The perils of home renovation

Two years ago, I realized that my driveway badly needed repaving, so last year I contracted a paving company to rip out the old asphalt, and lay down a new blacktop for me. Long story short, it took longer than I expected.

This year, I decided to revamp my front walkway by taking advantage of the "spring sales" that some landscaping companies had offered. I specifically chose Sure-Loc Interlocking to create a new walkway for me.

The salesman came by my house at the beginning of May, and I signed a contract that very day. He required a $100 (cash) downpayment on the new brickwork, with the remaining $900 to be paid in two installments: one when work started, and one when work finished.

A couple of weeks later, I decided to take a small vacation, and called Sure-Loc to determine if there would be a conflict between my absence and their work. The Sure-Loc office informed me that they intended to do work "in the Brampton area" the week I was away, but did not indicate which, if any, day, the work on my walkway was scheduled. Needless to say, they were now aware that I was not going to be available during that week, and I expected them to reschedule my work for some other time.

After I returned, I waited for a couple of weeks for Sure-Loc to contact me with their work schedule. When that didn't happen (early June), I started calling the telephone numbers noted on their invoice. One number just rang without answer, and the other two numbers lead to an answering service. The answering service could not tell me when I was scheduled, and replied to every query that "the office will have to call you back on that".

By mid-June, I started getting worried. Finally, I did get in touch with the office, but all that they could tell me is that they didn't know when the job was scheduled, and the "scheduling lady" was unavailable for the next week. I asked that the "scheduling lady" call me; weeks later, I'm still waiting for a call from the "scheduling lady".

By this time, I started calling the 1-800 number every couple of days, with their "the office will call you" as the only answer I got.

By late June, I started to get aggressive; I noticed that the very first clause of their contract indicated that Sure-Loc was contractually obliged to begin work within 60 days of the signing of the contract, and that they would be in default of the contract as of July 4.

Well, that call to the answering service got some action. The next day (Thursday, June 30) I received a call from "the office", and the gentleman told me that "Phil" would be out to do all the work on Saturday (July 2). "Phil" called immediately after to confirm that he would be out to the house Saturday morning, with all the materials, to build the new walk.

Friday came and went, and Saturday finally came. But, Sure-Loc did not. While I waited all day for "Phil", or even a phone call, neither happened. Saturday passed, as did Sunday, without any contact whatsoever from Sure-Loc.

On Monday, Sure-Loc was now in default of their contract.

Before lunch on Monday, the salesman (Tony) called me, and told me that Sure-Loc was uninterested in doing my walk. According to him, Sure-Loc didn't think that it was "worth their while" to complete the job, and would refund my deposit. Tony refused to commit to an appointment to return my money, and only said that he would give it back "sometime during the week", probably by leaving it "under the front mat".

Stuck for my hundred dollars, I reluctantly agreed. But, by Friday evening, neither Tony nor my hundred dollars were to be found. I finally left Tony a voicemail demanding that he return my refund, ASAP. Tony's attitude was that he'd return it when he got around to it, and I should stop "acting like a child". Finally, he committed to returning my money by noon, Saturday June 9.

At 11:30 on Saturday June 9, I finally received my refund and Sure-Loc was absolved of any more responsibility.

The moral of all this? Well, first off, don't contract Sure-Loc for anything. They are unreliable, and almost crooked in the way they do business. The second moral is to research the company before signing the contract; if I'd checked on the internet, I would have found that this runaround is Sure-Loc's standard operating procedure.

So be warned. Stay clear of Sure-Loc Interlocking of Mississauga and Burlington.

Addendum: Early Monday July 11, Tony called me to demand that I remove my review from the Homestars review site. With a threatening tone, he insisted that I had no business posting a review and (in a later voicemail) indicated that he had lost a potential sale because of it. I respectfully declined to remove the review; I feel that it summarized my dealings with Sure-Loc fairly without being abusive. Because of how HomeStars works, Sure-Loc has the option of posting an official reply; we'll see if they avail themselves of the opportunity to get their "side of the story" onto the web.

Addendum: On the evening of Monday, July 11, I received a call from Ron Nugent, the owner of Sure-Loc. He demanded that I return my copy of the contract to him. He denied

• that Tony M worked for Sure-Loc,
• that Tony M had the authority to sign a contract, and
• that Tony M called me on July 4 to officially cancel the contract.

He claimed that the "60 day" clause didn't count weather delays and labour disputes, of which he would claim to have had both. He threatened to sue me, should I not surrender my copy of the contract.

I made my position clear, that he could only have my copy if he supplied an official letter from Sure-Loc, signed by himself, cancelling the contract. We arranged that he would come to my place on Tuesday @ 2PM to make the exchange.

Instead, he sent Tony, at 5PM, to destroy all copies of the contract. Tony marked each copy "VOID", signed and dated them, and then tore them up and shredded them. The contract should be dead. But I can't trust these guys. They lie about everything.