I believe that equally important to the quality of work is the integrity of the person performing the job. Honesty, communication, and transparency are just as important as being able to complete the job. When hiring a contractor to do a home improvement - you are hiring them for the work and skill level they can perform the job. Some might argue that is the most important thing. If this is the most important thing to you when searching for a contractor - I cannot speak to the quality of a finished project in this case but I can speak to the integrity of this business.
We first met with Greg of Greg's Landscaping in the spring when he arrived at our home for an in person consultation for an estimate. After this visit, Greg prepared a quote and when we agreed to move forward - he personally came to our house (4/8) and sat down for a personal review of the contract where we provided a 40% deposit. I was impressed with the service he provided personally but now can see it was not genuine when some larger scale jobs came his way. After this, the level of communication and service continued to disintegrate until finally receiving a partial refund of the deposit and being left with a completely destroyed and unsafe yard on June 12th.
Which you can imagine is now nearly impossible to resolve during peak summer patio season. I can honestly say that we are grateful for the refund we did receive because in my opinion there was no chance that Greg was keeping his word in the contract to complete this job. And if he had finally found the time, I do not believe the quality of work would have been what we originally expected due to the exchanges that occurred leading up to the final refund. If you are looking for someone who you can trust to be honest and transparent with you - I strongly do not recommend this business. It is my opinion that what we had invested in our small Chicago yard was a small project to Greg and it was pushed away by the needs of clients with larger bills. I personally do not think that is any way to operate a business and I am extremely disappointed by the lack of decency we received - which you can read in more detail below the current state of my backyard.
The plan was to complete the small remaining demo we had not completed ourselves before May 3 as we had previously contracted an outdoor pergola to be installed prior to the patio pavers being installed. Prior to the remaining demo work, we paid to have our A/C unit disconnected to clear the required demo space.
And the remainder of the project would be completed the weekend of May 28th. On May 23rd - I received an email from Greg that "due to high volume in projects on hold and the weather to come this week" he would not be completing the project later that week. I called Greg after this e-mail and he was not able to provide me with a new date for the project. I asked that he at least lay the concrete block so the A/C could be reconnected as I was going to be out of town and the dogs would be unsafe with the house sealed up in 90 degree weather the following week. Greg was unable to lay the concrete and instead laid down cinder blocks which could not be used when we paid for our A/C to be reconnected and our A/C had to be relocated temporarily to an area of the existing concrete not part of the project.
On June 3, Greg sent one person to dig up another area of grass in preparation for the project. At this time he requested that he come by the next day to speak with us in person to review the status of the project. I reached out to Greg via text on June 4th just before 2:00 PM asking what time he would come by - Greg did not reply. I called at 6:30 PM and did not get a reply. Finally I received a call from Greg at 7:30 PM saying that he would not be by and this could be done over the phone, even though I spent all afternoon home waiting for him for the meeting he requested.
Over the coming week, we were still trying to confirm a date with Greg and even agreed to a last minute change to the selected brick on June 6th. The following day Greg texted that they would be here the following weekend (June 12th) and be completed by the weekend after.
Friday, June 11th - we reached out to Greg to confirm the details of his arrival and did not hear back. We ensured the yard was prepared for his arrival, which we anticipated being Saturday morning. After not seeing him Saturday morning, we called where he told us that he was at another job and did not anticipate being by this weekend. At this point, the constant lack of honest communication, we requested that if he in fact was not going to complete this project to stop stringing us along with fake promises and return our deposit. Greg assured us he would be by later that day to personally drop off the check - which in full Greg fashion - he sent someone else to slip it in our mailbox without saying a word. read more