Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  13/04/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I attempted to communicate with MJK on April 11. Unfortunately after sending a respectful email to the company, ******* ******* called just to yell at me and hung up. A conversation couldn't even occur given his completely inappropriate and unprofessional behavior. Summary: In November 2014 I purchased a home in St Albert. One month later it was determined that the residential sewage line had to be replaced. The city contracted MJK. The city covered a portion of the cost and I was billed $3,500. MJK excavated a portion of our front yard for the sewer line replacement and backfilled the area. We went on to re-landscape the front yard the following summer in 2015. As time has gone on, the portion of our yard that was previously excavated has sunk drastically (10" in some areas) in a trench like line from the front of our house and extends to the city sidewalk. We've received previous quotes (aprx $5000) to have this formerly excavated area repaired. I initially emailed the city on April 5 and corresponded with a City Insurance Coordinator on April 11 who acknowledged the previously excavated area has sunk, including a portion of the city sidewalk. The city has taken responsibility to repair the small portion of our yard that is considered to be city property. I was instructed to contact MJK directly regarding the damaged portion beyond the city line (which is 95% of damage incurred) Of note, this home was built in the 1950's in a mature, established neighborhood. There have been no issues with sinking grade anywhere else on our property in 8 years of owning this home. Our yard is now damaged due to what appears to be improper backfill of a major excavation. The communication yesterday was completely unacceptable. It's clear that this company is incapable of engaging in any form of dispute resolution or delivering even the bare minimum standard of customer service. We've hired many companies throughout our home ownership and had great experiences, this was terrible.

  

  Business response

  23/04/2022

  We did a sewer repair for the previous home owner. The previous homeowner did not want backfill and compaction as this is an extra fee and cost. We told the original owner it takes years for excavated ground to settle. The homeowner did not care as he was planning on having the sewer fixed and selling the property. We cannot force extra costs on the homeowner. 
  

  the sewer repair was completed in 2014 and the sewer works properly. Still to this date. Any landscaping was not included in the cost to repair the 10 meter long sewer. We only charged 3500 for the sewer repair. This new owner paid for landscaping and as we said the ground settled. At no fault to our work. 

  

  Business response

  13/05/2022

  We initially completed this work for the *****, I was mistaken on which owner, it was right after she bought the house, we fixed the sewer and charged only 3500, this type of job would normally be 4500+GST, to open cut repair and backfill the sewer. To backfill and compact the fill it would have been around 8500-9500+gst, we told her we mound the dirt to allow it to settle and “self-heal” to add water to it to speed up the settling naturally, in new construction you have to wait 3 years before landscaping, due to settling around the grade beams, and sewer and water installation areas.
  
  I belive that she completed the landscaping too soon, and it has been settled for a while, it also may look worse in the spring because the grass is not up yet. I would like to see her invoice on when the landscaping was completed.
  
  Further we are not landscapers and we do not do landscaping, we fix sewers, and her sewer is working fine, just as we fixed it. We did not include backfill and compaction on the quote, and we certainly did not include landscaping, or a warranty on the landscaping done by others.
  
  I am also really sorry as my dad called the customer back and is kind of “Old School” and does not know how to talk to people, he mostly is involved with paying the bills I am the face of the company and would have handled the situation different.
  
  The work was completed 8 years ago and we don’t warranty other contractors work as we are not involved with landscaping or when a homeowner does there landscaping after a repair, we have been in business for a while and I have never seen a complaint about our work like this. Especially after 8 years considering her sewer is still working properly.
  
  

  Customer response

  17/05/2022

  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  - The reason MJK was involved in this repair in the first place was because the City of St Albert contracted MJK for residential sewage repairs at that time. MJK was already on site replacing the sewage line as per your contract with the City. My portion of the sewage line was only repaired by MJK because you were already on site. It would have been nonsensical for me to contact a second company to come and replace the same sewage line you were already replacing.

  - I paid the price I was quoted by MJK and at no point was I ever told by anyone from MJK that I should expect my yard to sink nearly a foot after the sewer line was replaced. I’ve consulted with a few landscaping companies as well as the City since bringing this issue forward to MJK and the standard recommendation from professionals in this field has been to wait one season, which is what I did. The grass has nothing to do with what the grade looks like. The grade has severely sunk and the damage is very noticeable in every season. 

  - A large portion of this job involved City property. You excavated the road in front of my house, a portion of the sidewalk in front of my lawn, a section of my front yard that is considered city property and then a section of lawn that was considered my property. As previously indicated, I had a conversation with the City recently and was told MJK completed compaction for at least a portion of the sewage replacement. The city sidewalk still caved in despite whatever compaction/backfill you did. The City has made arrangements to fix the caving sidewalk slabs. The portion of the city sidewalk that is caved in is exactly in line with the trench like line of sinking grade on my front lawn that is nearly a foot deep in some areas. How do you explain that? Clearly even the city sidewalk portion was not backfilled properly either.

  - First you claimed to have had a conversation with the previous owner who specifically told you he didn’t want “proper backfill” and now you’re claiming to have had a conversation with me where you specifically told me that you “mound the dirt to allow it to settle and “self-heal” to add water to it to speed up the settling naturally”. At this point you’ve lost all credibility as far as I’m concerned. You are literally making up stories about conversations that have never happened. How is this decent customer service? I can’t seem to have an honest conversation with anyone from your company.

  
  - At no point have I EVER claimed MJK was responsible for landscaping my yard at the time you completed the sewer replacement. I fully understood that you were not completing any landscaping at the time of the excavation. I was told you were digging a hole, replacing the sewer line and backfilling the hole leaving the yard in it’s initial state. My concern is that you completed a huge excavation job on my property, did not backfill your excavation properly and that is the reason a portion of my yard has sunk significantly. Had MJK backfilled the excavation properly, there would have never been an issue of severe sinking grade in the first place and my landscaping wouldn’t have been destroyed.

  - I’m not an unreasonable person and this is a common-sense scenario. Any foundation/base (in this case it’s grade) that isn’t stable will have a negative impact on the structural integrity of anything placed on it afterwards. My expectation was that as a former customer of MJK, you would take ownership of the backfill that has caused my yard to sink drastically. I should not have to cover the cost of repairs for an issue that wouldn’t have ever occurred in the first place had proper backfill been completed. As a side note, while your dad was yelling at me on the phone he did say that I should have waited until the next season to landscape (which is what I did, and now you're saying 3 years...)

  
  - I would be happy to send you all of my landscaping receipts from 2015 when I completed the landscaping the following year. The total (not including labor) was just under $8,000. NOTE: This website does not appear to allow the users to send more than 4 attachments in one message so I will have to send additional receipts in a future message. I have included a breakdown of all the costs and I have original receipts for all of the items which I will gladly send you for your reference. 

  - I’m asking that MJK cover the cost to repair the damage to my front yard due to the heavily sinking grade that has destroyed the west side of my front lawn, the walkway up to my front door and a portion of my west flower bed where shrubs and mulch will have to be pulled up. This has all been damaged due to severely sinking grade, specifically directly overtop of where the excavation by MJK occurred. I’ve attached one of the most recent quotes I've received which outlines what the issues are and the cost to repair them for your convenience.
  

   

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