I hired The Post Hole Diggers to dig and set approximately 23 4x4 posts. One post if put in my ideal spot, would have been right at a locate marker for the gas line. The main tech on site said, that he could place my post there, but he would have to dig it by hand (not the machine) as to ensure they didn’t hit any utilities and it would be $100 vs the $25 for the other holes. I agreed to the price and yet, they still hit and ruptured the gas line. The one and only call the tech made, was to his boss, I had to be the one to call the fire department. To top it off, he then insisted on holding my copy of the locate documents, so that when the authorities arrived, it would appear he was prepared and had them the entire time. I could go on, but at the end of the day, they were unprofessional, rude and tried to suggest every hole was so hard it would cost more...
- Approximate cost of services:
- $500.00
- What could this company do to improve their services?
- Any advice to offer fellow homeowners facing a similar project?
- Company Response
While it is true that we hit a gas line while doing your job, unfortunately it is one of the inevitable downsides of this type of work. While it does not happen often it is something that can and has happened before (and may happen again...we cannot promise otherwise). We do do everything in our power to avoid this unpleasant event and follow all TSSA regulations including getting locates done for all of our clients and having the paperwork on site. However, Because you had your own locates done we were able to accommodate your job and get it done sooner but you were told ahead of the appointment that you would need to give the contractor the paper locates when we were onsite. You made no indication that this was a problem at the time of booking otherwise we would have gotten our own locates to avoid this confusion. I also can assure you that our crew did call 911 as is our protocol when hitting a gas line and only then did he call his boss. We have all our procedures in place including WSIB and liability insurance to insure that even when such incidences occur our clients are not affected. Unlike other companies we stayed and waited for the fire department to arrive and provided all our information and assumed the responsibility for this event and even proceeded to complete the job. Not sure why you feel that we did something wrong when at the end of the day you have posts set exactly where you need them. We did not place a gas line under your property and in fact we did everything in our power to ensure the placement of the underground services did not affect the placement of your posts.