After misplacing a flyer for spray driveway sealing for $80 I decided to find an alternate company on the internet. I found the Driveway Doctor online and researched their website and was impressed at the process used and the actual application of the product rather than the spray product. I requested an online quote and John got back to me within 24 hours with a quote of $180 + HST. The price was more than double the quote I had from the flyer however I felt comfortable knowing that the product was going to be applied the way I would have done it. They scheduled me in for the following day and completed the work however not according my standards from what I expected. On the website they promised and even application to the borders with no mess and to repairs. When I arrived home after work to inspect the work the driveway looked great however I noticed that the edges were not done right to the end as promised and there was a lot of dust build up around the edges and the application was uneven and some minor repair (ie. some oil stains) were not removed.
During this time John had sent an invoice and asked for immediate payment. I e-mailed him right away and asked for my concerns to be addressed before I released payment. He replied back addressing my concerns however I asked if he could come by to inspect the work to help answer my questions.
John showed up with his crew the day after around 7 pm and was rather upset at the fact that I had called him out to inspect the work since in his mind the work was done perfectly. I calmly explained to him that I paid a lot of money as compared to the competition to get the work done and I wanted to make sure the work was done properly. He ridiculed me saying that he would charge me for his time and gas to make the trip out to my property to inspect the work and that he "should be on a patio having a beer with his wife" rather than being there. He instructed his crew reluctantly to make a few touch ups all the while continuing to ridicule me.
He followed up a week later with a phone call saying that my invoice was overdue. I apologized and told him that I would take care of it the day after. The morning after I opened his e-mail to pay the invoice and to my surprise he had charged me a $25 late payment charge (one week overdue) which is 15% of the total contract. I emailed saying at how ridiculous it was and asked him to remove the charge so I could pay the invoice. He explained that he would not. I replied back that I would send him a check with just the contracted amount and he replied back saying they don't accept checks from residential clients. My only option was to pay the invoice online through pay pal and I couldn't amend the amount to pay. I reluctantly paid the amount just so I wouldn't have to deal with John ever again.
The product was decent however the hassle to deal with John is definitely not worth the hassle.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $200.00
- Company Response
The only thing truthful in this review is that we do have a late fee. The reason for this is because we are an extremely high volume company and we work very hard to take care of all of our clients. Time spent chasing people for money is time we would rather be using to take care of the many valued clients that hire The Driveway Doctor.
As for the rest of the complaint all edges were perfect. The driveway looked fantastic and in fact we were hired by about a dozen people that had driven past this clients driveway. There was a very small section of no more than 2cm long where our crew did not get right to the edge of the garage foundation but the gap was so minimal I had to lean down closer to the asphalt to see it. Literally the thickness of two strands of thread.
This client felt that this portion was worthy of holding back payment and having or crew of 3 guys make a dedicated trip to his home on a late Friday afternoon to fix this edge.
I wish I could give out his address so people could see just how fantastic it looks!
To Jack, the author of the negative review, I am sorry you feel the way you do and feel a need to belittle our company or crew over something so incredibly insignificant. Maybe a spray sealer will be a better choice for you and although you will probably end up with sealer sprayed all over your garage foundation or interlock edges at least there will not be a single missed edge the dept of a strand of thread.
We wish you the best of luck and thank you for choosing The Driveway Doctor.