Minus 2 stars for only doing 50% of the job. Minus 2 stars for getting in a fight with each other in my back yard. I was matched with these guys on homeblue.com. Hired them to haul away a lot of tree branches and bush clippings from my yard.
The fact that I got home from work and they were shoving all these branches into the back of a small car was the first sign. "Whatever," I told myself, "as long as they get the job done, I don't care how they do it." Second sign is when he said they found a guy with a dumpster down the street who was going to let them dump it all there for $25. (Okay, I suppose the fact they started the job without knowing where they were going to dump the branches is a little odd, but again, whatever as long as it gets done). Then they don't want to take a check or credit card, cash only, and he's trying to get me to pay him before the job is done. Nope, I'll pay you when it's finished; besides, now I have to go to the bank because you only take cash.
An hour goes by and I hear a sound like someone just got in a car accident. I go outside, and the guy tore the front bumper off his buddy's car by getting it caught on my fence as he was pulling away. Oops! His buddy is pissed because he just F**'d up the car and they're arguing with each other. OK, while they figured that out, I went to the bank and grabbed some cash.
20 minutes later my roommate came inside and said they're looking for their money. "Oh, are they done?" I asked. "No, but I think you should just pay them and tell them to leave, they're pretty pissed," he said. Well, I'm not going to pay them if the job is not done. "I wouldn't do that," my roommate said, "these don't seem like the kind of guys that will take 'no' very well, they're talking about G.D. $#!t and F***ing you up." Okay, does that mean I should call the cops and have them around when I offer to pay half since they only did half the job? "It's not worth it. Just go pay them and I'll finish the job," my roommate offered.
So I went outside, getting mean-mugged and nasty glares, as if I did something wrong; as if somehow it's my fault you tore the bumper off the car, and I'm an a**hole for still expecting the job to get done. Here's your money, and only because my roommate said "it's not worth it" to argue. Then they started to argue with each other over how to split the money. I walked back inside.
Lastly, I looked out my back window, and they were pushing and shoving each other, getting into an actual physical fight in my back yard. Really? I dialed 9-1-1, and I yelled off the back porch that I dialed 911, my thumb was on send, and they'd better get off my property or the cops are coming. They both got in the car and left.
So, cheers to me losing $250 for a job that wasn't finished. If I didn't want it done ASAP and I'd have waited a day, my regular guy would have done it for $150, and he'd have actually finished the job. read more
