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,

Corse it does.

it just means they didn't price the job correctly.

Then they get to wear their footshot and do the job for the agreed price.