledgement that his installers did remove the drain, he still wants to involve one of your vendors into this mix.  I would imagine, given the reputation of this mom/pop store, that they generate a lot of business for Carstin.  I cannot imagine why in the world that Joe would want to cause a vendor harm over a mistake that was Carstin's.  I can tell you that they (mom/pop store) were very upset over this when I spoke with him.

Instead, Joe has caused Carstin Brands to be sued.  He has caused Carstin Brands to lose a significant amount of business.  He has caused one of Carstin's most respected vendors to now be involved in this lawsuit.  All of this over a claim that would have cost Carstin Brands roughly $1000 in deductible expense.