Miles of Excavating

Could not agree more with other reviewer, Craig N. Fortunately I did not hire or pay for the work, but I paid for it in other ways. Closed on a house in April with seller’s money in escrow. Waited for thaw to happen to begin work. Miles knew they were getting paid with escrow funds, they also knew the people living there were not the client, so they phoned it in. Liars, unprofessional, shabby works at best! They stored their equipment on my front lawn for weeks. Showed up to do about 2 hrs of work tops, each week. Ripped out a 12′ koussa and didn’t replace it so I have a hole. Barely hydroseeded anything so I now have a dirt patch with a hole. Never put topsoil down, so I have a rocky dirt patch with a hole. Blamed all of the above on me. Still dealing with lawyers… Terrible work. Terrible customer service. Terrible work ethic. Terrible attitude!

My wife and I recently bought a house in Franklin, MA. Prior to closing, the sellers were required to replace the leach field in order for its septic system to pass Title V inspection. They contracted with Miles of Excavating and the entire process suffered for it. At first Tim Konowitz was friendly and eager to take on the job. His on-​site consultation was positive and he even offered to have his crew clear some overgrowth adjacent to the project site. Tim said the job would take approximately 5 full work days. Since they were slated to begin work during the week of 15 June we were all hopeful to close prior to 1 July. However, project did not finish until 24 July — six weeks after the halted start. As a result we lost thousands of dollars and our mortgage rate.
My wife and I were living at the property during at the time, so we observed the work at close range. During four of the six weeks of work there were days in which Tim sent a single employee to work on the site for minutes, move equipment, and leave the site. We witnessed this on two occasions and our next door neighbor confirmed other instances, as well. I saw Tim on site twice — the first of which he was dismissive and curt. On two occasions my wife and I were compelled to take time off from work so that the house could be open; he needed access so an electrical connection could be fed from our basement. Tim told us — through an intermediary — what day the work was to be done. When I took my day off the subcontracted electrician arrived only to find that Tim’s crew had not done the prerequisite work. Another day of progress — and work time — was for not. When discussing the tempo of the project with Tim’s employees on site, one mentioned that Tim chose to direct resources away from our site in order to begin work on new projects. This was despite agreement amongst the group that all work should be devoted on our project until it was complete.
Once the work started Tim became very difficult to communicate with. By the third week of the project he would rarely return phone calls and only seemed to respond to texts. Even that correspondence was unhelpful. When I asked him to provide an update to me as well as other contributors to the project (eg. engineer on the project, town board of health, etc.) his response was, «Don’t worry this isn’t my first job.»
Tim Konowitz is one of the most unprofessional people I have encountered and our experience with Miles of Excavating was remarkably unpleasant. Tim dismissed the importance of customer satisfaction, communication, timelines, and promises. He was rude, difficult to deal with, and failed to volunteer any updates during a project that lasted six times its estimated length. When speaking with the engineering firm that recommended him it was indicated that they would remove Miles of Excavating from their lists. I can only hope that people avoid Miles of Excavating.