Cinderella 11pm

I called this company about a month ago and asked them to do a soils/pH and salinity, etc., etc. test of the lot.
It’s fairly extensive and costs $550 dollars (which is the reason I’m making a fuss).

It helps give you information you’ll need so you can amend your soil properly prior to planting a garden, something you cannot just eyeball or guess at.
And trust me, if you don’t do this, you can end up buying a lot of plants that will look really badly after a while because the soil was too sandy or had too much clay, or too much acid or not enough acid, or you get the point. Soils need to be balanced properly for the type of plant material that will be there.

Yes, it also has to do with proper watering and proper drainage, but soil quality is the other third of the triangle.
And then sun, shade and wind, of course.

So this guy comes out from this company that is well-respected and well-known, says he is going to dig six holes. I say okay, and leave.
I’ve never done this before. I figure maybe he needs an inch or two or three of soil, and that’s it.
I mean, why would you need more? Can’t you figure it out with a little bit?
The guy doesn’t explain anything else to me, he says he’ll send me a report with all of his findings in a month, and then I can provide that to my landscaper when the time comes.

Well, he digs holes all right. Six holes in random places on the fairly large lot, about 4″ in diameter and about 15″ deep.

Now remember, my lot is basically flat but slightly uneven ground since it hasn’t been graded in the last 20 years.
There is no way you could see a hole until you were on top of that hole.
You’re basically simply walking an unfinished dirt lot, where a reasonable person would have no expectation of a hole suddenly appearing.

Just enough to trustingly walk on the edge of unseeing, lose a toehold/lose your footing in that 4″ opening, fall in awkwardly and break an ankle or leg but good in one of those newly dug holes.

I DON’T THINK SO. NOT ON MY LOT.
CAN YOU SMELL IMPRENDING LAWSUIT FROM ANYONE WHO FALLS?
EVEN IF THEY WERE JUST A NEIGHBOR KID WHO SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN ON THE LOT IN THE FIRST PLACE BUT YOU KNOW HOW KIDS LIKE TO RUN AROUND AND PLAY… LET ALONE AN ADULT JUST CHECKING THE VIEW OUT, OR BEING NOSY, OR EVEN A WORKER…

Ugh. Shudder.
So I call the company and politely tell them I wasn’t informed as to the depth and diameter of the holes, wasn’t there when the guy dug the holes, and since this is their business, they should have filled the holes up with new soil they brought with them – you can buy a 50 gallon bag of the stuff for 20 -30 dollars, so there wouldn’t be any possible liability issues for me – let alone for them down the road if this whole thing got as ugly as things can get when you assume there will never be a problem and don’t cover your patootie and somebody sues for every penny you ever thought you’d have, with a lawyer who smells money and goes for every angle he can, no matter how ridiculous.

I ask them to please go back to the lot and fill the holes up.
They say they would have to charge me.
I say ‘no’, you will not charge me additional, you should have done it at the time.
They say ‘tough’, we aren’t doing it.
I say please, we are on the same side, we are just trying to avoid a future issue, and this is something that should have reasonably been done at the time as a matter of course.

They say they aren’t going to do it without charging me to go out there again,.
I ask to speak with a supervisor.
It takes a few minutes for them to transfer me. I can hear them mumbling about it in the background.
She just gives me attitude.

I say in that case, I will call my attorney and have her handle it with them.
The supervisor says ‘fine’ with a total teeth-gritting-defiant voice, like she thinks I am the biggest beeyotch on the planet.
Yep, that’s me, the customer who wants things to be done right – what a pain.

Then as I am transferred back to the original guy who did the report, he says he has in the meantime spoken to HIS supervisor, and golly gee, guess what, they are going to go out to the lot today and take care of it, no charge.

THANK YOU!

I gotta tell you, I have no idea where my balls have come from, but it appears there are there, hairy as can be and making a sound like a brass gong when they bump against each-other.

I never would have had the gumption to do this even as much as six months ago.
I would have let them walk all over me, or worse yet, not known this was a problem and karma (the law of responsibility and cause and effect) would have had someone fall and sue me, and I would have been crying and having to say goodbye to the house before it ever got built.

Now I have gumption. And the more I do things that don’t let me be walked on, the more gumption I get.

You may send me a gold plated broomstick at Halloween for me to ride, and I will be proud to get on it:)