Irrigation By Urban

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Urban Irrigation and Lighting Systems, Inc. repaired my irrigiation system on 09/14/2010. At that time I prepaid for winterization of the irrigation system, ($95.00). This winterization was to be performed in a timely fashion after the end of the watering season. I phoned Mr. Urban on three separate occassions to ask for the winterization of my system, once at the end of October and twice in November 2010. I was advised that his company was "busy" on a large project and that it was common to provide winterization as late as the first or second week of December. I explained my concerns, but Mr. Urban said that he'd been in the business for 26 years and I would need to wait. I became increassingly concerned of an early freeze and resultant broken pipes. In 10 years of ownership of an irrigation system, winterization had always been performed in October. As a life long resident of the D.C. area, 62 yers, I was well aware of the unpredictable weather that we have become accustomed to in this area. I elected to engage another vendor to perform the winterization and paid $95.00 for the service. In summary, I prepaid for a winterization service to be performed in accordance with industry standards by Urba Irrigation and Lighting, Inc. They failed to provide the service after repeated requests, thus placing my property in jeapardy. The above statement is an exact duplication of the report submitted to Consumer Affairs. Mr. Urban has failed to respond to Consumer Affairs or to refund the fee for winterization ($95.00). Documentaton of contracts, canceled checks. etc. were submitted with the complaint. I concur with an earlier report on this business. Do not pay Mr. Urban for any product or services in advance. He can not be trusted to fulfill his obligations or to refund your money if not performed.

Upon arriving in small claims court, Mr. Urban continued to insist that WE owed him $700 rather and insisted that we should have expected "a little dirt" with installation. We provided pictures to the judge that showed just how bad the dirt (mud severely stained the driveway, etc.) and damage to our driveway and yard was. After speaking with both sides, the judge determined that since we had already spent approx. $700 on cleaning up Mr. Urban's mess (including driveway, yard, dog fence repair), that we did not owe Mr. Urban $700 and that Mr. Urban must consider the contract paid in full based on the amount we had to spend in repair. Additionally, he ordered that Mr. Urban abide by the terms of the contract and must service the system. Case closed - the outcome speaks for itself.

The work itself was okay except do not pay him for anything beforehand. He will take the money and not return any time soon. We literally waited about 6 months after paying him to do some lighting, before we gave up waiting and demanded our money back. That took a long time also.

There isn't enough room to tell the whole story in working with Mr. Urban and his res. The story, they began work without notifying us(we asked to be notified so we could be home), cut our dog fence (twice) and cost us $350 to have it fixed (they refused any liability), cut our cable so badly we had to have a new line installed (after being without cable/internet for weeks, but by contract Mr. Urban was off the hook for that one), buckled one area of the driveway with their equipment and never cleaned the mud off the driveway after installation completion, making us have to spend $400 to get the mud-stained driveway re-sealed because they didn't clean it properly after many requests. We are still trying to fairly settle up with them, they have been paid most of their money and are now working with Ffx Co. Consumer Agency but Urban is not cooperating and they are refusing to honor maint. All this after their own rep. said it was a mess! Their answer was "You have your system don't you?"

ON TIME. GOOD CLEANUP. FOLLOWED UP. WOULD RECOMMEND.