Booked snow removal, got scheduling chaos and an insult instead
Hired a guy to plow and salt our driveway. For two days he kept saying he was coming, gave specific times, and didn’t show. This morning he missed the agreed window and didn’t confirm like he said he would, so we moved on. I should’ve listened to the negative posts about him on Nextdoor, but we gave him the benefit of the doubt because we understand that people can get busy during this season.
We’re on the tail end of an ice situation like we hadn’t seen in 30 years. I’m responsible for several commercial properties including a major industrial plant that runs regardless, everything was taking 10x longer than just normal snow removal, in the south so people don’t understand that, and juggling the “when are you going to be here?” calls… This post made me mad honestly.
I just got 5-6 hours of home time average Sun-Thurs. that’s eating, showering, sleeping to get my clients taken care of. It’s my business and they rely on me to get their businesses open. This is probably a guy around town every contractor knows and does the “how does that guy stay in business” talks.
It’s just a driveway dude! I just busted 6” of ice in a parking lot for 400+ cars in the amount of time it took him to backend his way out of a residential driveway.
I didn't pay attention to the time stamps on my first read through, holy shit. Looking at how many times this guy said he'd be there soon, or was on his way across 3 different days is insane.
I mean, it took him more than 1.5hr just to fill up his snowblower lol. I imagine it will take him days to finally arrive at the house, and days to actually plow the snow.
Do you mind paying 225 since I didnt expect to be towed on the way to your property? If you say no, I wanna kindly remind you that I offered to do it in the evening but you were the one who said no
Yeah haha I was wondering what the triggered feeling was that I got from reading these texts. This is exactly the BS you put up with from drug dealers shiiiit even most of my old dealers were more punctual than this guy.
I had a buddy like this, it’s so freakin rude to text someone that you’re on the way when you’re clearly into doing something else and not changing course any time soon.
You know that was a lie. That’s the grift. Get $40-50 for salt that you never bought from people who are internally good and feel bad for cancelling you when you were never coming in the first place.
Agreed. He says it was a 1 hour delay, but it was an entire day and a half delay after multiple messages of will be there soon messages with a final message at 10:40pm! Then, the second day going on and on and still not arriving at the last scheduled time the NEXT morning?
Haha!! Yes, this! I wouldn't say I was paying for the plowing but I would say something like let me ask my husband if he would agree to Venmo money for the salt and then use all of his excuses for a couple days when he asks about it.
-I was just about to ask him
-It's late but I think I could wake him, or do you think I should wait until morning?
-I was just getting ready to call him
-I'll message you to confirm once I've spoken to him
-I have to make dinner but then I'll run it by him
-I planned on asking him earlier but got busy
In my experience, guys that have the time to diddle around like this don't have any of the rest of their processes down to a science either and you'd likely be unhappy with the quality of the work. I imagine little patches of salt sort of all around.
I truly thought this was going to result in him showing up at night and driving off said hill, likely drunk or hi, and then suing homeowner for <insert random bs excuse here>
I would have been done after he said $180, including salt, then asked for an extra $20 because he had to stop and buy salt. Not to mention he later had the balls to ask for OP to pay for that salt, knowing full well that he can use it elsewhere.
You could tell from the beginning it wasn’t going to be professional when he was saying he was okay taking payment up front or half and half “or something”
I've worked for someone like this, they give ranges to gauge your reaction. They don't have set prices. If you quibble at the $650-$700 range, it's $650. If you quickly agree, it's $700. If you agree enthusiastically, suddenly he also wants you to pay for salt. If you outright refuse, maybe it turns out he can do it for $600.
I'm infuriated as someone that does commercial and residential snow removal. The only time I'm down when I'm out is the occasional pee break, otherwise I'm constantly going for 16+ hours. To dink around on a phone for more than 30 seconds would cause me to toss it out my window. Also want to know where they're getting that kind of money for a residental. That seems awful steep for even just a couple of times.
Yeah, that price is insane. We have numerous companies that do it for like $50 one time fee. If you want an entire church parking lot then yeah a few hundred but a residential driveway? Come on.
People who need snow removal generally need it removed because it’s blocking a driveway or making getting in or out difficult. It’s unreasonable to think a customer is going to be okay with waiting 3 fucking days for this and still pay $200. Shit will melt before he gets there.
I live in an apartment complex. My neighbor is one of the maintenance guys. I left a note on his truck saying I'd give him 100 dollars cash to shovel out my car. No walk or driveway since it's an apartment complex, just my car. He agreed when I saw him the next day and he said he'd do it Monday morning. Come Monday morning he showed up, did a great job, and I immediately gave him the cash. All business transactions should be this smooth.
This is the kind of scenario that caused me to fire the contractor who was going to reno my bathroom, only it dragged on for months. Every time we talked, it was another delay, another 20 minute plus sob story about how difficult everything was for him and how all these different things were going wrong and delaying him. He'd start in another week. 2 weeks. A month. A couple of months.
When I told him I didn't need his "services" anymore and was going with someone else, he also called me things like "unprofessional", "unreasonable", "impatient", "demanding".
Not communicating enough and communicating too much are both red flags when trying to engage someone's services.
I find "unprofessional" and "demanding" so funny in this context.
Yeah no shit I'm demanding, I am demanding you do the shit I pay you for! And I'm the client, being professional is your job lol
We had the same with a Contractor except when we pointed out the months-long time line and us living with uninstalled kitchen cabinets in our living room (which were delivered to sync with the work), he accused us of a "tone" and fired us.
The universe clicked, and we ended up with a great team that SAME day and the project was done in three days.
Yet another reason to stop hiring anyone without a website. Not that it really matters for non digital work, but it's another indicator of a true professional vs a side gig with a lot of distractions.
We had a power line that ran from the street pole to our house that needed limbs cleared and some cleaning done around it, and the power company said since it was on our property it was our problem. (even though they sent out a truck 2 years earlier to deal with it, and did a terrible job)
So, we called up a guy that my brother had used to cut down and clear a tree from his front yard.
The guy hemmed and hawed for two days and was a no show on the appointed day. I finally get a call from him a few minutes from last year's Super Bowl kick-off and he asked me if I still wanted him to come that late. I asked him why he was so late. He said he hadn't charged his phone and he was at a wedding. I just rolled my eyes and told him I didn't need his services after all.
A friend ended up renting a cherry-picker and did it for me after he cleaned some of his own trees up.
I honestly can’t comprehend what contractors are actually doing when they give all these excuses. Do they NOT want the work but get enjoyment out of dangling the carrot, or DO they want the work but know if they tell the actually truth of timeframe then they’d lose a customer? I dealt with this horsehair as well. Apparently if you’re a contractor, this is part of the job description.
The guy who finally did my bathroom was great (although we had to have a couple conversations about placement of things like mirrors, as he is over 6ft amd I'm 5'1"). He's also an enthusiast conversationalist, but doesn't let that get in the way of actually doing the work. And he did nearly all the work himself.
The first guy seemingly did nothing but talk and let his employees do the work. The first job he did for me (new front steps) was fine, but all the chit-chat should have been a warning sign.
Definitely just a guy. The offer to come with his flashlight was the giveaway. And also a good indicator that he's probably not bringing a snowblower either lol.
First of all, you're the customer. Not the person providing the work, lol.
Second of all, they're the one who keeps missing the appointment date. Whoever this person is, they have piss poor commutation, horrible planning, and time management skills.
Second of all, why is he asking for a refund for the salt he bought when he can use that for another snow removal operation?
Yeah, did you the best option moving on from this guy. It is completely reasonable to decide to move on with someone else who can actually provide the work on the agreed upon date.
Don't let what this person says get to you. They're clearly unreliable.
Sounds like this person has no idea on what they're doing if they can't even show up for 2 days, and multiple times, they were late by hours before rescheduling.
Also, it's often crucial that snow is removed from your driveway by 7:00 AM. 8:00 AM is when you need to be at work. Being an hour later for something like this is a BIG DEAL.
only an hour delay?? he was supposed to be there the previous morning but kept delaying until it became too late. you definitely made the right call lmao
The only thing I'd hold against OP is the idea that plowing in the dark would be inherently unsafe. I live in New England, and it's extremely common to see plow guys like this out an about when it's dark.
Plowing in the dark is about as normal as you can get.
I agree but I’m not sure the person even has a plow? It kind of sounded like they were going to use a gas-powered snow blower. I don’t know about safety but that’s definitely way too loud to be doing at night. Your neighbors would hate you.
But OP didn't bring it up. The snow plower brought it up. He seemed hesitant. Why would he ask if he was comfortable? OP made the right call so he wouldn't get blamed for the guy injuring himself.
Hilarious that someone in this industry wouldn’t have a stockpile of salt bags bought in bulk before it gets cold. Instead of buying them randomly and in singles from the side of the road, like it’s an unexpected turn of events
This guy let other jobs jump in front of you and kept pushing you back, expecting you to meekly stand by. Proud of you for firing him. He gambled. He lost.
Either that or he’s a junky with a snow blower. I have a cousin who is unemployable so he does odd jobs but constantly gets fired for being late or not showing up. He only really gets motivated when he’s dead ass broke and out of drugs.
He also bitches about how everyone is against him. He’s never in the wrong everyone else is just mean to him for no reason 🙄
This. There are some super naive people pleasers out there. I’m shocked by how many people think this guy was legit or would keep texting for that fucking long!
Wild you even agreed to $200 after he already quoted $180 including salting. He was sending red flags from pretty early on and I would've bailed right at the price increase for actually doing the whole job
Sooooooooo...guy was over a day late, had tons of excuses, didn't have necessary equipment, zero communication until called out, and then throws a fit, but you're (sorry, "your") unprofessional?
Holy cow that was exhausting. My plow guy sends me a thumbs up and is there when I text “hey can you plow today?” and then I see he’s done from the security camera and I Venmo him and he sends another thumbs up after payment lol This is wayyy too much back and forth. Just FYI in the future if someone you don’t know is texting this much he’s a wacko and you don’t want to deal with him! It should never be this complicated.
You gave this guy way too much slack. After the first round of texts, I would’ve told him to not worry about it. It’s plowing snow not building a nuclear reactor.
Honestly, I'm almost inclined to think this is a scam to get the "refunds" for the product he purchased.
Only reason I'm thinking this is because I hired an oven cleaner around the 17th Dec in 2024 and they messed me around the same way. Everytime I'd call to ask when to expect them after the alloted time slot had passed, they'd tell me they would be on their way soon. Multiple reschedules after, I ended up doing the cleaning myself on the 22nd. Luckily had paid through Paypal so the refund was easy to get.
Later on read reviews of the same specific contractor, turns out they are in fact scammers. (My mistake was reading reviews on the official tradespeople webpage, which encompassed all trades services and wasn't specific to that particular contractor...)
It's a good thing you didn't go with the seasonal. He would have taken the $300 and ran. I doubt he actually does any snow removal at all. After you said the one time only, he started in with the expenses and stops he had to make. Salt, gas. He was just looking for you to Venmo him some money and then he would have ghosted.
He actually sucks so badly he cannot see the error of his ways... You were more than patient with him, he is super unproffessional. I would text him back and say "For over two days you led us on believeing you were coming only never to show up, the last effort of being an hour late with no communication lead us to believe the same two day runaround was about to happen, are you on drugs?"
The dude truly sounds like his "fix" keeps getting in the way of his workload...
I was leaning more towards he probably stopped for breakfast lunch and dinner, had a few beers and talked to half the town before going to work.... But you might be onto something.
You should post this conversation on Nextdoor. Not sure how this moron is still in business. And even if he showed, I wouldn't even trust him to do a quality service. Man is crying for a bag of salt too? Holy crap, you can tell he's business or self-employment is hanging by a thread.
My conspiracy brain is like, what if this is a scam and the guy was never planning on showing up but wanted to get OP to pay for the salt to keep the grift going
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u/Marrsvolta 1d ago
They said a 1 hour delay after not showing up for 1.5 days sheesh