Avenue Road Renovations

General Contractors
Toronto ON M5M 2Z7
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HomeStars  >  General Contractors in Toronto  >  Avenue Road Renovations   >  Left Customer Unhappy and Vanished
Marina
Marina
4 reviews Toronto, ON
1/10

Left Customer Unhappy and Vanished

We had a small job to do in our front yard and looked for someone on Kijiji, which is where I found this company (should have been a red flag!). But with decent reviews on Homestars and just a few bad ones, we decided to meet with Zach's crew to get a feel for them as people. We met with Zach's father a few times and Zach was initially very responsive and seemed eager to get started on the job. So we have decided to go ahead and hire them by giving a deposit. The job was: lay down stone at walkway, remove existing soil in both beds, remove existing tree stumps and roots in both beds, plant 6 new trees, lay down black mesh, and cover with mulch. This was a 2 day job and while Zach was never even involved (assuming he was too busy), he hired another company to do the job for him. He did this without our consent and pretended like the guys work for him. Meanwhile, the guys that actually did the job for us, gave us their business card. This is how we knew Zach hired someone different without letting us know. This was disappointing to find out. Once the job was done, Zach immediately asked for final payment. Although we told Zach there were a few items we were not happy with, we paid him in full, as he assured us he would have the job fixed the following week. The crew he hired did bare minimum. The contract clearly stated that the old roots of a few old trees were to be dug up and removed. This was never done and was covered up by soil. We found weeds growing out of the soil about 2 weeks after the work was done and realized that the stumps and roots were left untouched. Also, the mesh laid down was done poorly as you can see in photos. As some other people mentioned in the previous reviews, Zach took our money and now does not return any of our calls or emails. He did return my call once only to say that he is coming off of a crazy week where he was partying and celebrating his engagement. This was several months ago and no word since then. We have now hired legit people to fix the poor job Zach and the people he hired did. We've had to take someone to court in the past and know the process and our rights. It takes a bit of time, but so worth it. We gave Zach what is considered an appropriate amount of time to fix the job, but unfortunately he decided not to engage, or even respond. We must hold these contractors responsible for the dishonesty we often experience as a customer. Otherwise, they will do it over and over and get away with it. If anyone wants to clarify anything about what I have mentioned above or inquire about the company's response to me, you can email me at: mdegteva@hotmail.com. I will be happy to discuss our project.

Approximate cost of services:
$7,000.00
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Company Response

Hi Marina,

Thank you for your review we take all good and bad reviews seriously.
what kind of business would I be running if I didn't have a volume of happy and unhappy customers. to correct you we actually met through home Stars. I have the email correspondence. you failed to mention that you were very happy with the job when done and nothing to do with a sub-trade doing your work. are outdoor landscapers are under contract from March to October 31st with us this is how we are able to provide fair pricing. when hiring a general contractor I'm not sure what you were expecting. your job required a multiple of different trades to do the work. Our site Foreman Alex was on site everyday supervising workers and Zac was there throughout each day. unfortunately I disagree with your claim of being unhappy. things were completed on time as promised and as you wanted them. If you were so unhappy why did you pay final balance. unfortunately there is no way to stop weeds growing. we lay down weed barrier and topped it off with black mulch as per our contract. I met with you after the final payment was made and you explained to me that there were some things that needed attention. I discussed with you that if these wanted to be done there were extra cost. this is where you become unhappy. I find it quite unfair, because unfortunately people who are unhappy have such a motive to go online and review a negative situation. our company has done over a hundred jobs this year and I only wish 90% of the review requests I send my happy customers don't actually take the time to review the business. but again when there's a negative experience there's more of a motive to go online. I sometimes wish there was a website where contractors can put reviews up about the clients they work with to give an idea for future contractors what they are in for good, bad or Fair homeowner experience.

I leave the option open if you would like me to fix the work before or after the winter I'm happy to do so at the cost I initially set.

thanks
Zachary
Avenue Road Reno