Chapman Septic Service Inc

BUYER BEWARE! They have a 'D' rating with the BBB for a reason. On Friday, August 8th, 2014 this company came out to a property that my husband and I have under contract in order to perform an inspection of the septic tank. We were told when we made the appointment that we may need to have it pumped in order to do the inspection, so we were prepared for that possibility. The company arrived about 20 minutes late (no big deal, things happen). The 'inspection' consisted of the following: One of the guys opened the cap and leaned over to look inside the tank (no flashlight or anything to assist him), then lowered a metal bar down into it. He pulled it up and made what I can only guess was a mental note of the fluid level, as there were no markers on the bar that I could see. He put the hose from the front of the house into the tank and ran water for a little while. He then dipped the bar back in and noted the level of fluid as indicated on the bar. He said that this told him nothing was backing up and that everything looks good. That was the end of any inspection he performed that day. He then began to pull the house off the truck to pump the tank. My husband explained to him that we had been told that pumping would only be necessary if it needed to be done to perform the inspection. Without even pausing, he continued to prepare to pump the tank saying that it had to be pumped and that, "They're gonna make you pump it." We thought that was odd but did not want to argue the point. We reasoned, 'maybe he knows something we don't', maybe we misunderstood something', and 'maybe it's really in need of a pump anyway'. He pumped it and they left (again, without doing any further inspection whatsoever). We were present and watching them the entire time they were there (maybe a half hour). Later that day we learned that the sellers had just had the tank pumped 14 days earlier. So at that point we knew it wasn't because it had been in need of a pumping. We decided we would call the company Monday morning when they re-opened. I called that Monday morning to get clarification on why it had been pumped after the 'inspection'. I spoke with a woman (name unknown) and explained the situation to her. She was immediately defensive and astonishingly rude. I've never been spoken to by a representative of a business the way this person spoke to me. Frankly, I'm sitting here writing this baffled that, not only is this person employed, she is responsible for interacting with customers. She actually mocked the way I was calling her ma'am. I felt like I was talking to a rude child, though by the sound of her voice she was much older. She contradicted herself the entire time saying that the Department of Health requires that the tank be pumped for the inspection, but then saying they wouldn't have pumped it if we "had been adults" and insisted he not pump it. She called the guy (who had pumped the tank) on the radio and he said, "If they had told me it had just been pumped, I wouldn't have pumped it." So that doesn't jive with her Dept. of Health requirement excuse, nor does it jive with what he told us at the time (that it was required and that 'they' were going to make us pump it). Furthermore, if it is in fact a legal requirement to pump the tank before inspecting it (as she was claiming), then the inspection they conducted was not in compliance with this requirement. The woman said, "you got what you wanted; what do you want, a refund?" At this point I said, "Actually yes, for the pump, I do." She said sarcastically, "yeah, well, you know what, no I'm not gonna do that." I said several times, "Ma'am you don't need to speak to me in such a manner (that's when the "ma'am" mocking began)." She finally told me she had more important things to do than talk to me. I guess there were more customers to berate and rip off. Wow.

They were right on time and very professional. I would definitely call them again. They were reasonable to all my requests and pricing was right on target for the job.