ComplaintsforLandry & Son Excavation, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  04/25/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Please see attached document for an explanation of what is going on.

  "We started working with this business in June of 2021. We received a quote to have trees and stumps removed on a portion of our land. The verbal contact (we only signed a quote never received a written contract) was that the land would be completed no later than August 2021. This was sent to us and signed in July 2021. This land was going to be used for an event a year later, we went with this company because they were able to complete the work the fastest. It was very hard to get in contact with the employer after signing the quote and agreeing to work with them. We made a lot of calls and sent various text messages to the employer which would not be answered.
  We finally heard a response from him on August 31st that he was going to start the following week. We asked if we could do a week later because we would be out of town. Which we never received a response for. Mid September we again reached out asking when he was going to start. He stated he was having weather issues and would not be giving us a start date at that time. In October we reached out again stating that we needed a start date as we were now 2 months past the original date. He stated on October 6th that he had us scheduled for either Tuesday or Wednesday the following week. On the 12th (the following Thursday) he finally answer our multiple calls throughout that week asking where he was (due to us taking time off work). He stated that he would start first thing in there morning as he had an issue with his machine. On the 14th, we again were home and asked if he was going to be there that day because we needed to know whether or not to keep our cats inside. He did not respond. He showed up a small handful of times sporadically, unscheduled, for a few hours at a time throughout the middle of October.
  We tried to remain patient with him. As he promised it would be done by the end of October latest. He had equipment break down and stopped coming. We reached out again in the beginning of November and were not able to get in contact with him. We finally heard from him on November 10th that he would be up on Saturday to work on it. I was outside mowing my lawn that Saturday. He showed up for a very short amount of time. We then didn’t hear from him again until December 2nd when he called to see if he could touch base. We scheduled an in-person meeting for Saturday at 9 am which he never showed up to. We called and texted multiple times to figure out where he was. He finally reached out 11 am stating he had to run to the part store and stated he would call us later to figure out another time to meet up. At this time, we told him we no longer would like to work with him and would like to talk with him to negotiate a price for the limited work he had completed. We never heard back from him.
  He reached out to us then on April 9, 2022 stating he would like to touch base with us. We reached out with times we had available. We didn’t hear back again. He called again on April 13th at which point we answered and stated we texted him multiple times and that we couldn’t talk at that exact moment as we cannot use our phones at work (we were walking into our building from grabbing lunch). We said we had reached out to him with multiple times that worked for us but would text him more times and that we needed him to please respond so we could figure out a time that worked best for both parties. We texted various times immediately after hanging up. We never got a response.
  We received a text on April 19th stating he hadn't heard from us and wanted to know when to talk. We said we reached out to him multiple times trying to schedule something with him and he was not giving us any response. We stated we would be home at 4pm that night and would be free the remainder of the night. He never responded or called. He called on April 21 and left a voicemail. We called him back that day and also left a voicemail for him, as he did not answer. We received a text from him today, April 23rd, that since we have not tried to contact him he is going to be taking us to court.
  On top of this whole thing, he destroyed a natural waterway that is in the area of our yard he was working on. He told us he would not ruin the water way while completing his work. When he did destroy it, he stated he had no other option and would clean up the creek and recarve it once his work was complete. He also ruined our retaining wall that is holding up our shed and a portion of the drive way which has now caused erosion under the shed and is going into the driveway. We have had to pay multiple people in attempts to slowly clean up the damage he caused to the half acre of land he was working on. He cleared just under half of the trees that were agreed upon and did not remove any stumps or clean up any of his damage.
  We had tried to get in touch with him in December when we fired him to say we were willing to pay him 25% of our quote since he completed about a fourth of the work but never heard from him. This is the first time we have heard from him in months. I am assuming money is what he is stating he wants to take us to court for, but he hasn't even given a reason for wanting to touch base. This assumption is because we never heard from him regarding a price in December 2021. When we tried to give him half up front on the first day he was here, he told us to not worry about it since he started much later after what our intended end date was. He stated to pay him it all in the end.
  It is impossible to get in contact with him and it almost feels he is purposely ignoring us when we have reached out to him with how quickly he jumped right to taking us to court. We are seeking advice on what the best avenue is for us moving forward and how we should go about handling this. We have been responsive and up front with him from the start. And were even still willing to pay him even though he caused us to be more in debt from his damage to our land then it would have cost to pay him the final amount. We just are at a lose of words for the unprofessionalism of this company and truly don't feel we now should even pay him since he is threatening he is taking us to court without even having a conversation with us. We understand though that he did cut down some trees and we could need to pay for that.
  Unfortunately we trusted that since he was a veteran (like us) that we would not end up in a situation like this, so I do not have any pictures of the land before we started hiring other people to begin working on fixing it. I do have pictures of what we have been able to get the creek to currently, which is still not the original condition. We do have all our texts and phone calls saved though and the email he sent us with the original quote. Please let us know what we need to do moving forward."

  

  Business response

  06/06/2022

  Good Evening,

  I apologize for the delay in response as I've been out of town.  I have reviewed over the letter and highlighted in yellow any correct statement and highlighted in red any false statement. I have attached a copy of the original quote to assist in clarification.  Additionally, I have all texts and call logs from our interactions as well as notes to compile the quote in order to corroborate the extent of this job and client conversations. 

  I would like to specifically call out some false statements from the letter of allegations against my company. 

  Firstly, I have never provided an End Date to a job.  This can be verified by reviewing the quote I provided to the client.  The client had also stated verbally that there was 'no rush' as their event would not be happening until May 2022. 

  Secondly, stump removal was never part of the job.  I verified this via text with ***** on October 6, 2021 and stated that I wanted to be sure I didn't miss anything.  She texted back and said yes that is correct. 

  Thirdly, verbally exchanged between myself and the client was that the only access to the job was through the waterway mentioned.  I had agreed to bring it back to as close to its original state as possible upon completion.  While completing the work, I discovered there is ledge under the waterway and therefore very little room for actual damage to be done. 

  Fourthly, during my time at the client's property, I cut an estimated 30-40 trees or more.  There was delay in acquiring a chipper to dispose of the trees, which I communicated verbally at the time to the client.  This can be verified by the countless rental companies called and contacts texted by myself and my staff to attempt the rental of one.  I had an estimated 6 trees left to cut in order to complete the original scope of the quote, when work ceased per the client ***** via text message on December 4, 2021.  The client is stating less work was completed because their original intentions were changed during the course of the job in person, but never signed off on.  I have a confirmation via text message by ***** on October 13, 2021 in which she clarifies 'that they are leaving a buffer of trees by the road for privacy'.  Therefore the majority of the job was completed before the client terminated our relationship.  

  Yes, there were multiple equipment setbacks as I tried to communicate to the client without inundating them with the logistics of my machinery. Yes, there was tremendous issue with the excessive record setting rainfall we had last year and keeping this job completion on a tight schedule. Yes, there was a shortage of chippers available to rent when it came time to use one of this job which delayed things further.  

  There was never an avoidance of the client.  I additionally sent a quote for a reduced price on January 27, 2022 and received no response.  In order to complete this job, I have already paid a subcontractor for chainsaw work on 'hazard trees' near the client's garage, as well as the chipper rental, fuel bills for equipment, equipment mobilization, my own time/labor.  I have received ZERO payment from the client for any work.  No deposit was provided, despite the quote requiring 50% up front.

  There was no times provided by the client for us to discuss any of the aspects of the job during the contact I attempted in April 2022.  ***** answered one of my phone calls as is verified in the client's letter on April 13, 2022 and said she couldn't speak to me at the time and would let me know when we could talk later.  Zero contact was made by the client after that phone call ended.  I texted and called repeatedly, left voicemails and zero response was given by the client.  This lack of response has left me with no other option than to take the client to court.  I would be fine resolving this outside of court if we are able to come to a fair agreement for both parties. 

  Please let me know how the client wishes to proceed.

  Sincerely, 

  Justin L***** 

  Landry and Son Excavation, LLC

  Customer response

  06/08/2022

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  We have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 17102665, and find that the resolution of coming to a fair agreement is satisfactory to us. Please see the attached document for our response and how we would like to move forward. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***** ******* and ***** ****** 

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩