I'll start with the end (to date) of my story first. Yesterday I told my husband to send Laura (Cricket receptionist, I guess), an email letting her know that he will send a portion of our final payment and told him to apologize to her for any confusion which he did. It was a kind of test to see if they'd apologize for THEIR misunderstanding, NOT ours and they did not. They blamed the entire thing on my disabled husband when, in fact, it was THEIR employee who misunderstood. They say they 'pride themselves for customer satisfaction' when apparently they've never heard the phrase "the customer is always right." Now, my story...
Contacted Cricket for estimate to have two trees removed. Cricket's price was the HIGHEST of three, but my husband decided to hire them, remembering 'you get what you pay for' and assumed Cricket would do the best job. The date on the estimate is 9/29/17 and expired 30 days thereafter. Husband asked Dale (Cricket ee) how long the job would take and Dale said they give themselves a 10-day window from the start of the project. In Oct 2017, Joe sent Cricket $1,500, which is 1/2 of the balance due. On 11/3/17, Cricket emailed Joe attaching the 'final' bill with an outstanding balance of $1,500. Joe called Laura and informed her that we were out of town but he would pay the balance immediately upon our return, to which Laura agreed. On 12/15 Joe received another email from Cricket requesting payment. Joe reminded Laura of their agreement that he'd pay the balance upon our return. Because we were both in Chicago at this time, on 12/16 Joe received photos from our Tallahassee neighbor via text showing that the larger stump of the two trees that we had contracted with Cricket (on 9/29/17) to remove was still there. He emailed Laura on 12/16/17 asking why Cricket is demanding payment for an incomplete job? Two days later, on 12/18/17, Laura emailed Joe saying, "Dale said the job was complete. He is out sick but I will have him check on it this week." EIGHT DAYS LATER, without hearing a peep from Laura, on 12/26 Joe AGAIN emailed her letting her know we'd be back to the Tallahassee home by 12/28 and asked if Dale had checked on the job and if it is complete, explaining that we NEED that stump removed so we can continue our projects (e.g., sod, fencing, etc.). Laura didn't respond until 1/2/18 (one WEEK later or 15 DAYS from 12/26) providing Joe with Dale's number. Because I was the one who hired the landscapers and fencing company, it was MY responsibility to meet them at the Tallahassee house. I primarily live in Illinois and because I work downtown Chicago and must go WITHOUT PAY when going to my Tallahassee home, I need to set a BUDGET for it every single time. If things are working the way they're supposed to, I'm okay with that. I witnessed Joe's vigorous attempts to have Cricket finish the contracted job (a job that was SUPPOSED to take 10 days and is now approaching 130 days (or 4 months and over one week)) before we returned from Chicago. ALL of Joe's attempts went unanswered and I had to cancel our other projects that hinged on Cricket doing THEIR job, hoping to not get charged for sod that had to be returned until further notice. Joe then called Dale who came to the house. Dale called an employee who arrived around 5:00 p.m. on 1/2/18 and removed the stump. This employee then asked Joe if Cricket is responsible for removing the chips to which Joe answered 'yes', ANOTHER detail on the contract. The employee informed Joe he will let his employer know the status and that the chips still needed to be hauled away. I left the landscaper and fencing company on standby while we waited for Cricket to send another employee out to remove the chips, to which no employee ever arrived. At that time, Joe and I decided that we were tired of Cricket's games and that it is NOT our responsibility to continue following up with Cricket to tell them how to do their job. How many times do we have to call to get work done from a company that charges so much?? THEN on 2/7 Joe received ANOTHER email demanding $1,500 for the still incomplete job. At that time I told Joe that I would call Laura and on 2/9 I did. I first tried to explain to Laura that the job is STILL incomplete and immediately told her that I have to take vacation days or unpaid days to drive to Florida to meet with other contractors to which she had the nerve to ask me WHY I needed to take vacation days? I started to tell her why and then angrily said it was none of her business! And Laura hung up on me. Realllly professional Laura! I immediately called back and Laura said she was going to have their attorneys call me and I said PLEASE DO!! Maybe he'll LISTEN to us!!
I filed the above with the BBB. You'll get a kick out of their response. My email address is michele.zaremba16@gmail.com. PLEASE email me for the rest. Honest to GOD you won't believe how the owners responded!! (Hint)...They blame it ALL on my disabled husband! read more