No problems at all with their lawn treatment/fertilizer service. Sprinkler repair? Utter sham, overbilled disaster, technician who could not admit to making mistakes. Then, after our cancelling our contract with them, and telling them why, repeatedly, they kept sending people out---though we already had another lawn service.
The disaster: in spring 2020, two sprinkler heads on our north lawn became nonfunctioning; we asked if their sprinkler repair techs could come out and replace them. (Though we know nothing about the mechanics of irrigation repair, we have had numerous repairs/replacements of sprinkler heads, and we knew this would not be complex or time-consuming. )
A lead tech and a very young assistant tech did appear.
When they were done, we asked why they were also digging up a line. Because, the lead said, they didn't have the right kind of matching sprinkler heads, had a different kind, so they needed to dig up and replace the line, with one that would match the sprinkler heads they had with them. (I don't know about you, but I would want them to leave the lines alone, just replace sprinkler heads.) (The sprinkler heads we have are various kinds, and not unusual.)
We were also perturbed, that, at the very height of coronavirus season, spring 2020, that this lead tech who came to the door wore no mask. But we noted, before they left, by looking out our windows, the two new sprinkler heads seemed to be working well.
Later the same day, we turned on the system again for an evening watering; the one the young assistant worked on worked perfectly; the one the lead older tech worked on barely sprouted a bit of water.
So, the next morning, we contacted Greenside. Greenside said they'd send them out again to fix. But, incredibly, they said the lead technician had told them we "must have tampered with the line or something." (Very bad sign in a repairman: refusing to admit there is ever the possibility he may have made mistakes. Blaming the customer for your mistakes? Bad idea!)
Please, we said, tell him not to knock on the door this time (we did not want to have to deal with maskless lead tech who'd also, outrageously, accused us of "tampering"). We'd be sleeping in, we said. (Why would we tamper? We know nothing about sprinklers. Absolutely nothing. And if it failed the same day he fixed it, well, he'd be the one tampering with it, to fix it, certainly not us.)
Unmasked lead technician in his fifties who was sure we "must have tampered with the line" did not the next day come to our door. But after he was done fixing the one sprinkler head he'd failed to properly fix before--he also went mad suddenly "fixing" many other things--which before had been working. Without any agreement from us: taking advantage of the fact we'd ask to not be bothered. And wrote up a bill for hundreds more dollars for what should absolutely have been one free re-repair. He dug up at least one more line, replaced more sprinkler heads, went nuts doing things never mentioned/malfunctioning before. Total bill we were given for all this came to much more, now, over half a grand, I believe, for the two visits, which was all because of two sprinkler heads which needed replacement.
He's nuts, said my husband. Let's just write a nice letter and tell them thank you for all the incredibly expensive nice work and then never let them out here again. Which we did.
Till we came to our senses a month or so later, realizing their tech had completely intimidated us, accused us falsely, and their company supported his bad work, and overfilling. Our complaints went nowhere, with Greenside, so we complained to the fraud department of our bank. But the company produced the nice letter we had written which was our "please-go-away" letter. Hiding our last letter to them, which began: "Dear Greenside, we have finally come to our senses. We will not pay this bill."
The bank, which had been very sympathetic about the sudden new work and the billing us extravagantly, was fooled. And at that point, the Covid virus pandemic was at full tilt, we didn't have the energy to pursue the lawn service further.
Then--months later--fall 2020--Greenside was out again. Another auto-billed lawn treatment. Though we had made very clear we were done with them.
Then spring 2021--two men were outside, aerating our lawn. Sent by Greenside, they said. We had cancelled our contract with Greenside--a long time ago, we told them. Tell them, we said, we cancelled almost--a year ago. And that we now have a fine new lawn service.
Note: there are good lawn services in town which, if you are unhappy in any way with their sprinkler repair services, will even pay for sending another sprinkler service to repair it for you--just as you like. (With technicians who, when their work fails, don't blame the customer, the same day, when it fails, don't add new "fixes" and present a new bill for what should have been one free repair!) read more
