Three years ago we hired Busy B to power wash out house prior to it being painted. We couldn't…read morehave been happier with the service. Walt and his team were attentive, thorough, and went above and beyond to make sure the job was well done and that we were satisfied. Naturally, as we prepare to sell our house we wanted the same level of detail, so we called and scheduled with them again.
I'm not sure within the last three years if this team was abducted by aliens and replaced by their evil doppelgangers, or if they just don't care anymore, but this experience was the polar opposite.
The day prior to our appointment we received an email that gave some basic instructions, but what was striking was a paragraph that said
"Please do not call us on the day of your job asking for a specific time. You will not be given one.
Due to the nature of our work we cannot give out specific or estimated timing on the day of your scheduled job. You will receive an "on-the-way" text if you've provided a cell phone number."
OK. That's a little off putting, but we get it. Some jobs are bigger than others, but even the cable guy gives you a range. Day of the appointment arrives and two hours are spent clearing the decks and porches. And the waiting begins.....
Finally at 3:00pm a text is sent to the company to get an idea of the latest time they will arrive. At this time the office manager says, "Oh, he's been there and left". What? What happened to the on the way text? There was no knock on the door and no phone calls. Effectively the receptionist told us that there is a car blocking the driveway and he couldn't get his truck in to turn it around. No, we say. There is no car blocking the driveway, plenty of room. Actually, says the OM, you have a difficult driveway to get up and Walt (company owner) remembered this and didn't have the right equipment to get up your driveway. It's in the shop in Harrisonburg, so he's not going to be there today (we have a bit of a hill to get up). Wait we say, which is it? A car blocking the driveway or lack of equipment?
At this point we are told the house phone was called and a message was left telling us this information. That's a tough sell, as the land line has been disconnected for about 5 months. After much back and forth we basically tell said receptionist that this is extremely poor business decisions and terrible customer service as we have all of our porch furniture sitting in the yard, and are planning on staining the decks tomorrow. Not my problem was the message from good ol Busy B. We asked to have the owner call us. We were told that he doesn't have signal. Maybe he'll call, maybe he won't.
At this point we are at a loss. It looks like the B is too busy to come do the job they committed to. So we begin to look for other options. Suddenly, at 4:00 pm, a white pickup pulls into the driveway with no special equipment and somehow navigates the 'obstacle course' of the driveway blocking car.
The owner himself gets out of the pickup. He made no apology. When asked why he didn't bother to call or knock to let us know he had made an attempt. He then tells us that he had both knees replaced a few months ago and didn't want to walk up the driveway. He also tells us that getting our house power washed is 'not a crisis', and that him living with cancer over the past two years is.
What? No one called it a crisis, just really poor customer service and crappy attitudes when asked why no one had showed up or called. I'm very sorry for your medical conditions, but that's not my concern. If it's that bad, maybe you should have sent someone else.
Finally the power washing begins. No real apology for the lack of communication or the decision not to show up. During the washing session, there were some texts back and forth to our oh so happy OM who said that a check would be needed at the end of the session. We said we would pay electronically just like the last time.
6:30 rolls around and we go outside to look at the job. First thing noted was that the walks and back patio were not done. An argument ensues that those have never been done and that was not on the work order. On the contrary we say, they were done last time and we specifically stated that we did not want the deck surfaces washed (which they did). On the previous you talked about how we needed to fill sand back in the walks after the session. After more arguing back and forth, out he goes to finish the job we hired him for.
Bottom line is this. The entire experience from top to bottom was terrible. Communication was terrible, service was terrible, attitudes were terrible, integrity was terrible, and the job was marginal. It's unfortunate that this occurred. We would not recommend services from this company at all. Both the office staff as well as the owner were argumentative, and it appeared clear he did not want to do this job.
