academy sealers

Hello,

Does anyone here use Academy Sealers service to seal the driveway? Thanks.

 

they sealed our driveway yesterday as a matter of fact!

 

They did my neighbors. Seems to be a competent job. I am not sure how much they paid. Last year I had mine done for $65

 

I hope everyone was happy with our service.

Nils Warga
Owner Academy Sealers
(Broadlands resident for 6 years)

 

We used Collegiate Sealers last year but I think I might try Academy Sealers this year. Academy's price is a bit lower than Collegiate's this year and I was not 100% happy with the job Collegiate did last year.

Here's a question for ya Nils,

What time of year is the best to have the driveway sealed?

 

I had used Collegiate Sealers in the past and was happy with them. Tried Academy this year, and will not use them again.
They applied the sealer and left several thicks "swipes" where the sealer wasn't smoothed out. My wife, who was home, pointed this out but was told it would go away in a few days. When I came home and saw this, I called Academy with my same concern. Having sealed driveways myself in the past, I know these ridges don't just "go away." I was told to give it a few weeks and call back if it didn't go away. As expected it did not, and now I have these dark lines across the driveway.
I called back and Academy agreed to come out and redo the driveway. They never showed up.
Needless to say, my future business will be with Collegiate.

 

We used them and they were great. price was good and they were prompt and curtious

 

I think summer of fall is the best time of year to get driveway. Don't do your driveway in the late fall if you have significant shade or northern exposure (especially by the garage). If your driveway gets fairly good sun, then doing it in the fall is a good idea.

Cliff:

I am sorry that you are so unhappy. You expressed concern over excess sealer in a brush stroke on your driveway.. After coming back to your house myself, I determined that although the area was fairly minor, and common, I would reseal it to avoid having a dissatisfied neighbor. I scheduled a day to reseal it free of charge. When we came, there was a vehicle in the driveway and no one answered the door. We cannot do work when there is a vehicle in the driveway. Please call me at 703-723-9725, and we will gladly reseal your driveway as we previously agreed.

Also as a note; I ran Collegiate Sealers for almost a decade. I was proud of the work I did there. When I started this company, I told myself that I would never bash my old company without reason. I still won't. But knowing the ins and outs of both companies, I can honestly tell my neighbors, that Academy Sealers runs a slightly tighter ship than collegiate sealers, and that our prices are 10-15% lower. As your neighbor, I will always make sure that everyone is 100% happy.

Thanks

Nils "Bear" Warga
21364 Chickacoan Trail Dr

 

So what day did you come back? Was it the Monday as promised? No vehicle was left in the driveway with no one home that day. I made a point of powerwashing the driveway Sunday so it was clean and clear for Monday.
When you did come back, did you make any attempt to call me back or leave a note to let me know you had been there?
Sorry, but I do not consider a 12 foot sweeping black line in the driveway to be minor or common. That's not counting the 2 other 4-5 foot ones.
I sealed my own driveways for 15 years and have had Collegiate do it for 6 and have NEVER had these types of brush marks left.
At this point, I'l leave my driveway sealing to the professionals.
I don't mean to sound harsh, but customer service is something I did for years and take fairly seriously.

 

Cliff,

I ran the other company as the president for the last decade. I left it because I did not like the way it was headed. I ran all the day to day operations with complete oversight of the 25-30 employees. Now I have taken that experience to my own company, whose employees average more experience and language competance than the old.

You complained about something I thought was minor. I agreed to redo the entire driveway free of charge. We could not do it the day we came sue to a vehicle on the driveway.

I would like to apologize for never following through to reschedule that appointment for the free reseal.

I think you may be making a shortcut in analysis in assuming that we are unprofessional. I have lived here for almost 6 years, and this is the way I support my family of 4.5 that is active in the community.

I am not saying that being a long tenured part of the community should make up for any shortcomings, however I think you should be more more careful when making blanket assertions.

A dirty little secret about driveway sealing is that even when you use good materials and quality foremen, an extremely particualar customer can alomost always find imperfections when going over the driveway with a microscope.

I am not saying your concerns were non-existent, or even trivial. I came back to your house, looked at the driveway, and agreed to redo it free of charge.

Your post implies I am dishonest and I hope it was written hastily.

I hope you reconsider your position.

Nils "Bear" Warga
21364 Chickacoan Trail Dr.
President,
Academy Sealers

 

Guys,

how about taking this off-line, as in, a direct visit or phone call ?? I can understand both sides of this conversation, and it seems like there's miscommunication on all sides. May I suggest that the best way to resolve this is off the boards??

 

Neil,

I think I agree with you. The only problem is that Cliff has brought up issues with my company, that I have offered to resolve. I wanted to keep the communication, and resolution public because the concerns were voiced publicly.

Bear

 

Again, totally understand that too.

From where I sit out in Western Pennsylvania, I see two people who are talking, each one being very articulate.

Cliff has concerns, you also have concerns and are trying to make amends. Now, its time to go offline, take care of this issue, and come back here and let us know about a conclusion that is satisfying to all. :genius:

 

You probably aren't going to hire a driveway sealer that is 4 hours away, but people who live here are interested in the customer service of a local company.

 

eam - Neil was "local" for quite sometime and knows this community better than most of us. And I bet that he probably still cares about Broadlands more than most of us.

 

Yes, but he stated the conversation should stop b/c no one else would be interested, and I disagree.

 

That's NOT what I said ... go back and re-read it.

I'm basically saying that its time for them to talk directly, and get to a resolution. I'm interested to hear what comes out of that.

Thanks ... in some weird way .. that's still true

 

"Honesty" never entered the conversation. I stated FACTS.
The job was done. A concern was raised by the CUSTOMER before you left. You told the customer not to worry about it, it would go away. Then I, the other CUSTOMER in the house called you back and raised the same concern later that day. You also told me it would go away. I guess I know more about driveway sealing, because I KNEW these marks would not go away.
Guess who was right? The marks are still there. Had you taken the 5 minutes to fix the drive before you left, the rest of this would never have happened.
You implied that I'm complaining about a "common and minor" problem that YOU determined was insignificant. If my driveway is an example of what you consider a quality job, then I really don't want your company back out here to redo it.
Who's the customer here??????
If you showed up that Monday and if the car was in the drive, my wife was in the house. A few more knocks or another ring of the bell would have brought her to the door.
As a service provider, I was disappointed that you had not shown up or, if you had, made no attempt to contact me to let me know you were there and to reschedule.

Collegiate Sealers just did my neighbor across the street today and it looks beautiful.

 

Its hard to believe that out of 3000 jobs my company has done this year, only you mt neighbor have given me this hard a time.

YOU HAVE THE FACTS WRONG.

You try to be articulate and state your case but you are not even stating the facts clearly.

Here are the fact:

You ordered our service:

We came to do the work on the appointed day.

When we came to do the work the original time, there was a car in the driveway and no one answered the door. Because it appeared that someone was home they tried again at the door until your wife answered and moved the car.

When the crew was finished your wife pointed out several "raised" areas of sealer. Our crew told your wife that the raised areas of sealer should evaporate and not be that noticeable.

(A note: if you walk back on to a driveway over an area already finished, you will ruin the job. The reason we did not walk back out right then and there is because we thought the raised areas would evaporate, not because we were trying to save 30 seconds of extra work).

You called a week or so later saying that the marks that had previously been pointed out were bothering you. We subsequently came out, called you and agreed to reseal the driveway. (You could see the areas where you had complained originally, although they had evaporated so as to not be raised).

On the appointed day my crew came there was a car in the driveway again.

Now my apology: I AM SORRY THAT IT SLIPPED THROUGH THE CRACKS and we never rescheduled. And I admit that after that day it never came back up in my database.

I am reminded by you in this forum and offered to reseal it as promised.


I have been reading a lot of your posts in this forum. You seem to be very active and helpful, but occasionally, coarse. I am not sure why you would imply that my company is not professional, but I take serious offense to that. I ran Collegiate Sealers enitre operations since graduated from Yale in 1997. I left the operation last year because I could no longer stand working for the absentee owner. As a matter of fact, the professional left that company.

I offered to make it right, why are you trying to make a bigger issue of this?

Nils "Bear" Warga
Owner
Academy Sealers
21364 Chickacoan Trail Dr
Resident for 6 years

 

we used academy sealers and they did a good job. they were communicative (there was rain on the initial day) and they came back to fix a rough spot. the owner came back after it was all done to be sure we were 100% satisfied. we were- fwiw.