Local

Homeowner says she paid $10K+ for new driveway but company shortchanged her

CHARLOTTE — A south Charlotte homeowner says a company shortchanged her after she paid thousands for a new driveway.

Carol Baujan says she paid Concrete Driveway Company of Greenville, South Carolina, more than $10,000 to build her driveway.

The plans called for certain measurements, but she says the driveway is shallower and narrower than those plans called for.

Her driveway was supposed to be 4-5 inches deep, but she and Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke measured it and it’s only 2.5 inches deep in some spots.

The paperwork says the driveway should have been 15.5 inches wide at the base, where it meets the street, but it’s only 14′4″ across. “It’s more than a foot short,” she said.

Naturally, Baujan complained to the business. She says it sent two people back to her house over the months, but nothing came of it.

“I said, ‘I want to tear it up and replace it or I want my money back.’ And he said … ‘Neither of those is going to happen,’” she said. “‘You are not putting anything on the table. I’ve given you two options and you haven’t given me an option.’”

As of Monday morning, the Better Business Bureau gave the company an “F” rating and counted 90 complaints in the last three years (36 in the last year).

Stoogenke tried to get in touch with the company multiple times in different ways since July, including again on Monday, but it didn’t respond in time for this report.

Anytime you hire someone to do your driveway:

- Do all the usual homework: ask for references, get more than one quote, and search the name of the owners, not just the companies, in case they changed their business names to get away from bad reviews.

- Ask if the contractor uses any subs.

- Don’t pay for the whole thing up front (usually no more than a third).


VIDEO: Action 9 helps Gastonia man who claims Duke Energy damaged driveway