Email to FJ followed by owner's response (copied exactly from email):
Kim, we appreciate your professionalism and effort to try and make this right. I have outlined below our "items of contention" to illustrate why we remain disappointed that Jim was unable to make further concessions.
1. The $164.38 that was removed from the bill should not have been charged in the first place. FJ Lawn Care may have to pay their technicians for drive time, but the fact that his technician does not have a means of transportation should not be at our expense.
2. We were charged $90 for 2 technicians to spend an hour removing stuck equipment rather than doing the work we contracted. It would seem common sense that before they drive heavy equipment, the area should be surveyed to be sure there are not issues, especially a damp creek bed. This should not be at our expense. In addition, they chose to drive their pick-up, without our consent, onto our lawn in an area that is covered by our irrigation system, which has not been turned on yet, so we are not sure if there is any sprinkler heads damaged. However, they left a 2-foot mud skid in our front lawn - clearly visible to everyone that drives through the neighborhood. There was no acknowledgment of this damage, nor attempt to repair.
3. We were charged for 2 1/2 hours for 2 technicians for them to return to complete items (including retrieving a rake). Of this time, they only performed work for 30 minutes tops. We should not have to pay for any drive time, or the time they took to unload and reload equipment which shouldn't have been loaded in the first place as the project was not complete.
4. While Jim was driving one of the technicians to another location, the other took an hour lunch, which it does not appear to be noted on the invoice. (Additionally, due to improper planning, the technicians asked for water. Since our water had not been turned on yet, we provided them with 5 bottles of water over the period.)
RESPONSE:
Thank you for your feed back, as we try to address and resolve every issue that presents itself. As far as your 1st concern, spoke for itself. We took everyone off the clock that wasn't physically at your location after 12:50, reducing the price.
As far as second concern, I informed Tom that we would using a riding mower eith bagger to vut and remove alot of the rebris around the creek bed, which by the way, it wotked great. It's really very hard to servey stable ground versus muddy ground, when the actusl muddy ground can appear to hold your weight, or be walked on. You just really don't know until you start driving on it. Most of tge ground held up. Later we just raked the debris up the grass, then mowed it up. Whether equipment is stuck or not, time is still billed, as it's time on the job.
Yes, you are correct, we should have asked permission to drive the truck on the lawn, but I'm pretty sure there was no damage fone to the sprinkler heads, as sot under ground quite a few inches, but by all means, if there is an issue, please let us know. As far as mud slick in ditch, we fo apologize about that.
Yes, there was acknowledgement to Tom snd an attempt yo remedy the situation with tge skid mark. I did talk to Tom about it, and he said not to worry about it. I did offer to fill the hole.
The return time is billed from the time we stop, to the time we leave. Every landscape company bills out time that way. Heck, landscapers, Bobcat operators ever bill travel time to and fro at tune of $85 per hour. It took us 2.5 man hours to perform our return work, and we did not include travel time.
As far as an hour lunch, he was breaking and bagging up sticks, and only waited 10 minutes by trailer when I pulled back up. Technician said he did not take an hour lunch, they are not suppose to.
Look, we appreciate you letting the guys have some water, it was very kind of you to do that. It's kinda sad though that someone would have to complain about giving a worker water like giving someone water would be such an inconvenience. Heck, it wasn't such a big deal when were there. Tom wanted to give us water, and insisted that we have some bottled water. We do apprecite it though.
You know what, I coukd care less if you put a shitty review on line, could care less. It will be rebutted, and thrown out. Why don't you take a look at our website reviews, better yet, why don't you take a look at our Chiefs Comendation from City of New Hope under Award on menu and then tell me how unGodly aweful we are, or how terrible we are. Ok, We saved a life!
To conclude, we did nothing wrong, work was billed out appropriately, and work was done to your satisfaction, which Tom said it looked fantastic! Good day, God bless! read more