lncoop
Vice Admiral
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2010
- Messages
- 5,147
First, let me go ahead and get this in.:facepalm: There, that's better. So, a week ago last Saturday these guys were driving around the hood offering to trim trees. That's a common occurrence in my neighborhood, and I usually decline the offer. However, for some reason I accepted that one. Did I mention:facepalm:?
Thirty minutes later I was told "we all done boss man". "Great", I said, "I'll get you a check". I paid them without checking their work and off they went. Thirty minutes after that the admiral came outside, looked at the trees, and demanded to know how much I paid. "Two and a quarter" was my flippant rejoinder, to which she responded, "That was too much. They hardly did anything."
She was right, and I told her as much, because that weren't my first rodeo. And, since there was no way to contact them I foolishly believed I'd get away with chalking it up as an expensive lesson in trusting people to do what they're supposed to do and her righteous indignation would subside in a day or twelve. But alas, that was not to be the end of it. As luck would have it, the "tree service", which will henceforth be referred to as DCH&TTSTS, resurfaced the following Monday to gouge my neighbor, at which point the admiral had a very candid and heartfelt conversation with one of them about doing the work one is paid to do and received his assurance that they concurred with her thoughts on the subject, and she returned to work having extracted his solemn promise that they would "finish the job" forthwith.
That evening when she returned home to discover they had done nothing of the sort she promptly stopped payment on the check.:facepalm: The following Saturday they returned (while I was gone of course) and demanded to know why. She lectured them again and they finally reached an agreement whereby she would return the $225 plus $75 more if they would remove a tree next to the fence. I had already expressed to her my desire that they not touch that tree because they weren't up to that task, but............:facepalm:
As I mentioned, I was not at home, but as I opened the door of my truck in the parking lot of Academy I heard my phone ringing. The admiral was on the other end, and she was not happy. When I finally pulled into the drive she was on the phone leaving a message with our insurance agent, which is never a good sign. I walked to the back yard and witnessed the carnage DCH&TTSTS had wrought. The tree was down, as was the fence, because the eight inch diameter 25 foot limb on an adjacent tree they had attempted to use as a helper had fallen on it.:facepalm:
The leader immediately began to make excuses, at which point I told him we were past that and it was time to straighten it out. The admiral had told him we would file an insurance claim because she mistakenly believed we would get a new fence out of it:facepalm:. I advised him that in fact we would not be filing a claim because that was his responsibility. He asked if he could just send someone to fix it instead of filing a claim against his policy. I was amenable to this until I learned that someone would be one of the geniuses from his crew, at which point I just told them to leave, resolving to take care of it myself.
However, the wheels of Farmer's Insurance were already in motion, and our agent called the admiral on Monday and asked for DCH&TTSTS's number. Later that day we learned they had allowed their liability coverage to lapse last October and had simply been lying to anyone who asked about it.
We stopped payment on the second check and I called last night to let him know. He wasn't happy, but I'm sure he understands that under the circumstances he's lucky that's all we did. At this point we're out fifty bucks for stopping payment on two checks, and we'll soon be out $250-$300 for saving the tree they wounded. Our neighbor has offered to split the cost of replacing that section of fence, so that will cost us around $400.
As the morals of this story are self evident I won't get into them. I just though I'd provide you guys with a laugh at my expense. No one was hurt and the house wasn't destroyed, and the admiral now shares some of the blame, so that monkey is off my back. Looks like I got my expensive lesson after all. (Uh oh. I'm out of facepalms.)
Thirty minutes later I was told "we all done boss man". "Great", I said, "I'll get you a check". I paid them without checking their work and off they went. Thirty minutes after that the admiral came outside, looked at the trees, and demanded to know how much I paid. "Two and a quarter" was my flippant rejoinder, to which she responded, "That was too much. They hardly did anything."
She was right, and I told her as much, because that weren't my first rodeo. And, since there was no way to contact them I foolishly believed I'd get away with chalking it up as an expensive lesson in trusting people to do what they're supposed to do and her righteous indignation would subside in a day or twelve. But alas, that was not to be the end of it. As luck would have it, the "tree service", which will henceforth be referred to as DCH&TTSTS, resurfaced the following Monday to gouge my neighbor, at which point the admiral had a very candid and heartfelt conversation with one of them about doing the work one is paid to do and received his assurance that they concurred with her thoughts on the subject, and she returned to work having extracted his solemn promise that they would "finish the job" forthwith.
That evening when she returned home to discover they had done nothing of the sort she promptly stopped payment on the check.:facepalm: The following Saturday they returned (while I was gone of course) and demanded to know why. She lectured them again and they finally reached an agreement whereby she would return the $225 plus $75 more if they would remove a tree next to the fence. I had already expressed to her my desire that they not touch that tree because they weren't up to that task, but............:facepalm:
As I mentioned, I was not at home, but as I opened the door of my truck in the parking lot of Academy I heard my phone ringing. The admiral was on the other end, and she was not happy. When I finally pulled into the drive she was on the phone leaving a message with our insurance agent, which is never a good sign. I walked to the back yard and witnessed the carnage DCH&TTSTS had wrought. The tree was down, as was the fence, because the eight inch diameter 25 foot limb on an adjacent tree they had attempted to use as a helper had fallen on it.:facepalm:
The leader immediately began to make excuses, at which point I told him we were past that and it was time to straighten it out. The admiral had told him we would file an insurance claim because she mistakenly believed we would get a new fence out of it:facepalm:. I advised him that in fact we would not be filing a claim because that was his responsibility. He asked if he could just send someone to fix it instead of filing a claim against his policy. I was amenable to this until I learned that someone would be one of the geniuses from his crew, at which point I just told them to leave, resolving to take care of it myself.
However, the wheels of Farmer's Insurance were already in motion, and our agent called the admiral on Monday and asked for DCH&TTSTS's number. Later that day we learned they had allowed their liability coverage to lapse last October and had simply been lying to anyone who asked about it.
We stopped payment on the second check and I called last night to let him know. He wasn't happy, but I'm sure he understands that under the circumstances he's lucky that's all we did. At this point we're out fifty bucks for stopping payment on two checks, and we'll soon be out $250-$300 for saving the tree they wounded. Our neighbor has offered to split the cost of replacing that section of fence, so that will cost us around $400.
As the morals of this story are self evident I won't get into them. I just though I'd provide you guys with a laugh at my expense. No one was hurt and the house wasn't destroyed, and the admiral now shares some of the blame, so that monkey is off my back. Looks like I got my expensive lesson after all. (Uh oh. I'm out of facepalms.)
