Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/03/2024

  Type:Order Issues
  Status:

  UnresolvedMore 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.

  During the summer, we had hired our neighbor and his company, Upland Grading, for water spring repairs, pipe hookup and water tank installation, and to grade a small 35 foot pad to park our airstream. After this work was done, we were told by him that gravel was needed in order to park our airstream and that it could not be parked unless gravel was laid. After this was done and we decided to come out to the property to have a look, the entirety of our driveway, which is perhaps close to a half acre of area, had been laid with gravel. This was not what we had agreed upon. Not only was there massive amounts of unwanted gravel, there was damages to our barn and airstream. Being our neighbor, he saw that we had gone out there and approached us at the property where he told us that he had to lay all that gravel down, as his truck got stuck in the mud and he had to use this gravel to get it out. We then were charged for it and for days he harassed me into paying and so in my naivety, I paid him because I thought I had to. I maxed out my credit card and went into debt to pay him. He never repaired our barn or paid for damages to the airstream nor did he remove the brush we paid him to remove. Fast forward to about a week ago, I was in contact with one of his former employees that worked that job on our property. And he told us that ****** had indeed purposely overcharged us for the entirety of the work and had purposely put more gravel down so that he could charge us to make up for the lack of work he had lined up. He told him he would eat it if we didnt pay and he knew I had a credit card.He said that ****** did all this extra work he knew was unnecessary in order to make a profit. The many invoices he sent were purposely made confusing and unclear. And during the course of his work, more and more "problems" arose, which he would then have to fix in order to continue the work we agreed upon, therefore charging us more and more as he went along. Our budget $7,000.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/06/2024

  I have forwarded all invoices and proposals.  We had a verbal agreement of a budget of $7,000. Proposals and invoices were sent to me after the work was already completed so I was unable to contest them.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/20/2024

  All work was detailed in the proposals (i.e. price quote). Proposals were agreed upon/accepted prior to starting work. In each proposal/invoice there were updates to the current accrued costs of the job which was by the hour and cost of materials delivered.

   The original proposal on invoice #******* states that ballast and 3/4" wash gravel would be delivered. 

  In the proposal it also has a current to date cost of the provided work which was sent to the client and updated with each invoice.

  All payments made to Upland Grading were for services rendered and materials used, and these are detailed in the attached invoices.

  The barn was damaged by an independent contractor working for us on the job site and we communicated this to our client immediately. The client stated that they were not concerned about the damages, and we considered this resolved verbally. The airstream was not damaged by Upland Grading at any time.

  There was no brush removal proposed or billed for in any of the invoices. The clients requested that the trees and branches removed to make room for the airstream be left on-site for them to use for firewood and other uses.

  Communications between Upland Grading and our client were open and used often during the duration of the job. The client also stopped by the jobsite several times over the course of the job. We were always very honest and communicative about what had been done and what needed to be done. The clients also shared how pleased they were with our work on more than one occasion.

  We have seen the clients many times since the work was completed and always had friendly interactions. The first that we heard of any of these concerns was a couple weeks before we received word of this complaint. We offered to sit down with the client and talk things through when they first reached out to us with these concerns, but they were not interested.

  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/20/2024

   
  I am rejecting this response because:I am rejecting this response because: I have proof that the proposal and invoice was sent after the work was already completed on August 9th. How can we approve a proposal after the work was already completed? I felt pressured to pay because of the multiple texts and calls I was receiving. We had no knowledge that this work was completed. We agreed on a small pad for our RV, instead we got an entire driveway that ****** admitted we could not afford and did not agree to. There is an invoice for tree removal for $800.00, we set the wood we wanted aside and he asked where he wanted the rest moved to. It was shoved in our creek. We were happy with the work as ****** agreed to our budget of $7,000, I even wrote a positive review long before the work prior to August 9th. ****** is our neighbor, I did not want any bad interactions. I am not an unreasonable person, I did not want to believe someone we trusted would betray us. This was the worst mistake of my life and I'm still paying for it as we still can't complete the work. I am thousands of dollars in credit card debit. ************** former employees are witnesses and agreed to testify on our behalf. I was assured the barn would be repaired. It has been months and it is still damaged. ****** went over $10,000 of our agreed budget and took advantage of my desperation, naivety, and kindness.