Jeff Payne is a business with one employee, himself. He has no working capital of his own. He uses…read moreday laborers that he pays $100 a day. He agreed to a project for us and quickly dismantled the yard bought many plants and then slowed down. It was spring and we had many days of rain, plus he was dealing with health issues. We paid him 50% down and he quickly asked for another 12.5% , etc etc until he had drawn all the money. Our yard was at a stage that needed finished, we had a fountain but it wasn't installed, he had half built a potting bench. He came to us and said he had no money and could not finish. We agreed to pay him another $2400 for supplies only. This was after having paid him $15,600 for primarily a small front yard At this point he became mean, uncooperative and abusive. He did a little more work and then just stopped. This took place over a three month period. Our experience with him was horrific. It was only at this point we found out this is common practice for him. Some will say he is a good landscaper and a bad businessman. I view him as a totally dishonest contractor, a scammer and I know several people who say the same.

The work was decent...at least the portion that was finished. The man was a nightmare to work…read morewith. I joined Yelp and am writing this entire story in the hopes that I can save another person from becoming a victim. Mr. Flake came out for the initial quote to lay my existing pile of salvaged flagstone into a new patio and reset the stones in my front bed retaining wall. He insisted that the project required a few extras: 1) a new drainage pipe from my downspout, 2) moving my 7 year old live oak because it was going to destroy my driveway as it got bigger, and 3) adding capstones to the retaining wall stone. He was adamant that the tree could be moved safely when I was skeptical. He quoted me $2,850. He showed up promptly the next day and got to work with a 50% upfront payment. Two days later AFTER my yard was dug up and there was no going back he called up to say he had "misquoted" my original work due to a math error and would need another $2,000 to complete the job. When we refused and insisted he honor his original he alternated between sob stories (he's just a small contractor and this will "ruin" him) and grandstanding that his work was "too good" to be lowballed so badly. I told him that we just didn't have the money (true) because were preparing to become foster parents and doing a lot of remodeling inside already. We're broke. Only when we said he could just leave and we'd finish ourselves did he agree that he could finish the job, but wouldn't afford to pay his crew for help so we were going to have to be patient and it was going to take a LOT longer. That's when the real fun started. Constant complaining and guilt trips as he worked, as though it was personally my fault that my soil is heavy clay. Only after my tree was moved did he mention it had a 50/50 chance of survival (spoiler: it died.) But he was ready to sell me a new one for an additional fee! Then the personal attacks started. He started lecturing me about my husband letting me "do all the work" on garden projects (duh, gardening is my hobby?), about how we let our grass get too long and were a disgrace to the neighborhood, we don't clean our gutters properly, etc. He took another job before mine was finished to "get income coming in again" and said it would now be even longer because he would only work on mine when he couldn't be at the other site. He would text that he'd be there on a certain day, then only text that afternoon that something had come up and it would be later. Oh, and he needed the rest of that 50% now because he'd already spent more in labor and supplies than our original half. Oh, and he bought more flagstone without asking me because out remaining pieces were too small and that made it harder work for him. I needed to reimburse him. Stupidly....I gave it to him. I deeply regret that because in hindsight it was the only thing keeping him halfway decent. On the day he quit he mentioned that he'd be coming by again after 2 no-shows. It was Friday and I'd taken a day off work. My husband wasn't home. I hoped it was to finish the flagstone and front that STILL WAS NOT FINISHED after 3 weeks. No. He'd agreed to level an area in my backyard where I was planning to do a garden and wanted to start that instead? I'd left a log rack in the location. When he knocked and I went out to talk to him about it he started screaming at me about how it was my responsibility to have the site prepped for him. I told him I could move it and he started screaming at me. He insulted my husband and 14 year old son as too lazy to do proper yardwork and how a "woman shouldn't have to do work like that." I then said that he could refund the portion for the backyard, finish the front and please leave my property. He then launched into a 5 minute screaming tirade. He told me my yard was a "junky mess" and that I was going to be a terrible foster mother because my yard was unfit to have children in. (I'd mentioned when we hired him we were becoming foster parents soon and part of him being hired was to make sure the outside was ship shape.) He told me we were unfit homeowners for our grass being too long and a disgrace to our neighborhood. He even complained that the flagstone work he had already done wasn't being cared for because it was covered in leaves!?!?!? It went on and on. He threw $150 at me for the backyard refund and left. He left my yard a mess. The flagstone was unfinished. The retaining was was never capped. He left piles of unused crushed stone base and gap filler material in both my front and back yard. He left the unused flagstone laid out across my lawn. The last I heard from him was a multiparagraph text message where he once again told me all the ways in which I was a terrible human being.