GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Grand Rapids residents who hired AJ’s Snowplowing have been frustrated all winter, saying they’re clearing their own driveways.
Target 8 has received several complaints about the company. Accusations range from inconsistent service to no service at all, even after paying and seeing checks cashed.
“He’s never come by here, but other people have said he snowplowed once or twice, but never on time, never fulfilling the contract,” Grand Rapids resident Catherine Creamer told Target 8. “So I know he was trying. I think everyone’s giving him the benefit of the doubt, but in some cases some of us were never serviced.”
Creamer said fliers showed up in mailboxes around her neighborhood in September promoting an early bird rate. Target 8 found the company, which is owned by Andrew Briggs, filed with the state Sept. 30, 2019. AJ’s is not licensed in the city of Grand Rapids, Target 8 confirmed, despite advertising in city neighborhoods.
Briggs and Richard Milligan are the only two names listed on the business. Calls to the business number have not been returned, so Target 8 went by its listed address, but no one answered the door.
The address is in Alpine Meadows mobile home park off Fruit Ridge Avenue NW north of Walker. There’s no signage for the company on the trailer. Target 8 also found the owner of the home is not one of the two men listed with the business.
Efforts to get in touch with Briggs or Milligan in other ways have been unsuccessful.
The Better Business Bureau Serving Western Michigan also seems to be having trouble getting in touch with them.
Complaints received earlier this winter seemed to be handled, but the BBB is now looking into 27 complaints filed since the beginning of January.
“At one point when we called, we did actually get ahold of the guy in charge of the company. (He) told us that he had some issues, a couple people had quit. He’s trying to get to everybody and he was going to give refunds to anybody who was unhappy with their service. However, according to the complaints we have, nobody has seen any of those refunds,” BBB West Michigan spokesman Troy Baker said.
Creamer said she was advised to file in small claims court, but she hopes it doesn’t come to that.
“We just want the gentleman to do the right thing and return our checks,” she added. “We’ve been questioning him on this since the first week of November, so it’s not like it’s the end of the season and we’re trying to get our money back because there hasn’t been much snow. It’s just been a real frustration because every time we’ve had snow, we’ve had to come out and shovel or neighbors gang together and help each other and that’s how we’ve gotten through the winter.”