I made a huge mistake in hiring JD Construction to repave my mother's driveway and add an expansion. I hope others learn from my experiences, and go look elsewhere for honest people and quality work.
Initially they seemed to be fair and reasonable in our dealings. They quoted my $3800 for the project which was on the middle-lower end of the quotes that I had gotten. Problems did not start until the very end of the work when it was time to clean up and repave the street curb that they had removed as part of the excavation.
On the last day of work they came to collect the check. I was not home, so they picked the check up from my mother. She informed me the owner took the check and left right away, leaving his crew to clean up the work site. However when I came home I found a giant hole still next to my gas meter, and the cut up pieces placed next to my shed. I have since then spent the last 8 weeks trying to get them to come back to clean up the mess, and complete their work.
It has been one excuse after another, everything from we are "too busy", or," we are not doing paving jobs work right now" or, " don't worry we have you on the books for next time we do paving in 3-4 weeks". I eventually had to rearrange the cut up pieces of the street curb as best as I could to prevent more ground from washing out into the street. I dug up another portion of my yard for dirt so I could fill up the hole near the gas meter, to avoid water pooling.
They original told me it would be 3-4 weeks to complete the whole project. Then it was 3 to 4 weeks before they could come back to complete the curb, that was now 8 weeks ago. To make matters worse the driveway expansion has started to show signs of being laid down poorly less than two months after being put down. The owner has tried to blame me for leaving a car parked too long in that spot during hot weather (during months of April and May), and has refused to accept the simple fact they left the work site without cleaning up.
Despite providing pictures of the hole, and the missing curb, the owner insists it was just a minor inconvenience to me, and he doesn't understand why I am upset. I was told I should have ,"called him", apparently instead of taking care of it myself, I guess he forgot I had been trying to reach out to him for 8 weeks at this point. I was also scolded for not hiring another company to fill the hole, and fix up the curb, and just sending the bill to JD Construction. Again I was impressed at how little they cared about the simple fact they did finish cleaning up, and wanted to blame me for it.
After several emails with pictures, and numerous phone calls, they finally reached back out to me, only after I had informed them I would be getting the authorities involved. I took me informing them I would be filing a formal complaint against their company for them to actually talk about their shoddy work. I spent about 30 minutes today trying to work something out with him over the phone. It eventually devolved into nothing more than him and his brother trying to blame me for their faulty work, accusing me of trying to extort/ black mail them for a partial refund, and then making jokes about how little they pay their employees as a rational to why they would not refund me a portion of the project despite me having to have cleaned up after them. The owner did offer to refund me $39 dollars, his rational being," Oh, it took you only 3 hours to clean up, no problem buddy. Listen here I pay my day laborers $13/ hour, so if you spent 3 hours cleaning up after my guys I will gladly refund you $39."
I was frankly astounded they would be mocking me so openly, and gloss over the fact a customer had to clean up after them. I think that just speaks volumes about their business practices.
I am thoroughly disappointed in the entire situation, and with their conduct. I will accept the fact I made a grave mistake in hiring them for this project, so I hope by sharing my experiences others will not make the same mistake. Since I have spent more time, and energy then I think is warranted for this issue, I have agreed to a refund of $150 for my time spent having to clean up after their crew, and their company actually completing all the work; patching the indentations in the driveway, and fixing the curb. At this time they have told me they would come out to finish the work at some point between July 15th and July 25th. That would make it approximately 11 to 12 weeks after they had first paved the drive way, and 15 to 16 weeks after starting the project.
If the work is not done within the above time outline, I will be filling a formal complaint with the state, BBB and any other agency necessary to bring this matter to an end.
Best of luck with your home renovation and please don't consider JD Construction under any circumstance.
All the best, Adel read more