Backyard renovation project gone wrong: poor quality, customer service, and accountability
The first time I hired Steven (owner of Maples Contracting) for a backyard renovation project (Oct 2022), he installed my retaining wall backwards. I should have walked away then, but I gave him a second chance and he eventually rebuilt it to an acceptable standard. I hired Steven to do additional work in May 2023 to remove some debris, install sod, and build a small extension of the wall he constructed at the end of my patio. Unfortunately I can no longer recommend Maples Contracting. I am extremely dissatisfied with the quality of work I received and the owner Steven has made no efforts at reconciliation. Agreed upon work was not completed, and my yard was left messier than it began. Poor communication, workmanship, and customer service skills. Look elsewhere. Details: The sod turned out okay, but it was not joined properly with the rest of the lawn and I was very disappointed to find that the new wall does not line up with my existing walls as I had requested. The wall will have to be completely rebuilt. Additionally, instead of performing a cleanup like we had discussed, additional waste materials were dumped on my lawn (off-cuts and excess rock) that I am left to remove at my own expense. I asked Steven to address my concerns and so far he has refused. He has also refused to account for discrepancies between the proposal and the final amount he requested. Instead of cooperating to resolve these issues, he has denied my claims and threatened legal action. I will update my review if the owner responds amicably, but so far he has merely resorted to threats.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $3,500.00
- Company Response
Hello Ty,
We're sorry to hear that you've been disappointed with the work we completed on your backyard renovation. We appreciate all feedback, positive or negative as our team strives to deliver the highest quality work and customer satisfaction. This is why Steven ensures each customer is happy with the work provided by doing a final walkthrough with the customer of the project. When Steven performed his final walkthrough with you of the project, you verbally stated you were satisfied with the services provided and no discrepancies were addressed. If there were discrepancies addressed at the time of the walkthrough, Steven would gladly resolve these issues to ensure customer satisfaction. It was not until after the final invoice was sent that you had disagreements with the work provided.
There are a few other discrepancies in your review that we would like to address below;-At Maples Landscaping & Contracting, we value the integrity of our work. It was discussed prior to completing the retaining wall, that it would not be able to be built on a slope as requested to match both the side we completed as well as the work your brother did. Building the wall on such a slope would interfere with the structural integrity of the retaining wall itself, This was agreed upon and approved between yourself and Steven. We would also like to remind you that having jobs partially completed by people who are not professionals (although skilled) can lead to inconsistencies, as it did in this case. However we were able to match to the side that was completed by a professional company.
-As a landscaping business, it is our responsibility to complete all assigned tasks laid out in the approved proposal. In your case, you requested for a specific area of sod to be removed and reinstalled. This task was completed as outlined. No additional sod was removed or installed. Any additional work or installment would have to be approved by both yourself and Steven, and additional fees for extra work done would be added to the final invoice. This process was used to include the additional retaining block caps, decorative rock, and time and labor spent to install materials. The additional work provided was detailed and added onto the final invoice, as well as separately emailed to you including pricing.
-Maples Landscaping & Contracting is responsible for all personal debris and cleanup of a project. Any additional cleanup of your yard would need to be separately invoiced as a separate job, as discussed with Steven. This is because additional work that is not on the original proposal is not included in our pricing of the job. We discussed a possibility of coming back and doing a cleanup of the yard as a separate job, but would have to invoice this accordingly. As well, any pre-existing materials that were in your yard were neatly left, as we do not take materials or items from a job site that are not our own. The retaining wall bricks were pre-bought and left in the yard by yourself, so any leftover blocks were left where they originally were.
-At Maples Landscaping & Contracting, like many other companies, once a project or job is completed, an invoice is emailed to the customer with the remainder balance of the project, as well as a recap of the scope of the project itself. This invoice was sent multiple times to you, as well as a reminder as we did not receive payment for the job completed. As no final payment has been received, we unfortunately have to move foreword with the next step of the process. We apologize if you perceived our invoice as a threat, but assure you that invoicing customers after a job is complete is a fairly standard practice in any industry.We try to ensure all of our customers have a positive experience, and are happy with the final product of our labor. It is unfortunate that we were unable to provide you with this experience, as were certain after the final walkthrough that we had achieved our goal. However, hopefully our response can clear any discrepancies that you perceived within the project, and can perhaps provide us both with more education and understanding moving foreword and onto future endeavors.