Member, First and foremost, we are sincerely sorry that you had a poor experience with Southern Concrete Raising; it is very rare and as such, we do apologize and would like to address each of your prior and current concerns and disappointments. On 9-19-2011 we received your first call for an estimate; included in that free estimate was a full sidewalk and driveway evaluation as well as several additional areas of flatwork around the home. Your estimator John Rogers provided you with a quote and then following an extended conversation with you, and as a courtesy, went off to the city to discuss your deteriorating sidewalk situation on your behalf, and ultimately convinced them that they should do your sidewalk at no cost to you- which they did. John later came back to the property and provided you with an updated quote to remove that work. As with any and all of our estimators, John expressed his concern for the many cracks on your concrete and communicated that only a full concrete replacement (which you declined due to the vast price difference) would remove the actual cracks and if Southern Concrete Raising was to perform the raising and stabilization that the cracks would still be apparent, as well as any injection sites simply because of the nature of our process (we drill 1” holes, inject a slurry to level the concrete and then patch those holes closed with a very strong concrete, which because it is new compared to existing weathered concrete, will always be noticeable). On 9-23-2011 you called us to schedule your work but asked if we can patch the cracks for you and for the work to be completed on a Saturday. When we communicated that we do not prefer to patch cracks because of the temporary nature of such (all concrete patches will expand and contract and eventually crack) and that we only did commercial work on Saturday’s (since then we have included Saturday availability for residential projects) you expressed disappointment, so we made an exception and included the patch work (where concrete can fit and would be most durable), recommended Mastic Masters for the remaining portion, and scheduled your work for our first available Saturday which was October, 29-2011. Prior to that work day and upon your request, John again came out to your property to assess foundational voiding issues that were contributing to your cracking concrete and upon your request added 5 deep foundation stabilization injections to your estimate. At that point your estimate was $1000.00 (raising, leveling and stabilization), $200 (patching), and $500 (foundation injections). On Friday 10-28-2011 as a courtesy we called you to remind you that we would be out that next day to do your project, at which point you cancelled the entire job citing that you had some foundation experts coming to your home and thus didn’t want to move forward with any of the work. Two weeks following your cancellation you called us back to ask for the same service but to remove the deep injection portion of the work, as well you still requested Saturday only. We again scheduled your work, this time for Saturday November 18th. On that Saturday while at a large commercial project, and with our foreman at your home confirming the work to be done and price, I received a call from you (I make my direct line available to all clients in addition to the office number so as to expedite any immediate requests or concerns ) asking why it was $1200 and not $1000; As with any construction site, it is very loud, and the apparent consequence of “yelling” was seemingly the unfortunate experience you had; for that I am truly sorry and since request to any customer who calls me directly while at a worksite that I return their call at a later time. You requested that we speak there and then and because of the additional $200 fee for the patching you expressed that you were again disappointed, and said that you would cancel the job again if we didn’t bring it down to $1000.00 as per your understanding. We did as you wished, and provided all the patchwork for free simply because it was already included on your work ticket. Southern Concrete Raising abides by several ‘highest customer quality’ guidelines; Here are just three : First, we always let the customer know when considerable existing cracks and thus resulting patching/sealing needs will affect the aesthetic appearance of their concrete, regardless of the reason we are hired, which is to raise, level, and stabilize the concrete. Second is that we try very hard to avoid changing/adjusting estimates on the work day and site with the customer, as this can sometimes lead to confusion and inaccuracies. Third, we do not take any payments unless two things happen- we are done and you are happy. All three of these aim to reduce highly unfortunate situations just like this. Following our work, you communicated your satisfaction and paid $1000.00. Over 2 months later on 1-27-2012 you called our office and expressed concern about the “ugly” appearance of the patches because the color was not that of your existing concrete. John has since had 2 conversations with you (with three resulting voice messages left for you which is company policy) to discuss possible remedies- redoing the holes with a color tinge added to the concrete (though they would still be visible), spraying an epoxy overcoat atop the holes/patches, resurfacing those areas with mastic, etc. The last call we received from you was on 2-17-12, with the only comment of “re: service”. By that time your estimator John Rogers had changed his personal line (which all estimators give to each client in addition to the office number so as to expedite any immediate requests or concerns), which is now (713) 927-0626, and we can only assume that you were continuing to attempt to reach him on that line; In 2012 Southern Concrete Raising has made several changes to improve our process, keep customer satisfaction at the top of our priorities and reduce any potential customer uncertainty. We have added very clear verbiage to our estimations that we do not provide patching and [where the customer insists on such] we do not charge for or warranty those patches but instead recommend specialty companies who can service that need. We do not allow changes to a work order on the day of the job unless the estimator himself goes on-site and reissues the new adjusted estimate to be signed and accepted again by the customer. We realize that these changes certainly do not change your experience with us Member. Your concrete was badly cracked, and patched for free, and solely since you describe our work of raising, leveling and stabilizing those pieces as “sort of OK” I have issued you a full refund which is in the mail already, that in itself is an unacceptable service call review for us. Finally, there are many things that Southern Concrete Raising can and will do when it comes to raising, leveling and stabilizing your concrete, as well as ‘above and beyond’ in the rare case of a potentially disappointed customer, but I feel your comment “But the contractors did not want to do it better” is a misleading one- We understand that if this was your ‘experience’ then we ultimately are at fault for enabling that perception of our company and to manifest as such, but there are just some things we cannot physically do- We cannot make concrete patches ‘pretty’, we cannot make concrete patches ‘permanent’ and we cannot make new concrete look like ‘old concrete’. We continue to make every effort we can to make points like these exceptionally clear, and to educate and improve the education process to the customer on just what can and cannot be accomplished, but that very process can sometimes cause apprehension for a customer with already complex concrete issues. We can only strive to reduce those frustrations and again we apologize for your ultimate dissatisfaction with Southern Concrete Raising. Rich Faust, Owner Southern Concrete Raising (713) 331-0521 office (713) 882-4482 cell