P W Stephens Environmental Inc

This company was hired by my home insurance as a subcontractor and gets paid directly by the insurance.  And yet, they filed a frivolous mechanics lien against my property only a month after the work, without providing any prior preliminary notice.  This is after I received a letter from the insurance company stating that everything was paid in full.  Instead of checking up with the insurance company for any discrepancies or contacting me to discuss the matter further, they just jump right into filing a frivolous and invalid lien.  Looks like this is what this company usually does to the homeowners after just one billing cycle based on other reviews online.  This is their go-to billing method.  Unconscionable and unethical!  I will have to hire a lawyer to look into their unusual billing tactics.  Not only that, they left my window frames damaged, and left a sharp metal spike sticking out on my bedroom carpet.  I could have gotten seriously injured if I stepped on it.  They also left items damaged from the demolition, which needed to be hauled away, with sharp nails sticking out, right in my bedroom.  The gentleman who came out to do the initial evaluation was nice, but other employees seemed unhappy.  Terrible company!

Rubal Daniel the Project Manager was compassionate and he set up the whole clean up process and ensured that his crew does a good job. He even followed it up on the day of abatement as well as post abatement about the work done.

Work crew did not understand extent of contract. Took three full days to remove asbestos but for balance of project the workers completed the job much quicker.

The estimator, Art communicates clearly and readily responds to calls and answered my questions. I would have used them to remove the popcorn ceiling, but other problems were found with the property that made the popcorn removal an expense I could not afford at the time. More recently they provided an estimate for a contractor that was doing work on my property. Art was prompt in responding to my call.

Went well with the exception of mis-scheduled service date around the holidays.

.

The company was great.  Always answered phone calls, were patient, explained my options, addressed my concerns, were very organized, and super responsive.  I was worried that as a small job I'd barely merit any attention, but they seemed happy to fit me in to their schedule no problem.  I'm amazed that wasn't just painless doing business with them, it was actually pleasant.

Calls to their estimator were never returned.

They low balled a bid to me. The salesman was Jeffrey S. Hidalgo. They emailed a bid which was substantially lower than other bids. We selected them and then tried to schedule the work. Jeff did not respond and was missing for a week. Then we encountered the first red flag - a fee of $800 to expedite the work otherwise it would be scheduled after 3 weeks. This after a week of not responding to emails and phone calls. Then the second red flag, he claimed to have made a mistake in the measurements and increased his bid by 2x (12k instead of 6K). A classic bait and switch tactic. The company was unprofessional in its dealings. Anyone dealing with this company, beware.

It was an excellent experience and job well done. They came on time, finished on time and did proper ceiling of the walls and everything. When they left they did cool air so that the painters can come and do the painting job, which was good.

Because we never got a bid from them we went another direction.

I actually drove over to the P.W. Stephens office in Hayward and brought them a sample tile. Back in the early 60's my Dad put in a very nice asbestos tile floor in our HUGE basement (600+ square feet). They called to schedule an appointment the next day. Anthony Zarate was right on time, he was very professional, explained the classes of asbestos (friable and non-friable) and how they would perform the work, and gave us a good bid. The following week a team of three came and sealed off the basement from the rest of the house and did the work in one day. A day or two later they came and unsealed the basement and cleaned everything up completely--it was a huge area.  I gave the Angie's List coupon to the office along with my payment. About a week later I got a bill for the 10% off but I called  P. W. Stephens and they rectified it right away. I would definitely hire them again!

unknown

Came when scheduled, worked fairly quickly, and disposed of waste appropriately (via permitted site).

PW Stephens quoted both the asbestos /duct removal and attic clean up. 
Part 1:  Asbestos removal / duct removal.  Done in one day. team of three people.  Excellent job. Contained well.  left the house clean.  Debris contained on side of house and picked up the next day.  The team appllied pressure to my attic beams causing many areas of nails breaking through my ceiling sheet rock. Something they will not cover / fix.  
Part 2:  two weeks later -  PW hired a subcontractor to complete the attic cleaning.  They recommended to do the work through the skip sheeting when the roof was torn off.  I had wanted them to clean up both rodent debris and the mess the roofer would make.  The subcontractor was unprofessional wasted a lot of time. Did not bring the right tools for the job and could not vacume up the debris well between the skip sheeting.  Instead they used a blower to try to blow most debris into areas where they could vacume it up.  This created a mess in my house and they ended up not doing a very good job.  I still had a lot of rodent debris in my attic.  
Resolution.   Two weeks after their work was done - after my roof was on, I contacted PW Stephens and complained of the poor attic clean up job. They sent someone over right away who took pictures.  While I could tell that PW Stephens really didn't want to admit error, they sent a crew out for two days to thoroughly vacume my attic.  This second team did an excellent job and was very professional.  
Other mis-coordination.  I was invoiced for the full job after the asbestos clean up even though the attic clean up had not even begun.  When I contacted the billing department, they had no idea that a subcontractor was being used for the attic clean up.  
In general - while I feel PW Stephens ultimately did a good job, the job did not go smoothly.

I had a great experience with them. They came in and filled up everything. They were in and out in a day. They took the required governmental tests. They had the results back the next morning. They did a great job. They came in and did the job. The other people that I ended up talking with, they were the most responsive and they came out and did the job when they said they were going to do it the way they said they were going to do it. They were very responsive. They were right on time. They were very professional. They took everything with them disposal wise.

We had a mold issue in and under our house. After
testing we contracted PW Stephens to do a pasteurization process. The process
is heating the space to about 160° and hold it there for about 4  hours.
The area under
the house worked OK, however a room in the house didn’t. Mold returned almost
immediately.  There was no visible mold
anywhere, it could just be smelled.
 
We had issues
with Stephens from the start. First they showed up hours after scheduled. There
was an equipment issue; the technician felt they didn’t have the correct equipment.
This was resolved. The job was completed and the technicians were great.
 
When mold
issues recurred about a week later, it was impossible to get either an E Mail
or phone response from Stevens. Finally we did and Stephens then responded
quickly.  However, again crew arrival was hours after
scheduled.
 
In the mean time we got an invoice for the initial work
– fine. A day later we got a second invoice, for the same amount, saying
“payment due”.
 
The second part of the job involved removing lots of
books from a room – which was an extra charge – OK. The job was done, but after
that they never returned and, again, we were unable to get a response via phone
or E mail for returning the room to as it was.
 
We held payment, hoping for a reply. When a second
invoice arrived it included the amount of the first job. The date of the second
invoice was days after the deposit of our first check!
 
We finally just gave up.
 
Be prepared!!
 

Did not hire

They email me every so often and they follow up with me as far as where I'm at in the decision process instead of just blowing it off or dropping the lead. We had other quotes and P W Stephens seems to be higher so I guess that's the other side of it. Just on the surface, they seem to be more interested in following up which I think is a good thing. On the other side of it, they were significantly higher than other quotes but those other quotes didn't follow up. With mold remediation, honestly I don't want to pay thousands more just because they followed up. This is one of those bottom line kinds of things. This is the kind of thing where no one will see it, you just need to pass an air test. It's not like kitchen remodeling where people will see it and so they will be able to judge how well your kitchen looks. With mold remediation, either it passes or it doesn't so I don't want to spend thousands more to pass the test. The other side of P W Stephens right now is they seem to have more of a follow through on customer's interest but they seem to be significantly more.

They were prompt and friendly with their consultation.  They came in with a good price compared to others.  They handled the removal for us at a job site while we were away on vacation and were very responsive in communicating by phone and email (we had to electronically sign a contract and email it to them).  We came back from our vacation and the work was done.  Just by looking at the remains, we believe the quality of the work was good.  Painless process for us.  Would recommend this company.

This was the best experience I could possibly have had under the circumstances of what was needed. My tenant called me on 12/23 stating the heating repair company found asbestos and that they couldn't fix the heater until the asbestos had been dealt with. This  call was not only received on a Friday, but also the day before Christmas Eve! I called P.W. Stephens and after speaking to someone in the office, | was connected to the owner who assured me the work would be done the next day on Christmans Eve, and that he would also give me a discount because it was a holiday! I was happy to be dealing with such a professional company because I went into labor the morning of Christmas Eve, and could not deal with anything other than having a baby.  I received the invoice by email that same day stating the scope of work and total due.The work was done as promised (on Christmas Eve), and the tenants were made to feel comfortable while the workers were in the home.  A great experience

They were prompt, got it all done in one day, they were neat, got it done quickly, and did a good job. They were easy to work with and didn't miss much.

I called to get an estimate for removal of the asbestos covered ducts in my crawlspace.  They gave me an estimate over the phone, and I think I was a little unclear on what "boots" were.  I told him I didn't need them taken, but apparently I did.  I panicked a little when they showed up to do the job and said the boots were not included in the quote.  I was expecting a call for a HUGE extra fee, but it never came.  THey did charge me another $150 for all 11 boots, but that seemed very fair.  In all, it ended up being $550 less than the other quote I got.  They were easy to schedule two days in advance.  They showed up on time, and did their work without any other problems. 
I would use them again.

They had no experience whatsoever.  They did an awful job.  They were rude and unprofessional.  They didn't show up on time.  It was horrible.  They started in the summer, and they didn't even finish until April.  That was how bad it was.  The city gave them something like $12,000, and they were an absolute nightmare to work with.

Extremely poor responsiveness.