While my crew was at Ms. [redacted] home doing the work she asked that the retaining wall be moved from the location she and I agreed on to further back, more under the fence she shares with her neighbor. My men explained that the wall would not clear the fence and could therefore not be moved back...
at all. She instructed my men to "make it fit" by removing a portion of the bottom of the fence. After explaining to her very clearly that we could only do that provided that she understood that we would not be responsible for any damage to the fence. She told them that she didn't care, and that it was already ugly.My crew did remove a portion of the shared fence and moved the wall back. Because of this they also had to remove a portion of the concrete footers that the fence posts were sunk in. Because she decided to move the wall back there was not any space to backfill the wall with gravel, which I explained to her at the time and she said she understood.After cutting the fence she was unhappy with how it looked. As she had already agreed that we would not be responsible for that I was reluctant to offer her any remedy at my expense. I did eventually cave and had my team install a board along the bottom of the fence to hide the cut and we replaced the damaged pickets. She confirmed that this solution was satisfactory to her.After we finished the project I met with the customer and she was extremely happy with the work, she even told me that her son-in-law had stopped by and had mentioned that he was very impressed with it and would be calling us for something similar. She told me how great my team was, how they answered all here questions and kept her updated on their daily plans an progressed. She also gave me some feedback to improve our service.It was only after Ms. [redacted] neighbor, who was out of town when the work was done, came home and got upset with her about the fence that she seemed to have a problem with it. Up until that point she was happy, or at least acted like it and told me she was. In my opinion, given that we clearly stated to her that we were not responsible for any damaged caused by what she wanted, she needs to make it right with the neighbor.I did offer to pay the irrigation bill and I will do that but I am not willing to do any further repairs to the fence, nor will I issue here any credit for the gravel that was not used as she made that decision, not I. Furthermore, her moving the wall ended up taking more labor than was estimated for this project. The stone she chose is a special order item and can be ordered in full pallet quantities. Although we did not need 2 pallets to complete this job, I had to order 2. I did keep the remainder but that was not included in the price I gave her, only what was needed to complete the project. I did, out of the kindness of my heart, leave her all the leftover sand so that she could build a sandbox for her grand daughter. I'm sure she's completely forgotten about that.-- [redacted], Project Manager/SalesBaldi Gardens, Inc.Texas Certified Landscape Professional (#[redacted])Licensed Pesticide Applicator ([redacted])Licensed Irrigator ([redacted])Water Efficient Recognized Green ProfessionalTX Certified Water Smart Professional (#[redacted])ASHS-Certified Horticulturist
While my crew was at Ms. [redacted] home doing the work she asked that the retaining wall be moved from the location she and I agreed on to further back, more under the fence she shares with her neighbor. My men explained that the wall would not clear the fence and could therefore not be moved back...
at all. She instructed my men to "make it fit" by removing a portion of the bottom of the fence. After explaining to her very clearly that we could only do that provided that she understood that we would not be responsible for any damage to the fence. She told them that she didn't care, and that it was already ugly.My crew did remove a portion of the shared fence and moved the wall back. Because of this they also had to remove a portion of the concrete footers that the fence posts were sunk in. Because she decided to move the wall back there was not any space to backfill the wall with gravel, which I explained to her at the time and she said she understood.After cutting the fence she was unhappy with how it looked. As she had already agreed that we would not be responsible for that I was reluctant to offer her any remedy at my expense. I did eventually cave and had my team install a board along the bottom of the fence to hide the cut and we replaced the damaged pickets. She confirmed that this solution was satisfactory to her.After we finished the project I met with the customer and she was extremely happy with the work, she even told me that her son-in-law had stopped by and had mentioned that he was very impressed with it and would be calling us for something similar. She told me how great my team was, how they answered all here questions and kept her updated on their daily plans an progressed. She also gave me some feedback to improve our service.It was only after Ms. [redacted] neighbor, who was out of town when the work was done, came home and got upset with her about the fence that she seemed to have a problem with it. Up until that point she was happy, or at least acted like it and told me she was. In my opinion, given that we clearly stated to her that we were not responsible for any damaged caused by what she wanted, she needs to make it right with the neighbor.I did offer to pay the irrigation bill and I will do that but I am not willing to do any further repairs to the fence, nor will I issue here any credit for the gravel that was not used as she made that decision, not I. Furthermore, her moving the wall ended up taking more labor than was estimated for this project. The stone she chose is a special order item and can be ordered in full pallet quantities. Although we did not need 2 pallets to complete this job, I had to order 2. I did keep the remainder but that was not included in the price I gave her, only what was needed to complete the project. I did, out of the kindness of my heart, leave her all the leftover sand so that she could build a sandbox for her grand daughter. I'm sure she's completely forgotten about that.-- [redacted], Project Manager/SalesBaldi Gardens, Inc.Texas Certified Landscape Professional (#[redacted])Licensed Pesticide Applicator ([redacted])Licensed Irrigator ([redacted])Water Efficient Recognized Green ProfessionalTX Certified Water Smart Professional (#[redacted])ASHS-Certified Horticulturist