The Post Hole Diggers

Fences & Gates
King ON L7B0E4
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HomeStars  >  Fences & Gates in Toronto  >  The Post Hole Diggers  >  Fence Post Installation
Joseph in Scarborough
Joseph in Scarborough
2 reviews Toronto, ON
5/10

Fence Post Installation

Fences & Gates review in Toronto

Did not have the best experience with the crew that came to install the posts. I had to argue with the job captain to drive to the back side of my yard to access the area I wanted the posts installed, which seemed unproffessional.
At the end of the day, the post were installed correctly.

Approximate cost of services:
$620.01
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Company Response

Hi Joseph
I'm sorry to hear that your experience with us was not ideal. While we do sympathize with the difficulties you had with the contractor (and we have discussed this with him), some of the details you have stated here are inaccurate. When you booked the job and received the confirmation email there were 7 detailed points to read and review, including our access requirements. Your exact response was "Easily able to access the back from the road" which is the exact information our contractor was given in the job details. But when he got onsite he saw that this was not the case. The access to your property was not only not "easy" but also required us to park on, and block, a major road - Ellesmere Rd. and then drive on public property with our machinery. By law we are not allowed to block a city street or to drive our machinery on city property without a permit both of which you expected us to do without having permits. Had you mentioned either of these things to us prior to the appointment we could have explained this situation and made the necessary arrangements. With regards to the placement of the posts, unfortunately we cannot always set posts in the exact spot they were marked due to underground obstructions (rocks, roots, debris etc). This was something that was mentioned to you in the confirmation email. Had you told us, or the contractor, that you wanted the posts in the exact spot we could have done it but the price would have been significantly higher as this would take us more time because we would have had to fight with and remove the underground obstructions. This was not information that you gave us and so we had no way of knowing you needed the post set with precise measurement. Finally, when you called the office and complained about the price increase, the business owner approved a refund of $50 + tax = $56.50 - not "the tax off of the original quote" as you mentioned in your review. The refund is based on our hourly rate of $250 per hour for additional labour and since it took him only half an hour (not 10 minutes as you mentioned) we reduced the price to $100 extra instead of $150 - as a compromise to you. Unfortunately, even our best efforts to appease our clients don't always work :(

Previous versions of this review:

Joseph in Scarborough
Joseph in Scarborough
2 reviews Toronto, ON
1/10

Fence Post Installation

Fences & Gates review in Toronto

• I was not happy with this service and would not recommend to use this company.
• The contractor was unprofessional, not easy to work with and made me feel it was an inconvenience for him to be there to do the work he agreed to take on.
• The head office does not communicate job site details to the contractor, either that or the contractor does not properly read specific jobsite details. If you do use this service, you have to watch them the entire time.
• The contractor did not care about customer satisfaction or respecting the customer and wanted the quickest and easiest way to make a dollar.
• My experience with Post Hole Diggers was not quality and left me frustrated and unsatisfied with the work.

The following is a more detailed explanation for my review above :

My back fence fell over in the last big windstorm and needed new posts. I was very clear from the beginning that the jobsite cannot be accessed from the front but can be accessed by the back. The head office assured me that the contractor would be able to work this out on site and called me the day before to confirm I would be home while the work is done, which I confirmed.
On the day of work, the contractor showed up, from the start he was agitated and asked me why I didn't pick up the phone and said he almost didn't come, even though I had specifically confirmed the day before with the head office that I would be home.
We then reviewed the area of work and he appeared frustrated that he couldn't access it from the front, even though I had clearly told the head office that it would need to be accessed from the back.
The contractor told me he was not comfortable with parking on the main road in the back or parking on the strip of grass between the road and yard, as it was City owned. Up to this point I was calm and told him if he was not comfortable with that lets find a solution to get the auger in the back.
Instead of the contractor calmly taking a moment to reassess the situation, he gets annoyed and starts giving me a hard time and says it will cost an additional $150 dollars because now he has to drive to the nearest side road and unload the auger there and drive through the strip of grass he didn't want to park the truck on.
I was not in agreement with this, called the head office to complain and was on the phone less than 10 minutes and he had gone to the side road, unloaded the auger and was in the back ready to work.
The contractor then tried to guilt me saying now he has to wheelbarrow the concrete through the front, which is completely unjustified as that is what he would have had to do on any other job.
I then built a ramp to help the wheelbarrows access the back yard from the front.
At the end of all this, despite all the post locations being clearly spray painted, he offset some of the posts from where I marked them and two of the posts were installed 5 inches different in height. When I asked him the reason he tried to put the blame on me and the posts I had provided.
After the contractor had left, I found cigarette butts throughout the yard. Complete disregard for the costumer’s property.
At the end of all this, he charged me the $150 dollars extra for taking less than ten minutes to access the site through the side road.
I made the mistake of paying him on the spot instead of working it out first with the head office.
The head office would not refund me the $150 extra but said they would take the tax off of the original quote of $400. I think this is completely unacceptable.
If a company provides a service, it should be on the basis of quality and customer satisfaction.

Approximate cost of services:
$620.01