Metro Snow & Ice Management

Decent service as Appleseedbut has been deteriorating every year since the move to Metro. This season the service on my street in Barrhaven has been terrible. 20 customers on street so expect to be an easy part of the business. GPS tracking does not work, late, late , late service. City snow dumps left for days. Walkway clearing is a joke if ever completed. Only one pass of shovel. Emails and calls never answered. Now asking for greater than 250 cm surcharge. Claims 67 cms in November but only showed up once when there was 15 cms. Didn't bother to clear city dump or walkway for that one snowfall. Adding insult to injury. I gather that some areas get decent service but certainly not our street in Barrhaven. If you want to spend the winter shovelling your own driveway and walkway along with the frustration realizing that you were ripped off, even while paying $650... go with Metro. Otherwise save your money or get someone else. Owner appears genuine but obviously his drivers are not and are ripping him off as well.

we have used this company every year since they took over from Appleseed snowplowing; whose service was excellent.
However, Metro has consistently dropped the ball with poor service, Zero customer relationships and communications. Despite Ken's claims/promises of being first on the street; we never see the tractors until long after everyone else has been cleared out if at all. There is always some kind of excuse given in an email blast to all his clients
Yesterday(friday) morning the city had come and plowed back the street and left a large plow dump by 8:00 am. Metro sent out a email blast advising us that they were aware and that all tractors were out by 7:00 am and were going to run all routes and clear these dumps that day.
When we came home after work at 5:00 pm nothing was done. I sent an email to Metro advising them. I received a response at 5:15 telling me directly that they had dispatched a driver to address and clear the dump as I could not get into our driveway.

I have sent 4 followup emails and My wife has called and left messages and as of now (Saturday 11:55 am) nothing has been done!

Needless to say, we will not be using Metro for next year. We do Expect Metro to Honour and fullfill the contract they signed.

UPDATE: A fellow with a backhoe finally showed up to clear our snow dump on Saturday afternoon at approx 1:30pm. As the markings on the backhoe were for a local paving Company; I will assume Metro contracted with them to get the job done for not only my driveway but the other metro lanes on my street. I did send a email thanking them for getting the job done.

I've been a Metro customer for several years now. Service used to be great - even fantastic at times. This year they have totally dropped the ball. Service has ranged from ok to non-existent.

They are the last ones to clean driveways in our area. The city came by Sunday around 4 am, Metro didn't show up until Monday afternoon. I don't need them to be the first on the street, but they do need to be quick enough so that you don't start to wonder if they are coming.

Even though the owner sends out multitudes of emails describing what their service is for the current storm they are just empty promises. Lately, the emails have been a combination of excuses from faulty equipment to drivers not showing up to work.

Apparently, I gave them a 10/10 rating 3 years ago here on HomeStars. The only reason they get a 1/10 is that apparently, they are still in business.

Save your money and hire a different company,,,, any would be better!!
BEWARE OF LACK OR SERVICE AND EVEN WORST CUSTOMER SERVICES I AM HOPING THIS WILL PUT A FIRE UNDER KEN, KATIE OR JUSTIN.... SOMEBODY WHO MIGHT CARE ABOUT THE QUALITY OF SERVICE AND CUSTOMER CARE........... This company is owned by some guy named Ken who would rather send out non-sense emails (he might even think hes funny) and make excuses as to why they don’t show up,,,,or missed some clients..... never do they return phone calls nor emails.
This self proclaimed professional should never write another email and hopefully the BBB will prove to him how to fulfill the contract agreements and run a professional and dependable company.

With every snow storm no show but multiple emails with promises and excuses as to why they can’t show up in Barrhaven and states empty promises that they will show up..... but they never do..... don’t waste your time calling or emailing them, they do not reply and do not send out a tractor to actually snow blow,,,,

If you’re lucky enough for them to show during a snow storm or just snow , they leave more snow behind on the road in front of your driveway or blow it onto the sidewalk which you know for sure it will end up back at the front of your driveway and of course they will not return to clear it !!!! Argggg

Attached find a photo of what I mean of snow left behind and city plows put back onto my driveway. The snow fell Sat and Sunday. Tonight is Monday and they still haven’t show up to clean but of course we have received 3 emails stating excuses and broken promises that they will clear up all those missed and forgotten ,,,,

but here is what was emailed to us on Monday @ 135 pm.........
"Clean Ups Update
We would like to advise all customers that we have given all missed laneways/plow dumps lists to "Carl" he will be sending out drivers to handle these issues.
Our Shovelling Manager will also be dispatching shovellers to deal with any missed walkways.
Update:
Drivers are out catching up on areas where City Graders arrived late. All dumps will be addressed today by 2pm. We did have a few drivers who didn't show up, we will be getting drivers out today to address those routes."

UPDATE... Today Tuesday, still snow at the front of my driveway and NO reply to my emails.......ARGGGGGG!!!

Metro is probably the worst company I’ve ever contracted to have driveway and walkway done. After receiving zero response to my complaints by phone and email I physically went to the office. I was assured they would “take care of fixing the problem”. Guess what? They didn’t and looks like I’m shoveling today after a heavy snowfall yesterday. These guys are a joke... stay away.

Terrible service and customer service. You will end up shoveling yourself 8 out of 10 times. They wait too long before starting to clear laneways even when big snow storms are expected. You will come back from work at 4:30 and the laneway will still not be cleared. Don’t believe in their “first served guarantee”. They should change it for; “we guarantee we will be the last company to pass in your neighbor hood”. They should stop focusing on writing emails to customers which always says; “Be patient it is a big snow storm” and instead get the work done”.

I've been a customer for a few years, very solid at the start but not so much now. I don't know if the issue is with the company or the individual drivers. Because our old driver came back part of last season and service did go back to recommendable. This season, no...

They seem to be pretty responsive to complaints but it's pretty crappy to have to wait until the end of a giant service window to find out if they forgot your street. More clarity (like we won't clean until the city plows the street) would really be helpful. As my spouse works part time and we have people in and out of the house all day long it's a pain to figure out when to micromanage the cars to be against the garage, when to leave them spaced out to be able to pass each other etc.

Dale seems annoyed about the service request complaints but seems like that's the only way to get service sometimes. I get routes are different for various companies so timings will be different but as the hours roll by it does get annoying.

Managing expectations and giving meaningful ETAs is huge if a cleaning can't be done asap. If you don't want to do two cleanings then let us know. Just because someone on an artery has a plow go by every hours doesn't mean you can't take a look at the Great Wall of China that I'm looking at.

I hired Metro to clear snow from my driveway. We first used them when they were Appleseed and the service was pretty good. But once they changed over to Metro the service really plummeted. They basically never showed up unless I emailed them. And then always came so late I would end up having to shovel my driveway to get out. It was nothing but frustration and annoyance. Would not recommend them.

2 snow storms within a week and both times our driveway has been missed. After waiting around Sunday had to shovel out enough space to get the car out. No one showed up calls to the office was told we were missed and someone would be out in 2 hours.....no one showed. Wednesday storm no o e shows again. This is the first season we went with a plow service and never again. Have yet to get any service from this company.

Always delayed, they will arrived after you have shovel your lane way.

Like what happened last snow storm they promised to do 2 clearing operation from 11:00am-6:00pm arrived at 3:30 no show for Metro. Called them they said they are having problem with their trucks and still looking for replacement.

Yes they arrived.... @10:00pm, what do they expect we park on the street and get parking ticket from the City while we are waiting for them to clean our laneway! So we end up shoveling our laneway!!! They only like money. But they cannot provide good service!!!

Funny, they offered you 5 dollars credit for shovelling your laneway !!!