Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/07/2022

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Project start date: 10/6/22 delayed and originally supposed to start 9/30- 10/2. The agreed upon cost was for 2,722$. It was supposed to be from 10/6 -10/9 a three day job with no work on the 8th. Total amount we paid to was 4,500$ they are claiming additional 413$The dispute: we never signed a contract, and we never agreed to any new estimate. They did not follow project plan, and did damaged property. Now sending harassing emails claiming a past due amount of 413$. But, they were told the amount they would receive due to their poor work and not following project requirements. In total we paid 1,778$ more than the agreed upon quote. We replied to their request of more payment with email including pictures outlining the damage, and poor work they caused. Destroyed our vegetation line, broke a waterline. One section was not mulched at all, and the larger portion had entire branches not even touched, with rubbish scattered across the failed. They cut down trees that were supposed to remain, and attempted to make the project longer, which was not agreed to, a classic scam. They did not dump the rubbish which the estimate was based on, but buried it instead. They were informed via text on Monday the 10th that we did not want or need any more cut down, and that everything looked finished.They made no attempt to resolve these issues! We did not want to pay them more than the original quote of 2,722$. We certainly never agreed to any other quote or amount, neither in contract, or any other means. We paid 4,500$ to put this behind us. They continue to send fake past due statements saying we owe them 413$Desired outcome: Leave us alone! Or if they want any 413$ return and fix this disaster. Reinstall the **** feet vegetation line, professionally fix the broken waterline, and mulch the project area. We want to be left alone.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/21/2022

  12-20-2022  

   

  The customer contacted me for an estimate. I walked the property with the customer, and he explained to ******************** (me) what vegetation he would like to be mulched and areas to be cleared. As our web site and the estimate states, when we only perform mulching, we mulch brush vegetation, saplings and trees that are 8 inches at the base and smaller. Clearing land/trees is a completely different process. I explained that two machines will be needed because the customer also wanted the stumps removed. The estimate (10/21/22) was for $2,722.00. In addition, it states on the estimate that rain will delay the start date because mud clogs the mulcher so mulching can only be performed when the ground is dry. The email in which the estimate is attached to; it states, if you accept this estimate, I will begin dropping machines off the day before. I received a text from ******* that stated " I found your email estimate. From what I saw every looks okay". See attached picture.

   

  On the day work began, I walked around the area to be mulched with the customer. The customer noted that all the large mature trees (***** inches and larger at the base, 40+ feet tall) needed to be removed. I explained to the customer that the current estimate did not include the removal of the 11 additional mature trees and ***** removal. I explained to him that I can provide another estimate including the removal of the 11 trees and stumps. I told him because of the miscommunication that I would provide a lower cost. I also told him that if he expected me to do the 11 trees for the original estimate, that I would be willing to load up my machines and he can find another company to do his job because there was no way I could take down that many trees for that cost. He told me to continue. (my business partner was a witness to this conversation).

  On the second day the customer also changed his mind about only clearing a 12x10 area on the other side of the neighbors driveway, stating "my wife isn't having JUST a 10x12 area cleared, she wants the whole area cleared"; the customer demanded the full ***** area be cleared. Three 40 ft trees had to be removed, but I agreed to do the additional area for no additional cost.

  On 10/8/22 I sent a new estimate which included the 11 tree and ***** removal and to dig a hole and bury concrete refuse on the property. The estimate was for $4,913.00. Even though I gave the customer the chance to stop work, the customer never told me to stop clearing the property.

   

  The mound of refuse which was covered by dirt was much larger and deeper in the ground than anyone could have expected. I explained to the customer that I estimated the pile to be 2 dump trailer loads worth of scrap. The debris totaled three areas that were 5-6 ft deep with refuse. To keep costs down, I talked to the customer, and he agreed to have a large hole dug at the bottom of the property and the debris to be buried there. The hole ended up needing to be 14 ft wide and 9 feet deep. I buried the refuse in the hole with a 3-foot-deep top dirt. This took an additional day of machine work (should have been an additional cost of $1,400.00). I also leveled the ground which would be considered good enough to begin a "Base" for a garage foundation.

  A water line supplying the neighbors house was cut by a steel track of a machine. It was split because the water line was 1/4 inch under the ground and running down the side of the driveway. This occurred when a machine crossed the driveway to remove the additional trees in the 70x10 area and a driveway rock pierced the NON-CODE thin wall PVC. Code for water line depth is no less than 12 inches and is a minimum of schedule 40 PVC. All work was stopped, and the water line (14 inches) was repaired with the proper schedule 40 PVC. The water line was then buried 3 inches under the ground so that there was no chance of machines doing any further damage. I did not dig up the entire water line and bury it to code because I was not contracted to bury the water line to code. I talked to the neighbor about the water line break. He was very understanding, was okay with the repair and was very nice. 

   

  At the end of the job the customer demanded that all lumber and machines be off his property by Friday 5:00 PM, and if they were not removed, I could not return to pick them up until Sunday morning. Due to rain backing up the loggers schedule, the logger could not get to the property on Friday but could make it on Saturday. The customer said the logger "Could NOT" pick up the logs on Saturday, even though the logs were on the edge of the street and to the far left of the customer's house. Because of the demands of the customer, I had to contact the customer's neighbor across the street and ask this man's permission to move the logs to his property across the street. The neighbor was receptive and allowed me to place the logs on his property. I also had to pay an operator for an additional hour to move nineteen -18ft logs across the street.

  It was also explained to the customer that clearing land is not like landscaping, that there will be some small debris that will remain on the ground. I also explained that we will do our best not to damage areas that he did not want damaged, but sometimes it occurs. The customer walked the ********************** many times and did not complain. I was very polite and communicated well with the customer.

  I originally scheduled the job for 3 days @ $2,500.00 machine time (normal cost is $1,400 per day) plus ancillary cost. I explained to the customer that I was giving him a discount.

  I charged him $150.00 for transporting two pieces of heavy machinery for a total of  200 miles (which is the normal cost of $2-$3.00 per mile). I charged the customer $390 for the ***** and debris removal to the landfill. This was the actual cost of the landfill for 5 trips. I did not charge him for driver labor or fuel charge. I charged the customer $167.00 per large tree. My normal cost for removal of 11 large trees is $200 per tree.

   

  Here is the revision email sent on 10/9/22 to ******* including the 11 trees to be removed.

  *******,

  Attached is the new estimate.

  I gave you a reduced price in cutting down and processing 11 large/full size trees. Please check with other tree removal companies. I assure you that this price will be extremely low.

  I also waived charges for additional days of operations for the track loader.

  I'm also not charging you for digging the hole and burying the concrete refuse.

  I've reduced the prices as much as possible.

  Thanks for understanding that your extended needs and additional cost was added to the job because the ''County Landfill'' charged per load at approximately $78.00 each time. 

   

  I gave the customer a chance to not have the job done, I gave the customer a chance to stop the work and pay for work completed. I gave the customer a chance to talk to me if he wasn't happy with my work. I said "hi" to him every time I saw him, I did not get the same reception from him.  I have done everything in my power to make the customer happy. I gave the customer a great deal on the work completed. It states on my web site that our machines are operated at a cost of $1400.00 per day. Additional machines are $500-700 a day depending on the machine. My typical minimum cost for this type of job would be $7,000.00 and as high as $11,000, again which is still far below my competitors.

  It also states on our web site that mulching and land clearing is the first step in making unusable land usable and that mulching, and clearing is not meant to be a final landscape (this is also common knowledge).

  Although I explained as much as I could about mulching/land clearing to the customer, the customer did not do his homework/research on clearing land and his expectations were unrealistic. I believe that I did as much as I could to make the customer happy. I went above and beyond what I normally need to do to make a customer happy.

  I am not harassing the customer about the remaining amount due. I am simply doing what is required of me, which is giving the customer a notification of the amount due every 30 days. On the 90th day of being past due, I will take further action. This is the same that any business would do on an overdue payment.

  I have a large number of texts between the customer and myself.  The text messages provide a picture of how the customer was unreasonable. They can be provided upon request. 

   

  Thank you for your time 

  
  

  *******************************; Owner/Operator

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/21/2022

   
  Complaint: 18533505
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***************************