I don’t know where to begin this review. In hindsight, I should have followed my gut instinct early on that something is amiss, but was in too much of a hurry to get the work done. Lesson learned.
Isabel from G Way came twice to give quotes, and when I called to ask when they could do the work, she expressed discontent that she had to come back to give a second quote “which took 2 hours”. My response to her was that the second quote took a long time more because she kept answering her phone (which I was ok with), but not because I forced her to discuss with me, or wait for me for two hours. In addition, the second quote included more extensive work, and thus more money for them, and I would think most companies would be happy with this type of change. In hindsight, when a company starts blaming you at this point, turn and run the other way, since it is absolutely positively a sign of things to come.
During the more detailed quote, I had asked what they were going to do with a storm drain pipe that ended near the porch. Isabel said, we’ll run it to an unpaved spot and bury it under the paving. Trouble is, she didn’t tell her husband Frank, who was the one onsite throughout the work, about this. So when I asked him after it didn’t appear done, he said he didn’t know about it and wanted $60 for it. I said, I’m pretty sure it’s included in the price since Isabel said she’ll do it while giving the quote, but if I had to, I’ll pay the 60 to get it done before it’s too late. (I have since had another paving company tell me that what they have done will cause problems in terms of flooding and freezing in the winter).
Apparently Isabel also didn’t give Frank a copy of the plan/contract that describes the length/width of the walkways in the backyard. There was a bit of wait for the screening to arrive, so I had a chance to measure the width of one walkway after the excavation. I told Frank the dug-out width was not quite the 3’ shown on the contract, and gave him a copy of contract when he asked for it, and thought it would be taken care of, since at this point it was just a little more shoveling of dirt.
The work was scheduled to take two days, but they said they can finish in one. However, the day they chose, apparently their daughter was graduating, so neither Isabel nor Frank wanted to stick around too late.
In the meantime, I had to pick up my child from daycare, and in the less than an hour I was gone, the backyard walkways were “done”. I measured the widths and it was still not quite 3’, nor was the other one quite 2’. Frank replied, with, well it’s more than 2’ in some sections, and more than 3’ in others. I had three tired and somewhat angry looking guys and a young child to contend with, so exasperated, I decided to pay them despite my not being completely happy. When I went to pay him, Frank said, it’s another $60 for the pipe. At this point, I have to admit that I lost my temper, and said, you want your $60, well, I want my 3’ walkway. So he took the original amount, and apparently by paying him, I accepted the unsatisfactory work. A friend said that I shouldn’t have paid him, but if you’ve ever taken care of young children, you may be able to understand the challenges of measuring walkways and arguing with trades while taking care of a restless child.
The next day, I realized that the lack of width was indeed a problem, and in addition, the lengths of the both walkways were significantly shorter than on the contract. As well, the sides of the walkways were not filled in, so I literally fell off the walkway a couple of times. I called Isabel and although it took 2-3 tries before she even came to look at the “finished” work, she agreed to fix things. After the third no-show/broken appointment to actually fix things, she said that I owed her $60 for the pipe. I said, fine, I’ll pay you the $60 for the pipe after you fix things. After the 5th no-show, she started yelling at me and threatening to measure the front yard paving and charge me extra for any extra paving. I welcomed her to do say, since I was quite sure I was short here as well, but I agreed to it, although she had already given her workers the instructions before she got my approval.
In the end, it was an unnecessarily horrible experience. If you are absolutely desperate, enjoy petty arguments, no shows with no calls, being yelled at, blamed and threatened, go right ahead and hire G-way. I also just found out too late that they have a D- rating with the Better Business Bureau.
Obviously, by writing this review, I have given up that they’ll ever come back and make things right, but I’ll be happy to update this review if they should do so.
