Our contract, with our adjacent neighbour was for a re-lay of our shared interlocking brick driveways. No one communicated any issues to us during the two day period that the sub-contractors were at the property. The driveway was “completed” with a seam of unmatched stone running across our neighbours’ property without their permission. Other neighbours who had witnessed the job advised us that the workers threw the bricks into a pile across the courtyard, creating obvious damage. Due to this carelessness, they ran out of brick and had to create the mismatched seam, without the permission of our neighbour (who was not a party to the contract but whose driveway overlaps ours).
I was originally told in emails from “Doctor”that the most tedious part of the job that cannot be skipped was the individual cleaning of the bricks. This was not done (and the $7,000 job was completed in just 2 days and 2 hours). In fact when I asked the subcontractor why it wasn’t done he said that they never do this and was at a loss to explain why it was promised. “Doctor” simply refused to answer the question. There were additional deficiencies including a 3 inch unsupported edge and the Town access to water was covered.
"Doctor's" responses to our concerns were dismissive and rude. His response was that we should have been embarrassed about the condition of our driveway before and shifted responsibility to us to resolve the issues. When contacted by our neighbour, he challenged him by asking why he hadn’t managed the situation. He then immediately put through the full cost on Visa (knowing the job was incomplete and we were dissatisfied), cancelled our requested meeting to show him the deficiencies, informed us that none of the work was guaranteed and banned us from further communication “If I must block your email address, I will”.
The sub-contractor did return to the property to uncover the water access which they said they “hadn’t noticed” (although there’s one in every driveway on the courtyard). This required them to dig it all up again and cut around the hole. We did come up with our own resolution and our neighbour donated brick from his backyard to re-seam between our two drives, making the division less obvious.
This job was 100% labour and the cleaning of the brick was never completed and our property was damaged in the process. I concur that the driveway is now level. Aside from that, this has been a dreadful experience.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $7,000.00
- Company Response
It is truly unfortunately that this person would post a review full of lies. The simple fact that she posted as a "private user" says a lot about the person posting the review. There was no sub-contractor used on this job and everything, in detail, was explained to the home owner before anything was done. The reason for such a false review was because after the work was done they told us they were happy with the work but tried to talk us into giving them free interlock sealing service (a $2000 value) and I told them we cannot give them free services but we will discount the sealing for them. Suddenly they were no longer happy with the work and we sent our crew back to make any adjustments they wanted. There is also no truth to using bricks from the neighbor's back yard. We purchased bricks for them and ate the cost in an effort to provide outstanding service. Thier driveway is older than every crew member working on the job and had wheel depressions so deep that they would fill up with water like a swimming pool. After all was said and done the driveway looks brand new (minus the sealing we wouldn't give them for free). I feel sorry for this person because clearly she has personal issues and when she cannot get something for free she will then purger herself in an effort to try and harm an honest hard working Canadian company and ultimately our Canadian Economy. I could only imagine her reaction if I left a review about her with her employer and how being an honest consumer (or person) simply isn't possible. If I get more time I will edit this response to include every email in detail sent to her so our views (and fans) can see some of the challenges contractors go through with some home owners.
I wish you well and hope that you reconsider how you treat our fellow home contractors for your future contractor needs.