I received a Notice to Repair Sidewalks Within 30 Days and contracted with EF Gomez Cement. I signed a credit card authorization for payment. When the 30 day deadline was almost up, Gomez still hadn't started, so I called every day. They finally did it, just before the deadline.
This is a corner building. One side is on a flat street and the other side on a slightly sloped street. On the flat street they did the typical smooth square finishes. However, on the sloped street, they did swirls, some of them with deep grooves. Swirls? It looked unfinished and defective.
I have seen many cement squares all over the city, smooth or with shallow parallel straight grooves, but never swirls. I walked around two hilly neighborhoods and saw a few squares with swirls, and none had deep grooves. I saw hundreds of squares with the shallow parallel grooves.
I was dissatisfied and called the company three times. Irma said Octavio would call me. He never did. Two months later, Gomez finally debited my credit card. (Why did this take so long?) They charged my card higher than invoiced by $158.27. I called and was told that the $158.27 was for the permit. Again, fine, but this should have been documented on my invoice. Irma then sent me the documentation.
I again brought up the swirls. Irma finally set up a meeting at the property with Octavio. He said that when slipping is an issue, the contractor must finish the cement with grooves to impede slipping. (Why wasn't I simply told that over the phone?) I was fine with that and would have been fine with parallel grooves, but not with the deep swirls of varying depth. If they were going to do something unusual, they should clear it with the owner. The swirls were ugly, deep, and discolored.
Then, to my surprise, over time, the deepest grooves were gone! It seems that pedestrians wear them down and the deep grooves become shallow grooves. Better...though still not preferred. Why didn't Octavio tell me that the deep grooves would smooth down? Why didn't anyone ask me if I had a preference for parallel grooves vs. swirls?
I decided to do more research. Although Octavio told me the rough finish was required because of the slope of the street, it's not true. A rougher finish is needed if the slope of the street is 10% or more. My slope was 5%. At less than 10%, transverse parallel lines are required, not swirls. Swirls are not only not required--they are not even mentioned in the regulations. As a result, I again asked for, and, after threatening to file a licensing board complaint, was told to expect a small partial refund on my credit card. Four days later and still no credit, so I called again. The credit finally appeared.
I am dissatisfied about having to push them to do the work on time, about their not returning phone calls, about their delay in debiting my credit card, about the discoloration, and about the deep swirls, and about having to threaten a licensing complaint to get them to refund some money. Although I have used EF Gomez in the past and been reasonable satisfied, I will never use EF Gomez again. Customer service is unacceptable and explanations are absent. read more