RIVAS LANDSCAPING

In Dec 09 we had a meeting with Mr. Beto Rivas of RIVAS Custom Landscaping regarding "landscaping" work and the possibility of getting an in ground pool installed at a later date.  We came to an agreement regarding the landscaping and on 3Jan10 we "PAID-IN-FULL" $14,000.00 to Mr. Rivas to do our landscaping.  The work included putting in two cement patio's, the patio's were to be "STAMPED"  at a later date if we were to have RIVAS install a pool. They also built a percalla and a wall on the patio closest to our house, built up the rock wall (while doing this they trampled on all of our plants surrounding the wall and broke several sections of "paving stone" which were cemented into the planter along two sides of the rock wall - took them approximately 3 to 4 months to replace the plants and pavers), put in a "short" rock wall and planted greenary in the wall, added a dripper system (not sure if it ever worked all the plants died), built a "U" shaped bench (Beto told us that what he had in mind would knock our socks of just "trust me!" - not even close to what we asked for or wanted), and planted some other schrubs.  About Aug/Sep of 2010 the 2X2 slats on top of the percalla started to warp and pull away from the studs and the arms fell off of the "U" shaped bench they built, and at that point I phoned Beto's brother Steve, and he said he would take a look and repair the problem (Under 1 year guarantee). He looked and finally in Nov/Dec of 2010 finally replaced the warped 2X2's but did not stain them and he didn't fix the arms to the bench. After several phone calls to Steve in June 2011 they finall stained the replaced 2X2's and fixed the bench arms, but Steve informed me from his brother Beto that the workmanship they provided was only guaranteed for one year, and I explained they started to repair the workmanship in the 6th or 7th month of the complete work, and it wasn't my fault it took them 8 to 10 months later to complete it.  Another part of the work was to "stamp" the concrete patio's whch they put in but the plan was not to do it until we decided when or if we would get a pool which they would have first dips on installing; however, we couldn't get a loan for the pool so we decided not to have the patio's "stamped", and asked for a refund of approximately $485.00 which we had paid back in January of 2010 and this was in March 2011.  Mr. Rivas said he would send a check (got to understand we live on the West Side of El Paso and RIVAS Landscaping is on the East Side, so it wouldn't take more than a couple days for the check to arrive in the mail) after 45 days we still hadn't received our check (I started calling/texting Mr. Revas after two weeks), Mr. Rivas finally said he would put a stop on the check (not sure he had to do that because I'm not really sure he ever mailed it!), and that he would come to the house and drop off the check and after another month or so ad he still hadn't dropped off the check, I told him I would pick it up and he agreed, so I told him tell me where to meet you (a good business man would have brought the check to me) he said he'd call after a couple days he didn't call so I called him, and he was busy would call me back, again after a couple days I called him and got the same excuse.  I reminded him that it was his idea to have me meet him on the east side and that I have been very patient with him and his company, and his last text was on 28Jul11 where he said,  "like I said, I'll call you" it is now 5Aug11 and we still don't have a check or a call.  I strongly recommend if you use this company not to pay in full up front, and make sure you document any problems and the length of time it takes the to take care of the problems, because they will definitely through the "one year guarantee" in your face.  We will never do business with this company again, nor will we recommend him to our friends.