Paving Contractors
L. Browe Asphalt Services, Inc.Complaints
This profile includes complaints for L. Browe Asphalt Services, Inc.'s headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see
Customer Complaints Summary
- 2 total complaints in the last 3 years.
- 0 complaints closed in the last 12 months.
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Initial Complaint
Date:11/15/2022
Type:Product IssuesStatus:AnsweredMore info
Complaint statuses
- Resolved:
- The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
- Unresolved:
- The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
- Answered:
- The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
- Unanswered:
- The business failed to respond to the dispute.
- Unpursuable:
- BBB is unable to locate the business.
Our driveway and walkways were paved November 3, 2020. Before the end of the first year, the sides of the walkways were cracking and falling off and the driveway itself began to crumble. The salesman returned at that time and said the issue would be resolved. It was not resolved. We continued to communicate with the salesman Joe R****, who said he would pass our concerns to "Tom - the Foreman on our job", but Tom never got in touch. I have been trying to work with Joe, and have let him know on multiple occasions that Tom has not contacted us, but nothing is being done to resolve our issue. We paid $6,500 for a driveway that began crumbling before the end of one year of installation. When we tried to have the driveway sealed (by another company) we were told the driveway was not "hard pressed" and was falling apart, so we could not have the driveway sealed. I want the driveway and walkways redone. I believe we have been extremely patient and reasonable, but after working with them for more than a year, we are just being ignored by L. Browe Asphalt. Thank you for your time.Business Response
Date: 12/28/2022
Hi *****,Hope you are well!After some discussion with our crew leads, and owner, we wanted to reach back out and offer to crack fill and sealcoat your driveway and sidewalks at no charge to you. We would have to wait until the Spring to do this work. We have a reminder in to reach back out when we get closer to our sealcoating season. Feel free to reach out to Lorne, the owner, at ###-###-#### with any questions.Thank you for patience while we handled this matter, enjoy the holidays! Best Regards,*******Initial Complaint
Date:11/01/2022
Type:Product IssuesStatus:ResolvedMore info
Complaint statuses
- Resolved:
- The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
- Unresolved:
- The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
- Answered:
- The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
- Unanswered:
- The business failed to respond to the dispute.
- Unpursuable:
- BBB is unable to locate the business.
Better Business Bureau:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
To the folks at the BBB… I thank you for your consideration
and processing of my complaint with the L Browe company. You provide an
outstanding service to consumers and you had provided much appreciated
assistance to me with a past incident. Keep up the good work !
It is clearly evident to me based on their response that the
L Browe company is washing their hands of any responsibility for the
deteriorating condition of my driveway and are actually trying to deflect the
issue at hand by blaming me for it with baseless and untrue allegations. In
response to their message, I’d like to set the record straight on several
points :
(1) (1) While I asked L Browe for a quote regarding the
sealing of my driveway, I decided to go with another company whom I’ve used in
the past and I know to be a reputable, honest and trustworthy company. Who I
chose to do the sealing was obviously my right as a consumer and is irrelevant
to the issue at hand. While the cracks were visible at the time of the sealing,
I had this procedure done within the recommended timeframe (1 to 2 years after
installation) and had hoped it would prevent further deterioration. Unfortunately,
it didn’t and several months later I contacted L Browe and alerted them to the
situation.
(2)
(3) (3) L Browe states that their foreman offered to
provide crack filling for free during his inspection of my 2-year old deteriorating
driveway. This is absolutely untrue as there was no mention of this during the
inspection. As stated in my initial complaint, the foreman and his two
assistants stood around for almost 30 minutes repeatedly stating to me that
they’d, quote, “never seen anything like this”. The foreman also mentioned to
me that they had recently changed their source of asphalt mix, so it is
possible that they had used an inferior quality mixture during my installation.
Again, no offer of crack filling was made and there was no communication back
from L Browe after they left with the assurance that they “wouldn’t leave me
hanging”.
(4) (4) In their response, L Browe states that their
warranty does not apply to cracks due to unbanked edges. During his inspection,
the foreman stated that he didn’t think the wider edge cracks were caused by
the unbanked edges and certainly not the “spider web” cracking more towards the
middle of the driveway. The edges are unbanked because there had been grass
growing up through the asphalt on the edges, most likely because the asphalt
was too porous and insufficiently tamped or compacted. To prevent this from
occurring, I had to trim the grass away from the edges, hence the reason for
the unbanked edges.
(5) (5) Lastly, I do not recall them applying any base
gravel under the asphalt, something that is critical when installing asphalt on
heavy clay soil and something L Browe should have been acutely aware of given that
they are based in this area. It is my opinion that the deteriorating condition
of my 2-year old, $8000 L Browe driveway may be due to the lack of sufficient
base gravel, insufficient compaction and tamping on the edges, low quality
asphalt that was later changed, or a combination of all of these factors.
I don’t know what more your organization can do with my
case, but if it is to be closed, I am hoping it remains on record on your
website so other consumers can be aware. While pursuing independent legal
action of my own remains an option, at the very least I will share my
experience on several review websites including ****, **** *******, **** and
******.
I will provide more photos to you in a separate email for
the record. Please let me know if you need any more information from me regarding
my complaint. Again, I thank you so much for your service.
Regards,
******* ******* them have been unanswered, including my final phone message left specifically to the presumed owner of the business, Lorne Browe. In my final message, I stated that if they were not interested in effecting repairs to my driveway, I would accept a full reimbursement of my $8000 as resolution.
The business's website states that their work is fully guaranteed, yet they refuse to respond to any of my messages regarding what resolution they will take to fix my deteriorating 2-year-old driveway. I am demanding that they either effect repairs or completely redo the driveway as soon as the weather permits (now likely in the spring of 2023) and provide me with a written statement beforehand that they will do so, or they reimburse me the full $8000 I paid. Thank you for your consideration into this matter* ******* ******** Rensselaer, NY.Business Response
Date: 11/11/2022
******* ********* driveway was initially paved by L. Browe Asphalt on July 9th, 2020. On March 18th, 2022 we sent him a reminder email about sealcoating his driveway to help protect the asphalt from elements and cracks. He responded around April 11th, 2022 asking for a quote to sealcoat, which was sent to him on April 12th, 2022. After that he was unresponsive to any communication with him. We attempted to initiate contact with him again via numerous different methods on April 14th, 2022, April 28th, 2022, and May 9th, 2022. There was no mention of cracks during this period of communication. ******* called and sent photos of cracks along the edge of his driveway on July 6th, 2022, three days prior to his two year warranty expiring. When the photos were received and evaluated by our team it appeared that there could have potentially been a vehicle that drove off the edge of the driveway that created this cracking. While our warranty that is quoted below and was acknowledged when signing the quote does state that we are not responsible for cracking due to the unbanked edges that are shown in the photos attached, we did offer to provide crack fill free of charge. Mr. ******* would not accept that resolution. “Two year warranty - L. Browe Asphalt Services Inc. guarantees the quality of materials and workmanship to be free of any defects for a period of two years from the date of installation. Hairline cracks do not require any corrective action. Any cracks larger than 1/8 inch wide will be filled with a liquid crack filler at no charge under the two year warranty. These repairs might be visible. The warranty does not include reflective cracking, damage caused by gas or oil spills, cracks due to unbanked edges or tree roots, and normal wear and tear.”A foreman from L. Browe was sent to visit ********* property to assess the cracks in person on July 19th, 2022. Our foreman also mentioned that we could provide crack fill free of charge, Mr. ******* again rejected that resolution. The foreman did note at that time that the driveway had been sealcoated by another company. While there may have been opportunity to provide a billable repair using our infrared heater we were now unable to provide that option due to the top layer of asphalt being topped with sealer. At this point in time L. Browe Asphalt feels all opportunities and resolutions have been exhausted, and we have upheld our guarantee in our warranty.Business Response
Date: 01/10/2023
BBB received the following message from the customer on behalf of the business: The L Browe company did reach out to me directly via email on 11/28/2022. They stated that they would perform a mill down and repave of my driveway in the spring. Hopefully, this future action will provide satisfactory resolution of my issue. Thank you!
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