Northland Paving Ltd

This was the worst experience we've ever had with any company we've worked with. They are dishonest, corrupt, and greedy. Don't be sold by Georgio's charm; selling is what he's good at. He lays it on thick like timeshare pitch and I unfortunately drank the Kool-Aid. I was willing to pay their premium pricing for quality work. Big mistake! Work with an ethical company, that will put customers first. I am shocked that their friendly voices and faces can turn so quickly and cruelly on a customer. Our story.... We contacted Northland to get hardscaping done to the front and back of our home. We met with Georgio who provided a design as part of the free estimate FREE ESTIMATE we received in late summer 2022. We spoke a few times afterwards regarding the design and materials but I could not decide which pavers I wanted for the job as I did not like the options available at the time. By mid-fall Georgio suggested that we postpone the job to the following spring season to ensure we have the appropriate weather for the installation and because there would be new options available for pavers the following season. We were asked to give over $5000 as a deposit to hold our spot for the spring. We did not want to do this but received a lot of pressure from them. We went through all of our paperwork which did not indicate anywhere their cancellation fee or whether they would hold back the deposit/charge an admin fee. So to be sure we called and spoke to the office and they confirmed it was refundable if we didn't proceed. Feeling better about that we provided the deposit. That winter a personal opportunity came up where we had to relocate. We spoke with Giorgio to let him know that we were cancelling because we were selling our house. We asked again about the refund and he confirmed YES and wished us well. After chasing the Northland office for over EIGHT WEEKS by phone and email we finally got an email response from their office manager Gillian. She informed us that they decided to hold back over $1100 as an administrative fee as a good-faith gesture! We obviously disputed this but Northland threatened to charge us $14000 if we don't want to accept paying the admin fee because their lawyers told them they have the right to do so. We went to the CPA who opened a case and the CPA tried to mediate however Northland would not mediate or cooperate. The CPA said there was nothing else they could do because Northland is not cooperating and since their contracts (intentionally) do not disclose their cancellation policy in writing it's basically up to Northland what they do with your deposit. Note, Northland also tried to say that they ordered my materials for the job so they were recouping their costs there. That was completely dishonest because I never selected the materials I wanted except for the armour stones but they did not have to order that because Georgio told me that they stocked $2M in armour stones on their lot. I also offered to pay the actual costs they incurred for permits and locates but they just wanted to keep more money than necessary. So I learned an $1100 life lesson; never give a deposit unless it states in writing that it's refundable.