Consider It Done-Window Washing

This is *** *** with Rick cooper paveing*** contacted me about paveing her driveway and I came out to meet her and she gave me the job to doThen after conversations on the phone and five different emails I realized that *** was not the type of customer that Rick Cooper paving would
like to pave forSo I told her that we were not interested in paving her driveway and then she called me up crying so I felt bad and had a change of heart and ended up paving her drivewayShe made me write up the contract again and told me that I had to rip out the tree stumps and if I didn't she was going to contact the Revdex.comSo as I was ripping out the Stump we realize she had a small electric line going to her shed that was going to have to be removedI told her I'm only responsible for Dig Safe Lines not home owner Lines And then once we started installing the gravel she told me that I would have to make it level so she could have a basketball court for kids to play inI explained that it would be a lot of material in costly to me she said that she didn't care and if I didn't make it level and install more gravel that she was going to contact the Revdex.comSo I installed over a foot and a half of gravel to make her happy which is approximately ton of gravel in square feetI left a job to go to the bank in *** called meShe said that I did not put enough gravel at the base of the driveway of and I explained to her that she already had inches of a good base when we dug I added inches of my gravel in my men showed her and she said it was OK on the phone verbally so I ordered the asphalt and paved the driveway complete and then ***'s husband *** emailed me and told me I had to remove wood from the side of the driveway which was a border I explained that we don't remove any wood only earth and he said if I don't that he will contact the Revdex.com so I removed it.then *** called me and told me that she wanted $1,back because I didn't put extra inches of gravel at the base of the driveway when she already told me that it was OK to proceed to pave.and to connect their small electric lineAnd if I didnt give him the $1,back they were going to report me to the Revdex.com I explained that it would cost me to do their driveway if I gave them $1,back she said she didn't care

Complaint has been resolved.

Hello Revdex.com -  Based on the contractor’s inaccurate and untruthful response, it is clear he believes it is ok to not do work promised verbally, from email or signed contracts.  This response is not accepted by us.Originally there was landscaping, tree removal and a new driveway (existing driveway, existing gravel patch and expansion area).  Mr. [redacted] wanted to do all work and we had many discussions around project scope. In the end, we did not feel comfortable giving so much to work to Mr. [redacted] and hired our own landscaper and tree removal services.From 9/28 – 10/17, Mr [redacted] called me 15x, pressuring me to contract with him and to start work as soon as possible.  On 9/15 alone, I spoke to Mr. [redacted] 3x.  I had reviewed the contract language and was uncomfortable with some phrasing.  The contract language states owner is responsible for any excavation beyond 5".  The required excavation for the job is a min. of 9" -11" (the 6" subbase plus 3" top).  He said that language was simple protection for them in case they ran into ledge or an unexpected issue.  He refused and then proceeded to insult me and state how unimportant we were, and that he was going to walk etc. With my husband traveling and these high pressure calls occurring more frequently, I had to get away.  So I called Mr. [redacted] back to tell him that I needed more time, and that if he wanted to walk away that was fine.  Yes I did cry during this call, however, my intent on that call was to get away from Mr. [redacted], not to ask for him to do our driveway - we had 3 other quotes. Mr. [redacted] wrote a nice text to me after that, which led me to believe that he might not be as dishonest as he originally seemed.  However, he still called me the next 2 days which I did not answer, since I had told him I needed time to make a decision.  This was the only time I asked for Mr. [redacted] to modify the contract and he refused.  It is obvious since the signed contract still has the tree removal pricing striked-out and initialed.  The first time we brought up the Revdex.com was after the work was “complete” and we found material not disposed of (see original complaint), the second time was when he claimed he installed the 6-8” (see below). Mr. [redacted] was not on site when I returned to the site at 9:30 am, which is why I texted him.  He says he laid 4” of subbase when he wasn’t there and I measured 2”. When we addressed him directly on 10/25/15, before going through Revdex.com, he emailed that he put the required 6-8”.   Now his response on Revdex.com is that he installed 4” with consent from us.  I was never asked if the new subbase was ok or if it was ok to move forward and pave.  I was told that the existing subbase was great, in fact better, to reuse since it was already compacted.  At this point I did not make him dig up all the gravel to add the full 6-8” new gravel as implied in the original complaint. I also never consented to using less subbase than in the contract, for the same price.             Mr. [redacted] was aware of the 22’ offset for the basketball court as stated in description of work.  Our original project scope was for 12’ offset, then after speaking with another paving company it was suggested to expand the driveway expansion from the original 12’ offset from the garage to 22’ so that there would be a better basketball court.  In fact, he said he underestimated how much gravel was required for that area, but that was on him.  In fact, he actually took responsibility for his own estimating, at that point on that day.  He did not explain that it would cost more. The issue of the electrical lines is stated in our original complaint.  We informed Mr. [redacted] on 9/11/15 and 9/10/15 of the electrical lines to the shed.  Not until AFTER he broke the lines and we requested that he pay for the electrician did he tell us he wasn’t responsible for private lines and that Dig Safe didn’t locate private lines.  As stated before, we believe he had plenty of time and notice to tell us this in advance.            As stated in our original complaint we had to contact Mr. [redacted] repeatedly to pick up materials from the site.  We were home when he came to remove the materials and had another negative interaction with him. After being displeased with that interaction, we revisited the issue with the stump pulling, electrical lines and sub-base.  We spoke to Civil Engineers with experience managing numerous paving projects, and they indicated that Mr. [redacted] should have been responsible for the power lines, had alternatives means of pulling the second stump safely, and was likely trying to cut his own costs by using less subbase. After this guidance, my husband emailed Mr. [redacted] on 10/25, to thank him for removing the left-behind items and request reimbursement for the broken electrical line and the subbase not removed, since we didn’t feel it was fair to pay for work not completed, and were concerned with the long-term durability of our new driveway.                 Mr. [redacted] is clearly not taking this complaint seriously as his math is wrong when our request is for $1625 and he is using $1800.  Mr. [redacted] seems entitled to making $1800 profit on a $7200 job (which he stated in a voicemail along with insults directed at my husband).  While it is not our goal to obtain “free work” (not that $5400 would have been free), we do not want to pay for work not performed, damage that he caused and was avoidable, or a product with a lower life expectancy than it should have.  We also have PDF's of the email correspondence between ourselves and Rick Cooper Paving.  If you would like those, I would be happy to upload them as well. Thank you[redacted] DuffieldBased on the contractor’s inaccurate and untruthful response, it is clear he believes it is ok to not do work promised verbally, from email or signed contracts.  This response is not accepted by us.Originally there was landscaping, tree removal and a new driveway (existing driveway, existing gravel patch and expansion area).  Mr. [redacted] wanted to do all work and we had many discussions around project scope. In the end, we did not feel comfortable giving so much to work to Mr. [redacted] and hired our own landscaper and tree removal services.From 9/28 – 10/17, Mr [redacted] called me 15x, pressuring me to contract with him and to start work as soon as possible.  On 9/15 alone, I spoke to Mr. [redacted] 3x.  I had reviewed the contract language and was uncomfortable with some phrasing.  The contract language states owner is responsible for any excavation beyond 5".  The required excavation for the job is a min. of 9" -11" (the 6" subbase plus 3" top).  He said that language was simple protection for them in case they ran into ledge or an unexpected issue.  He refused and then proceeded to insult me and state how unimportant we were, and that he was going to walk etc. With my husband traveling and these high pressure calls occurring more frequently, I had to get away.  So I called Mr. [redacted] back to tell him that I needed more time, and that if he wanted to walk away that was fine.  Yes I did cry during this call, however, my intent on that call was to get away from Mr. [redacted], not to ask for him to do our driveway - we had 3 other quotes. Mr. [redacted] wrote a nice text to me after that, which led me to believe that he might not be as dishonest as he originally seemed.  However, he still called me the next 2 days which I did not answer, since I had told him I needed time to make a decision.  This was the only time I asked for Mr. [redacted] to modify the contract and he refused.  It is obvious since the signed contract still has the tree removal pricing striked-out and initialed.  The first time we brought up the Revdex.com was after the work was “complete” and we found material not disposed of (see original complaint), the second time was when he claimed he installed the 6-8” (see below). Mr. [redacted] was not on site when I returned to the site at 9:30 am, which is why I texted him.  He says he laid 4” of subbase when he wasn’t there and I measured 2”. When we addressed him directly on 10/25/15, before going through Revdex.com, he emailed that he put the required 6-8”.   Now his response on Revdex.com is that he installed 4” with consent from us.  I was never asked if the new subbase was ok or if it was ok to move forward and pave.  I was told that the existing subbase was great, in fact better, to reuse since it was already compacted.  At this point I did not make him dig up all the gravel to add the full 6-8” new gravel as implied in the original complaint. I also never consented to using less subbase than in the contract, for the same price.             Mr. [redacted] was aware of the 22’ offset for the basketball court as stated in description of work.  Our original project scope was for 12’ offset, then after speaking with another paving company it was suggested to expand the driveway expansion from the original 12’ offset from the garage to 22’ so that there would be a better basketball court.  In fact, he said he underestimated how much gravel was required for that area, but that was on him.  In fact, he actually took responsibility for his own estimating, at that point on that day.  He did not explain that it would cost more. The issue of the electrical lines is stated in our original complaint.  We informed Mr. [redacted] on 9/11/15 and 9/10/15 of the electrical lines to the shed.  Not until AFTER he broke the lines and we requested that he pay for the electrician did he tell us he wasn’t responsible for private lines and that Dig Safe didn’t locate private lines.  As stated before, we believe he had plenty of time and notice to tell us this in advance.            As stated in our original complaint we had to contact Mr. [redacted] repeatedly to pick up materials from the site.  We were home when he came to remove the materials and had another negative interaction with him. After being displeased with that interaction, we revisited the issue with the stump pulling, electrical lines and sub-base.  We spoke to Civil Engineers with experience managing numerous paving projects, and they indicated that Mr. [redacted] should have been responsible for the power lines, had alternatives means of pulling the second stump safely, and was likely trying to cut his own costs by using less subbase. After this guidance, my husband emailed Mr. [redacted] on 10/25, to thank him for removing the left-behind items and request reimbursement for the broken electrical line and the subbase not removed, since we didn’t feel it was fair to pay for work not completed, and were concerned with the long-term durability of our new driveway.                 Mr. [redacted] is clearly not taking this complaint seriously as his math is wrong when our request is for $1625 and he is using $1800.  Mr. [redacted] seems entitled to making $1800 profit on a $7200 job (which he stated in a voicemail along with insults directed at my husband).  While it is not our goal to obtain “free work” (not that $5400 would have been free), we do not want to pay for work not performed, damage that he caused and was avoidable, or a product with a lower life expectancy than it should have.