OT: This general contractor did $4000 damage to our truck

[stormi]

I know some of us are home owners, so be warned:

We were picking up Top Soil from a Kijiji ad, and his loader operator dropped a 600LB+ piece of clay on the side of our box.  He refuses to talk to me now that I've told him about the damage.

Chaney and Sons Contracting
Owner: Dwayne Chaney
Warburg, Alberta
780-264-1345

Servicing the Edmonton area.

I strongly recommend NOT dealing with him and his.

http://www.archaicarcane.com/chaney-and-sons-contracting-warburg-alberta-serving-edmonton-and-area-caused-4000-damage-to-our-truck/

[interfuse]

Are you going to try taking them to small claims court?

If you haven't already, file a complaint with the better business bureau.

[stormi]

Hey Mike,.. I'm not sure about the legal angle of the "free" dirt, no contract, blah blah blah,.. and so far no one has been able to answer me.  I plan on talking to legal aid tomorrow, to see if I can talk to a lawyer to find out.  I think the biggest problem we're going to have is the no contract thing. 

I submitted a complaint to the BBB on Thursday night,.. I'm hoping to hear from them this week too.

When I went to the police station to try to make a report, they said it's a civil matter, so it has to go to small claims court, but the officer was insistent that I should be talking to the Global News Troubleshooter, that she could probably get some results.  I think it may be the way to go.  It's news worthy in my opinion.  These contractors feel like they can do damage to people's property and not be responsible, and no area of government is interested in helping the "victim" out, and it's nearly impossible to find out what your rights are as the injured party.

Typically, I find that some people have to find it more painful to do the wrong thing, in order to do the right.  It's unfortunate, but for 4 grand, I think I might be willing to show him the error of his ways.

[interfuse]

IMO contract or no contract if they wreck your truck it's their fault. Good luck with getting it sorted out.

[stormi]

See, that's what I think too.  The only people so far who have said that we're wrong about this is the insurance company (nothing in writing, no guarantee of success in a judgement but we'll fix it for you, if you pay your deductible, lose your claims free bonus, etc etc ), the contractor seems to think he's not responsible, and the police think it will be harder for us to get a judgement in our favor. 

The thing is, it's property damage.  A person who does damage to someone's property is typically liable, insurance or no.  How is this different?

[Barbarian]

It ain't.

But I do recommend going to the local TV station if they have that kind of Consumer Helper gig.
Of course, I am biased since I work for a local TV station, but hey ;)

[stormi]

I submitted an email to the troubleshooter, but no reply.  I'm thinking of calling them tomorrow, or after the long weekend, and letting them know there's no way for me to deal with these clowns.

I also contacted the BBB, they submitted the complaint to the company, no response.
They've just now submitted a "second attempt", which they have til Sept 8th to respond to.
The BBB has no teeth though from what I can see.

Are you on t.v., or behind the scenes?

[stormi]

Well, I got busy yesterday (server problems) and forgot to call.  Today I was playing catchup, but at the end of the day, an email arrived in my inbox.

Julie Matthews, the Global Troubleshooter, responded to my email saying that she's been wanting to do a story on this issue, and would I appear on camera.

Scares the hell out of me, but it looks like I'll be outing this guy on TV.

[Red01]

So scared you did a quadruple post! 

[stormi]

LOL! Yes.

I didn't even bother checking to see if it had posted when I saw the error.  

I wasn't worried though, I knew you'd catch it.    


In other news, if anyone had tried to read the link I'd posted with IE, it's fixed now.  apparently what wordpress does with a document that was created in word is really ugly.  I fixed the formatting issues it created and it's now readable.

It's also on page one of google and bing when you search for this company now.  This should help convince them to do the right thing.

[Red01]

Anything ever come of this?

[stormi]

Nothing.  The troubleshooter wanted to do a story about the dangers of overloading trucks, not about the fact that they didn't feel like they were responsible.
She wanted to hold the story til May, because that's when she thought people would be trying to get dirt and stuff.

When I asked for clarification as to whether there would be discussion about the liability of the contractor, she didn't respond again at all.

In better news though, the truck's been "roughed out".   I found a guy who does heavy body damage, and he made the truck truck shaped again, and said to not worry about the rest.  It's got a bit of  "dip" still, but I don't swear every time I shoulder check anymore.
He wouldn't let me pay him, so I've been sending business his way. :)