Salmon Bay Sand & Gravel

Salmon Bay driver backed into a very tight driveway in Green Lake and got an 8'6" concrete truck through an 8' gate...magic?
Saved me at least a thousand dollars in truck wait time and pumper.
Then the driver got into the pour and got his hands dirty. No "that's not my job" here.

Salmon Bay delivered the gravel on time. However they do not provide customers with a return policy and it is not on their website. We asked Salmon Bay to pick up an extra (unwrapped) pallet of gravel and they refused saying it was not their policy and the gravel could be "contaminated."

They were unwilling to work with us and help facilitate a return. Terrible customer service as the customer service clerk said "well that's just what I've got for ya."

Would not recommend this business.

I needed some sand for a mortar project and one of the employees was super helpful. I got 4 bags of different sand for the job and quickly got them loaded up in the car with the help of another employee.
Really knowledgeable and polite people. Will definitely come back again.

I have bought lots of stuff from SBS&G for my residential home, and they have always been 10+.

This time I leave a different type of review.  I was on my my bike going to the Ballard locks, and had a flat in front of SBS&G, and I had no repair kit.  I asked "Jessie" if I could leave the bike while I caught an Uber home.  He said no problem, and in fact he would tuck the bike safely in the back of the warehouse.  Oops, I had no mask for Uber.  SBS&G happily supplied me one.

I got home, came back, got my bike.

My experience at SBS&G this morning was absolutely delightful. It's true, as a woman it's difficult to be taken seriously when asking for help with home improvement projects. Not here! Every person I talked to was extremely helpful and professional. They even let me take home a floor sample of the thin brick that I am considering! 5 stars. Will definitely give them business for this and future projects.

I love Salmon Bay. This is an industrial operation, but you can certainly walk in off the street and get bagged gravel or sand, and it is WAY cheaper than at Home Depot/Lowes or hardware stores. If you want to do your own cement work, they have everything you could possibly need.

I needed a huge amount of gravel to fill in an area of our landscaping. Instead of getting bags and carting home in my truck, I asked them about delivery options. One option was to get a huge bag of gravel on a pallet delivered. This was SO convienient. When I mean huge bag, I'm talking 1.5 cubic yards of gravel. The bag was literally 5 feet high, and weighed 2 tons! They brought it out on a truck, and used a small crane arm to put it exactly where I need it. The kicker? It was cheap! A couple hundred bucks.

My only word of warning is that their smallest bags of gravel weigh 80lbs! I'm ok with it, but if you are a smaller person, you might want to bring someone burley along.

I debated on giving this a 1 or a 3, and settled on a 2.
First the bad. They included $96 in fees that they didn't tell me about when I placed my order.
I got a quote over the phone from them and from a company in Kenmore for 4 yards of concrete with aggregate for a patio project we were doing. I made it clear I was a residential customer and was depending on them. The quote was pretty comparable between the two places.
But...Salmon Bay didn't tell me there was a $24 fee per yard if under 8 yards of concrete.
I called to dispute this after the fact and they argued with me that they did tell me, they always tell people. They said they would review their recordings of the call and called me back a couple of days later. They reviewed them and found out I was right, but they still wouldn't refund my money. I was pissed and they didn't seem to care.

The good. The only reason I didn't give a 1 star, was the delivery driver jumped in to help us pour the cement and was giving us tips and was very helpful. He literally jumped into the poured cement to show us how to properly trowel the concrete. If this review was about him, it would have been a 5 star review, but since it was about the whole company, I have to go with a 2.
When a company slides in fees, that it admits they didn't tell me about, and refuses to refund them, that is pretty unforgiveable.

This is an edited version of a previous review.

In the company's defense, I received what I ordered in a timely fashion and as described.

However, there were several communication problems including verbal price quoting which did NOT occur in an accurate fashion and the ensuing "up your nose with a rubber hose you liar" response after my credit card had been overcharged.   (The quotation marks denote implied meaning rather than exact verbiage).  

I tried to take it up the chain of command but did not receive a response.

Until I Yelped.

About three weeks after I Yelped I received a phone call inquiring if I was the person who authored the unfavorable review.  Indeed I was.   The manager said he never received my message.   (Funny, this is a very large company but they were able to pinpoint me as the author of the review).   The manager offered a perfunctory apology, partial refund and quickly transferred me to "credit."  

In the spirit of being proactive, this situation could have been easily avoided if the company offered written estimates of price quotes instead of relying on verbal.  In this day and age we have a zillion technology choices available....couldn't an estimate be faxed or emailed to the customer?  

This way no customer could claim that they "weren't told" about the minimum order price (which I wasn't) and no customer would be upset at the blank check amount charged to their credit card.

Just a suggestion....

Showed up on time, good pricing. Poor customer service/communication skills by pretty much everyone I talked with on the phone.

Honestly-this company has been around since 1907! That in itself speaks volumes to me. Considering  most companies close their doors 3-5 years after opening.

As a woman who is awful with geometry, this company and their employees have always treated me with the utmost respect when I have placed orders for sand & gravel. I have  purchased shovels, work gloves, etc. from them for jobs around my home. They are competitively priced too!!! I truly enjoy purchasing from a privately held company vs. the retail giants that don't care about the customer and treat me like just another person to get through the cashier line.  The employees are warm, charming and beyond helpful.  Thank you Salmon Bay for serving the Ballard community and thank you for remembering what is most important....the people!!!!