Do you not have a pick and a shovel in your garage?

I live in Arizona with zero chance of ever being trapped like that and even I have a pick and a shovel just in case.

I pay someone to clear my driveway because I'm not physically able to shovel it myself. When I used to shovel it I kept a real (not snow) shovel out for clearing really heavy snow plow slush, but would always clear it before it froze

I’m sorry.

What kind of vehicle you drive? Anything taller than a sports car should be fine. Just think of it as a speed bump. You might want to add a little snow to the driveway side to make a ramp up to the ice ledge.

A Corolla. It definitely would have been better if he didn't shovel the bottom of the driveway at all and then I could have driven over it like a speed bump. I'm reluctant to drive over it because my last car I did wreck the exhaust by driving over a parking curb that I didn't realize was there. It's supposed to rain next Wednesday so my plan is to wait until then to drive again, which is inconvenient but not a huge deal.

My main question is, should I be annoyed at the guy for leaving that at the bottom of the driveway? It seems to me it's a pretty foreseeable result that if you wait until the day after the plow has come everything's going to be frozen, and clearing out after the snow plow is the main reason I pay someone. But maybe my expectations aren't reasonable?

Yes, you should be annoyed, unless the guy is your 12 year old next door neighbor. Obviously have never had to deal with lolshoveling snow, but yes, if you're paying someone to clear the driveway, they should clear the driveway. I would call and ask to get it remedied and if he doesn't, those guys have to be a dime a dozen, right? Next guy up.

you being disabled explains so much

gregorio,

Are you sure that your guy left the ice? I wonder if he cleared it properly, then later the street plow came by and left the ridge. Neighbor had his driveway cleared after that, so his ridge got swept away.

Timing might make a difference to whom you complain.

I'm with Garick on treating it like a speed bump. Slow, at an angle, you should be o.k. Salting the hell out of it might be another option.

Isn't it time for you to go back to China or something?

Does a mini plow do the sidewalk? I doubt he left it like that.

He 100% left it like that. I saw him sitting in his car in front of that and driving off once he was done shoveling. Plow had come the day before. Neighbor across the street is 87 years old and does his own driveway and shoveled it before it froze. My guy showed up the next day once it was already frozen.

Didn't realize how high it was and that it was completely rock solid until I went out today

If you go the ramp route, I have to imagine it would be good to also build up some material on the downhill side (used to drive a Sentra and once got high-centered in not much snow)

WTF, dude? IDK what you meant by that, but it comes of really bad.

time to blow cobwebs off the containment thread

That is a problem then. You can't even drive a small car over that without bottoming out on it.

rickroll wtf are you doing?

Don't answer that, it was rhetorical.

I would not drive a car over that.

I have no experience with this stuff, but my psychopathic traits would be to hire an ex-con or two to take a pick to that and break it into large blocks and deliver it to your [former] shoveler's driveway. Bonus if they can shove it underneath his vehicles while he sleeps!

This.
WTF???

We had a similar situation two winters ago and weren't brave enough to try to drive a Hyundai Elantra over it. I think Elantra and Corolla are the same size.

I was able to remove the ice with a shovel but that took way longer and more effort than I had expected.

I'd definitely call the company and demand for someone to come out and fix it. If they refuse I wouldn't pay the bill and switch providers.

FWIW I've had success with boiling water and salt in the past. Downside is that if it's still really cold it will create a way larger icy area but at least the peaks are gone

Side note: that disability comment is so far out of line that I don't even know what to say.

does anyone else hear a mental morality guidance system that always says recalibrating or is that just me?

I dumped a ton of salt on it a couple of hours ago and just spent 20 minutes with steel-toed boots and a crowbar and got most of it up. Thanks for letting me know I'm not unreasonable to expect him to take care of that for me.

Noticed last month that my cell phone bill was bigger than usual, but my attempts to see a detailed bill kept running into error messages, so eventually I just shrugged and paid it. Same amount this month. I get into the bill and sniff out $23 in unauthorized charges that I'm sure were on that last one too.

I bring my issue to customer support, who offers to credit the amount back as "an act of good will." Ah yes, the reversal of fraudulent charges as an act of good will. I know it's not the agent's fault, and I'm 100% committed to never being one of the many shitbags who mistreat customer service professionals (usually over an issue that was clearly not of their making), so I grit my teeth and say thank you and accept that I at least got the thing sorted. But I hope that whatever dumbass up the ladder who coached the notion of this sort of credit as "an act of good will" develops an ingrown toenail. And then I hope that they stub that toe daily for the rest of time.

there's an active class action suit against verizon involving extra charges

Friend's wife just got a check for $92 as a part of that settlement