FARLEY & SON LANDSCAPING, INC.

Description of Work: .

Description of Work: I hired Farley's to plant 4 large apple trees (I had purchased elsewhere) & to clean up & smooth 1/4 acre around a drainage ditch.... brush & mounds of dirt.. & turn it into lawn. A "jobber" came out 2 weeks or so in advance. He took notes, sketched a plan and told me it would take "2 men one day" to complete the project. I asked for a price in advance. The jobber said they couldn't do that on a job like mine. (my first mistake) I hired them. 2 weeks later 4 men arrived...one a foreman. They were an hour late and the foreman asked me what I wanted done. I said, Didn't the jobber tell you? Don't you have his sketches & plans he wrote up here.? Foreman answered, "No. I was told to grub out a rough area." So I had to spend an hour showing him what had to be done. That took an hour. Laborers sitting @ $25 an hour EACH. It took 2 full days to complete the project. 4 men-2 days, not "2 men-1 day". The foreman left and the 3 workers worked all the lst day. Day 2 one worker said I would need to buy several big truck loads of dirt. (can't remember ..3 to 6) I said, "The jobber said I had plenty of fill. I wouldn't need any" The worker said, "Well you do". So they hauled it in. The jobber & I had agreed that to plant the apple trees in one of my pastures, it would be best to take down 2 panels of fence so as not to run the backhoe over my septic system & leach field. The foreman said he could easily not hit the septic by going the short way & not take down fence. The job ended finally...2 full days. Looked great. The bill arrived. I noticed I got billed for 4 men all day the lst day. The foreman had left, remember? So I deducted the hours the foreman was absent plus the extra lst hour billed for the workers sitting waiting, and sent a check for the balance after calling the office and telling secretary why I shorted the $3000 bill $275. She sent me a letter stating that she had spoken to the foreman and that "Yes, he had added additional hours to his time but not as many as I said. I refused to pay any additional hours. One of my apple trees trunk was damaged by the claw of the backhoe. (It's alive but 1/8 the size of the other 3 ...after 8 years). I didn't notice the leak in my leach field until a month after the job was done. I took the company to small claims court to get back the plumber fees to fix the pipe. The judge said I had waited too long after the fact to claim the septic pipe repair, but he gave me the nod for the padded bill. Farley had counterclaimed on same suit demanding the $275 I refused to pay. He told the judge he wasn't responsible for his backhoe breaking my pipe. "Your Honor, my backhoe is so specialized, I could drive right over your foot and you'd never feel it". My plumber fixed the pipe. I thought my horse made the break. The plumbers laughed."No horse could do this amount of damage to a pipe!" A few days before court someone told me the Foreman lived a couple of miles from me and had a big dip in his backyard he was filling. As the owner of Farley's & I were exiting down the court house steps chatting, (we were polite adversaries), I said to him, "I understand that your foreman owns a home near me. Did he get his big hole filled over." "Yes", he said..."It's completely filled in a couple of months ago.". Also, He asked "Why didn't you ask for a price in advance?" Also. I showed the judge 19 files of 19 contractors I had hired over the course of 2 years fixing up my new home. All were much pricier than Farley's. There were fence builders, house renovators, foundation company, building movers, barn builders, etc. With 18 of the contractors I showed that my checks matched exactly the total at the bottom of all their bills. In other words, proving that I was not a serial bill slasher. Check with Waldoboro Chiropractic, a near neighbor of mine... I heard they had issues with their landscaping done by Farley. Yes...their job looked great for me. If you use them...make sure beforehand you get detailed paperwork done & signed, with a bunch of "what if's" answered if things go bad.