“Not how I do business”

The gravel on my driveway disappears with each pass of the plow and now I’m gravel-less and the driveway is a slog of mud and ice.

I know where it’s gone; it’s piled up where the snowplow stacks sit during the winter. It’s in a knotted pile with strands of tall grass, twigs and daisy pods.

To retrieve the gravel would be sitting on a chair next to the pile and sort – one piece of gravel at a time and put it in bucket and carry it and spread it around the mud.

Nope.

I was on Facebook and a guy offered driveway/gravel services. After a few days he came by and acted like he knew the answer to all my problems. He talked randomly and with each sentence he added another ton of gravel. Fives inches here, six inches there but I would love the result when it was done. He spoke vaguely of 6 tons of gravel from the top of the driveway to the front of the house. Then it was 7 tons of gravel. Eight tons.

He told me to get out a shovel and scrape the top of driveway down to ease the steep grade and as I am opposed to ditch digging and slagging. I chalked up another point against this guy. I’m not taking a shovel to anything.

A few days later he texted me and said he’d be there in a few days with the load. The gas line locator came out and marked the gas line. We were all set except for one thing – I didn’t have a price for all this work.

This text conversation happened:

To not provide a price or breakdown of services is like the red flag message that the Better Business Bureau screams at the top of its lungs.

In the end I didn’t get the gravel and I still have mud but at least I still have my money.

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