ComplaintsforSurface Smart, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  12/31/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  September 23rd - Paid $298.50 Deposit October 6th - Paid $717.39 Final Payment The product they sold me is not what they delivered. At first after waiting well beyond the recommended time, the driveway showed tire marks every time a vehicle was on it making the driveway unusable and worse than before I paid them $1,015.89 in total. Then after a second coat the tire marks eventually went away. Now 2 months later every time it rains or gets any bit wet the driveway turns White! Looks horrible most of the time! I wish I never hired this company as their product makes me driveway look so much worse than before it was sealed. I got nothing but a headache and an ugly driveway because if the cheap product they sold me. I now have to pay someone else to remove all of the milky substance off my pavers and have it sealed the right way with a different company costing me more than double the original cost. This company should not be allowed to continue to use this product and con others out of their money! Their rating should be F- for not even caring enough to make it right! Horrible way to do business!

  Business response

  01/19/2023

  *********************** contracted Surface Smart to clean, sand, and seal his pavers.  We did exactly these things and then a bit extra.  Immediately following our sealing, ***************** paid us for the completed work, and indicated satisfaction with the job.  Shortly after, he called us to complain about two specific issues.  The first was that there were tire tracks visible on his driveway, and the second was that the pavers didnt look as shiny as he was expecting them to look.
  We sent a crew one week after sealing to address both issues for *****************, purely from a customer service standpoint as appearance is subjective and not covered under any time of warranty either written or oral.  Tire tracks are standard to see shortly after sealing, and usually we give clients instructions on easy ways to clean these themselves.  Usually this takes care of the issue, and the tracks dont come back.  In the case of ******************, he was having difficulty removing the tracks and they recurred, so we offered to wash them off at no charge.   We also applied an additional coat of sealant to his pavers to help achieve a greater level of cosmetic enhancement and shine.  At this point, ****************** seemed satisfied.

  
  Several weeks after completing the free service call ***************** contacted us to indicate that he had white areas that appeared on his pavers when it rained.  The most likely reason for this is that the additional sealant that was added was reconstituting when inundated.  After it dries, it returns to a clear state.  It is important to note that no more than two coats of sealant were added to the pavers as per manufacturer's instructions, so the whiteness is not a result of overapplication of the product.

  
  ***************** continued to send pictures of the pavers when in the reconstituted state and complained about the appearance of the pavers repeatedly.  We always strive to make people happy, but appearance is a very subjective thing which is why we never make any promises or guarantees regarding appearances.  These pavers are aged and have a great deal of aggregate visible because of erosion over many years.  It is our contention that his pavers look as good as anyone could get them to look without the addition of stains/dyes/paints, etc.

  
  ****************** demanded a full refund and filed a credit card dispute as well as a complaint with the BBB.  *********** sent ********************* (co-owner) out to examine the situation and speak with ****************** in person to assess the situation and resolve it if possible.  He took several pictures that are included here.  These pictures show the pavers in a very acceptable state.  They clearly show no presence of mold or mildew (the primary function of paver sealing), the sand is visible in the joints, and water beads up on the stones indicating that the sealant is indeed still intact and functioning as intended.

  
  We are sorry that ****************** is unhappy with the appearance of his pavers, but pavers of that age are not going to look new after sealing.  The sealant is functioning, the sand is intact, and all work was completed as contracted.  We do not believe a refund is warranted at this time.

  Customer response

  01/19/2023

   
  Complaint: 18803808
  
  I am rejecting this response because this company and the owners are not telling the truth and I now have to spend over $2,000 to fix my pavers (quote attached) and they still think they deserve to be paid?  ************ should be rated an F  by the BBB. They have a documented history of telling customers one thing in person and then doing the opposite when on the computer in front of the public! I wish I looked at all the horrible yelp reviews about this company before hiring them! **** the owner is really good at telling a story and selling his product but once your sold you will NEVER hear back from him again!  He sends *** to do his dirty work and smooth over his clients and makes you feel like he is going to do the right thing and make it right. Lies, lies, lies!  He told me he would make it right and do right by me. So sneaky to take photos of a few nice spots of the pavers with no issues and makes the BBB think that this is what my house looks like! Such a lie. First of all, no one told me I would have tire marks on my pavers because why would you ask for your pavers to look worse. Yes the tire marks finally went away, but now I get to deal with WHITE pavers in many spots. Probably a 150 of them or so, many joints have to be re-filled. Its a mess here. Just compare my photos to the ones *** took and tell me you can't tell that *** only showed you the few not so bad ones. Do my photos look "Very Acceptable to you?"  The **** is they "talk" a good game but my home is worse off now than before I paid them over $1,000 which is why I had a 3rd party paver company come and estimate what its going to take to fix what they did. They say no mold or mildew, seriously? its been a month or two! The other sealer companies I have spoken with said that the pavers turned white because of over application when they applied a heavy amount on top of the sealed pavers. I know because i watched them on my cameras where they added more in some areas. This is not the first time they have done this as its young teenagers who did the job. Just read the reviews on yelp and ****** and you will see this similar issues happening. *** asked me what he could do to make it right and I told him to strip it and do it the right way. Now that I see he is two faced and had no intention of making it right and really just came to my home to take photos of a few spots to try to make his case I do not want them back on my property any longer.  I trusted **** when he sold me on the work and they did me wrong. I hope that this helps to warn others from trusting their company.  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************

• Initial Complaint

  08/28/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I contacted Surface Smart Paver Sealing & Restoration on Wednesday, August 29th, 2022. This company came to my house in Kissimmee, legitimately poured grease in my driveway, and chipped my pavers. Moreover, they added this ugly yellow sand instead of my natural color. I had brand new pavers I wanted to protect and get sealed; instead, they ruined them! I paid $600 for the job, but I would have happily paid three times that amount for good work. I want my cracked pavers to be replaced, all of that crap in my pavers removed and cleaned, and I want my money back.

  Business response

  10/28/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 10, 2022/10/03) */ We have responded to Mr.******* in his Google review, and replied to his email on which he cc'ed his attorney. We have informed him that he should immediately cease the libelous reviews of our company, and remove them. We did not pour grease on his pavers as he states. We used the same water based sealant we have used on thousands of jobs before him with no issues. We did not chip his pavers. We used the same equipment on hundreds of jobs prior to his, and several dozen afterwards with no issues. Mr******* did not have sand present in his joints other than from the installation of his pavers. We are sorry he doesn't like the beige sand we used as we always do. What he has now are well sanded and sealed pavers. We're sorry he is unhappy with the work. Ownership visited the site to inspect and found no issues with the job. The client complained of an odor which was undetectable, as well as being a unique complaint as none of our thousands of other clients have ever complained of an odor with this product. Despite these imagined issues, we offered at no charge (and against our advice) to rinse down the pavers to take care of the "smell" but rather than schedule a date to do that, the client embarked on a campaign of slander. We cannot "remove the crap" from Mr*******'s pavers as there is no "crap" on them - just sealant. Finally, we request Mr******* immediately cease and desist his campaign to besmirch the reputation of our company before we have to get our attorneys involved as well.

• Initial Complaint

  08/02/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On 3/4/21 I had Josh (the owner) come out to look at my driveway, walkway and front porch for sealing. I mentioned that all of the houses in the development had the same type of pavers and that he could get lots of business if he did a great job on mine, the first house in the development. We went with the stripping of the existing sealant, mold/mildew/vegetation removal, Polymeric sand, and seal with the infinity WB145 "wet look" sealant. On 3/30/21 the work started. After a few days, we noticed that there were spots that had not been fully coated. On 5/17/21, they came back out and put a second coat with rollers this time. After some time, we started noticing white spots on quite a few pavers. I called and asked to find out what is going on and what could be done. Tim the co-owner came to the house and agreed that the current state of the pavers was not very good. Tim then recommended that we pay extra and have the current sealant removed and redone as there had been lots of moisture in the pavers before the sealant had been put down and that was what was causing the problem. I then reached out to Josh to follow up. On 8/24/21 Josh came out and agreed that the pavers did not look good at all and offered to reseal/fix it. The team came back that same day and started the stripping. On 9/28/21 they came back and put down the new sealant. On 10/6/21, they had to come back out again to put down more sand and out a top coat on some spots to even the sealant out. 7/29/22 I reach out to Josh again to tell him that my pavers have no "wet look" and look terrible and I want my money back. Tim calls me back later that day and asks me to send him some pictures of the pavers and he would get with Josh about the issue. 8/1/22 Tim calls and we chat. There is nothing they can do and will not even consider giving us our money back. The pavers look the same as they were before Surface Smart worked on it. Unhappy customer.

  Business response

  09/12/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/08/04) */ We certainly understand the frustration here. We always want the client to be happy with the finished product. In this case however, the outcome was not what the client expected or what we would have hoped to achieve. This being said, there are a couple of things that need to be considered in the request for a refund. Firstly, prior to our arrival on site for the initial estimate, the client had had their pavers previously sealed with a poor choice of sealant, and the job was done incorrectly to boot. This was evidenced by there being a patch of pavers on the bottom left of the driveway that was significantly different in appearance from the rest of the pavers, which had a hazed appearance from moisture being trapped under a solvent based sealant. Based on our experience, performing thousands of services, it was my opinion that stripping existing sealant and resealing would be the best course of action to help bring the pavers to a state that would look better for the client. We stripped and resealed the pavers, and client was dissatisfied with appearance of the stones after the reseal. We performed multiple service calls to attempt to satisfy the homeowner. After repeated service calls, the homeowner was still not happy, and I went out to examine the pavers. After a particularly rainy period, there was a lot of water/moisture that had come up from below the pavers, and some got trapped under remnant of the initial sealant we weren't able to get up initially. Typically, stripping will remove top layers of sealant, but excessive water from below can push up old sealant that had penetrated deeper into the stone. We stripped our sealant and the newly exposed old sealant completely at our expense in order to try to satisfy the homeowner. After which we again performed service calls at the customers behest. Now eleven months have passed and the client is asking for a full refund because he is unhappy with the appearance of his pavers. While we strive to accomodate every reasonable request - this is not a reasonable request for several reasons. First, we performed all work as contracted by the client. We performed this work twice in fact at our expense. We performed multiple service calls as part of good customer service. Second, it is important to note that the primary function of sealant is protection from mold and mildew. It is true that appearance can be improved as part of application of certain sealants, but we make absolutely no warranties/guarantees about the appearance of stones after the job is completed - especially in cases where we are stripping. Third, because the stones were already poorly sealed and potentially permanently damaged prior to our service, it would be impossible to tell what appearance inconsistencies would have even been potentially created by our work vs the previous work. Fourth, appearance is a very subjective thing and not measurable. What constitutes a "wet look" to one person may not be a "wet look" to another. I can say definitively that the product used on the pavers is labelled as "wet look" on the bucket of sealant. Finally, this request for a full refund was made almost a full year after the date of last service. We offer service for workmanship if we are informed of issues within 30 days of completion. A year is a wholly unreasonable amount of time to wait to complain about something not covered under any sort of warranty, and expect a full refund for. Even in the best case scenario, we cannot control weather, amount of traffic, sun exposure, and any other number of factors that could contribute to the degradation of appearance of pavers. This is why we offer NO WARRANTY and make NO PROMISES about appearance. Not 3 days, 30 days, or 300 days after service. At this time we believe after 8 service calls, 2 complete strips and reseals, 3 owner visits, that we have done all we can do and in fact have gone way above and beyond reasonable expectations for service. We got the pavers as good as they could get based on their original condition. Again we're sorry that the result doesn't please the client but there is nothing else that we can do, and issuing a refund a year after we did all of this is not a reasonable request, and not one we are willing to fulfil. Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2022/08/18) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Firstly, If the pavers were too badly damaged from the beginning, a quote to fix them should have never been done. By saying that you would do the work in exchange for money, you are saying you would do the work to make them look better than how it started. There were many spots that were not hit properly and it was confirmed by your technicians and were worked on several times as I had mentioned. Once that was done it did look better for a time. After five months, white spots began to appear. I called and had Tim come out to verify that this was unacceptable. It was offered up to strip and reseal which they did do. It was a month between when they stripped and pressure washed and when they put down the new sealant. During that time, there was minimal rain so the moisture that was under the pavers or in them should have been removed per their info. The last time the crew was sent out to finish the job was on 10/6/21. Since it took five months to see the white spots last time, I had waited to see if anything else would show up as before. I then contacted Tim on 7/29/22 (9 months) to say that my pavers looked even worse than when we had started. For the reasons given for not giving the refund, first, yes they did come out to try and fix the situation several times and it was agreed that the pavers were not to the quality Tim would like to show his new clients. When Tim came out on 8/24/21, I had asked for my money back. Tim then suggested to try and strip and reseal first to see if it would make it better due to the moisture. He would then come out to look it over, which he never did. The new stripping and reseal did not work so I am again at the refund request. Second, if you do not guarantee that the pavers will have a better appearance, why say we want the "wet look" then? It is right on the quote and we discussed it several times. That is why I hired you to make my pavers look better. Keeping out the mold and mildew is an added feature. Third, if the pavers were that bad in the beginning, you should have not quoted the job since you had experience of performing "thousands of services" Fourth, we had talked prior to the quote of the expectations and why I had wanted you to perform the work. Tim had explained what his services would do and showed me pictures of his prior work to show me what my pavers would look like once his services had been completed. It does not look anything like those examples. I paid money for a service that was not completed. Saying that appearance is subjective and referring to the bucket label is not what was discussed and agreed upon on the quote and payment. Finally, the reseal was completed on 10/6/21. This is not over a year over the last service date. It is nine months. Again I waited to see if any other issues would come out as it did before. When entering an agreement, giving a quote and money is exchanged for a service, there is an understanding that work will be done to the satisfaction of the customer. I tried twice with this company for my pavers. I held up my end of the agreement by paying for the services prior to work being done. This company should in good faith also live up to the agreement that if they cannot do the job, then they should give the money back. I expected your expertise would be able to accommodate for all of the factors you gave to give my pavers the look we agreed upon. Do you not stand by your work or do you make excuses to why it failed? I am still requesting a refund to the agreement made via the quote and results talked about prior to work being done by Tim. Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2022/08/18) */ Unfortunately our client did not and does not understand the sealing process and his level of expectation is not realistic. His assertions that promises were ever made about appearance are patently false. We went well above and beyond the call of duty in attempting to resolve something that wasn't even covered by warranty in the first place to try to make the client happy. By his own admission, the pavers looked good for a period of time after we had completed service. We do not guarantee or make and promises about appearance ever - PERIOD. And we especially do not give refunds for work that was done nine months prior to a complaint based on appearance. The idea that we do not stand behind our work product is absolutely absurd. We spent more money on this job in product and labor on service calls than we received from the client. We have effectively paid for the privilege of trying to "fix" these pavers. This is much akin to a diner going to a restaurant and getting an overcooked steak. When he complains about the steak, the restaurant prepares a new entree and gives it to him. Then 9 months later, the diner gets indigestion and calls the restaurant to complain about the second steak and get a full refund. This is unreasonable. We have done nothing but act in good faith from the beginning of the process through today, and have dates and times of all services performed as well as products used. We're clearly not going to make Mr. ****** happy no matter what we do. We are willing to offer 50 dollars for his inconvenience, and that is our best and final offer for resolving the situation.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩