Dears;

I hired a snow removal contracter to remove snow for this season. The guy is not showing since 3 weeks in spite of all the calls, messages and e mails.

Any suggestion/ solution please?

BG

Quote:

---

Originally posted by benparsad

Dears;

I hired a snow removal contracter to remove snow for this season. The guy is not showing since 3 weeks in spite of all the calls, messages and e mails.

Any suggestion/ solution please?

BG

---

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/931878--don-t-get-snowed-by-shoveling-fraudsters?bn=1

It would be the ultimate snow job — charging dozens of GTA residents some $7,400 for snow removal that allegedly was never done — and police are warning a snow-scared city to watch who they hire to dig them out.

Hint: If the snowplow guy demanding money up front shows up with no shovel, think twice before paying, suggested Det. Constable Chris Devereux of the Toronto Police Service. He was referring to a criminal investigation into a company that promised snow removal across Mississauga, Toronto, Vaughan and Richmond Hill, but never showed up.

“He was very charming, but some of the complainants now realize he showed up at their door with no truck and in one case apparently left the neighbourhood by cab,” which Devereux gently hinted should have set off alarm bells.

Since Toronto police laid eight counts of fraud under $5,000 against Elman Iakhiiaev, 30, of Toronto on Jan. 25, dozens more people have called police with complaints about the same company, bringing the total to 74 by Tuesday night. Iakhiiaev is set to appear in court on Feb. 14.

Police also are aware of complaints about a snow removal firm that cleared snow for customers at least once but then vanished, a situation Devereux said is a matter for civil courts. If a company does at least some work, they're not subject to criminal charges.

One consumer website carries a growing blizzard of bad reviews about Thornhill's Falconstone Landscaping and Construction's snow removal service from people outraged at being left snowbound after only one or two jobs.

Marnie Tolensky said she and her husband paid Falconstone $344 to clear and salt their Thornhill home's driveway and sidewalk, but he came once in December and then never again, and his phone has been disconnected and his website taken down.

“I guess this kind of situation is always a risk when you prepay for a service,” she said, “but the fact that he appears to have deliberately taken so much money is just wrong.”

Irwin is another Falconstone customer — he asked the Toronto Star not to use his last name not because “people will think I was an idiot.

“But the guy was brilliant — he had flyers and undercut everybody else by $50 and said he had to collect the money up front to cover costs.

But after Christmas he stopped coming, his voice mail was full and the fax number he gave belonged to an optician.”

Yet it's not common for snow removal companies to collect all the money at the start of the season to cover their expenses, said Mikhail Evgrafov, owner of Monster Plowing Co., who expected his five trucks will be on the streets by sunrise Wednesday.

“Your best protection is to ask for several references and call them before you pay anything or sign a contract,” advised Evgrafov, who started his business three years ago and has more than 100 clients.

“We offer unlimited service for the season based on our estimate of how many times it will snow, and we guarantee we'll clear the snow within 12 hours of an inch falling,” he said.

“But most time guarantees go out the window once you hit four inches — and we're expecting a foot. That's a lot of snow.”