After reading mostly good reviews on Home Stars about Monster Plow’s services from previous years, I decided to give this company a try for the 2014/2015 winter season at three of my Toronto residential rental properties. The owner, Mikhail, made it easy to sign up for their services, all done via email. My dissatisfaction with the service I signed up for began immediately after the first snow fall of the season, after I had paid in full.
I’ve learned to be wary of a company whose owner and sales rep REFUSES to speak to you over the phone or meet in person. It is much easier for some people to behave rudely or deny any responsibility for wrong doing through the anonymity of email. I imagine the reason Monster Plow’s office administrator was so unpleasant to speak with over the phone when I did call was because she had to fend-off calls from upset customers so frequently that year. It is worth mentioning that the address Monster Plow lists as their office is in fact the office of an indoor storage company, not the office of Monster Plow. Yet another way the company avoids having to meet and speak with customers in person.
Monster Plow’s contracts include a detailed map outlining all the areas to be cleared and salted and in the contract, it states that if those areas are deemed to be incomplete or inadequate by the owner, Monster Plow will return free of charge to complete the work according to the contract.
Attached is the detailed map for one of the properties I hired Monster Plow to service as well as page 6 of the contract containing section 14; Return Service Calls. Also attached are some sample photos of the missed or poorly cleared areas at this one particular rental property at different times throughout the season. These are some of the same photos I emailed to Monster Plow after the property was serviced, requesting return visits. Monster Plow refused to return every time I contacted them with my request and I was met with more and more hostility through each communication.
At no time did I feel I was provided with the “highest level of customer service and satisfaction” as quoted verbatim from Monster Plow’s website. I also did not find the employees or service to be representative of another Monster Plow claim from their website; “….accountable, and honest…reliability, consistency, and quality of your service always remain top-notch!”
Near the end of the season, to no surprise, I finally received a city citation for unsafe sidewalk passage, a passage that should have been made safe by Monster Plow as per our contract. I was forced to rectify the problem not only because I faced a fine but to prevent tenants and neighbours from slip and falls. With 7 bags of 10kg salt, an ice pick, a shovel and three hours of my back-breaking time, the work was complete as it should have been all along with no help from Monster Plow.
Take note of Monster Plow’s reviews on Home Stars for the 2014/2015 winter season, beginning in January all the way up to March 6th. You’ll see a pattern of reported poor service. You’ll also see that 8 reviews within the month of February have been blocked. All those 8 reviews, prior to being removed for the public to see, were poor reviews. I contacted Home Stars to ask why the public is no longer at liberty to view those poor reviews to which I was told Monster Plow flagged them for one reason or another. Of course Monster Plow did everything in their power to have that stream of consecutive poor reviews taken down. They want the public to believe the 2014/2015 winter season’s service was just as successful as years prior.
The only logical explanation I can come up with as to why Monster Plow received so many poor reviews over the 2014/2015 winter season in comparison to past seasons is they must have took on more customers than they could properly service. In an email from Mikhail, he stated that Monster Plow was servicing 350 properties for the 2014/2015 season. Without enough man-power to properly service this many customers, you are bound to get customer complaints and with so many complaints, you are likely to take on some of that negativity which can then show itself through poor and hostile customer service.
My warning to all Toronto property owners before you decide to hire Monster Plow for the upcoming winter season…ask Mikhail how many contracts they plan to sign for the upcoming season. If you are told a number similar to how many they serviced during the 2014/2015 year, be sure to ask if they plan on hiring more employees to service the properties than they hired for the 2014/2015 year. Take this information into account before you sign a contract with Monster Plow, especially if you are an off-site landlord or property manager and unable to inspect Monster Plow’s work after each and every snow fall.
To leave you with one last impression on the type of customer service I came to expect from Monster Plow, please read an email sent to me near the end of the 2014/2015 winter season by one of our tenants at another rental property Monster Plow was hired to service:
"I wanted to mention a rather odd incident that happened with the snow plow company last Monday. I was working by the window at about 5pm when a crew rolled up to shovel the property after that big snow storm. They parked their truck on the south side of the street but there was not enough space for traffic to flow through. As a result, cars started to clog up down the street. Despite honking and verbal requests, the crew refused to move their truck. One worker in particular was very rude and yelled at the cars to wait until they had finished clearing. At one point, a man got out of his car and was irate that they wouldn't move their truck, citing the fact that he was trying to get to the elementary school to pick up his kids and that the school was closing soon. A very intense shouting match ensued and neighbours started sticking their heads out of their doors to see what was going on. The work crew was taunting the father who was simply trying to pick up his kids, saying that they were now intentionally not going to move the truck. They did, after a few more minutes, but their behaviour was bizarre and unprofessional. I think there was just one bad apple on the crew, but still, it doesn't reflect well on the company. Thought you'd want to know!"
