SECOND TO NONE PONDS & PATIOS

They violated that contract with the first three snow accumulations on December 12, December 16 and December 17, 2016. On December 12th I had to shovel my walkway and in front of the garage because they did not do that even after I called them at 716-565-5410 and left a message, as well as sent an e-mail to secondtonone@roarrunner.com, letting them know the service had not been done. They replied with an e-mail: "I sincerely apologize for the failure to perform our job today and it will not happen going forward.", although they never sent anyone to correct the problem. On December 16th again they did not provide contracted services for another snowfall until a couple of hours after I called them and sent an e-mail saying that services had not been provided. Again, I shoveled my own walkway and in front of the garage. On December 17th, they again did not provide services for a snowfall that came in the middle of the night before early morning. After listening to the recording left on their answering machine saying it was 4:30 a.m. and that all customers had been plowed and shoveIed, I sent a message to them at 10:08 a.m. telling them that was not true and that services had not been performed at my house. They never responded. At 7:06 p.m. that night, almost 15 hours after they left the 4:30 a.m. message for all customers, services still had not been provided to me. At this point, Second to None had violated the contract on the first three snowfalls of the same season, all in the same week. So, I told them they were no longer employed as my snow plowing company and I requested a full refund of the $391.51 I had paid to them in August. On Sunday, December 18th, John G., owner of Second to None, wrote: "We will issue you a refund but it will not be in full. The contract you signed when you paid in full clearly states that walkway service will not be provided at time of plow services. While I do acknowledge and am disappointed that we weren't able to get to the shoveling faster than we did, we did in the end shovel as contract states. I will issue a check for the difference for services provided to date. As of today 12/17/16 we have removed you from the list." John G.'s claim that thy had provided all contract services was not true. I know that because I shoveled my own walkway and in front of the garage each time they never returned to do that. Further, Second to None still hasn't issued a refund for the money I paid, a month and a half after they said they would do that.

UPDATE 10/2011: I finally got in touch with this contractor. It took a bit more back and forth, but finally had the plants I was owed installed. The owner was very apologetic. I am satisfied with the outcome. I got the referral for second to none from my parents who have used him for lawn mowing, drainage work, and installation and maintenance of a waterfall/pond. I had a blueprint for landscaping done several years ago from another company but decided at the time not to have the work performed. When I got the referral (from my parents), they warned me that he was hard to get a hold of, but that EVENTUALLY, he would return my call. Not surprisingly, it did take some time to get a hold of him (and there was some phone number issues as well). In hindsight, I should have taken this as a clue. Once we sat down, he seemed very knowledgeable, patient, and helpful. We went over the previous blueprints and made some changes. He returned several times to work out the details. The quote I got was not the cheapest, but seemed reasonable. Once I gave him the go ahead, the work was scheduled for about a month from then. He actually did a very good job, was punctual, and I am pleased with the results. The problem is that there were some plants that were not available due to the season (late fall). He indicated he would install them the following spring. I also asked him if he could look at a fence post and re-dig it if necessary (I was willing to pay extra). He went as far as to contact my rear neighbor to obtain permission to enter his property, but never actually showed up to perform the work on the scheduled day. Later that week, it snowed and turned cold, so I figured I would have to wait until Spring. Fast forward to June 2011. No one had yet showed up or called about my outstanding plants (which I've already paid for) or the fence (which has NOT been paid for), so I made a call. As usual, it went to voice-mail and I left a message. Over the course of the next month, I left several more messages and I have not heard from him, they all seem to go into a black hole. Although my parents HAVE worked with him this year already, he seems to have disappeared from mowing their lawn the last couple of weeks. The message on his voicemail is still back from last June (announcing the cutting schedule for the fourth of July), so I wonder if he has closed up shop. Either way, there is no excuse and it is extremely unprofessional not to return phone calls. Of the $4000 contract we signed, I still have not received a few hundred dollars worth of plants and have just about given up on ever seeing them.