Fyle'S Excavating and Honey Wagon

Being my first experience with septic system installation, I'm not sure how Fyle's service compares to others in the same business. First, we were happy we were able to talk to Brad about our addition plans and have those plans taken into account in the siting of the new drain field (the house was actually purchased from a relative, who paid for the installation as the old septic system did not meet code). Brad's a local guy, and a friendly guy, so he's good to talk to. When he's here, we never got the rush like he didn't have time for us. Since the installation was completed, we haven't been completely satisfied, though. The issues from our point of view: 1) Insufficient backfill over septic tank. They backfilled over where the new tanks were installed, but not enough to really bring the grade up to where it originally was. Before we seeded, I needed to dump 4 tractor buckets of dirt and spread it out to raise the grade (luckily I have a tractor available, but was still lots of hand work to spread and rake). Once grass started to grow, I could tell the grade is still low. Also, beside one of the access covers, dirt collapsed into a void (not a huge volume, I'd estimate a wheelbarrow load's worth). Made me wonder how much compacting of the dirt was done as the backfill was being done, and how much more settling we can expect. 2) Along with insufficient backfill, two risers for the access covers were too short. They have installed taller risers, at our cost. (Not sure how I feel about paying for that, but I didn't really want to get into a debate about where the grade should be. Apparently they felt they backfilled to the proper height.) 3) When extremely cold weather came last winter, the line to the drain field froze, and the septic tank filled up. Fyle's came out to pump out the tank, and came back one or two more times to pump it out so that we could continue to use the plumbing until weather permitted repairs of the drain line. They did eventually come out and fix it (for now assuming it's fixed - we'll see when the January cold comes), but communication was lacking, and I was the one always following up to find out when they planned to come out for the repair. 4) More recently, found out that one of the risers was damaged, and must have been damaged when they backfilled. We're still waiting for him to get the parts to replace that. 5) They did replace a broken access cover and riser at the drain field that was damaged by an electric utility truck. Of course, the electric utility is paying for that damage. Like other work with Fyle's, it was hard to tell when this would get done. I really hate to ding a local contractor, but to my standards, contractors need to be able to plan their work, and communicate their plan. I understand that "stuff happens", so plans can change. But, I don't expect to be left in the dark when someone says "we'll be out sometime in the next couple of weeks", and that time and more goes by without the work being done. That has been the common theme working with them. And I don't think it's unique to Fyle's, but you can tell that the billable work gets higher priority. If it's new working that they can bill for, that seems to get on the schedule and get done. But if it's work to fix something they already did, that seems to get moved to the bottom of the list to get done "when they get the chance." We're still waiting for them to replace a riser that was cracked during install (can you guess when that will be done? I don't know. Hopefully before we get a lot of snow). After that, we are likely to call someone else for our septic system service. We're willing to try someone else to see how their service is.