10-16-2006, 08:26 AM
Hi everyone,
I want to share an experience which I hope will save you some grief and money.
- The job – D9 dozing of a lot in HPP. The lot was already ripped and was being built upon but a corner had to be finished (probably about ¼ acre).
- The rate - 250/hour
- The operator - a most experienced operator in town with over 30 yrs experience. I actually found the dozer owner and operator on this forum (highly recommended). They were professional and nice to deal with.
- Job quality – good; did a decent job grading and filling in a large hole on the lot. We even referred folks to him and considered using his company for concrete, rock wall, and other jobs for our future projects.
- The cost - ~4100. This is high but we opted for the hourly rate since it was recommended. Besides, we stand by our word and a contract is a contract.
- The issue – The invoice tabulated the hours worked over a day and a half but the arithmetic was wrong (8+5 = 15). While we did not notice the discrepancy after paying the bill, it was obvious after our internal audit. We’d normally overlook that but the overage amounted to $500. That’s a payment for 2 cars or groceries for 6 weeks or….
This is not an issue with the operator but the owner.
- We attempted to recoup the overage by bring up the discrepancy to the contractor. We were offered a ‘how about we spilt the difference?’ Many weeks later and after several calls (we never got return calls and had to initiate each one), we were told that that we were charged the correct figure and that we did not deserve a cent back.
I consider it a lesson to look over every detail and to not trust every nice guy who comes around. I’m not sure if I should go the small claims route or just file a complaint with the appropriate regulatory folks (for the principle). Either way, I wanted to share this experience so that you can avoid the same fate.
Noel
I want to share an experience which I hope will save you some grief and money.
- The job – D9 dozing of a lot in HPP. The lot was already ripped and was being built upon but a corner had to be finished (probably about ¼ acre).
- The rate - 250/hour
- The operator - a most experienced operator in town with over 30 yrs experience. I actually found the dozer owner and operator on this forum (highly recommended). They were professional and nice to deal with.
- Job quality – good; did a decent job grading and filling in a large hole on the lot. We even referred folks to him and considered using his company for concrete, rock wall, and other jobs for our future projects.
- The cost - ~4100. This is high but we opted for the hourly rate since it was recommended. Besides, we stand by our word and a contract is a contract.
- The issue – The invoice tabulated the hours worked over a day and a half but the arithmetic was wrong (8+5 = 15). While we did not notice the discrepancy after paying the bill, it was obvious after our internal audit. We’d normally overlook that but the overage amounted to $500. That’s a payment for 2 cars or groceries for 6 weeks or….
This is not an issue with the operator but the owner.
- We attempted to recoup the overage by bring up the discrepancy to the contractor. We were offered a ‘how about we spilt the difference?’ Many weeks later and after several calls (we never got return calls and had to initiate each one), we were told that that we were charged the correct figure and that we did not deserve a cent back.
I consider it a lesson to look over every detail and to not trust every nice guy who comes around. I’m not sure if I should go the small claims route or just file a complaint with the appropriate regulatory folks (for the principle). Either way, I wanted to share this experience so that you can avoid the same fate.
Noel