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Ned Stevens Gutter Cleaning

Discussion in 'General Chat Forum' started by quailpond06, Jul 9, 2008.

  1. Jyll

    Jyll New Member

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    What was the end result? Same thing happened to my neighbor and I am trying to resolve it.
     
  2. Jyll

    Jyll New Member

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    Any news yet on the outcome?
     
  3. quailpond06

    quailpond06 New Member

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    Sorry for the delay in response--been battling a dehydrated 8 month old in and out of the hospital from a stomach virus, a cranky 3 year old, and a husband with the swine flu all while trying to keep my full time job. ;-)

    I am so sorry you ended up getting the same "service" we got. We battled with them over a year and ended up negotiating a much cheaper payment for the "service" we never authorized, mainly just to get them off our backs. My husband had to escalate it many times before we got past the threats. I was so disgusted with them!
     
  4. Ned Stevens

    Ned Stevens New Member

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    I manage Ned Stevens Gutter Cleaning, and a very happy customer of ours recently alerted me to the postings on this forum.

    I have read all of your posts and, while it upsets me terribly to see such negative comments, I am here to learn from you and make this company better, every day. I apologize to each and every one of you who is upset, and want you to know that your unhappiness will NOT fall on deaf ears.

    First and foremost, everyone should know that we have been in business since 1965, that we are A+ rated by the Better Business Bureau, and that we are “Honor Roll” qualified on Angie’s List. I say this because happy customers are our first priority. In short, we are committed to providing great service to our customers (the fact that I am responding on this forum years later, should be a testament to how much we care.)

    It seems that the main issue stems from “authorization” of service. Simply put, all services we perform are specifically authorized by our customers. We do not perform work which was not authorized. As with all companies who conduct sales by phone, we record all of our calls for Quality Assurance (a notification at the beginning of every call advises customers that the calls are recorded). Why? Because we want to know if WE were wrong. We want to know if WE did something we were not supposed to do. In short, we want to protect our customers.

    If we made a mistake, we will rectify the situation. However, if the customer made the mistake, we try to politely and respectfully let them know that they may be mistaken. We let you hear the call so that you know, for certain, that we were not trying to upset you by doing the work, but that we did so because we thought we were doing exactly what you wanted us to do (think about it--how many conversations have you had with other companies or even family and friends that you wish you could listen to again?)

    We work hard to get better every day. Quality is of the utmost importance to us.

    We have dedicated Quality Control Managers that spot check our crews’ work every single day. If we receive any notification of problems with the service performed, we will dispatch a crew to take care of the problem and report their findings back to the office so we can take appropriate action with the original crew.

    Additionally, we have a dedicated Quality Assurance Department that works for the single goal of making sure that customers concerns and requests were taken care of properly, and that our valued customers are happy.

    In an effort to consistently improve our service we have also recently implemented a new feature for our customers where our system will automatically generate an email whenever a job is completed. We want to alert customers to the fact that the job was done, let them know if they have any future scheduled service, and let them know if any gutter problems were found during the service visit.

    If anyone wishes to discuss any issues with me personally, I am available 7 days a week. We are open 7 days a week, 363 days a year, most nights until 9pm. Our phone number is 800.542.0267 and I can be contacted directly at rapuanor@nedstevens.com.

    Again, please understand that we are here for our customers, and quality, inside and out, is our first priority.

    Thank you for taking the time to read this post.
     
  5. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

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    Simple - don't set people up for recurring things unless they properly understand that you are trying to setup a recurring instance.

    Don't do service people refuse.

    The pattern here is not coincidence, this appears to be the business model of the company to get more services booked. So what if you piss off a few people, you'll be ahead because most won't fight it.

    It's underhanded - and your lengthy post did nothing to counter any of the complaints here except try to defend your company as being in the right. Your mentality is all wrong and it shows.
     
  6. mdcrim

    mdcrim Member

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    My personal experiences won't change my opinion of your service. Sorry.
     
  7. Rhaegar

    Rhaegar Member

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    As a late 3rd party catching up on this, it appears that they have some slick CSR's and the intent to push the automatic service angle of the business. From people's descriptions, you really need to be on guard to talk to these people else they word a request in a tricky way and get you to say 'yes' to it.

    As they realize this, they record all of the calls, which is perfectly legal in Virginia which is a 1-party consent state, to bolster their practices. Then they use a flurry of BS to defend their position. His posting above is a good example of a lot of words without saying anything. He should be a politician.

    The people posting here are a very small percentage of the total potential customer base. If they're hearing this from the folks on this board then they must hear it from a consistent percentage of their customer base. There is a reason they record calls and there is a reason that "we never provide service to those that didn't ask" is part of their script. It's because it is standard operating procedure. Their PR is good so they know how to game the BBB (which is a scam anyway) and other similar services. This is just my observation and I have never been a customer.
     
  8. Ned Stevens

    Ned Stevens New Member

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    I do not have a scripted response. I simply run a gutter company and care about every customer.

    I receive so many e-mails thanking us for great service and support, but I am certainly not naive enough to think that we make every customer happy or that we don't have lots of room to improve.

    While people can believe anything they want to believe (including the fact that the BBB is a "scam"), all I can do is apologize to any customer who we upset and learn from our customers. We are family owned and operated since 1965. We just want to work hard, get better every day, and do a great job for our customers (which is why I have been posting on this forum years later).

    I would be happy to speak with anyone who would like to speak with me personally. Call 800.542.0267 and ask for Rob.
     
  9. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

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    Want to learn from your customers? Ok for starters

    • Don't continue service after a customer tells you to stop. I don't care if you've incurred cost to send a crew out. Obviously there is confusion there and it should be sorted out before you continue work you insist on billing for.
    • Don't perform work unannounced. Call your clients the day before and confirm your service. Then your first situation would never happen. Having a CSR call someone has got to be cheaper then sending out a crew.
    • DON'T POST SHILL POSTS ON THE INTERNET where people from your organization pretend to be customers

    This post below was posted from your company's network using the same computer you use

    Underhanded business tactics to perform service without confirmation... forcing customers to pay for services they didn't intend to authorize... knowing you need to record every conversation because your practices are sketchy so you know you have to defend yourself... and now shill posting trying to bolster your rep.

    I think you've helped people plenty to know what they are getting into with your company.
     
  10. Rhaegar

    Rhaegar Member

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    Icing on the cake. I love IP logs and nice work thinking to go check them. What a manipulative piece of trash this guy is. This well confirmed what a deceptive business they run. The best part is when you mess up on the Internet, it lives on forever.
     
  11. Mr. Linux

    Mr. Linux Senior Member & Moderator Forum Staff

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    I spent about an hour this morning researching these users, the company, etc. I'm simply amazed at how some folks act on the Internet without thinking about the 'trails' they leave behind... It will be interesting if we hear back from 'Rob' from Ned Stevens here again.
     
  12. GeauxTigers

    GeauxTigers Member

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    How low can one go? That's pretty bad. I've used their service a few times in the past and was pleased overall with the result and price however I luckily became aware last year or so of their sneaky tactic to get you signed up with regular service as sure enough it was tried on me. It was tricky enough that I probably would have fallen for it if I had not been made aware. This year I was actually considering using them again but thanks to this thread, I think I'll look elsewhere. I can't support such shady practices.
     
  13. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

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    I think this is where Jack would say...

    [​IMG]

    :)
     
  14. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

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    Or maybe this would be a more appropriate avatar for the users involved...

    [​IMG]
     
  15. mdcrim

    mdcrim Member

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    Wow... I'm going to go ahead and give a plug to our NEW gutter cleaners-Academy (the people who do the driveway blacktop sealing). Never had a problem with them.
     
  16. lilpea

    lilpea Member

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    Over the years I've had my differences with Mr. Linux & Flynnibus, but after reading this entire thread I am extremely grateful to each of them.

    The info they provided all of us ( such as IP search, researching posts etc) is invaluable and I want to thank Flynn & Mr. Linux.

    Based on your input on this thread we are not using Ned Stevens. It's great we have admins/neighbors that look after each other. Thanks again.
     
  17. T8erman

    T8erman Well-Known Member

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    Plug in just about every name on the forums! :devil2:

    Love ya Pea!
     
  18. redon1

    redon1 aka Aphioni

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    aaawww SNAP!!! that is just great! as Bug Bunny would say to "Rob"- WHAT A MAROOON... :shakehead: :pofl:
     

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