America’s Best Concrete

DID NOT KEEP TO PLANNED DATE, DOESN’T COMMUNICATE WELL, DIDN’T PREP LAND AS REQUESTED, ADDED CHARGES AFTER THE FINAL BILL WAS SENT, HAD A HORRIBLE TEMPER TOWARDS US, TREATED US BADLY
Our experience dealing with Americas Best Concrete and the owner Paul Martin was awful. He sold us on his service and gave us an estimate that was quite a bit less than any other we had. However, although we had a deposit and had planned on our patio being poured on a Friday, his people never showed. Weather had been ideal and caused no problems. We had confirmed with him 36 hours before the pour and he said everything was great. The day of the pour though he said his foreman had broke his foot two days before and he was having to pull guys off other jobs… but then his foreman later told us he had broke his foot two and half weeks earlier, before we even scheduled our original pour date. Paul was not honest with us. He did come to the house on the scheduled pour date after we called and asked where everyone was and then he left and said the guys were on the way. That afternoon we called to see where they were and we were told they were on their way that they’d be there in 45 minutes and Paul stated he was on his way back and should be there in 30 mins. No one ever showed. When we called again Paul didn’t answer the phone or return our call. The next morning the office manager Joanna called and said they couldn’t pour that day (Saturday) because the concrete was going to cost more. We rescheduled for the next Friday and it rained the entire day before. We tried to talk to him on Wednesday and Thursday about the weather and we were told as long as it wasn’t raining Friday there wasn’t a problem. He didn’t indicate that by pouring on Friday we wouldn’t have the proper material to prepare the land… instead he just used extra concrete, and then charged us for it. He should have known that the rain would have washed out all the dirt pits nearby through the whole weekend. We had no idea things weren’t going to be prepped the way they should be until the concrete truck was already at our house and they pushed us into going forward. His people didn’t take up our sod, use fill dirt or cushion sand like he said they would. After it was all over we were surprised with almost $ 500 in extra charges. When we got the bill the day after the pour we decided we’d retain some of the money until our sprinklers were moved like was described to us so we wouldn’t have to chase him down if it never happened. After seeing how nothing was done the way it was told to us we didn’t trust he’d come through. We told Paul Martin this and he lost it he was angry and started to say how we had more square footage than was described and we should be grateful to him for pouring in adverse conditions. We would have gladly rescheduled because of the rain but he never indicated clearly that we wouldn’t have fill dirt or sand. He had a terrible temper and customer service towards us. His communication with us stunk. On Saturday night he did email and say that we’d just go with the original square footage price (we understood this to be as in our written estimate), he’d move the sprinklers and he hoped that would make us happy. We took this a good sign that he had calmed down some. We talked to his office manager on Monday night and arranged for her to pick up the amount due less the sprinkler money. Yet, the next morning when she came to the house to pick up a check she presented us with a new invoice with 100 additional square feet and another $ 400 owed. Paul said «he changed his mind» on the understanding we had. Three days after the final invoice was sent they added another $ 400! We tried to work it out with him, offering to pay $ 200 for the additional square footage, but he was stubborn and rude towards us questioning our integrity and belittling our ability to do math. We wanted the experience over with and had no desire to have him at our home. He only used rectangular math on a circular area. He was upset that we questioned whether this was a one day job, however his own people said when we asked why they weren’t pulling up the sod was that if they did that it wouldn’t be done in one day. His sub contractor showed up at the house to collect what was unpaid, which was by agreement with America’s Best not being paid until the sprinklers were done. The minute the sprinklers were fixed (10 days after the patio was done) we arranged for them to pick up the rest of the money. We paid the $ 400 so it would be over and we would not have people continuing to come to our house to collect. If this review can persuade one person to go elsewhere for their business we will feel like our money was well spent. He may have a low estimate, but I promise you the service isn’t worth the savings. The patio looks good today, but we do have concerns about how it will look long term since the land wasn’t prepped as we had requested.