There is a good saying that says that people will forget what you said, people will even forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Therefore, I am giving a 1 star review due to the business owner bullying me and attempting to shame me for lying and being a bad payer, whereas I pride myself in being a man of my word and always paying all my bills on time, as all my credit reports can attest. For perspective, the owner lost his temper for a difference of opinion about $800 while I had spent nearly $30,000 with his company. I will be doing more landscaping projects in the future but it goes without saying that I will give my business somewhere else.
Needless to say I ended up paying the $800 upon hanging up despite how rude he was.
Before I get into the specifics of my disagreement with the business owner, I want to give a shout out to the crew that performed a relatively major rainwater drainage project at my house, including project manager Mike. The crew was professional, courteous and knowledgeable.
However, the business owner had no empathy nor good long term business sense when it came to a quick follow-up concern I had. In the coming days and weeks after the project had been performed, I noticed that while the major water problem had been resolved, a newly created minor problem had started with water getting trapped on uneven ground. While I can't prove it was a collateral issue created by heavy machinery in my backyard, it was reasonable to think the two were not entirely unrelated.
In any event, despite the owner not taking any accountability for the collateral damage and not providing any financial incentive to proceed with the follow-up job, I decided to move forward with the follow-up statement of work which was around 5% of the larger original project. I should have seen this as a red flag.
Before I effectively signed the contract, I had a conversation with the business owner given that I was surprised about the estimated bill. While there is always a chance my recollection is inaccurate, I am close to being certain that the owner stated to me that the proposal was an estimate, and that we would settle on actual man hours as opposed to the not binding estimate. While I am doubtful I am wrong in this case, let's leave that possibility out there for good measure. After what I recall was a reassuring conversation with the business owner, I signed the contract they sent me without reading the fine print, which was a major mistake on my end, again assuming we were working together based on verbal agreement and given that the initial experience was positive so far.
Once the crew came to my property, work was finished in 2.5 hours by two men, while the estimate was more in line with a full day of work for the same two men. I realize that there is additional labor due to loading materials, driving etc ... Once I received the invoice asking me to pay the remaining 50% (initial 50% was due as a deposit), I inquired about it over email and was told I signed a contract and needed to honor it. I then read the contract and realized how naive I had been, but thought the owner would recall our conversation.
Once we connected, he stated that the opposite happened and that I was the one who didn't feel comfortable with an unknown amount of man hours. He also used the contract as his line of defense, which he is entitled to and legally right. I knew I had no recourse but wanted him to show some empathy and explain why the contract was different from our conversation, or even why I misunderstood him originally. I perhaps wanted him to put himself in my shoes of someone who had spent $30,000 with his services and was surprised about a $800 nickel and diming. He then got defensive, lost his temper and attempted to make me feel like a man who doesn't pay his bills. Even if I was wrong, he could have and should have been polite and respectful. read more
