Kodiak Snow blowing Inc

Good day. Without supplying verifiable client info (ie. accurate client name, street name, or even city) I am able to provide generic ‘delivery of service’ data only. Per the Service Logs we post on our website, our tractors were delivering service from 5 AM on Dec. 29th until 2:30 AM on Dec. 30th (21.5 Hrs). I gave the boys a 4.5 hr rest and had them back in their tractors from 7 AM until 7 PM on Dec. 30th (another 12 hrs). We recorded a total snowfall of 21 cms at the Kodiak yard on Dec. 30th. Typically it takes our tractors 6 hours to complete their routes for a 1st pass. In heavy snow it can obviously take longer, especially when cars are parked helter skelter in the streets blocking traffic. If I knew what street you lived on I would be able to verify or disqualify your claim of a 3:30 PM pass on Dec. 29th. On Jan. 12th our Service Logs attest that our drivers worked one shift from 5 PM to 11 PM that day. I then pulled them back as the winds were negating any work that we had done to that point. (In other words, the 5 cms of snow that we removed before midnight filled in again by 1 AM.) To make a blanket statement that you received no service on this day would be inaccurate. I know that Kodiak and Kittle were the only two companies providing service at this time in Stittsville and most of Kanata. On Jan. 13 we resumed operations at 7:30 AM once the winds had died down and the plows started to make their rounds and we completed a 2nd pass on 80% of our our routes by 2 PM that day. If you had not received your 2nd cleaning by 12 PM I would assume that you are positioned close to the end of one of our routes and would have received it shortly after posting your review. Typically, if a client runs a home business I alert the driver to make sure he provides service before 8 AM and/or before 4 PM, depending upon when the snow starts. As I have mentioned in previous postings Kodiak flips its routes every year to give equal opportunity to everyone (ie. so that one client is not always at the beginning or end of a route). I presume your positioning on the route got flipped this year and that’s why the service is being delivered at a different time from what you are used to. I will also assume that we are not aware that you run a home-based business. If you would like to confirm your address by email I will make sure the driver accomodates you. If you of course do not let us know I cannot help you. For every problem there is always a solution if you give us the chance to provide it.

Thank you for your feedback. We acknowledge having a new driver working on Norway Spruce St (Goulbourn area of Stittsville) where he had issues missing a few driveways. He is familiar with his route, however the first storm of the season was a big storm and he of course was slow and stressed. If you have been a client of Kodiak before you know that we have new drivers every year. There is always a learning curve, but we have supervisors working with them to help them improve their speed and quality and usually after they have a few 10 cms storms under their belt they improve significantly. Understanding this on the part of the client helps and your patience is appreciated. On the evening of December 28th we experienced no less than 6 power failures at our office. Each one caused our servers to shut down and reboot. The last one knocked our GPS server offline entirely. Because of the holidays I was not able to get a technician working on it until today (Jan. 4th). We should have it back online again by mid-week. I would be very appreciative if you would return and submit another review in a month's time. I think you will see that the issues you experienced in this first big storm have long since been resolved. All the best, Ann P.S. We did not have any issues with our website. The online ticketing was fully functional throughout the storm and continues to be so.

Thank you Yury for your positive feedback and for your business. We do the very best we can to be as responsive as possible with all of our clients and it is our pleasure to serve you. Look forward to another good winter ahead. Have a great Autumn.

Thank you for your feedback. On 02/14/15 we received a total snowfall accumulation of 5 cms of snow (our minimum snowfall limit). Whenever we receive this small an amount of snow we will do 1 PASS ONLY after the city plows have gone by on the side streets. (It has always been this way.) Although 5 cms had fallen by 5 PM on 02/14/14, the city did not go out to plow until after midnight that night (4 AM on 02/15/15). We took a chance, started our work at 2 AM anticipating the city would be working overnight and it took us 13 hours of WAITING for the city plows to complete their work once they started. Had we started at 5 PM on the 14th the drivers would have been waiting for 22 hours for side streets to be plowed. I cannot justify having my drivers wait 22 hours for a 5-cm snowfall!

The city plow schedules represent a much bigger challenge than you take into consideration. In years past we could count on them being out as snow was subsiding, making it easy for us to be right behind them completing our work. Now, we complete our work within a 6-hour time frame and sit there scratching our heads wondering whether the city plows are going to appear and if so, when. The city refuses to supply any information regarding their schedules to the private contractors, so we learn of their whereabouts only by sitting and watching. There is a limit to how long we can realistically expect our drivers to do this, don't you agree?

You might think that the most logical course of action would be to have our drivers start their pass as soon as 5 cms is down, complete their work, and go home. In theory this works; in practice it does not. Many of our drivers come from as far away as Merrickville, Gatineau, Cornwall, and Gananoque. Calling them in for a 6-hour shift, sending them home, and bringing them back whenever the city decides to show up (which could be 2 hours later or 10 hours later), just isn't feasible. I would have drivers quitting left, right, and center.

If you check our Service Logs (https://www.kodiaksnow.ca/service-logs-2014-2015/), Kodiak has already been out on 17 separate dates so far and performed a total of 24 visits on each client's driveway. There has never been a time in the history of Kodiak (10 years) where service was not provided and I think it is unjust that you make this statement now. In this case, service was provided, just not as quickly as you would have liked.

A common theme behind many of the negative reviews we receive is a lack of understanding of our internal processes. Key to our operations are our drivers. They are not machines and we cannot treat them as such. In almost all cases, they go above and beyond what is reasonably expected. 20+ hours of waiting time for 5 cms of snow is not reasonable and I will not ask it of them.

Thank you for your kind words Mr. Dowell. It is our pleasure to provide you with the best customer service we can each season and we look forward to doing so for many years to come. As always, we remain at your disposal. Happy Holidays to you and your wife :)

Thanks Tiamo for your review. We do the very best we can for all of our clients every year and appreciate the positive feedback. Regarding our $15 'Fuel Surcharge', we have decided to do away with that in future, preferring a more progressive 'up-front' approach of annual increases to keep up with the cost of rising fuel prices. We received similar feedback from other clients who preferred knowing about price increases at the beginning of a season rather than at the end ...and we listened! Have a great winter :)

Thankyou Mrs. Robinson for your review. To be honest, I am in disbelief that you have the nerve to submit it, because in reality you have been taking advantage of our service. You pay $175 + HST to have us remove the city plow ridge and the sidewalk plow ridge at the foot of your driveway only (what you call ‘half’ the driveway), but then your husband cleverly pushes the snow from the top three quarters of the driveway down to the sidewalk (which he denied in my telephone conversation with him) so that my driver ends up removing all of the snow on your driveway for half the price! Imagine how the rest of my clients would feel about paying the full price if they knew that you were getting all of the snow cleared away on your driveway for only half? What’s the difference between what you are doing and having your neighbor push all their snow onto your driveway for us to clear? Everyone wants something for nothing and where there is a loophole, there is a way! There were no issues in 2012-13 with our service because my driver at that time did not report to me what was going on. This year the new driver did and you got caught. Nonetheless, we continued to provide service throughout the ENTIRE season for both yourself and your neighbor. (We did not cease providing service or ‘deny you proper service’ as you claim.) Going ahead, we will not. It is not fair to the other clients that pay full fare and it is not respectful of Kodiak. I’m sure you will find another company you can do this with however, that will be happy to provide you with service for at least another season before they discover what is going on too.

All of our tractors were dispatched at 11 AM and are completing their routes as we speak (5:05 PM). I am the operating manager of this company and consider 6 hours a reasonable turnaround time for completion of our routes. I am therefore confused about why you would be upset. You have received service in a timely manner. Our routes are of course organized in a different order than those of our competitors, so we won't necessarily ever be at your address before our competitor will be at your neighbor's address. At the other end of the route however, we will be at our addresses before our competitor will get to his. This is just common sense. If you would care to provide more details of your complaint I would be happy to respond further. Specifically, we do not have a record of any client with a first name of Yvonne having called our office today. (We maintain call logs for all inbound calls received.) Unless I have a valid address to research I will consider this a bogus review.