CENTRAL SURVEY

When I first called Central Survey circa August 13, Gary answered the phone immediately. He asked whether the plat was needed immediately, and I said no but that we wanted it fairly soon. He also asked whether it was for a house sale, and I said no, it was to obtain a permit for some minor construction. Gary looked up the lot on the Internet and said the cost would be $425 and the time frame would be about a week for someone to go out and do the survey. I later clarified by e-mail that we needed calculations performed, and which calculations those were. Gary said that there would be a small additional charge for those, which in fact there was, so that our total came to $475. On August 22, I checked by e-mail and was told that the survey would be done the following week. The survey company is located about four towns away from the site of our survey. I checked again on progress a week later and was told that the survey was at the draftsman and would be ready the following week. Every time that I e-mailed Central Survey, I received a same-day response. On 9/4, Kathy from the Central Survey office called and said the survey was ready. She said that if I paid by phone, they would immediately send out four originals of the plat. I asked if they could also e-mail a PDF (which I asked about having read in an Angie's list review that this was done), and she said yes. I received the PDF that same day and the four originals of the plat by mail one day later. The process took about a week longer than I expected, but that was acceptable, and I have no basis for comparison where survey companies are concerned. Overall, I found Central Survey excellent to deal with and would work with them again. I especially appreciated their responsiveness to my inquiries.

Working with Demas from Central Survey turned out to be one of the most infuriating and unpleasant experiences in many, many years. It appears the job was more complicated, frustrating and demanding than Demas anticipated because he became more rude, moody and devious as time went by. The most egregious act he committed was when he tried to rip us off after we pleaded with this guy to send us hard copies of our completed survey and, instead, mailed us the incomplete draft of said survey. This guy knew what he was doing - if we hadn't discovered this, we sincerely believe he would have gotten away with it and never contacted us again. Please NOTE that I have proof of everything I say here in the form of emails to and from this Demas character. Just to give an idea of how evasive and deceiving this guy was: when I emailed him after we received the bogus copies and told him we knew they weren't the final, he wrote back "Copies reflect the property correctly." What the heck did that mean?! But, this was typical of the vague and elusive emails and messages we would get from this guy during this whole miserable process. He later realized, we believe, that he wasn't going to get away with it and gave us another story in a subsequent email. We now believe Demas is going to claim the bogus copies he mailed us he thought were for the closing and weren't the final (even though he knew the closing had already taken place). The first disappointment came rather early in the process. He emailed us a week before our closing date indicating he needed some legal documents and that our lawyer should be able to get them. As it turns out, these weren't easy to get, but that's another story. What bothered me was why he waited so long to tells us he needed the stuff. He had the legal description and other docs for 2 or more weeks before that call and he had already been paid over a week before, so he had enough time to prepare. Note: to be fair, he did end up getting those needed legal documents on his own, so that was nice of him and we indicated our appreciation for that. However, I refer back to what I just said - why did he wait so long?? Also, one of the needed descriptions was in the new title he had my lawyer send him and he (Demas) didn't even know it was there until I pointed it out after reading schedule B contained within the title. Of course, he should've known about this as he's supposed to be the professional - not me! Second incident came about a week or so after that. My lawyer gave me some info and I needed to talk to Demas. Called Demas, left a very clear voice mail to call me back; next day, no call back; called office, left message with his girl (Kathy); still no call back; I called later in the day finally got him. Mentioned my messages - no comment from him; seemed like he was in a bad mood. His attitude in general ended up with me getting angry because he was unapologetic and obnoxious. I still don't understand his attitude - we were days away from closing - my family's all stressed out about this and Demas is acting like a total jerk (he later gave what I think was an apology by saying he was having "a bad afternoon"). Wonderful for him. It was after this incident that things started going really downhill. He actually didn't give us a (draft) copy of survey until the day *before* we closed on the property. Everyone was waiting on him before we could close! I suspect he was pouring through Surveying books and/or calling real surveyors to help him get the draft copy done. I really don't know, but it was after that we started getting vague, ambiguous email replys to our questions. And it was after this that he tried his sneaky trick with mailing the draft copies and pretending they were the final copies. We did get him to finally finish up our survey and we finally did get hard copies of the final - TWELVE DAYS after we closed on the property, which was also SEVENTEEN days after he promised it. I was going to start this review with "Can't figure out why this guy had such good reviews" - but didn't do it because I figured out why. All but one of his reviews were for your simple run-of-the-mill surveys: square/rectangular lots that even a fresh-faced new surveyor could do. How do I know they were simple surveys? By the price of the job which is indicated in the review. Any job more difficult than that, Central Survey would flailing and be lost in completing. With all the erratic and inappropriate behavior exhibited by this Demas guy, we actually don't trust the results on the survey. All we can do is alert the buyer of our property of this and hope someone reading this will take notice. Demas was the cheapest we found and we now know why - you get what you pay for. To prospective people in need of a survey - spend the extra money and get a company who knows what they're doing. Remember, we can prove everything we claim here as we have all emails to/from Demas as well as records (dates/times/etc) of all calls to his office. My wife wanted to add the following: I have never been treated with such disregard, disrespect, arrogance, and sarcasm by a professional that I hired in my life.

Working with Central Survey was a great experience! I have never had a survey done before and was not sure what to expect. The team from Central Survey was professional and prompt. I was at the property during the survey and was able to watch their careful meticulous approach to measuring EVRYTHING. I was impressed when the lead surveyor referred to certain distances in 16ths of an inch. I had a PDF of my plat in two days and received 8 1/2" x 11" copies of my plat of survey in the mail by the third day. A great crew to work with. I will definitely be using them again.

I contacted Gary from Central Survey late in the afternoon of Friday, June 27. I explained that we were closing ona property on July 2 and the bank had just requested a survey. My situation was complicated by my daughter just having given birth to twins that were very ill. Gary took the lead. He answered emails over the weekend, made suggestions to save me money and by the afternoon of Monday, June 30, he had a crew doing the work. Several contacts with his office were very pleasant. I was made to feel I was the most important client. The survey was completed and ready for sending via emal to the bank and the hard copy was picked up by us. My imression of this business is that this is normal proceedure to treat clients this way. They are ethical and caring and willing to go the extra mile for their clients. The survey itself is perfec, professional and inclusive of all pertinent data. I would and will use Central Survey again and refer others as well. This should be your "go to company" when you need this kind of service.

Received a message back the same day! Services we no longer needed, but we would contact again in the future if needed.

Called to get a survey. The gentleman who answered was rude, short with me, and unhelpful. Did not seem to care when I brought it up and said I would be calling someone else. Bad businessman.

Response time was great, and I was able to receive answers to all of my questions as well. Gary was terrific!

Will definitely use Central Survey again. We requested a short turn around time and they delivered just what we needed. Nice people to work with too.

This company was a pleasure to work with. They were prompt, courteous, and efficient, and the price was competitive. I felt very comfortable with my experience and I will call them again if I ever need another survey. I highly recommend them.

The team at Central Survey did a great job with performing a plat survey for my property over the thanksgiving holiday in 2012. They were very responsive (even though it was the holiday season), and even provided me an electronic copy of my plat survey in addition to hard copies. My house also sits on two plots of land (which I was told typically requires more work and costs more), but I was surprised to find out that they were able to give me such a good price for the survey. If I ever need surveying work done again, I will most certainly be calling Central Survey. It was great to work with Phil and Gary. The survey team was also quick, efficient, and required very little from me (which was great since I have a very hectic work schedule).

Excellent experience with a quality vendor. Price was slightly better than others I checked, timing was perfect, survey delivered as promised prior to the agreed date. Very friendly to deal with, and promptly returned my call. A fine experience.

Worker did the best heating seasonal preparation I had done in the fifty years I've lived in this house.

I have not yet had the work done.

I found them via Angie's List. They have a nice website, including a way to get a free estimate. However, despite two attempts at using the online functionality, it didn't work. So we worked the old fashioned way, by phone, and the experience was all good. Very responsive, prompt, professional in all ways. They kept me informed via email as to when the crew would arrive, that they needed to come back a bit, and then emailed me a copy of the new plat, sent a hard copy, and were easygoing about the payment, i.e. allowing me to leave a check on the premises for p/u by the crew. Easy. All good. Very pleased.

Overall went very well. Crew marked entire property and was very professional and courteous, including great with the kids. Only 1 minor to be aware of- scheduling is done day of, which usually doesn't work for us- we are fairly type A in planning out the week (kids/work/school, etc). It worked out for us when they called, but I really prefer a set appointment. No biggie though. They tried and hit the days I had open.... I would still highly recommend the service. Survey sent back was in PDF and hard copy (via USPS). Both were of very high quality....

I called Central Survey and spoke to Gary. I told him my predicament and he wouldn't be able to come out that week because he was so busy. I needed it asap so I didn't use him. Nice guy.

The experience was pleasant overall, we did most of our communication over email, which was convenient since I don't have the time to call while at work. I would recommend them, as they delivered on the timeline they indicated. The survey, was done very well and promptly.

They were very responsive ! I needed a survey done in about a week's time, so they sent someone out the very next day, had an electronic version in 3 days and the actual physical version in 4 days. They did a wonderful job!

The first survey had an error (our address was wrong). They corrected it quickly and expressed shipped the corrected survey. This caused a minimal delay (about 2 days) in obtaining our permit. There was no extra charge for making the correction.

There was some error in the original, and how the pipes were set. They had to make several trips. I was impressed with them. They really wanted to make it right. I would highly recommend them. If you want survey work, you want excellent work, and they will do that.

I needed to provide a land survey to the title company in a week. They were available at a reasonable price. Gary was very informative on the phone. I was not there when they did the survey. The survey was available 2 days before closing so I went to picked it up myself.

I called the company and spoke to Gary, who was very professional, and we set up a date for the survey the following week. The day of the survey, I spoke to Gary and we mutually agreed to move the survey to a little later in the day so that their field folks were not driving back and forth across town. Instead of doing my survey first, they went far south and hit mine on the way back, which was fine. They called when they finished the first job to let me know they were coming, and they actually beat me there, and had started work already. They said it would take roughly 3-4 hours to complete the survey and that's what it took. The field folks were courteous and professional. I received 4 certified copies of the survey (11 x 17 inches) within the week after they completed the survey. The survey itself is great quality, and the details included are very useful to have for discussions with the builder/architect. There were two field folks, working 3 1/2 - 4 hours, and then they had to go back and produce the drawings, so I think the price is very reasonable. It turns out that what I thought was a standard 25 x 125 ft lot is actually a 24 x 120 ft lot, and Gary was nice enough to email me a copy of the plat for the area. Our side of the street is somewhat different from the surrounding area. At any rate, I am very happy with the work that was done by Gary and his crew, and I would definitely recommend them to anyone and I would definitely use them again.

We called and he gave us an approximate date and time and did the survey within the time frame discussed.

I was told that my survey would be done and completed within the week. It wasn't and I was not called. I called and was told that they were very busy, sorry, and I would have my survey in my hands, including a downloadable surveyy on my email, the following week. It didn't happen, and again, no call to let me know there was a delay. After a 3rd call by me, leaving a message that I would go elsewhere if the survey wasn't already in progress, I got a call back with an apology for the wait, and told that all was in place, and the survey would go in the mail the same day. They did mail it and I did get the downloadable survey and was extremely happy with the results. While every phone conversation was professional and I was treated well, the company really needs to call the client if they aren't going to meet the time line that they set. I am happy with the end results thoug, and appreciate the thoroughness of my survey.

They did a great job. Mailed me the survey after it was completed and it is nicer and has more detail than the original survey I have.