Precision Snow Removal

For the 2020-2021 snow season, we, a group of 3 neighbours, hired Precision to plow the long, narrow Centretown driveway and small parking lot in the back that we share. We are extremely disappointed with Precision's service because after except but at most 3 snowfalls, it appeared that nobody had come at all, despite our numerous calls complaining after each major snowfall beginning in mid January. And there were a lot of significant snowfalls in January and especially February that left some residents having collectively to spend hours shoveling snow themselves and others unable to leave their house for over a week due to Precision's failure to remove snow as agreed upon.

Additionally, Precision quoted us $150 plus tax to plow each half of our parking lot ($300 plus tax for the entire parking lot). We ended up signing up only to have one half of the parking lot plowed, as the owner of the other half was able to shovel that half himself, but Precision still charged us for shoveling the entire parking lot, so even before accounting for the terrible service we received, Precision owes us $169.50 ($150 plus tax).

More specific details about our experience follow. Warning: this is a bit long.

After our first major snowfall in late November, it did appear that someone had come to clear off some of the snow, although a noticeable layer of at least about 4-5 centimeters remained. Fortunately there was not much more snow until January, but the first two days of January saw a fair amount of snow, which nobody removed.

Then we got over 20 cm of snow on January 16. I called Precision later in the day on January 16 and could not reach anybody. We were hoping that somebody would finally come, maybe after a day or two. Nothing. I called on January 19 and was able to reach somebody, who told me that somebody would look into our place and get back to me. Nobody got back to me, and nobody came to remove snow.

Significant snowfall started happening more often, and we called after virtually every snowfall to tell Precision that our place had not been plowed. Finally, a plow truck came late in the afternoon on January 30 and plowed our driveway. That flattened and greatly reduced the amount of snow sitting on our driveway, although it was by no means completely clear of snow. And this was after a significant snowfall from January 26-27 that had dumped about 8 cm of snow.

February was a terrible month for all of us, with frequent significant snowfalls that kept piling up because Precision rarely came to remove the snow. We had to keep calling Precision to have someone come plow our place. Each time, we were told that someone would come or had come. However, only once, at most twice, was it clear that any plowing had been done. And although Precision had agreed in our contract to plow both our driveway and parking lot, the parking lot was never plowed after the one time in November. We have tenants living in one of our buildings who had a car and were constantly having to shovel their car out of snow, sometimes shoveling most of the driveway themselves in order to be able to drive in and out. We could hear their tires spinning in the snow on most days as they spent at least 10-20 minutes shoveling or spinning their wheels each time they had to go out or come back. We were lucky that these tenants were exceptionally understanding relative to some others we have had who would have harassed us to no end if they had to tolerate these piles of snow.

The last major snowfalls happened on February 24, February 27, and March 3. No plowing was done after these snowfalls. In the last week of February and especially the second week of March, high temperatures started climbing a few degrees above 0, for the first time in weeks. That unfortunately caused partial melting of the thick layer of snow, followed by freezing to ice when the temperatures went back down below 0, which made the driveway very slippery to walk on. Those of us living in the back unit whose only pathway to the street is that driveway were too scared to go out for over a week for fear of slipping and falling.

Amazingly and much to our relief, mid to late March saw numerous days with high temperatures in the teens, which finally melted most of the snow.

On March 18, our credit card was charged for the full fee that we had been quoted for snow removal of the driveway and parking lots. We feel that given how infrequently our driveway was plowed, and that our parking lots were not plowed at all other than that first time in November, we should receive a minimum 50% discount off the quoted price.

On March 19, I called and left a message indicating that I wanted to discuss the bill.

On March 22, Kent, the owner of Precision and president of The Ottawa Snow Contractors Association, called me back. He acknowledged that there was a problem and said that our driveway was one of just two that were exceptionally narrow. He said that whenever any of us called about the driveway not having been shoveled, he had someone come back with a bucket and shovel to take care of our driveway and that normally 6 feet wide buckets worked with other driveways, but ours required a 5.5 foot one. He said he would take a look at our account and see if he could give us some kind of discount, but it would not be the 50% I asked for, but that he would follow up with one of us.

We called a few more times over the next few weeks, sometimes leaving a voicemail, sometimes reaching Kent. Whenever Kent picked up the phone, he told us that he had not been in the office and was not prepared because he had not had the chance to look at our file yet. I last spoke with Kent on April 15 and was told the same thing.

We feel that Kent has been dodging us for the last few weeks with excuses and that we have no choice but to escalate this matter, including writing publicly about our bad experience.