RM Landscaping and Snowplowing

Review: I contacted the owner at the occasion of the first snowfall of this season. My prior plowing co went out of business without my knowledge. Luckily, I had my daughter who lives in massachusettes home at that time and she shoveled me out. The owner came to giv eme an estimate at that time and it was $35. He plowed me for the next snowfall and the subsequent snow fall was the storm that left us stranded.After a few days I had to be plowed because an oil truck was trying to get to our house and could not reach us.We ran out of oil and we were cold. After a few days they finally got to me. I realize it was a very heavy snow and difficult to see but I did see that my bushes were ruined by the plow./ I mentioned this to the owner and said I would like him to acknowledge this happened and replace it only if it does not survive this spring. At first he said ok. Then he stated he did not want me as a cutomer anymore. It wasnt "worth it to him".I was left in the middle of the season with no plowing service .Since we never had a contract I felt I had very little I could do about this situation.I was abandoned by him and left to fend for myself. I'm a single parent with a herniated disk and a disabled child in the house thats why I needed this service.Last month I received a bill for $210 stating 6 hours of work on my driveway. I have a security camera which shows this was not the case. Also, since we had no contract and left me in the middle of the season how can he excesively bill me .We never discussed or agreed on anything other than a $35 plow when it snowed. This was our verbal agreement.

Product_Or_Service: snow plowing

Desired Settlement: DesiredSettlementID: Other (requires explanation)

I will pay $35 as verbally agreed and would like my bushes replaced.

Business

Response:

Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2013/04/08) */

Yes, Ms. [redacted] contacted me after the first snow accumulation of the season. It was then that she had mentioned to me that her previous snowplow guy "stopped showing up." At that point, I drove over to her home so that I could give her an accurate estimate to plow her drive way. I proceeded to call Ms. [redacted] and give her the estimate, while parked at the end of her driveway with her daughter standing right next to my plow truck. I told her as it is always stated that the bills are adjusted for each time a truck has to come to plow the driveway and may be adjusted for the number of inches we may get. Ms. [redacted] agreed verbally to me with her daughter (from Massachusetts) and my bookkeeper as witnesses. They were both within listening distance. She was not home, but her daughter had shoveled a portion of her driveway. I gave her the estimate and then finished clearing the rest of her driveway that her daughter had not shoveled, free of charge. I even waited for her daughter to move her car to finish the rest of the driveway.

The next snowfall I continued services and the snowfall after that was the Blizzard Nemo. This storm started Friday night February 8th, into Saturday. No roads were plowed nor could I make it out of my street. On Saturday morning, February 9th, Ms. [redacted] had mentioned that she was low on oil and would need to be plowed out to ensure that delivery. I sent one of my trucks over to her house, but my truck could not make it down her street because it was not plowed at that time. I called her back again on the number she had given me because she again was not home. She said she would let me know when her road was plowed. It was not plowed until the next day, Sunday February 10th. At that point, my trucks were plowing other driveways. As soon as a driver was free, I asked that they go to her home next, which I reiterated to Ms. [redacted] and she approved. One of my drivers got to her house before 4pm Sunday February 10th and spent multiple hours there, including helping her and her daughter from Massachusetts shovel their cars out (which is not a part of the agreement and is an extremely risky liability for my company). At that point both women proceeded to move their vehicles to their neighbor's driveway, which my driver plowed free of charge again, so my driver could clean up the rest of the driveway where the cars were previously blocking. He did this without hesitation.

The following week when some of the snow had melted Ms. [redacted] proceeded to call me and explain the possible damage to her shrub. I immediately went to her home to assess the damage. Again, she was not home to speak with in person, so I called her. I spoke with her over the phone and told her I would take care of the shrub if it did not survive. It looked as though the weight of the snow was causing some damage to the shrub. She agreed and stated, "Ok, thank you. I hope you know I am not trying to get out of paying the bill because I know it will be more. I just want you to make good on the bush if it dies." I told her I would do so and she asked if I could put that in writing. I said, "of course." At that time I told her I was going to discontinue services because it was not worth the LIABILITY. I could not afford to have an even bigger claim on my hands. She said she "understands and she did not think she was an unreasonable person and knew there was a lot of snow, more than could be seen to avoid this damaged shrub", to which I agreed.

Ms. [redacted] never contacted me after that day. She never showed concern nor voiced any disapproval with her bill nor the written agreement to fix her shrub as long as she paid her bill. I would have gladly discussed this matter with her if she had reached out to me like she did multiple times before. I showed Ms. [redacted] plenty of times that I was willing to work for / with her. As for the bill, the invoices state hours instead of inches. I have a copy of the invoice I sent her stating all bills were adjusted for inch accumulation, which is always discussed at the beginning of the verbal contracts with customers. She had no problem with this until 45 days after the bill was mailed to her.