Drieway delivery damage. Be careful

[drewstar]

 Just a warning to others: Be cautious with crane deliveriies.

My tub was delivered via a crane on a hot July day and thier truck did damage to my brand new driveway.

I asked them not to park there truck on the pavement. and to  please use my side lot. They laughed, said they were insured and do this all the time...don't worry about a thing sir. We are the best!

Famous last words.  lots of ruts all over my new, 300 ft driveway.  arrrrrgh.

I am still trying to work this out with the cranes insurance company and although it looks like it will be resolved, it's a pain that could have been avoided.


Don't crane in when not necessary.

Don't do it on a hot day

make sure your delivery guys have insurrance.

[wmccall]

Sounds like these guys were just bufoons.  When Lori got hers done they refused to pull into her driveway for that reason, and came back with a bigger crane.  You should mention to their insurance company the remark about having insurance.

[bob5820]

Sounds just like when Time Warner told me there cable laying tractor wouldn't damage my sprinkler system. Turns out they busted it up pretty bad. It  took a month and a half to find all the leaks.

[drewstar]

You bet I mentioned it.  





damage is almost as much as the hot tub.  :-/

[Vinny]

When my wood was being delivered for the deck, the lumber yard lost the load and crashed it into my garage door. Although they were honest and it went smoothly, it was still a pain.

Once it's repaired, you'll quickly forget about it.

Good Luck!

[orlandoguy]

I told the guys not to drive the truck on my St Augustine sod and use the dolly and when i went inside, they had the truck pulled up to the back patio.  No damage, but I was pissed.

[stuart]

So who do you hold responsible for the damage? We have a similar situation and the customer wants us to pay the damage because we set up the crane for him....

[jsimo7]

I think if the customer made the deal with you, and paid you for delivery, it is up to you to repair the customers loss. Then go after the crane company or thier insurance company for the damages. IMO  Good Luck!!

[stl-rex]

I think if the customer made the deal with you, and paid you for delivery, it is up to you to repair the customers loss. Then go after the crane company or thier insurance company for the damages. IMO  Good Luck!!

I would tend to agree based on the scenario above.  

The other side is if I just dropped ~$8-9K for a spa, I'd expect not to have to deal with something like this.  I would expect the dealer would step up and make it right.

[tony]

I am familiar with the company that delivered drewstars spa because they delivered my spa.  I can tell you that the delivery personnel that I saw were certainly not buffoons.  As a matter of fact, in the state of Massachusetts, there is no way a buffoon is going to get a licence to operate a crane.  The crane they use is a very large crane, about as heavy duty you can get on a truck.  Now some spas may be craned from the street, but that is about a thousand feet away from my house so this delivery had to come down my driveway and they lifted over the house into its final resting spot without a scratch or dent in the house, spa or driveway.  This was on a hot August day.  A properly built driveway should have no problem handling that weight.  The fact that the asphalt was new (I am assuming asphalt driveway) and the weather hot obviously was a factor.

The correct path to resolution should be from spa owner to dealer and dealer to crane subcontractor.  As a dealer, you really don't want a sub dealing with your customer and you want to be in control of the outcome.  If I was the dealer, I would make my insurance company do the work.  File with my insurance company and let them deal with the subs insurance company.  Then again, I have a good insurance agent.

I also am involved with a company that does a lot of asphalt work, though not driveways, so this caught my interest.  

[Lori]

wmcall is correct, and they also made me sign a waiver just in case!  Plus, my dealer had me set up the crane delivery.  I called the crane companies and got the quotes, narrowed it down to the most hateful guy, but in the end, he was great!  Also he was the cheapest!!!

Of course, I wouldn't have a tub in my backyard if I hadn't had it craned in!  

[Ronnie526]

Not quite sure where to post this, but I have pics of my driveway/ crane delivery Friday.  I'm new here & have NO idea how to include a pic in my post.  I tried "Help" topic with no luck.  Thanks!

[drewstar]

Tony,  

I wouldn't/didn't  call them bufoons.  My main point of the post was to make others aware  of the situation and perhaps other could avoid a similliar headache and agrevation.

from this experience, I distincly got the impression that  damage from crane deliveries is not as uncommon as we'd like to think, and although things will get resolved, it can be a frustating proccess.

[SpaMan]

Not quite sure where to post this, but I have pics of my driveway/ crane delivery Friday. šI'm new here & have NO idea how to include a pic in my post. šI tried "Help" topic with no luck. šThanks!

Ronnie I use photobucket.com to post pics it allows you to cut and paste the pics into this site.Or if you can e-mail them to me and I will post them!

[tony]

Drewstar

The buffoon comment came from another post.  My point is that my experience with the crane company was a very professional one and that they knew what they were doing and the equipment they used could handle heavy lifts over a large span.  I've seen pictures of spa crane deliveries with small cranes more suitable to hoisting signs onto poles.  That being said, a driveway should be able to handle that, but with new asphalt during a hot spell, you ran into an unfortunate situation and the operator miscalculated.  Now they have to pay for repairs and put you through all sorts of frustration.

Hopefully the repairs will be to your satisfaction.  A brand new driveway is not easy to repair.