If you're considering hiring this guy read the whole thing.
I contacted Alex about installing three Italian Cypress trees. He told me since it was such a small job he would have to charge me $1,000 to make it worth his while and that he would work me in in between jobs. A week went by and he never followed up to confirm anything. Fast forward a few weeks and he tells me he is able to get the trees but the price is now $1,700. The justification was that the job was going to take a full day and he couldn't tackle any other projects that day, so the price had to reflect that. We met at $1,600. The morning of the install he calls to inform me that the original nursery sold the trees to someone else and that he found them elsewhere but not all in the same size. So if we wanted these exact trees it would be an extra $100 since one of them was larger than the other two. Not ideal, but we agreed.
The job was simple. Dig out and edge a mulch bed and install 3 trees 3 feet apart to create a privacy wall against the fence. Apparently this wasn't clear when I explained it because the trees were spaced about 5 feet apart when I came out to check on the project. They then had to be dug up and moved, which was inconvenient for them since they were rushing to get to their next job. Even with the misunderstanding and essentially redoing the job twice over, Alex and his two-man crew were here less than two hours. Not a full day job at all, just a money grab for Alex, who is unethical and dishonest.
Alex's team did not even dig a proper mulch bed, they simply pulled the grass away with a shovel. And they left our yard a complete mess -- mounds of wet clay, roots and grass inside the "bed," and the grass outside of the bed trampled. I had to buy top soil for the trees and more gravel to frame in the bed. After adding mulch myself it looks much better than the pictures, but the pictures are how they left the job. I complained to Alex about the "bed" and he came back four hours later to edge a clean line, but that's all it is, a line.
We hired MetroGreenscape for the landscaping in our front yard and they are significantly better at their craft. They also provided plant care instructions, water schedules by season, and warranty information for their work. On the latter, Alex told me that the plants were covered should something go wrong but that we would be responsible for the labor. I have reached out to Alex four times to get the warranty information and he has completely ignored me, I suspect because he knows the trees were not properly installed and may not survive. Alex is fine though -- he got his money and is on to the next job.
Alex will tell you that the bed was "crispy clean" before the trees had to be moved, that in digging new holes they encountered a large log that had to be removed from the area. However, if they actually took the time to dig a proper bed in the first place, that log would have been discovered before they brought the trees into the area. There really isn't a narrative that justifies the end product. Just look at the pictures and ask yourself if Alex's work reflects the $1,700 price tag. read more