Interlocking front and backyard. BE CAREFUL!
While our experience with Canadian Pro Interlocking started off really well, we ended up having a terrible experience with them that made us cancel our contract after the work began and taking a loss on our payments. Joe, the owner made many promises and did not follow through, I liked Joe and had high expectations at first, but then there was a notable disconnect between what we agreed on with the sales guy, Harris, and what the owner/contractor knew. Shame on us for putting too much trust in Canadian Pro Interlocking. We made the big mistake of paying 85% of the total cost upon the arrival of materials. The team did not begin work on the day the materials arrived which was a Saturday morning. The materials blocked my entire driveway for 2 weeks (at which point we hired another contractor to finish the job) restricting us from using our car parked in the garage, and parking our other car on our driveway. I can accept this for 2-3 days, and living in the GTA, overnight street parking isn’t free. He broke our fence door, worked short hours on the few days they actually showed up saying his guys were either too tired, or it was too hot to continue working. It’s the beginning of May! How can it be too hot!? I didn’t feel like he was prioritizing our job and must have been hopping between jobs. Our job was a decent size, nearly 1,000 sq ft of interlocking. What finally pushed us to cancel our contract is that when they built the front steps for our porch, the cuts were not done right AND his team left the steps INCOMPLETE FOR THREE DAYS. I’ve attached a picture. I have one elderly person and two young children (which they knew) living in my home and this was a HUGE HUGE safety hazard. When we complained over the phone, he defended the steps, but when he came back after three days in person, Joe admitted the steps were not done correctly and that his new guy had done it. How do you let a “new guy” do the job and not inspect it before leaving the site? I could go on but I’ll stop here. Of course, I’m sure everyone has a different experience with each contractor, some good, some bad, but just wanted to share our experience. We were told that our job would be done in “4 days” (weather permitting) but at 2 weeks there was insufficient progress. I know contract work is never on time, but when you make false promises and just don’t show up, that’s just straight up unprofessional. We took a few thousand dollars loss on this as Joe was unwilling to give us a partial refund even though the digging was not all done, the slope in the backyard was not correct, the screening and levelling was incomplete, the steps had to be redone and of course barely any stones were laid- definitely not 85% of pay worth of work. Good luck.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $11,000.00
- Company Response
Mr. Hassan Rashid contacted us last year for an estimate. Our sales manager showed up 3x for a free re-estimate as Mr. and Mrs. Rashid kept changing the scope of their project. They we're undecided
Finally in May of this year, Mr. Rashid contacted us again and wanted to proceed with the project they finally decided on. A contract was drafted outlining specifics for their project including a detailed colored drawing. They wanted us to start within 3-4 days and we agreed. All they had to do was decide on a color within 24 hrs so we can order his pavers. It took them 5 days to decide on a color (out of 4 choices), and by that time they were ready to leave for their vacation and now didn't want us to start until they returned, after they were scheduled to start.
When they returned, Mr. Rashid demanded we show up the next day to proceed. We told him he had to wait a few days as we were on other projects. He was unhappy. When we came, he wanted more area excavated than was on the contract. He wanted additional grading done which would require extra steps. We explained the extra materials and labor needed he would pay for at the end and he agreed. After his project was graded finally to his satisfaction, his pavers arrived and all of a sudden they weren't happy with the colors - they chose.
He wanted to exchange almost 1000 sq.ft of delivered pavers. We explained there is a 25% restocking fee from our supplier not to mention time delays for this process. He expected us to pay all fees and re-delivery charges as well as exchange the pavers that same day, and threatened us he'd cancel the contract and wanted us to refund him everything he's paid. We told him we will not accept any more losses and he can keep the pavers since he had selected them, and do as he pleases since he was demanding it was his way or a full refund for a project that was fully excavated, graded, with base and screening, pavers paid for and delivered, only needing installation. He was happy that he could keep his pavers and cancelled the contract. We assumed at that time he wanted all the hard work with heavy equipment done and he would lay the pavers himself or hire cheap help to save money. Thus his complaint the materials were blocking his driveway was in fact because he agreed to keep the pavers after the contract was terminated.
The broken fence Mr. Rashid claims was in fact loose from the hinges and advised him in advance and before the project even started and offered to tighten up the screws for him. The step was done by one of or trainees and he had not put enough adhesive and had not yet been inspected, but was fixed by our foreman the next day and still is intact to date - we have photos. He demanded our crew work in the rain and on weekends (of which we occasionally do when staff is available). He states we said our crew was tired after 3 hours - this never happened as they would have been terminated. We did say they were tired from the 6 day x 10 hour days when he demanded we show up on a Sunday.
As a contractor, we try our best to please everyone, and even when we do, there are those few who try to take advantage of us. The sad part is while we were excavating, another contractor was on site for another project and told us he was warned to be careful with Mr. Rashid as other contractors had fallen victim to his antics. A month later that contractor called us and explained he too had the exact same experience with Mr. Rashid's demands and cancelling his contract, and found out that other contractors had blacklisted this Maple customer. I guess we need a public forum like HomeStars for contractors, to leave feedback on their experiences with homeowners. Considering the hoops we had to jump through to please Mr. Rashid's demands and indecisiveness, his rating and review of our company is undeserved and unjustified, and we hope other contractors read this review and our experience with him to avoid similar issues.