The 411 From 406 » snow

Empire Snow Removal – Solon, Ohio & Twinsburg, Ohio

Chewie — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 02:34:52 +0000

If you live in Solon or Twinsburg, Ohio (or the surrounding areas of Aurora, Glenwillow, Bedford, Hudson, etc.) you may very well have run across a scam. There is a company that is currently calling itself Empire Snow Removal. They offer snow removal services for residential addresses for a very reasonable price. Unfortunately this is a COMPLETE SCAM.

This “company” has been running this scam for several years under at least 2 company names. Back in 2008, I fell for this scam when they were going under the name of The Snowplow Guys. You can read the entire history here. To make a very long story short, here’s how the scam plays out:

You get a letter in your mailbox letting you know about this service.
You sign up for the service and pay either half up front or for the entire season (at a discount).
The Snowplow Guys / Empire Snow Removal plows a couple of times.
The Snowplow Guys / Empire Snow Removal simply stop showing up. They don’t return calls and they don’t refund your money. At this point, they don’t care because they’ve GOT YOUR MONEY.

Please note that I haven’t worked with these guys since that winter in 2008. However, I know it’s still an issue because that blog post I wrote back then continues to get comments to this day. And not only that, but I received the Empire Snow Removal scam letter this year as well.

PLEASE, read this post and all of the comments. You’ll see YEARS worth of complaints for multiple company names (The Snowplow Guys, Empire Snow Removal and Natural Science Landscaping) under the company owner (a gentlemen named Randy).

The address of the company is below:

7655 Richmond Road
Solon, Ohio 44139

I’ve also seen it listed as:

Randy Woolfork
7655 Richmond Road
Bedford, Ohio

There have been several phone numbers in use over the years:

216-256-3764
440-232-5309
440-989-0120
440-231-4826

I’m writing this post to ensure that other people are not screwed over by this scammer.

PLEASE pass this post along. Post it to Facebook, share it on Twitter. I want to make sure that when someone does a Google search for either “The Snowplow Guys” or “Empire Snow Removal” this page comes up.

In case you’re curious, here’s this year’s flyer from Empire. Also, I ran across this F Rating for Natural Science Landscaping from the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Here’s the F Rating for The Snowplow Guys aka Empire Snow Removal.

If you’ve been screwed over by this guy please share your story here.

I Hate People

Chewie — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 16:02:39 +0000

OK… so the title of this post isn’t quite true. A more accurate title would be “I Hate People Who Can’t Or Won’t Drive The Correct Way When It Snows” but that seemed a bit on the longish side.

I live in northeast Ohio. I also happen to live in a particular spot of northeast Ohio called the “snow belt”. If you’re not familiar with the term please allow me to explain. Based on our close proximity to Lake Erie our climate is a bit more humid that most. So, before the lake has frozen for the year, there is a TON more moisture in the air. When you add very cold temperatures to moisture in the air you get something called SNOW. Now… the snow belt is named as such because of something called “Lake Effect Snow”. This is due to the fact that all of this snow created from the moisture above Lake Erie dumps right on top of my house. There you go… snow belt and lake effect snow defined.

Folks… this shit happens EVERY… SINGLE… YEAR. It’s not as if Lake Erie is here one year and gone the next. Which is why I get completely FLOORED every year when it snows and people say shit like, “Man… when’s it going to stop snowing.” Living in Cleveland, the answer to that question is “March… maybe April.”

In any case, we got a snow storm a couple of days ago. Sure it came during rush hour and it was a lot of snow, but it wasn’t the worst storm I’ve ever lived through, nor was it the coldest. But you’d think we were living in the middle of the Sahara and people had NEVER seen snow based on the way folks were driving. Good lord. Luckily I had some good music and podcasts to listen to on my trek to work. I really wasn’t that upset. Like I said, I’ve lived here for a long time, this shit happens every year… I’m used to it. For better or for worse.

What I’m NOT used to is people driving like idiot when the snow is done. THIS morning, I rolled out, left the house a little earlier than usual and STILL was stuck in complete gridlock. No snow on the ground, no snow falling yet I’m still waiting in a mile long line just to get on the freeway. What… the… FUCK! Turns out some jackass flipped his pickup truck in the middle of an interchange during morning rush hour. Who knows… maybe he was texting one of his buddies asking when it’s going to stop snowing in Cleveland.

Snowblowing Etiquette

Chewie — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 06:58:36 +0000

So last week we got about 30 inches of snow in a two day period. This of course means snowblowing… and lots of it. I’m a tad bit anal when it comes to keeping my driveway clean so I’m the neighbor that’s out there multiple times per day keeping it clear.

I make sure that I’ve got the entire driveway nice and clean so when it’s time for me to venture out I can do it. The city then comes by with their huge snowplows and plows the street in front of my house. Invariably they create a HUGE ice/snow pile at the bottom of my driveway. This isn’t such a big deal when you’re blowing a couple of times per day, but when you’re gone for a couple of days (like we were) then when you come home you’ve got about 20 inches of ice/snow to get through. Luckily we had the SUV otherwise we’d be screwed trying to get IN to our driveway.

Of course, my first order of business once we got home was to blow the damn driveway. Naturally, I took that opportunity to blow all of that ice and snow right back out into the street. Not sure if this makes me a bad neighbor, but I figure if the city can pile it up in my driveway, I can blow it right back into the street. Fuck em.

And Now That The Holidays Are Over… Snow Sucks

Chewie — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:51:13 +0000

The first snow of the year is a magical thing isn’t it? Winter has finally come and everyone is happy to have it. There’s nothing better than a white Christmas to put everyone in a great mood. However, when you live in Cleveland you need to know that December snow is just the tip of the iceberg… a HUGE iceberg.

Once the holidays are over we typically have at least a good 3 months (sometimes more) in front of us from a snow perspective. And it’s not that “hey it’s snowing that’s nice” type of snow. It’s the “good lord how can it snow when it’s this cold” type of snow. And for some reason, the snow in Cleveland is no longer white… it’s gray. And you need an ice pick to shovel it.

Ahh… how I love winter!

Where Did All This Traffic Come From?

Chewie — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:27:49 +0000

I leave the house at exactly the same time every morning (give or take 2 or 3 minutes). The morning routine is the same:

Get ready for work
Talk to the G-man
Get milk for the boys
Take dog out
Kiss G & Mom goodbye
Head out

For some reason, my commute time in the last couple of weeks has gone up by about 10 or 15 minutes. The obvious culprit is that school is back in session now. But here’s my question… where the hell does everyone go in the summer? I mean sure I know that kids aren’t in school so there would be SOME drop in morning commute but do you mean to tell me that all of these parents are just working from home during the summer? Are there THAT many people that take summer vacations?

And don’t even get me started on bad weather drivers… I’ve lived in Cleveland for a long time. I know how to drive in the rain (just a little slower) and the snow (a little slower than that). That seems pretty straight forward to me. Apparently for the majority of people in this damn town rain=forget how to drive.

Grumble grumble grumble.