Burned by land clearing guy, a cautionary tale

[Guest]

Troy... don't leave us hanging! I do care... every side has a story to it.

If your going to come on here calling someone a liar... I'd suggest you back it up with some substance. [:0]

*edit* removed link

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Glob

[StillHope]

Troy,I think a lot of people would be interested to hear your side of the story.Don't forget the underwear,please.[].

[missydog1]

Shauna is Troy's helper who came to the site. She refused to discuss anything and just didn't want to be in the argument.

I didn't tell any lies. Jay came out and saw it today. He may or may not want to say anything here, that's up to him. I didn't ask him out to be taking sides, but to look at what needs to be done. But after talking to him I feel just fine about my position on it being a hack job. That was the exact description I got.

It's going to cost me money to fix this, Troy. Not only paid you but have to pay someone to deal with the mess you created. O yeah, and Jay set one foot on that first set of steps you made and it crumbled. Very safe.

Pictures ... tell a story.
But that's OK, I would like to hear your side of the story, as all you were able to communicate on site was rudeness and yelling and having a temper tantrum and being a quitter who then extorts money. [V]

Troy, are you saying it was a lie on my part that you made those complaints about how people in Puna rip you off and burn you, etc..? Why would you want the business of anyone here? You made it clear to me that you have only contempt for people of Puna and for people who have recently moved to Hawai'i. Were you speaking what you feel or not?

[John S. Rabi]

quote:

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Originally posted by shauna

Aloha,
I've been in this business for 8 years and have a huge amount of happy customers, unfortunatly you can't please everyone.

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Being in "business" as an unlicensed business can only happen in the People's Republic of Hawaii! []


Aloha,
John S. Rabi, GM,ARB,BFT,CM,CBR,FHS,PB,RB
808.989.1314
http://www.JohnRabi.com
Typically Tropical Properties
"The Next Level of Service!"

[missydog1]

quote:

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unfortunatly you can't please everyone.

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I've written enough to get this out of my system but as I now have a "rebuttal" from Troy, I want to address it.

Saying a client can't be pleased is an easy excuse. It conjures up the image of nitpicking clients who expect the moon. Troy also tried the "you mainland haoles" argument on me. Easy to dismiss for some.

I've owned five properties on this island. I've been involved in renovating all of them, from an old camp house to a Hilo kamaaina house to newer houses that needed facelifts. The same goes for the landscaping, always improved it. I've never had a job I rejected before this one. I've never made a formal complaint. I am not difficult to please.

I require:
Execute the project according to what was proposed.
Discuss major roadblocks and changes with me as they come up.
Civility. Rationality.
I do not hover while a person works.
I am available for consultation.
I check on the job when I'm told a stage of it is ready for me to look at it.

When Troy told me he was within a few hours of completion and I should check it out, I did so. It was not what he had promised. It was necessary to say so. He couldn't handle that, couldn't discuss it, couldn't problem solve it.

Now when you have a serious issue like this with satisfying a client, I expect a professional to discuss the problem calmly. Troy was not willing to make ANY alterations to pull the project into line with what I expected.

If you want to define "can't be pleased" as not willing to accept whatever you pass off on them and expecting you to do what you proposed, then mea culpa.

Proposed job:
A walking path for a person with no special agility.
Switchbacks created for a gradual descent, with minimal steps.
Path to be four feet wide.
Use felled materials like guava as handrails. Safety rope handrail.
Fern roots to be removed so ferns don't grow right back.
Junk trees in the stream clearing to be removed.

Not as proposed, not any of it.
No one can WALK down this. It is a climb on mud.
Refused to do switchbacks. Instead went for about 50 steps, all with wildly uneven spacing, risers, and the step tread not level. All the "steps" are loose dirt that turns to mud with rain. The risers have plastic board held up by rebar that can be pushed in with your hand. Anyone who lost footing and relied on them to hold would be out of luck.

Good part of the "path" is just the pre-existing trail. There is old rope installed on the pre-existing sections so you can see that.
Felled trees are fallen over where they are ugly and can't be easily cut up.
No wooden handrails.
Ferns were hacked, not dug out.
Junk guava still hanging over stream.
Trail is one foot wide to two foot wide in steep places, not four feet.

Correct, I was not pleased with this.
I was even more displeased with absolute refusal to fix it.

Troy does not seem to understand that when a project has an objective, like this one, it doesn't matter if you went out and whacked down a bunch of brush. What has value is if the result was a usable walking path from the top of the land to the stream.

If I don't have that, I have nothing I didn't have before with the pre-existing steep trail, other than a big mess to clean up and a bunch of cut up materials that I paid for scattered down the slope that have to be taken out or fixed so someone doesn't get hurt thinking the "steps" are safe to use.

[Andrew]

Just an observation: When you type Troy Stenzel into Google Damon's blog and this thread comes up on top.

Andrew

______________________________
DiveHilo Dive Club Website:
http://www.divehilo.com/

[Guest]

Well apparently someone has my blog on their reader... because the Stenzel blog I posted was removed by request.

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Glob

[StillHope]

Troy's silence pretty much answers the question about the truth in this case.

[hikatz]

Why should he say anything, he has already been tried and convicted by the punaweb members. Drug addict, thief, how many other names has he been called. You have ridiculed him, probably destroyed his business, he is getting harassing telephone calls. I hope none of you find yourself in this position! Trust me if your name gets posted negatively on punaweb, just remember what has happened to Troy. And since this seems to be open season on the people who have wronged us, how about naming and airing the dirt on the others who has ripped us off, or it easier to just to keep trashing Troy.

[Dave M]

Well actually it was me that insinuated that he was acting like a meth freak. I posted that as an opinion (from 1500 miles away)in an attempt to warn Kathy of possible consequeces.

Problem we have is although Kathy and I have disagreed on several subjects here I believe Kathy's story. Added to the fact that I've had business arangements with John Rabbi and I have found him to be a stand up fella I have no reason to not believe his story either.

If Mr. Stenzel is not an ice head then I'd be the firt one to apologise but honestly if he was not on something and verbally assaulted Kathy in the manner she spoke of (Remember I believe Kathy and John) in the first post of this thread then he has some real people skill isssues..

This is an open forum anyone such as yourself and shauna can come out and defend him. If he does good work in a small community then he should surely have somme good references. I thought about your statement: "Trust me if your name gets posted negatively on punaweb, just remember what has happened to Troy." I thought about what I would do given Troys bad rap here on PW. What I would do is make it right. Honestly I've been in the service industry all my life and this is the risk we run. The old "Customer is always right" addage is actually very true.

I can't think of a better rebound than to have Kathy post up that he came back and was determined to make it right and to work it out.

Your it..

Blessings,
dave

"It doesn't mean that much to me.. to mean that much to you. Neil Young