D-G Ranch Products, Lakeside, CA.
Phone: 619-448-1923
Unfortunately we had a barn fire at our ranch
during the Christmas Holiday. This damaged was all caused by
a single company out of Lakeside, CA. named D-G Ranch Products.
As of this date January 27, 2005 ( over a month since the fire)
the owner of the company (Mike Reeder) has refused to pay for
any damages, fix any repairs, or reimburse us for the money we
have paid out of our pocket to clean the property of wet burnt
hay. It also appears that Mike Reeder ( D-G Ranch Products) does
not have insurance ( Mike Reeder, has refused to give us his
insurance number) no contractors license, or even a business
license. We are currently proceeding with legal action against
Mike Reeder but have been unable to secure information regarding
insurance & licensing for D-G Ranch Products. If you have
had dealings with DG and could provide us with information regarding
liability insurance, contractor license and business license
for this company, it would be greatly appreciated. We have also
written a letter to the California's Attorney General's Office
(below) outlining our complaints.
UPDATE: It is now April 2005
approximately 5 months after Mike Reeder and his company D-G
Ranch Products out of Lakeside, CA. burnt down our property.
He still has not paid one cent nor has he reimbursed or fixed
the damage he caused. Why this guy is not in jail is beyond me.
Fortunately our insurance paid for about half the damages. The
other half will come out of our pocket and will have to wait.
As for Mr. Reeder and D-G Ranch his day is coming. We have found
through this webpage Mike Reeder and his company have swindle
and have caused other problems for family ranches throughout
Southern California.
I give my husband a lot of
credit for his restraint. On the other hand he hasn't run into
Mike Reeder since the fire.
Attorney General's Office
California Department of Justice
Attn: Public Inquiry Unit
P.O. Box 944255
Sacramento, CA 94244-2550
Let me start by saying that we own a ranch property in the
Ramona area and run a family business that boards, breeds &
trains horses. We also have a petting zoo that incorporates various
animals such as, llamas, pot belly pig, goats, etc. All of these
animals are housed on our property. We pride ourselves on making
sure that we have plenty of food for all of our livestock and
we maintain a clean, dry area to store this food supply. Before
the torrid of rain arrived in our area (just before Christmas),
we hired D.G. Ranch Products, out of Lakeside, CA. to do some
work on our metal hay barn. Unfortunately, we had to leave town
to attend a funeral on the day they started work. As such, we
were not around when the disaster occurred.
An employee from the company decided to weld some siding
onto our hay barn - he made this decision on perhaps what was
one of the windiest days in Ramona. We had just filled our hay
barn with over 500 bales of hay and the welding was done inches
away from the hay. As circumstance would have it, a spark from
the welding equipment struck one of the hay bails and as you
can imagine, everything went up in flames. It took over 45 volunteers
to put out the fire. They had to bulldoze the 500 plus bales
of hay and distribute it throughout our property in order to
put the fire out. In addition to losing our hay, some of our
white vinyl fencing was destroyed, electrical lines were damaged,
irrigation was damaged and our hay barn was a total loss. To
make matters worse, damage was done to both of our wells. Fortunately,
none of the animals were harmed (we did have a friend watching
over the ranch for us while we were attending the funeral).
As previously stated, we were out of town when this happened
and received a phone call from a friend letting us know of the
disaster. We promptly called Mike Reeder, owner of D.G. Ranch
Products and Mike informed us that indeed there was a fire at
the ranch but that he did not yet know of the extent of the damage.
We found out that the fire department had used all of the water
in our 10,000 gallon storage tank to put out the fire and now,
with our wells not working, we had no water for our horses and
other animals (keep in mind that this happened well before the
rains set in). Upon hearing this, we immediately called Mike
at D.G. Ranch Products and informed him that it was urgent that
he get a water delivery truck out to our ranch to fill our storage
tank so that there would be water for our animals. Mike never
responded to our call so we called our well maintenance technician
who made an emergency trip to our property to get the wells up
and running. We again tried several times to reach Mike of D.G.
Ranch Products via his cell and office phone leaving messages
and requesting that he return our calls - still no response from
Mike. At this point, we made the decision to excuse ourselves
from attending the funeral and headed home immediately.
When we arrived home - we were devastated by the mess. Again
and again we called Mike and left messages. Again, there was
no response. Finally, hearing that the area was to receive heavy
rain falls, I left a message explaining that he had to get this
mess cleaned up before the rain arrived. I did not want wet,
heavy, smelly, moldy, useless hay all over my property that was
also a potential health hazard.
Finally, five days after the fire, Mike shows up with a delivery
truck, shovels and two young people with the intention of cleaning
up the mess. I explained, and he soon found out, that this was
not the way to solve this problem - he would need tractors and
a dump truck to say the least. Mike then informed me that he
had a large deductible on his insurance and asked if we could
work something out and said he would pay for the clean up out
of his pocket. He asked if "we could work with him on this".
I told him that I was willing to do that and explained that I
just wanted my property back the way it was before the fire -
no more and no less. Our first and foremost request was that
he bring 20 bails of hay every 4 days for the animals. He has
forgotten to do this twice and we had to make last minute trips
to one of the feed stores in Ramona to get 10 bails of hay so
our animals could eat.
We call and Fax Mike every day requesting he return our calls
as we need to get this mess cleaned up. Three weeks later, still
no phone call or clean up from Mike. Now, due to the recent rains,
the scattered hay is wetter, heavier, smellier and moldier. This
mess has created a potential health hazard and has made it more
difficult to run our business so we have had to take it upon
ourselves to start the clean up process. We hired a local bulldozing
company who has taken ten (10) dump truck loads of this mess
off of our property. So far we have had to pay $3,100.00 out
of our pocket just for the dump fees and have been billed for
another $2,100 for the work of the clean up. Mike Reeder, D.G.
Ranch Products has not paid one cent for the cleanup or repair
to our property. The owner of the company has not returned my
calls or had anyone come out to clean up his mess.
We were nice enough to consider working with him on this
and did not want any more than what was fair - and this is how
he has treated us.
A final note - 3 1/2 weeks after D-G Ranch Products set our
property on fire we made one last attempt to contact the Owner
of the company. We left 3 messages on his office phone and 3
messages on his cell phone and explained if he didn't call immediately
we would see him in court. Wouldn't you know - He called about
60 minutes later and told us ( I kid you not) we still OWE him
$4,600 because we hired him to do a job that he can't finish.
Therefore, he will subtract the money we have paid out of our
pocket from the money he thinks we still owe him. I wish I was
kidding. D-G Ranch Products of Lakeside, CA. not only owes us
money we have already paid out but they also have about $15,000
of other damages they need to pay for.
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