Taking advantage of a Senior. Tuck pointing done, quoted on 1.5 days and did a 4 hour rushed job
We hired Straight Up Masonry on the recommendation of a friend. The quote was for 1 to 1.5 days and all deep pockets of mortar to be blown and repaired. They came Friday for 4 hours and left. There are still various deep pockets left that were never touched, and parts of the job were sloppy.
This is my fathers house, who is 86 and I feel he was completely taken advantage of. When he called to discuss the job that ended up being $400/hour - he was berated and yelled at. I don't know who thinks they can treat people like this - user beware.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $1,600.00
- Company Response
Kurt,
I am saddened to read this Kurt.
In the almost 7 years since I started this business I have prided myself on honesty and integrity.
I would never take advantage on anyone young or old.
I (Tony Devlin, Owner of Straight Up Masonry) carried out my site visit on the 10th of May 2017 are receiving your email on the 4th of May, you said you would be home which you where but I was "perfectly ok to assess the by Himself". After meeting you at the door I carried out my site inspection and left, pretty standard procedure.
On the 12th of May we sent the written estimate along with pictures highlighting the areas of concern and which needed repair. You called the office and accepted the job.
You did not pay your deposit to secure your job in my calendar, again standard procedure but I was not concerned as you where happy for us to arrive if we had a "free day". My mistake.
We arrived on the 9th of June to carry out the work.This means you had 4 weeks between receiving our estimate and pictures and us arriving, now how did we take advantage of you since you had the price and pictures before we even set foot on the property?
At no stage did we or anyone else tell you the job would take 1.5 days.
The day we had to carry out your work 1 employee called in sick, I cancelled his much larger job but sent his partner along with the original guy to do the work instead of sending him home.
I had planned on the job to be done within 1 day by 1 guy instead we got it done in 4 hours by 2 guys. Weather I send 1 guy to handle the job or several it is of no concern to you or anyone else.After we sent the invoice you called the office again and flat out refused to pay your bill because you
"don't think your guys are worth the money you pay them"
After I called and tried to explain you said "take me to court" and hung up the phone.
I called back to explain to you man to man the situation at which point you start asking for my financial situation, none of your concern, you asked how much do I pay my guys and how much profit do I make, again not your business.I tried to explain that business have overheads but your wouldn't accept that, you kept asking why I pay my guys $400 per hour, which by the way, is pure nonsense.
At the end of the day Kurt, You clearly don't like to see a small business or any business make money.
You where happy to have the work done but not happy to pay.
In the end you did send you cheque, Thank you.Our company policy is not to accept payment until work is completed in full.
If there was an issue with the work or we missed a section then we would be happy to have returned and taken care of these issues asap with no charge to yourself.
This has been been our way of doing things since we I started this company and will remain that way.
I don't claim to be perfect and sometimes on pointing joints things can be missed.
Unfortunately you did not give us this opportunity.We wish you all the best.
Tony Devlin
Owner