Never Again wil We Use this company
we have used this company every year since they took over from Appleseed snowplowing; whose service was excellent. However, Metro has consistently dropped the ball with poor service, Zero customer relationships and communications. Despite Ken's claims/promises of being first on the street; we never see the tractors until long after everyone else has been cleared out if at all. There is always some kind of excuse given in an email blast to all his clients Yesterday(friday) morning the city had come and plowed back the street and left a large plow dump by 8:00 am. Metro sent out a email blast advising us that they were aware and that all tractors were out by 7:00 am and were going to run all routes and clear these dumps that day. When we came home after work at 5:00 pm nothing was done. I sent an email to Metro advising them. I received a response at 5:15 telling me directly that they had dispatched a driver to address and clear the dump as I could not get into our driveway. I have sent 4 followup emails and My wife has called and left messages and as of now (Saturday 11:55 am) nothing has been done! Needless to say, we will not be using Metro for next year. We do Expect Metro to Honour and fullfill the contract they signed. UPDATE: A fellow with a backhoe finally showed up to clear our snow dump on Saturday afternoon at approx 1:30pm. As the markings on the backhoe were for a local paving Company; I will assume Metro contracted with them to get the job done for not only my driveway but the other metro lanes on my street. I did send a email thanking them for getting the job done.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $360.00
- Company Response
To the reader:
While we take every negative review here on HomeStars very seriously, I think it imperative that these complaints be put in a proper perspective here.
With over 6000 customers Metro is without a doubt the largest and most established residential snow clearing service in Ottawa.
If we’ve had say 50 bad review this winter there are still 5,950 happy well served, satisfied customers very pleased with our service delivery this winter. Sadly, ‘happy clients’ see no need to provide a positive review.
Basically 1% create 99% of the negative, sometimes hostile reviews.
I am in no way diminishing or minimizing these complaints and we address them and try to learn from each and every one of them.
We’ve experienced massive back to back continuous storms,broken several snowfall records yet have continually ‘been there’ every storm with effective service each time.
Yes, ‘some clients’ will inevitably get missed the odd storm for whatever reason And every company has misses, breakdowns, tardiness on a few routes during the odd storm.
By virtue of the fact we are the largest company it stands to reason we would have relatively more complaints from such a large clientele.
Compared to other companies however our complaint ratio is lower then most.
We are a highly organized, highly responsible and caring organization with great dedicated staff.
Each year we sign up hundreds of ‘new, inexperienced’ customers who just don’t know how a ‘private service’ operates. Unrealistic expectations and timelines create unhappy clients.
When assessing our efforts, please remember the 99% of our clients that have never complained or written negative reviews over the 25 years we;ce been serving them.
Thanks for reading this general reply but I thought it proper to provide the ‘other side of the coin’ here.
Ken Dale
President
Metro Snow and Ice