Complaints

This profile includes complaints for The Blackwood Group, LLC's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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  The Blackwood Group, LLC

  843 Washington Avenue Carnegie, PA 15106

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  The Blackwood Group, LLC

  61 Lambeth Dr Pittsburgh, PA 15241-2317

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:02/05/2025

  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.

  I contracted with Blackwood Group, LLC in July 2024 for a driveway demolition, wall build and decorative stamped concrete driveway installation. During the course of the project, representatives of Blackwood lied to me, screamed at me, hung up on me, used profanity directed at me, sent a crew that refused or didnt know how to follow the engineering drawings or guidance from Versa Lok for the wall build, and generally made the project a miserable experience. The job was not completed in a workmanlike manner and to the quality that was described in the contract. The work stopped in August 2024. The quality of the work was so poor that **** Blackwood (owner of Blackwood Group) came onsite to look at it and agreed that it needed to be ripped out and re-done. He agreed that he would do that. **** spent the Fall of 2024 attempting to find a suitable contractor that could complete the job but was not successful.Additionally, there is damage that the Blackwood Group work crew caused to the front of our house - concrete spatter on front door, concrete spatter on the front trim (newly painted) around door, concrete spatter on the brick front of the house, and concrete spatter on a planter. Blackwood Group work crew also damaged our in-ground sprinkler system so that the zone near the front of the house doesn't work any ********* of today, no work to fix the issues has been done. We had paid him $37600. He offered to refund $18650 and stated that he still wants to do the work and then when complete, we would pay him the remaining amount outlined in the contract. He did refund $18650. He informed us 2 weeks ago that Blackwood Group was for sale and he was in talks with a buyer. At that point, we told him that we want all of our money back. **** has agreed to refund the balance back to us, but has yet to refund us. He still owes us ~$19000 not including the legal fees that we have incurred because of this situation.

  Business Response

  Date: 02/19/2025

  The Blackwood Group, LLC went to great effort and expense in our attempts to satisfy the unreasonable demands of this customer and his wife, but unfortunately, we had to walk away from the project without completing it.  We incurred more than $30,000.00 in direct labor and material costs to demolish and haul out the old driveway, install new drainage and install a new retaining wall multiple times in our attempts to meet their unrealistic expectations, but under intense harassment and threats made by the customers, we refunded almost half of their $37,600.00 payment, which they acknowledge in their complaint.  This is a more than fair resolution to the situation for them.
  
  We have no idea who, if anyone, from our company ever lied to, screamed at, hung up on or used profanity directed at the customers, as this is the first time we are hearing these allegations.  The Blackwood Group, LLC does not condone this kind behavior by our employees, our subcontractors or our vendors, and if it had been brought to our attention, we would have immediately addressed it.
  
  We have tried to remain as professional and courteous as possible throughout this difficult project, however, the customers have continued to harass and threaten us daily, and we have incurred our own legal fees to defend ourselves against their allegations.  We had hoped to resolve this situation amicably, but we will not be bullied or extorted into making a poor business decision.
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 02/24/2025

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  My response
  We are not unreasonable with our demands. All we want is what we were sold by Blackwood - a beautiful, decorative stamped concrete driveway, lead walk, and wall system with lighting accents. Blackwood failed miserably in delivering on what they sold. We tried for months, in good faith, to get Blackwood to correct the issues with quality and workmanship in this project, but they have not done so. Nor have they fixed the damage that they caused to our property.
  **** Blackwood came out to our house on 8/27/24 (a week after the project was supposed to be completed per the contract) to look at the quality of the work that was done on this project. After looking at the project, **** said (in his words) I am embarrassed at the quality of the work that Blackwood and its subcontractors did for this project. After discussion he said he would make it right, find another concrete contractor that could actually do quality stamped concrete work, completely rip out the driveway and lead walk, and redo it correctly. Petes goal was to have the rip out and re-do of the driveway and lead walk completed by the end of September 2024. This did not happen due to Blackwood dragging their feet in their attempts to find a suitable concrete contractor to do the work throughout the fall of 2024.
  
  The contract for this stamped concrete driveway, lead walk,and wall system project has a very detailed description and photos of what the project should look like. In addition, there are also design plans and drawings, stamped engineering blueprints, and very detailed wall building instructions from Versa Lok that should have been used and followed during the construction of this project. The Blackwood-hired subcontractors refused to follow these design plans, drawings, blueprints, and Versa Lok wall building instructions.The Versa Lok wall system had to be rebuilt multiple times because they didnt construct the wall system per the engineering plans and Versa Lok building instructions.The base for the wall was not installed correctly. Blackwood didnt use the correct base material, correct base depth, and correct base width. In some places in the wall system, they did not put any base down at all and just stacked the wall blocks on dirt. When they installed the Geo-Grid reinforcing fabric for the wall system, they installed that incorrectly as well and had to re-do the Geo-Grid installation. The way this wall was built the first time, the wall system would have likely failed within a couple of years and cause the driveway section that sits above the wall to collapse.
  Regarding who the Blackwood employee is that lied to us,screamed at us, hung up on us, and used profanity directed at us, that employee is **** *******. I made **** Blackwood aware of this on when **** stopped by on 8/9/24 at 11:20 am. I had a candid conversation with **** regarding the issues that we have had with the wall build and the interactions we had with **** ******* and told **** that we do not want **** here ever again or have any further contact with **** and that if he showed up, we would call the Police to have him removed. **** agreed to this and said he would handle it.
  I have 100s of photos and detailed notes with dates and times about every interaction with Blackwood or its subcontractors that support our case and the actions of Blackwood.
  After months of trying to get Blackwood to abide by the contract and addendum that they signed, we asked for our money back to we could find another contractor to replace the work that Blackwood did. On 1/24/25 After asking **** via text for a status of getting us our money back, at 3:06 PM on 1/24/25, **** Blackwood responded back in a text to me It looks like I will give you your money back. Blackwood strung me along with excuses saying they were working on getting me my money back for weeks. On 2/7/25, Melissa Blackwood said they were going to file for bankruptcy and directed me to their lawyer for anything further. Melissa Blackwood will not respond to my emails,will not return my phone calls, and has never been to my house to see the horrible quality of the work that they did.
  
  So in summary, Blackwood ripped me off and left me with a driveway that has to be ripped out and replaced at my expense of $75,000 (current quote from another contractor) AND still has ~$19,000 of my money that I paid to them and refuses to fix the issues, refund my money, or even communicate with me to find a resolution that is fair. 
  
  Regards,
  
  *********** ****

  Business Response

  Date: 03/06/2025

  As we stated before, our Company went to great effort and expense to try to meet the unreasonable demands of this client, including tearing down and rebuilding the retaining wall multiple times before the they would accept it.
  
  When the client next demanded that the new concrete driveway be torn out and replaced because they are not happy with it, it became clear that we would not be able to satisfy their unreasonable expectations, and the Company made the decision to walk away from the project.  To be clear, this client has not been charged for the concrete driveway, nor have they paid for the concrete driveway, therefore they are not entitled to a refund for the concrete driveway.
  
  Under great duress by the constant harassment of this client and against the advice of the Company's accountant, Mr. ********************** did refund nearly half of their payments for the demolition, drainage and retaining wall that was completed to their satisfaction.
  
  Mr. ********************** is in very poor health, and the company is closing.  The Company is finished with this project and will not be refunding any additional monies to this client.  This client has been informed of Mr. **********************'s poor health, and yet, they continue to harass, ridicule and threaten him on an almost daily basis, and now they are attacking his daughter, too, which is totally unacceptable.  They have been provided with contact information for the attorney representing the Company, and we respectfully request that all further communication be addressed to him.