Damon's Asphalt Paving

I phoned Damon's company and his wife pleasantly answered the phone last week and said he would return my call to set up an appointment for an estimate. On the third day following my phone message Damon called about noon and left a message. In my business I do my best to call back a new customer either the same day or the following day, but the third day in an industry fraught with deception I was cautious, therefore after the second day of no call back I decided not to use his service. When he called the third day and left a message I did not return the call because I had decided their might be a "reliability" issue and did not want to chance it, so I simply did not return the call. He called again the next day and I again did not return the message. I would have assumed as in my own business if a new customer does not return calls you would feel he/she was no longer interested. Sunday at 1:00pm my wife notices a truck drive up to the front of home that has a fenced yard. A man got out of a truck and put his magnetic company logo on the passenger side door. He was in a suit with his wife in the truck and he came to my gate. I had no notice this man would come to my home on a Sunday without a phone call, so my wife was very worried. I went out to explain that I did not want to use his service because he did not call back in my preferred timeframe in a professional manner. That was not acceptable. He proceeded to yell at me through the fence without letting me speak saying he would give a refund on a "free estimate" which was a very strange statement as he did nothing to this point except show up unannounced. Then after being yelled at through my fence and spit on from his yelling about my not returning his calls and his extraordinary effort to come unannounced to my house on a Sunday finally got to me. In order to get a word in edgewise I finally had to out yell at him to tell him enough is enough. Again, he proceed to blame me and say things that were totally inapproiate to a potential customer. Rather than a heads up call to see if he could come by the house on Sunday, he got so out of control that I lost my cool to and then a potential "fight" between me and him because a possibility. I am a man nearing 60. This man I guess is in his 40's, so I had to be very upset to even consider this to get him to leave my property. I attempted to scale my fence, ( which with a new hip would be a joke but one does not think when the functioning out of the most primitive part of our brain), to face him man to man. My wife was horrified. I never made it to the house before he finally decided he was unwelcome. He appeared to come from Church as both he and his wife were dressed for Church, but after what I encountered, there was zero humility and he was a verbally violent man that pushed me over the edge to want to fight him for his abuse after I said I simply did not want to use him due to my personal experience. That is when he finally got back in his truck and pulled away, but before he got to pull away, his wife who was the polar opposite of this man being very sweet and kind, she rolled down her window and apologized. I too did to her as well. She was in a terrible situation and was so kind on the phone it was like two different families. After telling her I too was sorry things fell apart, a close neighbor who witnessed it all said he had never seen me so upset and he was about to call the police to keep things from getting out of hand. He witnessed the entire thing. I would not ever have a person who treats ANYONE, much less a potential customer willing to spend a thousands of dollars to have a driveway installed. Admittedly asphalt has a bad reputation so I used Angie's List that I trust and have had great success with other vendors. My wife, and clearly his own wife, were horrified at the escalation of his yelling and aggressiveness. I felt I now was needing to protect my home from this man. All I can say is I pray I never cross paths with this man again. He made up our mind up as far as asphalt driveways. If he is the best on Angie's list and there are few others with reviews, we will start to look elsewhere for a drive that will be long lasting and a person of honor that calls before they show up on your door. This is my experience. I cannot attest to his work, but I can say I would not use him for any job because of how he treated me. My wife did not want me to engage someone who arrived unannounced. I felt it was the right thing to do to explain to him why his calls were not returned and how his showing up unannounced caused me to make my decision not to use him for my drive. Bottom line, he created a scene so bad that my neighbors came out of their homes to see what was happening. They had not seen me get that upset in the 30 years we lived here. Our day was ruined emotionally for a bid on a driveway. Totally unacceptable in my view. If you choose this man, do not be fooled. If you do not jump through his hoops as he sees proper he might go off on you if you do not like his reply. The level of anger to rise to a fight terrified my wife and messed up our day. I hope his wife does not incur the wrath of an unhappy Damon. Totally unprofessional ! ADDENDUM: Monday, 2/27 after this terrible event. In retrospect I must say I should have simply walked away and left him yelling at my fence. That is why I have a fenced yard. Stupid me allowed this man to abuse me to the point I lost control. I should not have allowed him to escalate this. When I told him I did not want him to do the work, that should have been enough. Instead I found myself acting like a young person in the military going against all my spriritual beliefs and engaging in primitive behavior with him. Mea Culpa for being sucked in to this persons anger. My wife and I are still upset and this is a day after it happened, so at my age I know better. I still would not let this man do any work for me, but I learned from this horrible experience. Sad he could not have just said: "Sorry you feel that way, but if you still cannot find anyone please call me and I will work with you." That would have been enough.

Damon and his crew overlayed 170 feet of driveway. Our old asphalt was badly deteriorated with bare spots and low places. Starting with the bid process, Damon was very professional and honest. Where other contractors had told me things I knew to be untrue regarding sealing the asphalt, Damon was straigt forward, explaining what needed to be done and when. He explained things that I could do myself, if I didn't want to pay him to do it, and estimated the material I would need to purchase. They showed up ontime, prepared and completed the job as they had described. The job was done well. Where some of my neighbors have complained about the quality of their asphalt work being uneven and wavy, Damon filled all low places prior to the overlay then rolled the driveway until it was smooth and even. Overall an excellent job.

Very prompt, nice, and honest man. He is a very hard worker and easy to talk to. It took him less than 2 hours from beginning to the end of the job. He does not take credit cards, but he does take personal checks.