In the process of selling my home, it was discovered that a pipe that was installed before we bought our house, ran underneath my neighbors driveway and would require excavation to correct. While disappointed that we would be responsible for repairing the neighbors property we agreed to cover the repair as this situation is not my neighbors fault.
During the inspection, the pipe was approximated as to where it was located, but could not be verified at the time, due to my neighbors car causing interference with the equipment used to identify the exact spot of the line.
Days later, the crew arrived to begin work, and this is where we ran into problems. While I was quoted one size (which was roughly 5x10 feet ) for the section (they believed) was the location of the pipe, they guessed incorrectly.
They dug down approximately 7 feet and couldn't find the pipe, and it turns out they dug in the wrong spot. The hole went from 4x8 and ended up being closer to 11x11.
I let the crew finish the job, and when contacted about settling the balance, I expressed some disappointment that the crew didn't verify the pipe location before digging as the scope of the repairs has now increased because of their mistake. As the saying goes, measure twice, cut once, at this point, the call was handed off to Mike (Terry?), who basically got on the phone and badgered me for saying I had agreed to pay for the work when the job was done (which I had), and that his crew didn't have a camera to verify the actual line placement on the day of the work ( so, apparently that's my fault). The disrespectful way in which he came on the phone to pressure me into paying the bill and assumed no responsibility was extremely disappointing.
I work in customer service for a living, and I have dealt with frustrated people over the years, and I can't recall having been so infuriated with the way I was treated. I will do everything I can to warn others about the response I received for being dissatisfied with the level of work that was done.
The crew that did the work on the pipe was nice, but made mistakes, the staff that was ultimately responsible for trying to find a compromise was a complete failure.
To provide perspective I have attached a picture of the first hole they dug (wrong spot, right size), and the final hole with the repaired pipe.