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No Driveway For You!
Jun. 9th, 2026 09:43 pmOur asphalt driveway is not in terrible shape, but replacing it is not necessarily a bad idea. I've been kicking it around for several years, but that southwest facing angle helps melt the snow off it in winter and keep it in better shape.
Our neighbors, on the other hand, do not have this advantage and their driveway, only a couple of months older, is pretty much shot. They got a contractor out to look at it and while he was here, he took a look at our driveway in order to develop an estimate.
The company then failed to send me the estimate. Our neighbor gave Gretchen the phone number of the person she'd been dealing with, I called her, and I got the estimate via email. As it turned out, there were a few problems with the estimate that would need to be corrected before I could sign the contract and send them a deposit, so I called the number on the estimate and left a message.
A week later, I called and left another message.
A week after that, I called and left messages on every extension that I could find.
At the end of last week, I located the original number that I had called and left a message.
No one ever called back.
Today, the workmen showed up to work on my neighbor's driveway. I waved at one of the guys before he started and let him know that if anyone in his office returned phone calls, they could be doing my driveway now too. He agreed that this was a problem that he'd seen before, which is impressive for an office that he said had ten people working in it.
None of whom, apparently, know how to use a telephone. Or maybe an answering machine.
Ah, well. The driveway should last for a while longer.
Our neighbors, on the other hand, do not have this advantage and their driveway, only a couple of months older, is pretty much shot. They got a contractor out to look at it and while he was here, he took a look at our driveway in order to develop an estimate.
The company then failed to send me the estimate. Our neighbor gave Gretchen the phone number of the person she'd been dealing with, I called her, and I got the estimate via email. As it turned out, there were a few problems with the estimate that would need to be corrected before I could sign the contract and send them a deposit, so I called the number on the estimate and left a message.
A week later, I called and left another message.
A week after that, I called and left messages on every extension that I could find.
At the end of last week, I located the original number that I had called and left a message.
No one ever called back.
Today, the workmen showed up to work on my neighbor's driveway. I waved at one of the guys before he started and let him know that if anyone in his office returned phone calls, they could be doing my driveway now too. He agreed that this was a problem that he'd seen before, which is impressive for an office that he said had ten people working in it.
None of whom, apparently, know how to use a telephone. Or maybe an answering machine.
Ah, well. The driveway should last for a while longer.
