Robert Ott Landscaping

Walk threw for the estimate was in July and was told the work would begin first week of September 2013. I felt the estimate for the redesign of my front yard very high for my small yard but it would be worth it becuase of the quality of work after reviewing the Robert Ott's web site. In that walk threw I was assured the work would not exceed $6560 and that either the contractor, Bob or the forman James would help me pick out pavers from the stone yard and assist with the design of the hard scape. I was promised absolute perfection so I gave my non refundable $1,000 deposit. The job kept being delayed becuase of other jobs and did not start till mid November. In this time I questioned how the sod would do with the temperatures plummeting. I was hesitant but was given a "guarantee" on everything, so I proceeded.I made a few attempts to get the forman or contractor to walk the stone yard , I was told by the secretary to go by myself due to the forman and contractor being tied up with other jobs. I had no help and was handed an idea catalog with no prices when i went to the stone yard. Finally Bob calls me and sets a date for work to start ! Another walk threw the day before was scheduled between me, the contractor and forman to finalize and review the work to be done, the forman is a no show cuase he was stuck on another job??I talk with Bob about my paver choice and ask if my idea for the steps and walkway is in the budget. Bob tells me" Even if I chose the most expensive stone in the yard it would not be much more becuase it is such a small area, at max might be $100/$200 more"Next day contractor, foreman, and labors came to my house and crew started to demo everything .While this goes on Bob told me the paver I chose was a veneer and it would cost double for labor to build a concreat step& adhease the veneer. I was upset it took till the day work started to discuss this. Bob said he felt bad and would eat the extra material cost cuase it took so long to start the project. So I scrambled to choose a differnt paver out of a catalog. I received very unprofessional behavior in the days to come. As the forman prepped the stairs and walk way I got day after day of cigarette smoke leaking into my home with the butts left around my front door along with bottles from beverages, like my yard was their personal trash can. I kept an eye somewhat on what was going on , I noticed a pile of the same paver caps my neighbor had on their stairs. I question James and his responce was " the stone I chose was not in stock" I didn't want matching stairs and said that this will not work . I was then told " how picky I was" James's attitude just got worse from there. The next day he found the caps at another stone yard and started to measure and cut them to fit the riser. He complained the whole time with in ear shot to the other labors .. " how he never met a home owner so picky" and told me to my face " He hated the stone I chose". I barly said two sentences to the guy? Next day I showed James a picture from the idea catalog of what I want the walkway to look like. We review the design and I go inside ,tend to my child who was home from school, showered and started house work. I pop my head out the door to see the progress. He has cut and layed down the decorative pavers in a frame pattern which was never discussed in any walk threw. I felt it looked way to busy for such a small space and I did not ask for this work or labor. So I nervously voiced my opinion which is followed with alot of needless attitude which I exspected. The contractor came to my home later in the day while James fixed the walk way and was told by Bob I was going to have to pay for the wasted material to fix the issue, even though neither contractor nor forman ever discussed this decrative pattern to me. A simple knock on my door and conversation by the foreman could have avoided this! Bob leaves James to finish the job. He now is quite upset and is very loud so my neighbors can here him yammering about me, the job he hates, and starts mocking me saying how" she yap yap yaps"???? I been advoiding this guy and trying so hard to ignore his behavor becuase I just want the job done and him off my property . He works till dark & left saying nothing to anyone. The next morning in the daylight you can see a large wedge shape gap at the front of the step. I'm very upset with the end result. I was promised perfection and this was so far from! James returns with a message from bob giving me a price for the blue chip that needs to be replaced becuase their bobcat ran threw my driveway causing large divits. The price is almost as much as having it paved. I write Bob an email letting him know how unhappy I am with James's and that I didn't want him back I also mention my landing has a huge weadge shaped gap at the front and how horrible it looked! I also asked him to remove the pile of sand that was blocking the tree stump i needed ground down. .I recieve an email back from Bob " becuase I could not get along with James it could not be done". I take pictures of the landing with a measuring tape and once again emailed the contractor. A week goes by then i recieve a heated email saying ' I complained way to much, that it was the stone I chose that made this issue with the stair, then went on a rantabout how he told me how expensive this block was and how much more the labor would cost??? ' None of those conversations ever took place, I never saw the price of anything , Bob assured me this whole time and I truly thought I was in good standing with the estimate give or take $100 or two. Time goes by and I had to manually move part of the mound of sand so the tree company could finish grinding down the stump. I get an email from Bob to meet up and talk numbers . He hands me an invoice of $8,397.20 for two steps, curbstone , and a small walk way. We went threw numbers ,what was said, and the price dropped to $5,606 with the intention that another forman would come and fix the steps. The new foreman , Dan did come and go over what happened and how it was measured off of our uneven house and with the pattern that was chosen plus the cap it just to showed off how uneven the was. He told me I should have hired a mason to do this job cuase everything would have to be off set. I thought I was hiring a contractor with a skilled mason to do this job! I was given the option of paying $500 to put a differnt pattern paver that would not match anything on the top or having him try to hand saw the cap to match the gap on the other side which possible could chip it and make it look worse and mess the look of the angel cut from where the two stones met up. Two non options cause either way would be worse. I'm very unhappy with the end result. My yard and driveway now looks like a mess from the bobcat driving all over it , the regrading and sod never got finished ,and Bob left his huge pile of sand for me to deal with. All this will cost me a few more thousand dollars in the spring with onother contractor to fix. I got ripped off horribly and treated so very unprofessionally!! Save yourself the money and headache, there are far better contractors out there!