Doc's Sales

Initially, I'd contacted several people regarding backfilling the new house I've built into a hillside. Doc Long runs a company in Holladay, TN called Doc's Trailer Sales. He also locally advertises for backhoe work. So, I contacted him asking for bids. He responded to my request promptly, came and looked at the job and gave me a reasonable quote. I waited until all the bids were in and finally made my decision to go with Doc. He started the job when promised. I wasn't in a hurry and was flexible enough to accommodate his schedule. Initially, they brought out a backhoe to do the work. Later that was changed out to a Bobcat type construction vehicle with a bucket. When they first came, they brought out truck loads of rock to use as backfill. Putting piles of rock down on my graded driveway. Eventually, I had about 6-7 truck loads of rock sitting on my graded driveway in separate piles. My house sits on a hillside, there are two draws along either side of my house that draw together at the lower end of my driveway. Under the driveway, connecting one draw to the other, there is a 3' x 20' galvanized corrugated steel culvert, that allows the water during a rain storm, to pass under the driveway without eating away at the embankment or the driveway. As I'd said earlier, my driveway was graded, and I've had 6"-8" of chert laid on it and graded out to where it was pretty smooth and flat. In late November, Doc's worker came out with another load of rock. They'd been working their way down my driveway with rock piles, with each load they brought. This last one, the worker dropped directly on top of the place where my culvert crosses beneath my driveway. He effectively blocked the high end of the culvert with the pile of rock, Dropping part of the load into the draw and blocking the entrance into the culvert. I mentioned to him that he'd blocked my culvert, thus impeding the drainage. The driver said it was no big deal, the water would filter thru the rock, if it should rain and that they would get the rock out of there when they completed the work. All this time, they'd been working around the weather. It' being winter, we tend to get a lot of rain in this part of Tennessee. So they worked when it was dry and favorable to that kind of earthwork. In late November or early December, shortly after the worker dropped that load of rock on the culver under the driveway, we got some serious rain. The creek on my property rose about 6'-8' in a period of 36 hours. It rained hard for almost 36 hours. When the rain finally broke, I went up to the new house to see what damage there'd been. The lower part of my driveway, from where the blocked culvert was and down, there were huge canyons 6"-8" deep where the rushing water had washed away the chert I'd had put down and graded. The draw on that side of the driveway was all misshapen, filled and the culvert was choked with dirt and rock. When it finally dried out and Doc and his workers returned (about a month later) I showed the damage done, explained that I wanted it corrected and restored to it's original condition. Doc agreed and they set about correcting that and completing the backfill work they'd originally been contracted to do. Doc worked on my culvert, while his worker was doing the backfill with the "Bobcat" behind the house. My house is 60' wide x40' deep with 2 gutters that run 60' along the front and back roof. The front gutter sits 6.5' above the ground, the back gutter sits about 3' above the ground. They are custom made, single piece continuous 6" gutters. While working behind the house doing the backfill work, either Doc's worker or Doc himself hit the back gutter with the "bobcat", crushing my metal roof and tearing the entire front side of the gutter in a long vertical slit. They made an attempt to straighten the gutter somewhat, but it still had a 6" vertical tear on the front face. The following day he called me to advise me that they'd completed the backfill work, and asked about payment. I told him that I was satisfied with the backfill work they'd done and asked him what he intended to do about the damage to my roof and gutter that they'd done. Until I brought up the gutter and roof damage, he had said nothing about it. Most likely wouldn't have. I advised him that I would overlook the damage to my roof as I have spare roof metal and can easily replace that one damaged panel but the gutter would have to be replaced. I gave him the option of having a contractor he knows do the work, or I could have the contractor I used come and replace it. Doc wanted me to pay him for the completed work and that he would have the gutter repaired. He gave me his mailing address and asked me to send him a check for the work. Several days later he called about the check, I advised him that I'd mailed it, but that I'd only sent partial payment (1/2 payment) until the gutter was replaced. He then made an attempt to goad me on the phone, saying "What's the matter, don't you trust me?" I responded with, "Doc, it isn't about trust, it's about business. I'll pay you once the gutter is replaced." Doc then tells me that "his" gutter man is afraid that he can't match the color of my gutter (it's plain white, nothing fancy), and that I'd better get my gutter contractor to replace it and send him the bill. To which I agreed and contacted Porter Gutter in Dickson, TN to have them come and replace the damaged gutter. Ronnie Porter and his crew came the following week and replaced the entire 63' damaged gutter and presented me with a bill for $450.00 I am now sending Doc Long the remainder of his fee along with a copy of the bill from Porter Gutters, less $450.00 Doc Long is fortunate that I have spare metal to replace the crushed roof panel and that I'm willing to change it out. Otherwise, I can pretty safely say that between the gutter and roof damage, he'd have been paying out close to $1000 in damages if I hired contractors to do the repairs. To say that I am dissatisfied with Doc Long is an understatement. His "repair" of the damaged done to my driveway was substandard, when compared to it's original condition before he started. I will still have to have someone come here and re-grade my driveway again, despite his attempt to "fix" it. Only reason I'm not pressing the issue is that I will have the whole driveway done in limestone gravel, packed and graded this summer anyway. Would I recommend Doc Long, or Doc's Sales to anyone, the answer to that is a RESOUNDING NO!