ALL SEASONS GROUNDSKEEPING

"The member's report certainly justifies a response. Firstly, I pride myself in guaranteed satisfaction. I'm very disappointed that he didn't contact me personally to make me aware that he was dissatisfied so I could have addressed these issues with him. When I first met this customer in Dec 2009 his request for snowplowing was for the end of his driveway and mailbox only. ( This is where the town plow deposits all the snow from the road ). He informed me he snowblows his driveway and wanted a quote just on that. I quoted him $20.00 just to clear the end. He offered $25.00 at that time and I said Okay, if we get a large storm I would go halfway up the driveway so he wouldn't have to snowblow so much. I asked if I could deposit the snow on a specific spot on the lawn. He said it was flat in front of the playhouse, so that would be fine. I told him I would raise the plow blade so as not to damage the lawn. I plowed his driveway all of December and January with no complaints. After a few storms in December, he never snowblowed his driveway. He appeared to enjoy the fact that someone else was doing snow removal for him. So went all the way up to his garage to plow. After a few jobs like this, I spoke with him in his driveway and explained that if I am going to clear the entire driveway in large storms I would have to charge him $30.00. He agreed. And when I just clean the end $25.00. I plow up to twice per storm, a storm is catergorized as snowfall in a 24hr period. It is not always necessary to plow twice in a storm, it depends on weather conditions. I may have done both his neighbor's driveway first due to safety concerns, their driveways are steep and the member's is quite flat. He was not forgotten, his driveway was plowed within a reasonable amount of time. I'd like to address the noise issue. Unfortunately, snowplows do not have a quiet down & noisy down, simply, up or down. The blade is heavy and if you are unused to hearing the 'plow guy' in your driveway on early winter mornings I suppose it can be startling. I suspect, more likely, what he heard is what is called the trip edge on the edge of the plow after it tripped back on account of he has a small asphalt curb at the end of his driveway. That trip edge tripping back can be noisy as well. The trip edge helps prevent damage to property, plow and truck. Feb 28 we received 5 inches of heavy, wet, snow and I plowed all my customers that morning. I may have roughed up his lawn in two spots but, when everything is covered in snow it's hard to distinguish driveway from lawn at times. When we receive heavy, wet, snow ( usually toward the end of the snow season ) the top layer of sod is often soft and damage does occasionally occur. I would be happy to repair his lawn if that would make him a more satisfied customer. If the member would address his concerns directly to me, I'm sure we could come to some reasonable agreement. I still believe a person's word and a handshake should be all I need. I've learned from the member that perhaps I need to defend myself from slanderous statements by having each & every customer sign a contract. Since being made aware of this posting, I've attempted to contact him in person & by phone to no avail. I would like to have the opportunity to make good on this job. Paul St. Amour."