The Post Hole Diggers

This is unfortunate. In all my dealings with various contractors on here, I have had nothing but good experiences and great results. Unfortunately this company did not appear when I searched for Post Diggers. I found them through their own website.

I am sorry to say that my experience with The Post Hole Diggers was the worst business dealing of my life. This is rather long, but its important to get the details right because no doubt a fiery response awaits from the owner.

It started with a simple request for a quote for 20-30 post holes for a new deck build, including their service to fill them with concrete and set the posts.
I got a nice email back explaining that its $35 for each 8" footing.

Doing the math I realised that I could barely do it myself for any less so I booked on May 29th for them to come out on June 15th.

They state that you have to provide the posts, the sonotubes and the brackets.
I went to Home Depot to get my parts, including the 8" sonotubes as I'm sure most residential clients of theirs do.

The 15th comes and around 1:30 that afternoon I get a phone call telling me the contractor will be there between 4 and 7 that afternoon.
Great. So I have already taken the day off and I sit and wait.
And wait and wait and wait until 7:30 rolls around and nothing has happened. Now I have 27 posts to be done and I'm figuring that this isn't happening.
I call and get told that "Yeah I'm not going to be able to make it there today. I don't have enough materials"

Fantastic. So a whole day wasted and didn't even get the courtesy of being told until I went chasing them up.
I ask if they can come by tomorrow, and get told no. Its going to be Wednesday, so 2 days down the drain.

At that point I should have said thanks but no thanks and found someone else. It will be to my eternal regret that I did not.

Wednesday rolls around and I get a call at 7am telling me they will be there at 7:45. I rush around to get my daughter to school and arrive back home right at 7:45 only to sit waiting for another hour with no idea of what's going on until they show up unannounced at 8:40.
How did I know they had arrived?

I get a phone call from the guy telling me he is in my back yard. I look out of the window and there he is standing there puffing on a cigarette in my yard. How lovely. Glad my dog was not out there, she would have run off.

Out I go and I start getting peppered with technical questions that I have no idea about. Why is this?, why is that? etc etc. I'm the homeowner, you are supposed to be the expert. Immediately I feel uncomfortable. Again I should have trusted my judgement and told them to leave.
He looks at my sonotubes and tells me they are too big and I will need 10" footings. The sonotubes are marked as 8", he told me they are bigger and not really 8". I get offered two choices, I can go source "real 8" tubes" on my own or I can get 10" holes dug at $50 a hole. I reluctantly opt for the 10" holes.

When we are looking over the markings I made, there are a couple of posts close to utility lines in my back yard and near to the house (Marked clearly from a private locator). I get told they will have to be hand dug, but crucially I am not told that these cost $100 extra for each hole on top of the $50 cost. So that turns them into $150 holes.
He claims he told me and made it clear, but I am certain he made no mention of it being an extra $100 on top of the $50. He did though offer to let me to do it myself which rather defeats the purpose of hiring a contractor does it not?
Had I known the high cost I could have easily moved a couple of them a few feet so they could have been machine dug.

Now initially I told them I needed 29 holes as that was my original plan. I have been so busy doing so much work that I forgot that I actually only needed 27 because I was able to remove one beam with 2 posts.
All the post holes I wanted dug were marked with stakes and there were clearly 27 of them. He claims he took me at my work it was 29 which is why I was billed for 29. He also said that if it had been 33 I would still have been billed for 29 because of "trust". I find that highly doubtful.

The lead guy then tells one of the others not to hit my gas line and tells me he hit a gas line on a job yesterday. Hahaha, that really made me feel at ease.

While the crew were working they showed utter contempt for my property. The one guy smoked continually in my yard and another one thought it was ok to spit incessantly over my yard and lawn. I can't say I have ever seen a contractor act like this, treating my property in such a way.
Dirt, debris, soil, track marks I expect. Mucus, phlegm and cigarette smoke I do not.

Once the work was done, and the work itself was OK it came time to pay.
The invoice was for 29 holes and 8 hand dug holes. As I believed that was correct I paid the whopping total of $2,542. Which was over $1500 more than I had budgeted for and frankly had I known up front that would be the price I would never have contacted them again and done it myself. The only reason I got someone in was because originally it was little more than it would have cost me to hire an auger, buy concrete and hire a mixer ($945 for 27 holes @ $35 each).

I tried to pay by credit card but their ipad payment system would not accept the payment (I did verify with VISA after that there was enough funds which they confirmed so the error was with their system. I was later yelled at for having "Your card bounce"). So I paid by cheque in the end.

After they left I went to the back to take a look and noticed 2 sonotubes and 2 brackets left. Knowing I bought 29 of each I counted the holes and found there were of course 27 as that's what I had marked out. I looked back over my plans to see if there was an error and realised then that it was always 27 I needed after I changed my plan.
I looked again at the invoice and saw that originally 27 had been written on there but the 7 was turned into a 9.
I looked at the holes that were hand dug and there were 6. So I had been charged for and paid them for 29 holes and 8 hand digs, when I got 27 and 6 hand digs.
I will leave it up to each of you to determine as to whether this was deliberate or not.
I am submitting photos that show the invoice change and the exact number of holes and hand digs. I think these photos speak for themselves.
I'm not really sure how they could be unsure of how many holes they had dug. At the very least when there were 2 sonotubes left that should have caused a moment to perhaps pause and recount. Instead not a word was said and they were quietly laid on the ground in between my posts.

The kicker for the hand dug holes is that 2 of them only had to be hand dug because of their own inability to show up on Monday. I had an electrician booked for Tuesday to wire up my new hot tub (Trenched 18" deep running from the GFCI to the tub as per code). Had these guys showed up on Monday as agreed the wire would not have been there and they could have machine dug them! Because they came 2 days late on Wednesday the electrical wire was now there which meant the machine could not be used - And they expected me to pay for that! As he told me later "I don't care". Nice.

After I contacted them, they claimed they told me all about the extra charges. Again they did tell me the 10" holes would be $50 each but at no time was I ever told the hand dug holes would be $100 each on top of that. They say they did, again I will let you decide who is being truthful.
They did mention to me that some of the holes were close to the foundation and the window ledge and they might get damaged by the machine. In that instance I simply agreed to move the holes back a foot and all was good. Had I known that I was going to be zinged for $100 a pop extra for hand digs, why would I not have just told them to move the holes a little so they could be machine dug? It makes no sense that I would willingly choose to spend several hundred dollars rather than move a hole a foot. But that is what they claim.

After going back and forth that evening via email with the person Homestars lists as the owner (Adrianne), I got a phone call at 9:36pm from Mike, who claims he is the owner (and the person I was emailing with is just the "secretary" so the info on here is wrong) and who was yelling and swearing at me down the phone and then he topped it all when he threatened me. He started his rant by asking why didn't I call him, why was I emailing the office, and calling me out for telling him I needed 29 holes and that he didn't bother checking he just takes the client at their word. He excoriated me for not taking his call (I was driving at the time and couldn't as I explained in email when I got home) and he didn't like the fact that I prefer to use email for communication rather than the phone.
He lectured me on trust and how he "worked his ass off out there" and how I was "throwing this s**t" and on and on the insults and the derision went without barely pausing for breath.
It was extremely intimidating and very threatening the entire time.
Certainly there was no time for me to say anything.
He is the kind of person that has an answer for everything (no matter how ridiculous it sounds), except you get treated as if you have the IQ of a toddler (Claimed that the guy was spitting because he had choked - except for the fact that I counted him spitting over 20 times in the first hour alone. Must have a heck of a choking problem in that case). Also claimed it was my fault for not going out there and telling them to stop smoking and spitting. Apparently the onus is on me to ask them not to treat my home like a personal toilet.

It all ended rather ominously "That cheque better cash or....." and the rest wasn't finished. By the time he had finished screaming at me and not even letting me speak I was shaking and wanted to call the Police.
Thankfully I recorded the conversation for my own protection.
I feel absolutely sick to my stomach and wish I had never, ever seen or heard of The Post Hole Diggers.

I have told them to keep the money (By my count $500 plus tax that they were not entitled to) on the condition they never contact me or come near my or my property again. That is how desperate I am to never have anything to do with these people again. Its not worth it to deal with the abuse and the threats. An expensive lesson learned to steer clear of contractors who don't have a long history of high ratings on here and to always, always make sure you have a site visit and written quote before getting any work done.

By a million miles they are the worst contractor experience I have ever had. I have been left feeling ripped off and frightened to death to be in my own home.

*************EDIT IN RESPONSE***********************
That didn't take long hahahaha!

If you like I can post the entire email string and we can show everyone how "rude and insulting" you claim I was.
I have no problem releasing the entire email string, do you?
Or how about I release the recording of your owner threatening me, shall we do that as well?
The email string of course will reveal you offering to refund me for the holes that you paid me for but did not dig - I see that you can't even refute that. So you clearly admit charging me for work that was not done then?
Do you have any comment on the photos and the invoice?
I would hardly describe that as you heroically standing up to my attempts to "manipulate" you. If by manipulate you mean trying to get you to charge me correctly for the actual work done then you misunderstand the word manipulate. Infact I told you not to bother because your owner made a verbal threat to me twice over the phone. In light of that harassment I choose to cease communicating with you. However if you wish to push this I am more than willing to instruct my lawyer and we can debate this in open court where all of the information can be made public.
If I were you I would quit while you are ahead because I am more than happy to take this to court.
So rather than engage in personal attacks on myself, which is basically all of your response, would you like to actually refute any of the claims I made here or do you admit that everything is factually correct?
Yes I wanted you to change your fee after the job was done because you charged me for work you had not done!!!
I fail to see how you keep failing to understand that fairly simple concept.
In business you can't make people pay for things you didn't do.
Or maybe its the kind of thing you lot do all the time so you don't even realise.
************************************************************************************EDIT #2**************************************************************************
OK Adrianne, have it your way we can keep going like this if you like.
Look I never said anything about the quality of the work which was OK. That's not the point. It's the whole paying you for stuff you didn't do part that has me less than happy. Didn't say anywhere there was a concern about the dig or the concrete, so not even sure why you bring that up.
I'd like you to explain where I was insulting you or rude in the emails I sent?
I had a feeling just from the attitude overall that this might end up in litigation so I was very careful with what I wrote, and I suggest you do the same, because everything you write can be held against you and I have already saved everything.
Your claims here are borderline libelous and unless you are prepared to prove your claims in court then you should tread carefully.
It's staggering to me that after giving you what you wanted, you still can't let it go. I am literally this close to filing suit against you, so unless you can convince a judge that somehow my paying you for 29 holes when you only dug 27 regardless of the circumstances is legally justifiable then you are on very shaky ground.
You can't seem to make up your minds on who owns the company. Mike told me last night you were just the secretary (his term not mine) and that I should deal with him directly. Yet you claim to be part owner. Which is it?
The offer you made was that Mike would come around last night and re-count the holes and you would refund me if there were 27 holes. Well Mike never came of course instead he decided to threaten me over the phone, so now I think quite justifiably I do not want him or anyone associated with your company anywhere near my property.
I think its pretty obvious from the photos that there are 27 holes and 6 hand digs. That's a $300 overcharge right off the bat and I'm still upset you expect me to cover the cost of 2 hand digs that were only necessary because you failed to show for the first booked appointment.
How you can even try to justify that blows my mind.
Let me ask you directly, is your company OK with receiving payment for work you did not do?
Are you OK with making abusive and threatening phone calls to customers?
You talk about this wonderful customer service, well you know that means being able to deal with customers who are not happy. Your only response to anyone who is not happy is to get angry with them!
The replies here are striking in how angry you sound. It's seriously unprofessional looking. Every time you get a bad review, its because the reviewer is telling fibs according to you. There is going to come a time when that's just not going to be believable. Hopefully there is enough here to show anyone who has read this far that the shaky use of the truth is coming from only one side.
The stop payment was put in place, but you seem to forget to mention about the part right after where I said that was because there was clearly an error and the bill was factually wrong. You also don't mention where I offer to send you photos and video of the 27 posts so you didn't have to re-visit the site and put yourselves out, and that I would immediately make the proper payment by either replacement cheque or by VISA once we could all agree.
At no time did I ever suggest I was going to stop the payment and withhold payment for the job, I just wanted to pay an accurate amount.
I'm not sure how that could possibly be unreasonable? Do you think I'm unreasonable for only wanting to pay for the ACTUAL job that you did?
But you know all this because it's all in the email string isn't it, which again in court is going to be presented as evidence.
You do like to be liberal with the facts and like to miss off important bits of information. You are lucky that I did pay you by cheque because if it had been VISA this would have been in dispute.
Maybe you don't have many positive reviews because people just aren't that happy with your service. There are likely fewer negative reviews as people will be too afraid to express it given your aggressive and vengeful attitude. Certainly after being on the receiving end of Mike's vicious temper last night I can see why people would be hesitant about speaking out about your service level.
Most people like I decided would probably just chalk it up to a bad experience and move on rather than risk incurring your wrath.
I have no idea how you can sit there and not make any comment about the telephone call I received last night and the fact that your husband threatened me. If you think that is acceptable business practice then I don't know what to say.
I've made my point here, I am not wasting any more time with your company and this nonsense.
If you wish to push this any further at all the next you will hear from me will be court documents and I will be glad to update this review again after the outcome of our date in court.
I was prepared to let sleeping dogs lay, but your insults and false claims are testing the limits of my patience to the very end.
I am in the interests of establishing who is being truthful here publishing screenshots of our email correspondence after the job was done. You can feel free to point out the rude and insulting bits for everyone's benefit