Metro Snow & Ice Management

I paid for snow removal from Metro for the first time this season an we just had our first major storm in Ottawa. Guess what, these guys never showed up to plow my driveway. I had to shovel myself out this morning as well as shovel when I got home from work. They are the worse, they take your money than don't show. Other on my street also tired them this season and are in the same boat, all had to shovel. don't get these guys...ever!!!

Well guess what, we got 8.6 cm of snow last night an you guys did not show so far today an it is now 1 pm. You never returned a response from my email or message as well from the last storm an I never get Alerts or any other emails from you as well. My driveway is at 132 Highbury park drive Barrhaven.

Always late and making excuses when other companies remove snow before them. There is 15cm of snow, 2pm and still no service. Will not renew contract with them next year.

Hired them last winter as a last resort as I was out of town every week for work and fiancee had a hard time using the snow blower. Couldn't have been happier with the service. While there were times that they were behind and had to get neighbour to open up driveway for me, its nothing unexpected. They can only do so much. This winter, was going to do my driveway myself but after the excellent service last year, have hired them again.

We hired Metro Snow and Ice in the fall 2016. First 1.5 months: no show twice. Then twice their driver drove off the driveway, into the garden/lawn and smashed reflector posts. Both sides of the driveway had already been cleared manually by us, the width of a showel, but the driver managed to miss that too. The response to our complaint was that if we were not happy we could get our $ balance back and make other clearing arrangements. We did and the business we hired to replace this awful company was great. Metro never compensated us for the damages they did.

I am 75 and used Metro Snow Blowing winter of 2016-2017 having been a very happy customer of Appleseed which was excellent and morphed into this new company.
The service was terrible: they missed my driveway totally several times; were very late when they did arrive. In general, a total white to black shift with the new
company/former company owned in
both cases by same person. Only he can answer why! I would caution anyone from going with Metro. Another company ended up finishing my driveway for free
because of the undependable, spotty service in 2017.
I have moved for winter of 2017-18 to another company and they are fabulous!! Robocalls to remove vehicles excellent. First class like Appleseed used to be!!

We have always been satisfied with the service from Metro! They come on time, our driver is polite, great communication from office staff. We looked around at other companies and decided the perks Metro offers is worth every penny. Knowing the tractor is en route so we can move our cars saves a ton of hassle in the morning rush!

Last season we changed to Metro. After being with a company that promised and never delivered, we were skeptical at first.

I was surprised at the consistency of the service from the beginning of the season to the end.
The communication through regular email updates and newsletters helps to manage our expectations and to understand how things work.

In our opinion you can tell that Ken really knows this business from how he communicated with us and managed expectations from the beginning of the snow to the end.

Chris & Michelle

To anyone thinking about contracting Metro Snow & Ice for the upcoming winter
DO NOT waste your money!!
They do nothing that they say they will.
Let's review what they claim to do on their website.

4cm minimum for service.
Not really. We got an email last winter stating that 4cm had fallen and was still present on 50% of the driveways but melted on the North side of every street. For that reason the Owner, Ken opted to not service anyone. Hope You don't live on the South side of your street.

250cm max removal.
Oh, did you think that meant they will remove up to 250cm? So did we. But at Metro, that means 250cm has to fall in the season to end your contract. That means that if it snows 3cm 83 days in a row, your contract will be over and they will not have come once.

GPS email alerts
This is the reason we chose Metro 2 years ago. But guess what, in 2 years we received 1 GPS alert. That's not a typo. ONE! So don't count on that.

24hr phone support
What that means to Metro is if you call, some teenager will take your name and number and presumably wipes their a$$ with it. No one ever called us back.

Email support.
Consists of "Sorry we're working on it" This applies to the lack of GPS alerts and requests for full clearing since we could not move our cars do to the lack of GPS alerts.

In addition to all that, in email bulletins that owner, Ken, puts out he talks things like "full width cleaning." Not sure what that means seeing as the plow left 2 feet of "width" uncleared on the side of the driveway closest to the house. I've attached 2 pictures. First is what the plow left. Second is after I cleared what we paid to have removed.

If you read any of Ken's responses to their negative reviews, he completely neglects to address the concerns his "clients" lay out in their reviews. Instead, he harps on how "they" are awful to have written a bad review. Perhaps if he addressed all of our concerns when we originally made them, we wouldn't write these reviews.

We had replaced an old hedge at the front of our house because over the years the snow removal company had denuded some of the hedge. A new hedge was put in the fall and was at least two feet from the driveway. Metro were supposed to put up stakes to show where to remove the snow. They did not do this. Metro ran into the new cedars and actually broke one of them off, denuded two others and broke the invisible fence for our pet.

Four calls were made to the company, the first three with no return calls but a pleasant receptionist. The last call we were informed that none of the damage was their responsibility. They claimed that underground wires were not covered. I informed them that the wire for the fence was above ground in the hedge. No comment from Metro and no renumeration or fixing. In my opinion they were extremely careless in the few times they did the snow removal.

Metro took over from Appleseed this year. We have never had an unresolved dispute with Appleseed. This year Metro didn't come to clear the snow in a timely manner on three separate occasions so we had to shovel the driveway. A competitor Wintergreen used by our neighbour had no such problem. We would urge others to look at other competitors as we certainly are.