After a couple weeks of what I thought was extreme restraint and patience on my part, I finally reached him by phone and just asked him if he wanted to do this job or if he'd prefer to refund my money.
He was shocked. Why would I think he didn't want the job? Hmm, could it be because I'd been waiting for over a month for a written quote?! He promised to send it right away.
Two days later when I still didn't have it, I was becoming convinced that we didn't have the right contractor. Uncommunicative. Unresponsive. Unmotivated. One more phone call.
"Oh. I thought I sent it. Maybe I didn't. I'll do it now."
Finally!! At last! When can we do this?
I was hoping we could do it the day after we got back from Florida. But no.
"February 10th." Should have known it wouldn't be right away. Okay. About six months from when I wanted it. (No instant gratification here!) But the end was in sight.
When we got home we saw that the city had dug out the ditch, but we were not going to change our new plan. Especially since the new plan included a bunch of river rock hardscaping that we'd been talking about for a good long while, and all for the same price of a mere driveway approach. Even if we'd reverted back to the old plan, we'd still have to get the driveway rocked in.
The crew came on February 10th and put down a layer of decomposed granite in the back. It would serve as a base for the rock that would be coming later. It looked good. They said they'd be back to finish it the next day.
But they didn't come back the next day. Or the day after that. I once again started the phone calls, text messages, and voice mails. Finally got through and learned that something on their truck was broken and they were waiting for it to get fixed.
After two weeks went by I was starting to think that these people don't have a serious business. You've not got your crew working for over two weeks? What are they doing? If they can't get your truck fixed, you need to rent one or something.
But I wasn't as upset about it as before, because I knew that they'd done more than enough work to cover my deposit.
This has been a long story. But it's coming to an end. I finally got through to them and they ended up putting down a type of rock that was more expensive than what was originally ordered just because they could do it without the broken truck. And all at no additional charge to me!
It finally got finished last week! Now for Mark to build the bridge.
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