Dan R.

I initially called JL Adams to set up an appointment for the cleaning of a septic tank and installation of a riser. I also told them up front that our house was built before 1970, and Laurie (the office manager) said that the price would still be the same: $400 for the cleaning and $350 for the riser.

Unfortunately, it seems that their office is poorly managed.

1)

A) The day they were scheduled to do the cleaning, Austin (the guy who does the cleaning) called me at about 8:30 a.m. and told me that the equipment they needed for the job was at another site—and asked to reschedule. I told him okay.

B) The day before the rescheduled appointment, I noticed that there was a good chance of rain for the next day. So, I called them that afternoon and left a message in which I asked if they were still going to come if it ended up raining. Well, they didn't call me back until the next day—about an hour before the job was supposed to begin! Once again, Austin wanted to reschedule the job at the last minute, because it had already rained that morning, making the ground too wet to deal with.

C) On the day of the second rescheduled appointment, Austin showed up a whole hour early. He did call our home beforehand, but nobody answered because we weren't available. Nonetheless, he decided to just come on over anyway. And when he did that, it messed up my schedule. In a situation like that, the office should've simply told Austin, "Hey, just go to lunch, and then show up at the scheduled time." Showing up a *whole* hour early—without getting permission—is definitely unprofessional.

2) After Austin showed up, he asked me when our home was built. I told him that it was before 1970. Then he told me that the quote Laurie gave me ($750) was *wrong*, and that he'd have to add $210 to the total—and go get some extra material! I was shocked that even though I'd told Laurie up front when our home was built, she still gave me the wrong quote. Austin pretty much admitted, though, that Laurie isn't very knowledgeable in giving quotes. It was also disappointing that he showed up unprepared for this situation, wasting both his time and mine. He had to leave and didn't return for at least 45 minutes.

Anyway, once Austin finally got the ball rolling, things went pretty smoothly. I watched him do the job, and learned a good bit from asking him various questions. He also gave me a helpful tip about what kind of treatment works best for septic tanks—instead of expensive RID-X or the like, just use cultured buttermilk! In addition, he recommended the use of single-ply toilet paper, since he said it breaks down a lot quicker.

One thing I didn't like was that, in our back yard, we had a cover over the faucet on our house to protect against cold weather. Without asking, Austin just removed the cover and screwed his hose onto our faucet. Although he probably didn't even realize it, he should've asked us for *permission* first. He also didn't put it back on like he found it. Again, this all goes down to the office being poorly managed. They should instruct him clearly on the particulars of professional behavior.

Because of a lot of recent rain, the ground was kind of damp, and unfortunately at the very end, the wheels on Austin's truck sank in and made a big hole in part of our back yard. When I showed it to him, he did his best to cover it up, and then offered us a discount of $105, which I thought was very reasonable.

Overall, Austin was likable and did a good job. And even with the hiccups, I was left mostly pleased with the work that he performed. In a nutshell, I would rate JL Adams as follows:

Organization and professionalism: two stars
Actual work performed: four stars

That averages out to three stars. So, I would give them a limited recommendation, meaning that while I think they're worth contacting for septic work, please just use some common sense and caution. And because they're poorly organized, you may have to micromanage them as you expect the unexpected. LOL.

At the local Walmart, Jackson Hewitt had a table set up for help in filing tax returns. About a week ahead of time, I set up an appointment with them. I soon got two confirmations of my appointment through e-mail, and two more through text.

Well, when I showed up for my appointment, nobody was there! Instead, there was this sign: "Closed for the season." I was shocked. I immediately called their toll-free number and asked what was going on. I was told that the woman who staffed the Walmart table had quit, so there was nobody left to perform the work. They also told me that I should never have been allowed to schedule the appointment in the first place, and shouldn't have received any confirmations of it either.

Apparently the district manager had dropped the ball by letting all this happen. Anyway, they offered a generic apology on the phone, but that was it. They never asked me what they could do to make it up to me or anything like that. I then told them that I'd never have any dealings with Jackson Hewitt again.

Honestly, I think I'm lucky that they stood me up. What if I had actually given them all my tax documents, only to have them run off with them, never to return? Please do yourself a favor and stay as far away from Jackson Hewitt as you can.

I contacted Anderson Pumping several times to get a quote for a septic tank cleaning and some additional work. First off, it's a NIGHTMARE trying to contact them. All day, *even* during business hours, they have an answering service. You cannot talk to anyone directly. Instead, you have to give a message to the answering service, and then hope to receive a call back when it's convenient for you. More often than not, you just end up playing phone tag with them.

But the worst part is Debby, the elderly woman who is their "receptionist" (or whatever she's called). Debby is extremely pushy and abrasive, with a voice like sandpaper. I noticed her brash, overbearing nature the very first time I ever talked to her. She just wants to send someone over NOW, and couldn't care less about your schedule or availability. She eventually had me talk to Brady about a possible quote, and he was actually nice and helpful. After talking to Brady, I was ready to set up an appointment. But then I had to play phone tag again with Debby.

When I finally got to talk to her again, she was extremely rude. I tried to get her to give me an exact dollar amount for the upcoming job, but she became very defensive. She also bristled when I tried to tell her my exact availability. Her attitude seems to be: "We don't CARE when you're available—we'll come to your house whenever we feel like it, so just DEAL with it!" She also doesn't like being questioned about anything. And then, shockingly enough, she called me "nasty" for asking her questions, and accused me of having an "attitude"! Apparently, she's used to telling people, "Jump!" and then expecting them to say "How high?"

In a nutshell, Debby is a real shrew—and seems to think she's entitled to your business. After she had the nerve to accuse me of being "nasty" and having an "attitude" (simply because I wanted to get an exact quote and narrow down a time for the appointment), I immediately ended the conversation. And guess what—they lost nearly a thousand dollars of my business! Debby should be fired for her rude and disrespectful behavior—and replaced with somebody who's competent and actually has *people* skills. Unfortunately, since this company bills itself as "family owned and operated," that will probably never happen.

Anyway, please take your business elsewhere and don't subject yourself to Debby's verbal abuse and games of phone tag. Trust me—you'll be doing yourself a big favor.

We recently had a weedeater that wasn't working, so we took it here to get repaired. We ended up paying almost $70. Anyway, after we took it home, it still wasn't working properly. The retainer to the gas cap was missing too.

When I called them up and told them about it, the guy who answered the phone (Gary) was very defensive. I asked him about their service guarantee, but he would never answer my question, even after I asked him several times. Then he actually threatened to hang up on me! Gary seems to have a serious anger-management problem.

Shortly afterward, I sent a message on their Web site to Lynn, the owner. She called me back, and started working with me. Although I think she should've been more apologetic about Gary's behavior, she was at least reasonably polite. She said she needed to do some more research about the problem with the weedeater.

Eventually I met Lynn at the shop, and we started getting things worked out, but it did take quite a while since she said a part was out of stock. Lynn does seem pretty nice, though. The only thing I didn't like was that they do NOT clean your equipment at all. Most shops will wash off your equipment really well so that it's looks nice, but not this place. In fact, I might've bumped up their rating to three stars if they'd actually bothered to clean my weedeater.

Anyway, I won't say to never take your equipment here, but please just use caution.

Today I called Hart Telephone to schedule an installation. Nobody answered, so they just put me on hold. About every thirty seconds, they said that you could simply schedule a callback instead of waiting on hold. But I didn't do that, because they never call you back!

Anyway, after keeping you on hold for three minutes, they then cut you off! I called back two more times today, again waited on hold three minutes each time, and promptly got cut off. So, I never got to speak to anybody.

Sadly, the "customer service" at Hart Telephone is almost nonexistent. Although their telephone and Internet service is pretty good, trying to contact them is usually a nightmare. Please keep this in mind before deciding to do business with them.

In the past couple of years, we've taken our cats to Lake Hartwell Veterinary Clinic several times. We've had four kittens spayed, and have also brought in some cats with health issues.

Overall, we were fairly pleased with the service we received. For instance, when we took an older cat in for a visit, Dr. Terry could've recommended some expensive treatment for him, but she didn't. From what she said, it became apparent that her main goal was to help our cat, not to make a ton of money. She also seems to diagnose conditions and to spay cats pretty well.

Also, one time when we took our pet to Royston Animal Hospital, one of the vets (who had worked with her previously there) had very positive things to say about Dr. Terry.

There are a few drawbacks to this vet, though. For instance, Dr. Terry attended the Louisiana State veterinary school instead of the UGA vet school. Why? Well, my guess is that she couldn't get into the UGA vet school, which is ranked a lot higher. Dr. Terry seems to be from around this area—she went to Emmanuel College and then got a bachelor's degree at UGA. She was also wearing a UGA hat when we visited her clinic once. So, it's obvious that she's a big fan of UGA and would no doubt have loved to attend their vet school. However, at least she graduated from a U.S. vet school and has a DVM (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine), unlike the other Hartwell vet, who went to a vet school overseas and only has a bachelor's degree.

Here are a few more issues:

1. While Dr. Terry is attentive to animals, she isn't very friendly. She doesn't introduce herself and say, "Hi, how you are doing?" or anything like that. Also, one time I ran into her at the grocery store, and even though she looked at me, she then just looked away without saying hello or anything. In other words, it seems she pretended that she never even saw me. So, she's really not a "people person."

2. She talks too fast, and doesn't explain health conditions very well. This seems to fit in with her lack of people skills.

3. After you take an animal to her office, there is ZERO follow-up. In other words, don't ever expect a call from them asking, "So, how is Fluffy doing?" Their whole attitude seems to be: "Hey, we're just a business. So now that we've got your money, don't expect us to care anything about your pet."

4. Dr. Terry still seems to have "Covid paranoia." For instance, when we last took a kitten to be spayed (not that long ago, in 2022), it was a very cold fall morning (28 degrees), and I immediately brought the kitten inside the office. A short time later, they asked me to leave and go sit outside in the car until they were ready! Another woman also entered the building with her dog, and they kicked her out too! When I asked why we couldn't wait in the office, they just made up a flimsy excuse about how "it would be too crowded," which I didn't buy at all.

Anyway, even though she has some issues, Dr. Terry is a decent vet overall--and definitely the better of the two vets in Hartwell.

Royston Animal Hospital is usually a good choice if you need to take your pets to the vet. They have a large staff, and for the most part their vets seem knowledgeable. The facility is also very modern and comfortable.

One thing that impressed me is that some of their vets seem refreshingly humble. For instance, instead of saying, "Hello, I'm DOCTOR So-and-So," two of their vets introduced themselves with, "Hi, I'm Laura," and "Hi, I'm Ashley." Then I ended up asking, "Oh, are you the vet?" LOL.

I can only think of a couple of things that have rubbed me the wrong way here. First off, for a long time, you could only drop your pet off but not enter the building because of all the Covid lunacy. Another time, a few years ago, we thought our cat might be sick and took her to see a vet. Dr. Cato examined our cat, and she happened to notice that our cardboard cat carrier was kind of dilapidated. So, she said, "Here, let me get you another one." However, what she didn't tell us is that we would be CHARGED for a new carrier! We ended up paying almost eight dollars for the new one, and would never have done so if Dr. Cato had been upfront about the charges. We had thought she was just "giving" us a new one. Anyway, Dr. Cato is now retired, but she seems very greedy.

Apart from those two things, I would recommend Royston Animal Hospital as a capable place to take your pets.

Coile and Hall Funeral Directors do a great job with holding the actual service, probably because that's their bread and butter. And I like the fact that they seem to be Christian-oriented. But with everything else, just forget it. When it comes to explaining to you what your various options are for the gravesite, getting everything rolling, and updating you on the progress, they're awful.

In particular, Duane Hall, the assistant director, comes across as passive-aggressive. Passive-aggressive people rarely say what they mean, and almost never give you what you want. They just say what they think you WANT to hear, while hiding a lot of aggression underneath. In other words, they are the total opposite of "what you see is what you get." Mr. Hall puts on a nice, pleasant face, but almost never follows through on any of his promises. For instance, he says he'll get back to you by a certain time, and then doesn't. Then when you are forced to get back in touch with him to see what happened, he always, always, ALWAYS comes up with some excuse. It seems that if you want to get anywhere with him, you have to micromanage him. He is just so frustrating to deal with. That is really sad, because apparently he's a minister, and should be setting a good Christian example. But when it comes to the administrative stuff, he just seems to be a big slacker.

Since Hall doesn't seem to like dealing with the administrative stuff (and is terrible at it as well), I think they should simply hire a good office manager to handle those matters. Trust me, it would have to be an improvement.

To sum things up, I would give them an A for the way they handle a service... but an F for everything else. So, if you do decide to go with Coile and Hall, just know what to expect.

We've subscribed to the Anderson newspaper for decades. For most of that time, the delivery was excellent. Then in early 2020, sadly, everything just fell apart.

These days, the paper is rarely delivered on time (that is, by 8 a.m.). More often than not, it comes around noon, and sometimes as late as 2 p.m.! Even worse, about 25% of the time, we don't get a paper at all.

We've called the customer service many times, and they always promise to "do something," but of course never do. We even called the executive editor, Steve Bruss, about this issue. And guess what—he never bothered to call us back. So, we filed a complaint against them with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Interestingly enough, the paper never even responded to that. No wonder the BBB has given them a rating of F!

Today, however, after a whopping TEN MONTHS, the paper finally responded to the BBB complaint, asking me to e-mail Mr. Bruss if there's still a problem. I told them no way, since he'd probably ignore my e-mail just like he did my phone call.

In a nutshell, if you want a reliable newspaper, this is NOT it! Unfortunately, there's no other daily paper delivering to the Hartwell area. Frankly, I suspect that within a couple of years, they'll stop delivering to Georgia entirely.

We eventually just canceled the delivery and switched to the digital version only, which is a LOT cheaper.

Anyway, please stay away from this so-called newspaper. Or at the very least, just opt for the digital version. It's still full of fake news, of course, but at least the comics, crossword puzzle, etc., are worth looking at.

Did you know that Matthew Keifer, the vet at Hartwell Animal Hospital, doesn't even have a doctor's degree? As far as I know, every other vet in this area has a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM), which is given out by all U.S. vet schools.

The degree that Keifer has is actually a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery (BVMS), something that he seems to conceal. He got this degree overseas (in Great Britain), and until March 2015, vets with this degree over there weren't even allowed to call themselves "doctor"!

Why did he get such a degree? Well, it seems obvious that he couldn't get into any U.S. vet school, which implies that he was a *terrible* student. So, he ended up attending a vet school mostly with British students who were fresh out of high school. That means he actually ended up getting two bachelor's degrees—one from UGA, and then another one from Britain.

Why does this matter? Well, first of all, would you want someone who was a horrible college student treating your beloved pet? Second, the general consensus among U.S. vet schools is that foreign programs like the one Keifer got his degree from are not nearly as rigorous as the DVM programs here. This means that vets graduating from such schools are apt to have many deficiencies in their scientific background. But don't you want your vet to be as knowledgeable as possible?

Before we learned about Keifer's credentials (or lack thereof), we made the mistake of taking our cat to his office. The cat was about 13 1/2 years old. On the first visit, he diagnosed it with a certain condition, and then gave us some medication for it. Well, guess what? None of it helped at all.

So, we took our cat back to him in a few weeks. And this time, he gave a totally different diagnosis! We then asked him, "Did our cat not actually have the condition that you 'diagnosed' last time?" His response: "I guess not!" Unbelievable.

Keifer ended up giving us some more medication, which also didn't help. Sadly, in about a week, our dear cat passed away. Not only was Keifer of absolutely no help to our cat, but he charged some pretty hefty fees to boot!

Please do yourself a favor and take your pets to another vet instead. Since every other vet in the area (to my knowledge) has a DVM, I can't think of any reason why you'd ever want to take your precious animal to this quack.

We had a job at our house that we needed to hire a handyman for. So, I called Hartwell Handyman Services.

Nobody ever answered, but the recording said to leave a message, concluding with "Have a blessed day." I then left a message describing the problem.

Guess what? They never returned our call. I guess by not calling you back, they think they're helping you have a "blessed day." Isn't that sweet?

Please save yourself some time and stay away from this deadbeat company.

One of our neighbors recently cleared out most of their land, but unfortunately the tree cutters accidentally dug up one of our property stakes along the border. So, the tree company paid for Smith Planning Group to come and re-survey that part of the land.

The guy who came was one of their new hires. Even though he didn't have that much experience, he seemed to do an excellent job—and was friendly to boot, with a great sense of humor. He also finished the job in just a few hours.

We were happy with the completed work. In fact, we're glad that Hartwell actually has a decent surveying company! (I would stay away from the other two companies.) If you live here and ever need a surveyor, they're the only ones we can recommend.