A couple of homes in my neighborhood had used Gulfside (James Martin) and we liked their results. Upon reading the reviews on this site, we decided to contact James for a complete overhaul of our landscaping -- a project that we expected would cost in the neighborhood of $100,000. We were unable to speak with James during the initial call, rather his assistant (Sue Thoma -- a very nice and upbeat person) said that we would have to first pay James $250 just to have an initial meeting during which he would decide whether he was interested in doing our job. We politely declined and were then about to move on to our second choice. A short while later Sue called back and said that James would welcome the opportunity to do our job and that there would not be a fee for the initial meeting.
The meeting was held a couple days later and James indeed confirmed that he looked forward to doing the landscape work at our house. He presented a contract the next day which contained a $7,500 "Garden Design Fee." This was a bit unusual as most larger landscape contractors include the design as part of their overall service. James explained that he has had problems with customers getting his design and then going elsewhere. He also noted that the contract provided that if we retained his company, the "Garden Design Fee" would be credited against the overall project cost. Because our neighbors had assured us that James pricing would be fair, we proceeded to sign the contract and pay the fee.
During the initial meeting, James had assured us that the design would be completed within two weeks and that the entire project would be completed two months. After submitting the signed contract and payment of the fee, James then advised that he would not be able to get to our design for four to six weeks. This was disappointing, however believing that we had the right person for the job we were accepting of the delay.
Toward the end of the six weeks my wife contacted James to find out how the design was coming along and when we could expect to see the landscape plan. James assured her that the plan was coming along "nicely" and that he would be in a position to meet with us one week later to go over it. As it turned out, we were going to be out of town the week he wanted to meet so we set the meeting for the following week. James assured her that the landscape design would be complete and that his company would be ready to immediately move forward with the work.
Then yesterday, one week before the scheduled meeting, we receive a letter from James (not even a phone call) saying that "due to circumstances beyond my control I am not going to be able to" provide the landscape design. The particular reason James stated in his letter was that he:
"...devoted much thought and time to it and ... I am just not 'feeling it'."
I do not feel that James Martin/Gulfside Landscaping is trustworthy. I will not recommend that others use their services. read more