On August 25, 2012 I entered into a contract with Mega Interlocking for $4,650. to take up my existing interlocking and install new interlocking on my front path along with capping my porch and edging my driveway. I paid a 10% down payment. I was told half of the remainder was to be paid when the work commenced and the remainder when the work was completed to my satisfaction. I was also told that the work would commence in about 3 weeks. I gave a few days leeway on the 3 weeks and then called to ask about a starting date. I called a number of times and was assured the owner, David would call back, but got no call. Early October I sent an e-mail stating all the facts. On October 18th David showed up with a crew and equipment. He apologized and told me my contract had been misplaced so he was not even aware of it. David asked for a payment of $1380. I gave him a cheque, thinking the crew were here to do the job. The crew took up my existing slabs which took them about 2 hours, and then left and did not return. I was left with an unfinished gravel path and steps up to my porch and a small 2 foot high pile of gravel at the foot of the path all existing material from the previous interlock. I called a number of times and was told the job would be done, saying the ground didn’t freeze up until December. In November when I called, David told me that the season was finished. I asked for my money back but David told me if I tried to get it back Mega Interlocking would counter sue me for the remainder of the contract because he intended to finish the job first thing in the spring. On April 22, 2013 I sent an e-mail reminding David that he needed to come back to complete the work. On May 10th I called for an update. I was told that David intended to come the next week. I asked when, as I would be here until Thursday evening, May 16th, most of the week, at which time I was leaving on vacation and would return on May 28th. David said he could not give me an exact date he was coming and he preferred me to be there, so would come when I returned. May 29th, the day after I returned, I called to David to let him know I was home. He said he would put me on his schedule. It has now been 7 weeks since I phoned and over 10 months since I signed the contract. No-one has been to complete the work and my calls and e-mails are not returned. To this date July 19, 2013 the work has still not been completed. Being a senior on a limited budget I can't afford to be giving away close to $2000 for nothing in return. I have been tempted to hire someone else to finish the job since there seems to be no rush for David to return to honor his commitments but $2000 is a lot of money to me. Maybe he finds the job too small or maybe just inconvenient. He already holds nearly half the money quoted for the job with minimal (only taking the old interlock away) work done. So be warned when dealing with this company or the same thing could happen to you.
UPDATE: On July 25th, 2013, shortly after the original review went up Dave called me. He apologized and said that what had happened to me was not the way his company usually treated customers. He said that he’d ordered the interlocking which would arrive the following week and then they’d do the job. He then asked if I would take down the negative review because it was hurting his business. I said I would when the work was completed and I was satisfied I would modify the review to reflect his work. After TWO weeks not one, on August 9th, the interlocking was delivered. On August 14th, two young men came to my door to say they were there to lay the interlocking. I have since noted that in the contract with Mega it states that they can use sub-contractors. That first set of subcontractors left without working. My original path had been terraced and when I signed the contract I said I wanted the path taken down to ground level with stairs up to the porch and the guys who came had no equipment to do that. On Sunday, August 18th, Dave arrived with a relatively young man who I judged to be in his late teens to show him what had to be done. When I mentioned that I had asked for the path to be brought down to ground level Dave said that was too big a job and that the bricks for a retaining wall had already been delivered. He said that I would not have the problem I’d had before with the bricks sinking down within the walls. Only time will tell if this is true. The new sub-contractor, Jamie, with his helper came on August 19th to start the work. They arrived by car with minimal equipment. In conversation I learned that Jamie had answered an ad that Dave had put in the paper looking for someone to do the work. The third day the retaining walls were up, but where two of the walls met it was not quite even. It was an inch to two inches out. Jamie adjusted the levels by using cement on top of the bricks to bring the lower wall to the height of the higher wall before putting on the caps. I called Dave and left a message saying I was concerned about this. Dave came by the next day to look at the wall and said what Jamie did was no real problem. It would be too big a job to take down all the walls and start again and what had been done would not affect the purpose of the wall. After a delay of a couple of days the work resumed and after a few more days the job was completed on August 30th. Jamie obviously had had some experience and he was a hard worker, as was his helper, but he was just starting out in the business. He did not have the experience, and equipment of the Mega crew. Jamie and his helper did the work to the best of their ability and were conscientious and very polite. Although they did a reasonable job, there were a couple of thing I found problematic. On August 31st the Mega crew came with a truck and equipment to take away the left over debris. They asked for a cheque for the remainder of the payment. I should not have given them a cheque since I was not totally satisfied, but I did. After they left I realized they’d forgotten to take some of the debris. I called Dave to tell him they would have to come back and to say that I was not happy with one of the corners of the retaining wall. Where the two top slabs met at the corner, instead of there being an angle cut creating a pointed corner and finished edges the slabs were put together with a blunt unfinished edged showing to the street. Dave said they would be back to get the rest of the debris the next week and he would come and see to the corner. Jamie, just by chance, was working on a different job around the corner from me. I saw him on the street and he said he’d told Dave he would come back to try and fix the corner, but was told not to bother. Dave would fix it himself. A week later Dave returned to get the slabs and to look at the corner. A picture is included. He said that there was no other way to do the corner and that nothing could be done to change it. He suggested I put a bush in front of it to hide the raw edge. In the end the work did get done, but not by Mega itself as I had thought would be the case when I signed up, but by sub-contractors. Dave did not stand behind the work of the sub-contractors by finding a solution to the problem of the corner but suggested I camouflage it by putting in a bush. After the long wait to get a response from Mega, I was just relieved to get the work done and have a way up to my front porch before another winter set in. However, I cannot say my experience with Mega was what I hoped for. As mentioned earlier I promised Dave I would modify my review if the job was done to my satisfaction by his company, but when I had issues with the job being done I was told by Dave they were inconsequential and not a problem. The corner stone, the level of the walls, even the grade were not an issue to Dave. I signed a contract in good faith over 1 year ago that my walkway would be done by Mega. I thought I was hiring a respected company based on the past reviews on Home Stars. I cannot in good faith take down this review if only to save others from having the same problems I did. This would have been the end of my review except that I got a phone call from Dave today, Sunday the 8th. He asked me again to take the review down and said it was illegal now, since he had done the job. I said I still had problems with the corner. He said he’d come back and fix it but he had said just a couple of days before that there was nothing could be done about it. At this point I just do not trust him. The job has been done. It’s not what I had originally wanted, but truthfully I just want my relationship with Mega over.
With so many glowing reviews on Home Stars I would have to think that for some jobs, big jobs, Mega does the work themselves and does a good job. But for my $4650 contract that did not happen.
Update #2
Since update #1 Mega has been constantly trying to contact me to fix the problem corner. As stated earlier I’m tired of dealing with Mega, tired, tired, tired. I have arranged for someone else to fix the problem for me and I want nothing more to do with Mega. After a full year from the date of signing the contract they suddenly care so much about my walkway. This after being told the job was too big to do the way the contract stated (bringing it down to the ground without retaining walls), and all of my concerns (i.e. concrete being used to level the walls) that were left unanswered. I had another gentleman re-parge my concrete wall where the old walkway garden used to be this week and he did a fabulous job. He also told me, being a concrete specialist that the concrete used to level the walls will crack and shift in a couple of years. I guess it WILL be a problem as opposed to what I was told. Mega has not lived up to their reputation or their promises, and I’m tired of hearing yet another promise. Now that the walkway is done, good or bad, I will deal with any modifications needed in the future with another contractor. It’s been a year! The number of failed promises made to me over that time are too many to state. I just need to sever the relationship and try to regain my peace of mind. Mega please stop trying to contact me. You are not welcome here anymore.
UPDATE------
This is in reply to Dave's response. As he said, I did pay in full. I did this because I didn't want the hassle of dealing with him if I did not pay. He can be aggressive. Also, I did not hold back what was left to pay until the job was completed to my satisfaction because that would have required some of the work to be taken apart and redone. It was already
September. I felt, from past experience, that there was a strong possibility I'd be left with an unfinished path for another winter. I couldn't handle the stress of another winter like last year. I felt my best option was to pay him with the knowledge that some time in the near future I will have to get someone else in to do some repairs.
I never at any time implied or told Dave I was happy with his work or his way of doing business. If you have read my review you will have seen that there is no way I would consider my experience with Mega Interlocking satisfactory.
