Wow, crazy what has happened in the last 6 months. Feels like there's been a massive turnover of people, with only a few remaining since last fall. But what I'm going to concentrate on in this update is simple facts and issues we've had in dealing with this company recently.
1.) We had to go back and forth on their bid for our backyard work, for several reasons -- some of it was already paid last fall, but since their massive turnover, there's no continuity and so no one knew what was going on; and the new salesman/consultant kept playing the "you didn't say you wanted that" card and tried nickel-and-diming us on everything. Bottom line is they bloated their estimate on the fact they would have to use high amounts of hand labor because they didn't have a machine that could get through our gate. Miraculously, the first day they arrived it was with a machine that fit through our gate. What should have taken 4 days took 2, and they didn't even consider compensating us for their lie. Instead, they went further.
2.) Part of our scope included "time and materials" for sprinkler repair. They ended up charging us an insane amount of hours. And if that wasn't bad enough, there are many issues with their work, including: two of the sprinklers they BURIED when regrading our backyard; one of the sprinklers near our pool equipment was never capped, so it just shoots around when that zone is on; they simply attached our soaker line to a different zone to save a few hours, and now that line barely works; they told us they readjusted the sprinklers so they didn't shoot all over the pool, but in fact our pool cover is full of water after we run our zones because they did nothing. Unfortunately, the sprinklers that don't work are right where we installed sod that we purchased from them. So we have to water by hand every night. Thanks, 3D.
3.) Every time we talk to the owner (the salesman passed our portfolio to the owner because he didn't want to be the middle-man, which is understandable) he always acted too busy and frustrated with his workload to talk to us. For instance, whenever we asked about the sod delivery, he kept insinuating that he was actually losing money on the delivery because he was using a different truck. True or not, that's not my problem, and I'm sick of hearing contractors telling me how hard their life is.
Bottomline, I've referred this company to several people over the years, and had great experiences in the past. But now, with whatever happened, I will never refer them again. I actually had a neighbor ask me who did our backyard, and I told them -- told them I couldn't suggest them. It's a complete 180 from the past and my wife and I are so disappointed. The only reason they get 2-stars instead of 1 is because they have so far honored their lifetime warranty we have on our patio. There are a few areas that still need to be fixed -- watch for this to be updated to a 1-star if they somehow fail to honor their warranty anymore. read more
