On Apr 21, 5:45*am, Abe wrote:
It happened yesterday. A truck cruised in our neighborhood and I saw
them stop by our neighbor's house (we have a concrete driveway, his is
asphalt) and they talked. Then I went to do something else, the next
thing I know is that my neighbor's asphalt driveway was sprayed with
some tar like substance. So I went to talk to see what happened.

He said that he was scammed: they first agreed on a certain price
($175), they took the money, sprayed half of his driveway, then acted
all surprised and said that "it takes a lot more coating than they
expected" and demanded $50 more for finishing the work. I guess with
the implication that if he did not pay, they would drive off with his
driveway half sprayed looking really stupid. So, he said he paid extra
$50 and they finished the work.

Everyone is responding like he did get scammed, but I'm not so sure.
Was the work done illegally? Almost surely, I'm not arguing that. But
to be scammed, he must have not gotten his money's worth.

Did they do a good job and use a good product on the driveway? Did the
driveway have alot of cracks and other imperfections before they
started? Are they well filled now? $50 extra is not really that much
if there WAS in fact alot of existing damage. Just because they didn't
price it right at first and had to ask for more doesn't mean your
neighbor was scammed, it just means they didn't price the job
correctly.

That is a weird way to view the problem. Someone bids a job, refuses
to finish unless paid more is not a scam? What color is the sky in
your world?

A bid is a bid and reputable companies live up to them. Now had the
owner added to or changed something later, then he would up for
additional charges.

Harry K