With Angi since February 2009
Service Provider Response
This customer hired our company to build a block retaining wall in place of an existing railroad tie wall that was in bad condition. She found us because we were building a wall for one of her neighbors down the street. I met with her and gave her a price of $9600 for the wall. She called me later and asked me to write a letter to her insurance company to try to get them to pay for the wall. I read the entire insurance policy, looking for a way to help her out but, there was nothing the insurance company could do. We met again to discuss the details of her project and cried over and over saying, “I am a single woman, a widow and I can’t afford it.” I tried to cut cost wherever I could to help her out and when all was said and done I cut about $1000 off the price. This wall was 90 feet long by 4 feet tall wall in a backyard at the back of the property. The scope of the work was removing the old wall and hauling away the wood, excavating 2 dump truck loads of dirt by hand, bringing about 36 yards of crushed rock for the foundation by hand and hauling in the new block to construct the wall. In the process we were going to have to remove a row of Arborvitae to construct the area. We discussed this project in late July and I told her from the very beginning the Arborvitae was not going to make it, they do not transplant well in the summer. She insisted that the wall go in right away. So I stated in the contract, which she signed, that we were not responsible for her plants if they should die during the construction. As we came onto the project site, her backyard had sparse, brown grass, a few dying rose bushes along the side yard and boxwood. It was also necessary to remove part of her sprinkler system in order to excavate for the wall. I told her we would repair the pipes and reset the heads once we were done, which we did. As soon as we repaired the system she then said “my sprinkler system is not working and it did before you started.” So we went through the entire system, front and backyards and we found she had blatantly lied to us about the sprinkler system. Not only was it not hooked up correctly, she didn’t even know where the valves were or how to turn them on. We found her valve boxes were jammed full of dirt from moles and two of the zones were not even hooked up. We also installed an underground soaker hose along the side of the house and the length of the arborvitae at the retaining wall. When we left her job site the entire system was working correctly and we showed them how to operate it. This work was done outside of the contract at NO CHARGE. There were no “exotic” plants on her property. There was some ground cover, three dried up, sparse rose bushes about 1 ½ tall and one boxwood. The Arborvitaes were removed with care and my crew wanted to roots to try and keep them alive. The last thing I did after grading out her backyard was replaced the 3 rose bushes with new ones, gave her new ground cover and a new larger boxwood. This work was done outside of the contract at NO CHARGE. This customer was extremely difficult throughout the project, stopping work countless times, calling up crying, wanting me to be there all the time to supervise my crew. At one point she came out and accused us of taking the excavating dirt and selling it to other customers. Why would I go through the hassle of carrying two dump truck loads of dirt out of her backyard to sell it???? In my industry I have more dirt than I know what to do with. We simply removed her clay fill dirt so we could replace it with gravel backfill for the wall. My foreman told her we did and she called him a liar. So, we removed the topsoil and uncovered the gravel to show her the gravel had been installed. She apologized to my foreman, saying she did not mean to call him a liar. She even got one of my crew members’ phone numbers and called him at all hours of the day and evening. This went on for a couple of weeks until we instructed her to call me or the office if she needed anything. I never yelled at her or even raised my voice. I also never told her this job would take 5-6 days. What I did tell her was we were very busy and we would do the best we could but, we needed a little more time. Her time frame of the job is referring to the day she signed the contract and paid the down payment to get on the schedule to the day she wrote the final check. She signed the contract and we received the down payment on august 5, 2011. However we did not start the project until, per our agreement, until August 13,2011. What she left out is the part where we waited about 10 days after the completion of the job for final payment, because she said she did not have the money. I was hired to build a retaining wall and re-attach the existing fence on top. Not to landscape her yard and install a sprinkler system. I did everything in my power to make this customer happy. What this all comes down to is she wants me to replace her arborvitae. They were all alive and green when we replanted them but, there was no guarantee they were going to live, I made that very clear to her. When she finally paid in full, she said, “Thank you” and gave me some homemade East Indian candy. It was my understanding that parted ways on good terms. It was disturbing to find out that she had written such a horrible review on Angie’s List almost 9 months later, although I’m not a bit surprised. Lastly, I have worked hard for many years to build and maintain a good reputation for Cornerstone Hardscapes, Inc. The integrity of this company is very important to me. Please look at the post from other Angie’s List clients. We take pride in our craftsmanship and customer service and I believe these posts express that. Sincerely, Richard Snyder PresidentAngi Certified
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Summit Landscape is a full service residential and commercial design build landscape company. With over 20 years in business, we strive to provide the highest standard of landscape installation. Specializing in complete design and build projects including hardscaping, irrigation, synthetic turf, landscape lighting, etc...
Angi Certified
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With several years of experience, Gerardo Moreno keeps working hard to maintain it's great reputation by providing the best customer service and quality available. We pride our company on reliability, great communication, integrity, and quality work. We are experts in our trade and will do our best to keep you as educated as we can on your particular task or project. We look forward to earning your business.