I started my research for a landscape company in January for my ready-by-summer project. I sent out many emails, and received many quotes, but Mike was quick to answer all of my questions (patiently!), and had what I felt to be a fair price (not the lowest, not the highest). Mike visited my home, where we discussed what I had in mind for this project. Since it was a newly-built home, the entirety of landscaping needed to be done. I was incredibly impressed with his level of customer service, because I know I asked A LOT of questions.
Once the work started, though, everything started to go south. There wasn't enough materials, so we had to shell out more money to complete the work. It was a tough pill to swallow, but we realized where the honest mistake was, and went forward with it.
When the work was done, it was sloppy. We had two little bump-outs of mulch/garden area on either side of the yard. They should have been the same on each side, but they were different shapes (one was squared off, one was rounded), and installed at different points (so they don't line up). Mike sent his guys back to fix it, and although the shape of it is better, they are still at different points and don't line up.
When laying the top soil, they did tremendous damage to our newly-installed irrigation system. When we had the irrigation guys come back, they found several points where they had driven their bobcat on it and damaged it. The irrigation tech said that the guy driving the bobcat would have felt it break each time. The damage is was obvious, and was frustrating to see the complete lack of respect to our property. I could understand if he accidentally drove over it once and broke, but it was done multiple times.
They removed EVERY SINGLE FLAG that noted where the sprinkler heads came up. Okay, fine, they had to level it out so maybe it was easier to remove the flags... but they didn't mark it in any other way or remember where they were. They tossed the flags, and when it came time to sod, they didn't know where to cut out for the sprinkler heads because they were all so heavily buried. They came back on 3 occasions to try to locate them. Finally, we brought the irrigation company in to find them.
The sod is lumpy, and we have areas that puddle when it rains. The gate that use to open now has to be forced open because it catches on the uneven ground. This isn't huge - next summer we'll dig it up and level it out - but we thought we were paying someone to avoid these issues.
In the middle of all of this mess, the office emailed their final invoice to me. Yeah, there was no way I was paying that until the work was 100% complete. It took several weeks longer than anticipated.
The work was horrendous. It's done. It's not perfect, but it's done. We'll fix it up ourselves over time. The ONLY credit this company deserves, is having Mike on their team. I don't know how much of this was within his control, but every time an issue came up, he either responded immediately, or he was at the house himself to check it out. If the work was better, and the stress wasn't there, this company would have gotten an A+ thanks to Mike's hard work. His team, on the other hand, needs major improvement.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $10,000.00