Too Tall Landscaping

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:MrS*** can go on and continue to write a book on his great work, but my experience was differentHe did a terrible and rushed job and insisted on payment up frontHe never offered to return and look at the workFurthermore, you can't repair a block wall; it needs to be done right the first time so that is a moot pointThe existing wall is in good condition, he’s grasping at straws trying to find blame, but it’s transparent, his work doesn’t come closing to matching the existing wallThat is the bottom lineI have pictures to prove his terrible work and his Realtor friend agreed 100%, he did a bad job and was inappropriate in his communication. This just isn’t his craft and I feel he’s wasting our time because he feels by refunding my money, I wonIt’s not about winning, it’s about doing the right thing.I have the pictures to prove the workHe took advantage of me and although he says he's never had a complaint, there is no proofMrS*** was unprofessional in his text messages and went as far as to call me an "old lady"Is this the way a professional speaks to customers? He never even bothered to actually dial my number and talk to me.I have texted some of the text message communicationMrS*** is adamant about refusing repayment, which tells me he doesn’t care about his reputation, a potential poor mark on his record and online reviews. I feel I have proven my complaint is valid, just with the pictures and his communication
Regards,
*** ***[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, the consumer must give a reason why they are rejecting the responseIf the consumer does not provide a reason the complaint will be closed Answered]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:The pictures clearly tell the story of Mr. S[redacted]’s work. Mr. S[redacted] was rude and resorted to insulting me, then blocked my phone number during our communications. I felt I was professional in my exchanges.Also, Mr. S[redacted] notes that I got venomous during our text message exchanges. It was actually he that got angry.  I have nothing to hide and will provide the text exchange in an email. His admission that ‘he sucked’ is in the text message as well.I don’t feel a day or two is unreasonable to respond. I painted my side of the wall, not because I liked the work, but because the existing wall was painted and I knew it couldn’t be fixed – I was stuck with it. You can’t fix concrete work; it should be done correct the first time. Mr. S[redacted]’s claim that he “offered to fix it” is absurd.   In fact, he cut one of the blocks too short, leaving a big gap of mortar, which proves he can’t even measure.  Regarding the discount. Mr. S[redacted] is a licensed contractor and is responsible to pay NM Gross tax. We discussed payment and I went with the price he gave me. Also, his receipt doesn’t show his company name (see attached). I asked the realtor who referred him to come by and look at the work the same day I contacted Mr. S[redacted]. He agreed it was sloppy and felt bad about the referral.I should have been able to leave Mr. S[redacted] to complete the work on that day; that is if he knows what he’s doing.  He insisted to be paid the entire amount before the work was completed and hurried to finish once I left to work. I trusted him to do the job correctly, I shouldn’t have to be monitoring him the entire time, if he is a professional. Mr. S[redacted] wasn’t truthful, he gave me his word that he would smooth out the mortar and he did not. As I stated initially, pictures don’t lie. Mr. S[redacted] owes me for a job NOT well done.I find it interesting that Mr. S[redacted] is the only one who thinks there is nothing wrong with the work he did. His comment: “I am asking for a 100% refund on a wall that she liked enough to paint and obviously plans on keeping” doesn’t make sense. It’s not like I can return the wall, I am stuck with it, therefore, I believe I have a valid claim and a refund is due.
Regards,
[redacted][To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, the consumer must give a reason why they are rejecting the response. If the consumer does not provide a reason the complaint will be closed Answered]

Referencing ID [redacted] I've been in business in Albuquerque for 19 years. I have had hundreds of satisfied customers. I have always gone the extra mile to keep my customers happy. I've never had one complaint in 19 years. I've always been able to reach some kind of agreement or solution with customers who may have had some issues with my work. My reputation is always important to me but more important is to treat people with respect and dignity. I have always believed the customer is right. However, there are times when some customers push things way too far and this is one of those times. I stand on my first response to her complaint. In my first response I addressed every claim she made point by point. The customer has rejected my response, but was not able to challenge me on the facts. All she could do is send close up pictures of the wall taken 6" to 18" distance from the wall to misrepresent what the wall actually looks like. In this case she has made some highly unreasonable statements and demands. She wants a 100% refund on a block wall that she painted prior to filing a complaint with the Revdex.com. If there had been a problem with the wall, the paint would have prevented any minor scraping or cleaning of the wall. The mortar is now sealed under a coat of paint. An even greater indication of her mindset is the fact that she has tried to report me for my sales receipt taxes because there was no tax entered on the receipt. My taxes have nothing to do with the block wall. Does she think she will be more likely to receive a 100% discount after reporting me for my taxes? All the quotes I issue with labor charges under $250 are tax included. She has made several comments about having our text messages saved and that she has nothing to hide. I also have the same text thread in my phone as well. There were never any kind of threats made nor was there any profanity. After the customer let me know how unhappy she was, I drove by to see if there was some obvious flaw with the wall and noticed the wall had been freshly painted. I knew that the customer would eventually paint the new section of the wall to match the previously existing wall. However, if she was going to report me to the Revdex.com, she should have waited until the issue was settled. When I drove by, I took pictures of the wall from the sidewalk on the customer's side and from the neighbor's yard on the neighbor's side. I found no problem with the wall as my pictures show. However, the customer did one of the worst paint jobs I have ever seen. The only issue with the wall is the horrible paint job which is not complete. The extreme positions of this customer show she has little ability to be reasonable. She ent from "I don't like my wall" to "You can't fix block walls" to I demand 100% refund. Never once did she ask for any kind of discount at all. So for me, I have two options: 1. Give a 100% refund to the customer or 2. Stand my ground and stand behind my principles. Realizing the customer has no case, I choose to reject her demands for a refund.The customer has sent in several pictures to try to misrepresent the wall. She is taking close ups of the wall. When taking pictures at certain times of the day, the shadows from the sun can cause small edges and mortar lines to cast shadows on the block making the mortar seem to look slightly uneven. Notice the customer did not send any pictures that show the whole wall.So I have enclosed some pictures of the wall that I took to show what the wall actually looks like. I have also enclosed pictures of other block walls from around town. The pictures have an overall shot of the wall, then close ups from 6" away or so to show that all block walls have small inconsistencies. All these picture were taken from upper end commercial properties. Several of the pictures were taken from brand new properties, less than 12 months old and some are being build now.The previously existing wall that I raised was probably as old as the house. The house roughly 50-70 years old. The 4" cap blocks had to be removed from with hammer and chisel. The mortar had to be carefully chiseled off of the old blocks. Then the blocks were relaid. The blocks are so old that the top edges are no longer square but slightly rounded. The bottom edges of the caps are worn and have small chips on then from where old mortar broke off. When the old blocks are reset in mortar, the seams will be rougher than if new block was used. Two of the pictures the customer sent show the old cap blocks.The customer's pictures 3 and 4 show top cap block.The customer's pictures 5 shows a wider mortar seam which is common at the end of a course of block.The customer's picture 2 man block come with tiny chips on the corners and edges.Notice how easily I can reproduce the kind of close up pictures the customer has sent in by showing close ups of professionally build block walls. See attached.My pictures 1 and 2 show neighbor's side of the customer's block wallMy pictures 3, 4 and 5 show customer's sideNotice on the pictures that I sent, 3,4 and 5 that the wall has been painted but not painted correctly. The old, pre-existing section of the wall had years of many coats of paint on it. The older section of the wall would be easy to paint, taking probably just one coat to cover. The new block is porous and would take 3 heavy coats to make it match the older portion of the wall. It looks like the customer put a thin first coat of paint on the new section, but never did a second or third coat. The poor paint job on the new section of block makes the new block look splotchy and strange. It just needs to have a thicker coat of paint so it will blend with the old section.

John S[redacted] Too Tall Landscaping  Regarding complaint filed by [redacted] 9/19/17 ID [redacted] Complaint Response: I made an agreement with [redacted] to raise her existing block wall. The agreement was that she would be there for the day as the work was being...

done and that I would be paid upon completion of the work. I arrived at [redacted] house at 9am on the 6th of September, 3.5 hours later at 12:30pm the work was 3 blocks short of being completed. I told [redacted] that I needed to take the three blocks to my house to cut them and that I would return immediately to complete the work. She then informed me that she only took half the day off and had to go to work and wanted to pay me half the money now and half later. I asked her to pay me all the money then as we had agreed so I would not have to make a third trip that night to get paid. She was standing right next to the wall and saw the work I had done. She went ahead and paid me and asked me to make sure to smooth out the mortar when I was done which I agreed to do. I left her house just after 12:30 and returned at 1:45. I completed the wall scraped off the excess mortar and left her house at 2:45pm Wed. I never heard a word from her until Friday the 8th at noon. She left me a message saying how disappointed she was in my work. I responded with "I'm sorry," and wrote a kind message trying to understand what the problem was. Her response was to become venomous and to begin to hurl personal insults at me about my work; saying "I do sloppy work, that she had informed the Realtor who referred me to her and that she had learned a real lesson about hiring someone like me." She continued to send text after text to me until I began to feel as if she was harassing me. I finally had to block her number from my phone. I drove by her house to take pictures a couple of days later and saw that she had painted the newly laid block to match the previous existing wall. I was surprised to see she had painted it since she claimed she was so unsatisfied with my work. [redacted] false claims: 1. Her claim that she was home for the first two hours that I was there is false. I was there from 9am to 12:30pm before I left to cut the block and so was she. 2. Her claim that I was using a level to blend the mortar is false. I was using the level to check to make sure the bricks were level. 3. Her claim I insisted she pay me right away as I couldn't come back is false. It's not that I couldn't come back, it's that she had insisted that she be there during the entire length of the job and would pay me when I was done. Now she was trying to leave and make me return to be paid later. 4. Her claim I collected my money and left shortly after she did is false. She was still at her home when I left to go cut block and when I returned to lay the last three blocks she was gone. 5. Her claim she attempted to contact me the following day is false. There was no incoming call or text from her on my phone at all. We had been communicating by text prior to the job beginning. All she had to do is send a text and I would have responded immediately. When she finally texted me on Friday, I responded immediately upon receiving her text. 6. Her claim that the wall was non-repairable is false. Block walls are always repairable. However, I didn't believe there was any problem with the wall. 7. Her claim that I tried to hide a mistake is false. It's common to use a wider mortar gap on the last block or two of a course to make sure all courses line up. 8. Her claim I said she expected too much is false. She said "You should have used a sponge on the wall to smooth it." I told her sponges are not used on block walls. 9. Her claim that I admitted that "I sucked" at block work is not only false, but a flat out lie. She is trying to twist my words and take them out of context. I believe that [redacted] is being highly unreasonable in her request for a refund and that her claims are unfounded. 1. She made no attempt to contact me for two days after the work was complete. If my work was unacceptable to her, why did she wait so long to contact me? I responded immediately after receiving her complaint. 2. She was standing right next to the wall when she paid me and could see clearly that my work was acceptable. 3. At no time did she ask me to come back by to look at the wall, nor did she have any reasonable complaint or request. 4. At no time did she ask me to make any changes to the wall. 5. She painted the wall. If she truly didn't accept my work then she should have left the bricks unpainted until the matter was settled. I believe that when she painted the wall, it was an acceptance of the job I had done. 6. At no time did she ask for a discount. Now she is asking for a 100% refund on a wall that she liked enough to paint and obviously plans on keeping.