Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. 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.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/06/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We paid $10,235.05 for architectural plans and permits for our restaurant and the plans were done incorrectly, preventing the issuance of permits. Empower Infrastructure drew up plans, however, the plans were done so incorrectly that he was sent edits from the permit office in almost every single area including fire, mechanical and health areas. The permit office sent Empower Infrastructure a list of edits, and they still had not been submitted over 45 days later. The typical turn around time for an architect to submit the requested edits is 2-3 days. We begged him via email to complete and resubmit the edits because we are paying rental, insurance and utilities costs at the restaurant every single month while he procrastinated on completing the updates. He replied that we could "continue waiting" as a snarky remark. He never even provided an explanation for why it was taking so long. It reached the point that we had to accept that he did not have the capability or knowledge to complete the plans, which is why so much time had elapsed without him finishing it. As a result, we told him that we would have to move forward and take legal action if he could not submit it that week. He said that was fine with him. After 6 months of wasting our time, we STILL don't have plans that are up to code to be approved for permits. After he received his large lump sum payments, he became very rude and impossible to contact. We paid in full a total of over $10,235.05 and waited over 6 months and we have literally not received plans that we can get a permit with. We truly just wanted them to complete the work that they were paid to do or refund us. It is both illegal and unethical to receive a payment of $10,235.05 for a service that you did not provide.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/21/2023

  Customer entered into a contract to provide architectural plans for the restaurant according to the plans received by the date of this contract, provide architectural plans to relocate the wall between the kitchen and dining hall to expand the kitchen area, and provide proposed mechanical, electrical, and plumbing plans for the restaurant according to the plans received by the date of this contract. The client agreed to pay $8900 for these services. Building permit application services were an additional cost and not included in the original contract. Permits were never guaranteed and the customer specifically signed a contract acknowledging that permits are never guaranteed. Our company worked with the customer to submit the corrections, but the customer terminated the contract prior to us completing the corrections. We accepted their termination and stopped work on the plans. They incorrectly state that the corrections take 2-3 days. Our process is generally 6-8 weeks, which the customer was made aware of. Customer terminated the contract when the plans were almost ready to be uploaded. They are responsible for their termination and not entitled to a refund.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/21/2022

  Type:Order Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
  
  
  
   Complaint: ********
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  

  ---------- Forwarded message ---------
  From: ****** ******* *******************>
  Date: Fri, Jan 6, 2023 at 4:11 PM
  Subject: Re: You have a new message from the BBB of Metro Washington DC & Eastern Pennsylvania in regards to your complaint #********.
  To: <[email protected]>
  

  
  

  The complaint response was sent on 12/27 when I was out of town on vacation. Today is actually business 9 days from that email date. I wanted to post my response but the system would not allow it. One of these days was a holiday observance on Jan 2nd.
  

  
  

  Please help me by posting the response for me or reopening the website so that I can do it. Here is a screen capture of the complaint;

  
  

  My response to the business is as follows:

  
  

  The claim that the customer submitted incorrect data is false, and the claim that the customer submitted new data is also wrong.

  The data submitted to Empower Infrastructure included the Plat, the architectural drawing set, and the surveyor CAD file. Empower Infrastructure is claiming to have received new data. No new data was provided. Empower Infrastructure has made mistakes and is not admitting its faults. They state the scale and units were set incorrectly. The scale and units are selectable in the AutoCAD software. It is their responsibility to set them to whatever they needed. Please contact Surveyor **** *****, ***** * ********** LLC, *** **** **** *****, Gaithersburg, MD ***** Tel. ###-###-#### ******************* and they will confirm that the data has not changed.

  Throughout this project, Empower Infrastructure has produced review material. Every version contained errors and did not comply with ** *** standards. There were fatal errors concerning inappropriate content, references to other projects, and missing vital information. The work was so deficient that the ** *** reviewer rejected the submittal twice and finally sent me an example of an approved submission so that the civil engineer could see how to prepare a submission.

  Before the first submission to ** ***, Empower Infrastructure refused to send any more review sets and stated that I had to pay in full and they would make all the required changes. They were paid in full yet did not make the changes to make their work acceptable. ** *** rejected the drawings on the same day it was submitted. It was then that Empower Infrastructure stated that the data was incorrect. I provided them with detailed review comments identifying the discrepancies and the missing information ** *** identified. They demanded an additional payment of $2,000 to fix their mistakes. I contacted the surveyor and asked him. He said he has done thousands of surveyors and never ran into this situation. I asked him to call Empower Infrastructure. He called and then resent the same CAD file. Empower Infrastructure generated another drawing set after being paid $1,000. The ** *** reviewer has not yet reviewed these drawings.

  The lesson was that I should have not paid in full until receiving a final review copy that was acceptable to ** ***. I should not have trusted that Empower Infrastructure would fulfill the contract. They took the payment and did a poor job resulting in 3 months delay in the project.
  

  
  

  Will you be able to help me out?

  
  

  Thanks,

  ***

  ###-###-#### Mobile
  

  
  

  
  Regards,
  
  
  
  ****** ******* 
  had to make the final payment to get the plans. They were paid, but the plans still contained major mistakes and were rejected by ******.The ****** requirements are defined at ****************************************************************** *********** proposed that I pay an additional $2,010 to complete the work. Their terms are to pay the entire amount before ****** accepts the revised plans. The business has resisted fulfilling the terms of the contract and as time has elapsed the project continues to be delayed since September 20, 2022, when the first submission was rejected. Another submission was made on October 12th and rejected. ****** provided an example of an approved submission to reference. Empower Infrastructure made a couple of corrections requested by ****** however major mistakes remain. The plans are unusable. *********** is refusing to complete the work without receiving an additional $2,010.Requests to finish work or refund payment are ignored.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/22/2022

  The customer was responsible for providing the data for the services provided by Empower Infrastructure. The client provided incorrect data, which was not identified until after the plans were submitted to the county. When Empower Infrastructure notified the customer of the incorrect data, the customer provided the correct data. As Empower Infrastructure completed the work with the incorrect data, spent time on the project, and provided completed plans based on the incorrect data provided by the customer, Empower Infrastructure requires an additional fee. Empower Infrastructure is working on the plans, has had multiple meetings with the customer to provide plans, and continues to work on the project. We have not ignored the customer or refused to work on the plans. We are still working on the project and communicate with the customer. We are attaching two emails showing we are continuing to work on his project. Please dismiss this complaint. Many thanks. Happy holidays. 

  Business Response

  Date: 01/23/2023

  Good Afternoon, 

  As previously stated, our company did the work with the incorrect data, which is why the change work order was required. The client agreed to pay for the change work. To present, Empower Infrastructure has been working with the client to make the required revisions. It is unclear what the client is asking BBB for in this case. We are working with the client to make the changes to the plans to get his permit. Please close this complaint as we are working with the client. 

  Many thanks, 

  ** ******, PhD, PE

  Customer Answer

  Date: 01/24/2023

  [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
  
  
  
   Complaint: ********
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  The claim that the survey CAD provided is untrue. The surveyor has not
  changed the data file. This fact can be verified with the surveyor at ***** * ********** LLC. Secondly, Empower Infrastructure states that the
  "units" and "scale" were incorrectly set. These are
  parameters that the user sets himself from a drop-down list. The analogy would
  be receiving a word document in times roman font and 11-point size but wanting
  something different. You would change whatever font and size you want. It does
  not change the data or content. Lastly, these assertions have nothing to do
  with the fundamental mistakes that Empower Infrastructure made. They ignored
  the Plat and the Survey information specifying the boundary for the property. The
  work they submitted included the roadway, the public right of way, and portions
  of the adjacent property in the area calculation. When I notified them months
  earlier about this discrepancy, Empower Infrastructure stated that was the
  software output. A professional engineer would have examined the customer
  complaint, reviewed their work, and realized their mistake. This realization did
  not happen until months later.

  Their work has been fraught with many errors, documented with emails describing
  the mistakes. In the beginning, several sets of plans were received to be
  reviewed. Then, Empower Infrastructure stopped sending plans. It demanded that
  I pay in full and that they would make all the necessary corrections so the SC/SWM
  plans would be acceptable. I paid them in total, and the 14-page plans still
  contained fatal errors, which Montgomery County (MC) *** immediately rejected. The
  submission was so bad that the ** *** reviewer provided a 2-page approved
  example as a guide to help the civil engineer correct his work. The sample was sent
  to Empower Infrastructure in early October.

  Empower Infrastructure acknowledged the mistakes but stated flawed data
  caused them. I have explained why this explanation is untrue. They demanded an
  additional $2,000 and two more months to fix the mistakes. No new data was
  provided. They are using the same surveyor's CAD file. I paid them because I
  needed to get a permit. Since signing the contract, seven months elapsed — another
  set of plans was delivered in late December and submitted. The ** *** reviewer rejected
  the plans, stating, "Denied. The submission is very incomplete. Lots of
  items are missing. Please see the example plan I sent and see our website for
  more details."
  

  The civil engineer responded three
  weeks later, stating that he will provide new files in 4-5 weeks. In addition,
  he said that he would charge me $400 an hour to communicate with third parties,
  including the county. So the request by the ** *** reviewer to talk with us
  using a ********* Teams call will not happen. Instead, I will forward ** ***
  reviewer comments by email to Empower Infrastructure. This behavior is highly
  unusual for civil engineers not to talk freely with the ** *** reviewer.
  
  Empower Infrastructure claims to be
  working to fix the plans so the county will accept them; however, it is less
  clear that they will be successful. It has been nine months since the contract
  was signed, and satisfactory work has not been delivered.
  
  My objective in filing the BBB complaint
  was to encourage Empower Infrastructure to fulfill the contract terms, refund
  the $2,000 charged to fix their mistakes, and complete the work promptly.
  
  
  
  Regards,
  
  
  
  ****** *******
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 07/19/2023

  ---------- Forwarded message ---------
  From: ****** ******* <********@*****.com>
  Date: Wed, Jul 19, 2023 at 12:34 PM
  Subject: Fwd: Termination Letter of the Professional Engineering Service Contract
  To: Dispute Resolution Team <[email protected]>
  Cc: <[email protected]>
  

  
  
  Good day. This email intends to share a successful completion of the mediation effort with Empower Infrastructure. I accepted their counteroffer to refund $4,900 since my alternative of seeking damages in small claims MD District Court is limited to $5,000. The email thread contains the negotiations between myself and ***** *****. In consideration of Empower Infrastructure refunding the money I paid them, I cannot register any new complaints or lawsuits and I make a good-faith effort to resolve the complaints with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and the Office of Consumer Protection along with the review on Angie.
  
  

  This email is my good-faith effort with the BBB of Metro Washington DC & Eastern Pennsylvania to request that my complaint #******** reflect a status of being resolved.
  

  
  

  Thank you again for your help in this matter. I believe that the BBB's correspondence last year with Empower Infrastructure played a role in their decision to offer a solution.
  
  Regards,
  *** *******
  

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