- Report: #466506
Complaint Review: Habitat Landscape - Highland Michigan
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Habitat Landscape
4061 Woodland Dr Highland, 48356 Michigan, U.S.A.
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Habitat Landscape - Aaron Kalmar - Landscaping HORRIBLE Pond Installation Highland Michigan
Aaron Kalmar of Habitat or Habitat Landscape (whichever he is using at the time) is nothing short of a con man. He presents a very amicable image, but when it comes down to it, can't deliver a product and won't stand behind his mistakes, OR his estimate! He quoted the job at $20,000 (with a provision for +/- 10%) and ended up at $28,000. That's 40% over budget, and he didn't tell us until the 3 days before he finished! We should have just told him to eat the difference on going over budget. He seemed like a nice guy, and made it a point to talk to us about his personal financial problems caused by his wife who couldn't stop spending money and bouncing checks. We felt badly for him.
We contracted him to build a pond for us. We had some specific design ideas in mind, but he advised against them. We wanted a two tiered pond with separate liners for each area, so that if power went out and the pump stopped, we wouldn't flood our yard. He told us that we'd never be able to seal the two areas properly, and that we would continually have leakage problems. He advised that we use one continuous liner. We assumed that, since he's supposed to be the professional, that he knew best.
We also told him that it was our intention to keep koi in the pond. Unfortunately, the system he designed made certain that we were unable to do so. He structured the system so that the water returning from the lower pond to the upper fed in at the bottom. The problem (as we later discovered) is that in the winter, the thermal zones invert and the warmer water is actually AT THE BOTTOM, unless that's being flooded by cold water from the lower pond. The bigger problem was that he did not install a check valve on the end of the line feeding the upper pond. When the pump turns off, this instantly becomes a large drain. The upper pond is not water tight, and will not even hold one inch of water. Each fall, we have to move all the plants from the upper pond to the lower, and drain the water from the upper into our yard.
Within 2 months of the pond being finished, the back wall started collapsing and water was running off the back. His solution was to send one of his many illegal immigrant workers (by his own admission, that's how he keeps his prices down) to stack some dirt and reposition some stones. This occurred numerous times in different spots. When we contacted him, he came out and looked on a couple of occasions, and during his final phone conversation told us that we were trying to "nickel and dime him to death." We have since had several leaks and areas where the liner sagged that we've repaired ourselves. He refused to listen to the fact that it was improperly built, didn't meet our requests, had inadequate filtration, any of it.
Since dealing with him, we've had estimates from 5 other companies to go back and change the configuration to eliminate the problems. The cheapest estimate we've had is $6,000. Unfortunately times were better when we had the pond built, and we can no longer afford to do the repairs. Suing him is pointless because it has been a few years now. Basically, we took a $28,000 course in how NOT to build a pond!
At our last area home show, there was a write-up in the paper about how he's giving away a pond to a deserving family or school. I wonder how much this free pond will cost them in the long run?
The bottom line is, unless you want a real headache trying to get what you paid for, especially trying to get it at the price you were quoted, don't buy a pond from a guy who doesn't have one in his own yard, and CERTAINLY not from Aaron Kalmar!
Phil
Plymouth, Michigan
U.S.A.
We contracted him to build a pond for us. We had some specific design ideas in mind, but he advised against them. We wanted a two tiered pond with separate liners for each area, so that if power went out and the pump stopped, we wouldn't flood our yard. He told us that we'd never be able to seal the two areas properly, and that we would continually have leakage problems. He advised that we use one continuous liner. We assumed that, since he's supposed to be the professional, that he knew best.
We also told him that it was our intention to keep koi in the pond. Unfortunately, the system he designed made certain that we were unable to do so. He structured the system so that the water returning from the lower pond to the upper fed in at the bottom. The problem (as we later discovered) is that in the winter, the thermal zones invert and the warmer water is actually AT THE BOTTOM, unless that's being flooded by cold water from the lower pond. The bigger problem was that he did not install a check valve on the end of the line feeding the upper pond. When the pump turns off, this instantly becomes a large drain. The upper pond is not water tight, and will not even hold one inch of water. Each fall, we have to move all the plants from the upper pond to the lower, and drain the water from the upper into our yard.
Within 2 months of the pond being finished, the back wall started collapsing and water was running off the back. His solution was to send one of his many illegal immigrant workers (by his own admission, that's how he keeps his prices down) to stack some dirt and reposition some stones. This occurred numerous times in different spots. When we contacted him, he came out and looked on a couple of occasions, and during his final phone conversation told us that we were trying to "nickel and dime him to death." We have since had several leaks and areas where the liner sagged that we've repaired ourselves. He refused to listen to the fact that it was improperly built, didn't meet our requests, had inadequate filtration, any of it.
Since dealing with him, we've had estimates from 5 other companies to go back and change the configuration to eliminate the problems. The cheapest estimate we've had is $6,000. Unfortunately times were better when we had the pond built, and we can no longer afford to do the repairs. Suing him is pointless because it has been a few years now. Basically, we took a $28,000 course in how NOT to build a pond!
At our last area home show, there was a write-up in the paper about how he's giving away a pond to a deserving family or school. I wonder how much this free pond will cost them in the long run?
The bottom line is, unless you want a real headache trying to get what you paid for, especially trying to get it at the price you were quoted, don't buy a pond from a guy who doesn't have one in his own yard, and CERTAINLY not from Aaron Kalmar!
Phil
Plymouth, Michigan
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Phil b
Plymouth,Michigan,
U.S.A.
Recent contact from Aaron
#2Author of original report
Mon, March 07, 2011
On February 25, 2011, I receive a certified letter from Aaron saying that my posting here had recently been brought to his attention. He stated that when we worked together he was under the impression that we had a good client-contractor relationship. How he arrived at this impression based on the number of times we contacted him to complain, and that our final contact was my telling him we never wanted to see or hear from him again is beyond me.
He also stated that he felt his reputation had been damaged by the posting for various reasons, most notably was that he now claims none of his employees were illegal aliens. He states now that he has documentation to prove all his employees were legally on his payroll. This is in direct conflict with what we were told at the time. On several occasions he told both my wife and I that most of the guys working on the site were not legal, and that it was really the only way he could operate and still make a profit based on the economy. On his one return visit the spring after he installed the pond, he told us both that he was getting a late start because not all of his crew was "able to make it back across the border yet." Yet now, he claims this is not the case. Whether or not they were legal, I have no way to confirm, all I can tell you is what we were told at the time. It's kind of that old "were you lying to us then, or are you lying to us now?" routine. You can't offer two diametrically opposed versions of the story and have them both be true.
He also complained that I should not have made statements about his wife's spending habits and the bounced checks. The reason I did, as I stated in my first posting, was to illustrate why we felt sorry for him and didn't tell him to just eat the amount over the price he quoted us. We could very easily have told him we just weren't going to pay it, and that his financial problems were his own, but we tried to give him a break because of the situation he repeatedly told us about. If he was that concerned about it getting out or about what people thought, he had the option of keeping it to himself.
He also complains about my referring to him as a con man. In my reply to him, I explain that “Con man” is short for “Confidence Man,” an individual who gains the trust (confidence) of the target, then orchestrates a situation where the target puts up money or goods and then the “con man” reneges either in part or in whole on their end of the transaction. This is exactly what happened here. I will state for the record that, to the best of my knowledge, it has not been proven in court that he is a con man. It is simply my personal opinion that it would be reasonable to refer to someone who makes several thousand dollars profit by quoting one price, charging another, plays on the sympathy of his client by telling a sob story, and providing a grossly substandard product in the process, as a con man. The alternative would be to think of him as an idiot who lacks the ability to understand what he's doing. So my personal opinion is still that this was a con, but in response to his request, please feel free to think of him as completely inept rather than dishonest. You certainly have the right to roll the dice and form your own opinion. Just don't say you weren't warned of the potential outcome.
He also advised me that I had 10 days to remove the post, or that he would seek legal recourse. I explained to him that the site does not provide the ability to remove the posting, and that he had the option of posting a rebuttal. I did note, however, that the ONLY allegation he claimed was false was the portion about his employees, but that he created that situation by telling us they were illegal in the first place.
So, I will keep you up to date as to whether or not he actually files a suit. Since there are no legal grounds whatsoever to file, let alone win a case, I'm not overly concerned. I would welcome one, however, if he chooses to do so. It would give me an opportunity to state in court what happened and make it a legal record for other prospective clients to investigate.
