Starcom Design/Build
Complaint 360596 Details

Wish I had noticed all the hidden 1 star reviews before hiring this company.
First, their employee, Jon, handled and left unwrapped Pink Fiberglass without any type of protection in the work area. It wasn't wrapped in plastic and appeared to be old. They left unwrapped insulation sitting on the floor for a week. They stated that because the pink fiberglass has the word ECO in it that, it's safe to handle w/o gloves or eye protection. Project manager, Don, even commented that customers look at him strange when he demonstrates how safe it is by rubbing it on his skin and then starts scratching, but he knows it is safe because it is marked w/ an ECO label. As the product data sheet shows, eco means that it's merely formaldehyde free but still fiberglass !
Similarly, negotiated to have mold resistant greenboard used in place of regular drywall , but they show up with regular dry wall. Same excuse, it's "ECO", it must be same as greenboard. So a cheaper product than what was in the contract.
This is a general theme of where I negotiate for something in the contract and #STARCOM either ignored it or feigned ignorance. "Oh what, you wanted that?" "Yes, see the email we went over line by line".
Next they were supposed to put an end cap on an HVAC duct and instead the genius decided to use "Great Stuff" expandable foam INSIDE the end of the duct to close it off. Wow. The worker had such a field day he stuck the foam in all sorts of other places too; near electrical connections and it his newly added drywall joints. I don't know if he knew the HVAC was on or off when he shot that stuff in there. That would've been a mess.
The work is being done in a confined 400 sq foot space and when they were told the furnace couldn't be used (turned out to be blessing since that's a NO-NO) wanted to use an 88,000 BTU kerosene heater to cure drywall mud. We told them "nope" as we were concerned about carbon monoxide and water vapor. We supplied an electric space heater.
Part of the contract was floor installation. Despite lead time of at least a month, flooring subcontractor [ CB Flooring, currently rated a whopping 1 star on Yelp] showed up 3 days before they were scheduled to install the floor only to announce that "it would be a quite a while" before the materials would be on hand. The GC got scarce after I shared that email.
The final straw was the lone jack of no trades employee decided on his own, with no notice or approval, to attack some old asbestos flooring tiles. The plan was always to cover them up per EPA guidelines. So, the worker, Jon, knew what they were because he remarked that under his old ServPro business he would charge $5k for removal of the tiles. He knew! After a few conversations, it was reiterated over and over that he would not touch them. We went downstairs after he had left for the day and realized that he had started manually whacking at the tiles to remove them. There were still shards of the tiles laying on the floor and under nearby appliances. So a person who was well aware of hazards (and Maryland regulations, I would assume) regarding asbestos chipped and scraped and started to remove them. This is what every professional would agree is the worst case scenario when handling the substance. Without any approval at all.
The general theme of their work was that they don't care about dangerous or irritating chemicals. Drywall looks like it was laid down & mudded by monkeys.Actually, speaking of drywall, I would have fired this company based on the ineptitude of the drywall work. To put it in a word, the drywall is egregious. Attached photos shows the window's ledge was removed and replaced with jagged and unevenly cut drywall. Plus the corner of the 4 by 5 foot window was cracked by the carpenter when creating this monstrosity. There's foam sticking out of random places. The workspace is the kitchen, in which all that remains is fridge and washer/dryer, so we still had to walk downstairs from time to time. There was no end of day clean up and they left the workspace dirty and covered with wires, nails, razor blade, and dust. And not to forget the uncovered fiberglass.
In addition to all the headaches, a huge failing was the untimely replies from the project manager and his boss.
Have an entire screen-o-matic video capture of questions and issues that were posted on buildertrend and never answered by project manager. Starcom set this up when we were their client. But the only times the project manager replied was after several days and barely answered simple questions.
Important voicemails never replied to. Just a horrid experience. To err is human and we're forgiving people, but Starcom opted to assign an employee who worked in a very unworkmanship-like manner. Only when we told them all work must stop did they scramble & their ears prick up. Too little, too late, too bad.
We sent them a certified letter and it took them weeks to reply. they said they were settling things with their subs and suppliers. They brought old supplies with them and never ordered the flooring we prepaid them for. So no vendors to settle with. The ONLY sub they sent was an electrician. An electrician who did such a poor job that he left two hots and no neutral in the line he added for a new garbage disposal. Luckily our plumber caught this potentially deadly mistake.
Since I have shared my experience with Starcom they have become increasingly odd. They claim they know we had several contractors before and after them. Sounds creepy and is also not true.
We were lucky to find many fine and good tradespeople after letting starcom go. Starcom;s owner has also whined that I didn't want to continue with them. That's because they did unlicensed asbestos work and there was no way to LET them do anything else.
The fact that Starcom's owner is now offering up a pack of untruths is highly disturbing.
Another customer and I are in contact now. Not a good history with this company.
Had to let this contractor go. They were let go 2/16/2017.
Months later , still no refund. Instead they offered a "Credit". They never delivered or ordered flooring we paid for. And have nerve to offer a small x,xxx amount of credit. I pray to GOD ALMIGHTY I never run into people like this again. Proverbs 12:22