Young Hardworking People, a bit Green, some Surprises at the Final Invoice
You don't find many honest, hard working, reliable People here in Denmark, not as Craftmen for sure, so it was good to see that they came when they stated they would come and finished the Job on Time.
I saw some bad Reviews over here stating that the Workers are young and Inexperienced. That was NOT a big part of my Experience in dealing with them.
I would say there is a bit of Truth of them being a bit "Green", sure, but nothing that is very bad compared to older People. I for sure would NOT fault them for that.
The Job was unfortunately full of Surprises.
That started with getting Tiles which were a bit smaller than originally discussed (7cm thick instead of 8cm ... disappointing but "OK", it could have been worse) and delivered by the Tiles Company on a Truck (which was NOT what was originally agreed, I understood they would bring them here themselves, thus saving the Delivery Fee just for the Tiles).
One Issue, probably something they will remember during their Career, is that they trusted their Laser Measurement Instrument way too much !
At first, the Laser Measurement Device (mounted on a Tripod) itself failed, and we kept moving Stabilgrus back and forth without ever reaching something consistent and stable. That's why it's important to cross-check one Measurement with another one. Sure my Leveler from Harald Nyborg is not a 1mm/10m Accuracy Instrument, but if I see 5cm / 1m Slope, it's worth checking out. And indeed their Laser Device was broken.
The Second Issue was their Laser Receiver "Pole Stick" Locking Mechanism / Latch which also malfunctioned, thus we kept moving back and forth (again) the Stabilgrus since every measurement we took, the "Pole Stick" height Adjustment would change, thus making the Laser Measurement Calibration invalid.
Bad Luck happens, I cannot fault them for that, they did NOT make me pay extra for it, and hopefully they learned something useful for their Career :).
Nevertheless, besides the Delivery Fee for the Tiles (and of course the Costs associated with the Tiles themselves & their Installation - which I am NOT disputing), another Surprise on the Final Invoice was that by Magic, a Tractor + Trailer (which was not included in the initial Offer) appeared in the Final Invoice.
The Explanations on the Final Invoice were NOT reflecting the complete Cost Discrepancy and I felt there was a Lack of Transparency from their Side. I did NOT dispute the Fact that the Time taken to install the Tiles was more than originally estimated (as their Comment described). The Difference was in the Delivery Fee for the Tiles plus the Tractor/Trailer to bring the Stabilgrus here as well as to get rid of a lot of Soil. Those two Items amounted to approximatively 12% extra Costs (as stated, already adjusted for the Tiles + Tiles Installation longer Time).
They later told me that "It [the Tractor and Trailer] comes because the soil was to be disposed of. We should have been better at making that clear. But we just saw no other way out since all that soil could never have been spread out in the garden. We apologize for the lack of clarity and hope for understanding. We want the customer the best result and we assessed that we would only get that if the soil came away."
I hate Surprises. I'm not sure why they thought that it's better to leave a Customer with a bitter Taste in his Mouth rather than clearly telling him, BEFORE, what you are going to do and what's going to cost. Going in with a low Offer only to increase it afterwards, that only gives me the impression of being cheated. Which is unfortunate to be honest.
Overall they did a good Job ! Would I hire them again ? Overall the Feeling is Good, although the Decisions & Cost Overruns could have been (also as noted by their latest Reply) better communicated:
+ Hard working people
+ Soil Disposal Cost was much lower than Expected (per m3) and also the Garden is NOT full of it now, which partially (~ 50%) offsets the Cost Overrun on the Final Invoice
= Trust their Instruments too much
- Surprise in the final Invoice and the Lack of Communication about it (on one hand 12% Overrun is maybe NOT *that* bad, on the other Side it's still a big Amount)
Since there was no other Way of getting the Tiles on Time (even though I still think they could have planned that better & earlier on), one can say that the Tractor + Trailers Costs have been offset by the Cheaper than expected Soil Disposal Cost, with only the Tiles Delivery being charged as "extra", compared to what was originally expected.
Reply from Hvam Have & Anlæg I/S
Hi Stefano
We are super happy and grateful for your very nice review, As written to you too, we are very sorry that we were not more clear about the costs associated with the removal of soil. We hope after all that you are still left feeling good now that all that soil was gone instead of lying in your garden.
Unfortunately, we cannot always prevent breakdowns and fortunately after manual measurements etc. we found out that our laser was the problem and that we could not count on it.