Hubris, Incompetence, High Price, Low Service
Last year,…read moreCentral Florida never seemed to come out of the winter dry season. The drought continued through the summer, and, of course, the dry conditions invited Chinch Bugs to invade my Floratam lawn. They did so with a vengeance.
The lawn service company we had used for years couldn't get the problem under control despite numerous attempts, so I finally had to let them go and try fighting the battle myself. I had some success with various products, including a granular treatment I purchased from an agricultural supply company. For a while, it looked like we were winning.
That battle was becoming exhausting, though, and expensive. Between insecticides, sod and other lawn products, I decided enough was enough. We were familiar with several lawn companies in the area, and we decided to give Drake a try after seeing what appeared to be good results on a neighbor's lawn.
I called Drake. That's where the story took a turn.
The initial call was handled quickly and professionally by a personable young lady. We scheduled a time for a field representative to come out, inspect the lawn and provide an estimate. Soon afterward, I received an email confirming the representative's name and even including his photo. Very professional so far.
Then things started to unravel.
The representative called and told me he would be off the following day, a Friday, and that his manager would fill in for him. Nothing was said about changing the appointment time.
Later, another email arrived from the office giving me the manager's name. Again, nothing indicated that the appointment time had changed.
So Friday morning, I was at home waiting.
11:00 a.m. -- Nothing.
12:00 p.m. -- Still nothing. Not even a phone call.
At this point, I was beginning to feel like I was dealing with a cable TV technician from the old days: We'll give you a time window, and maybe somebody will actually show up.
I finally gave up and started looking for other lawn companies. Then, at approximately 3:30 p.m., I received a call from the manager saying he would arrive around 4:00.
That's five hours after the scheduled appointment.
Needless to say, I was irritated. Still, I told him to come out because I wanted to hear what Drake had to say.
When he arrived, there were plenty of explanations for the scheduling fiasco, but I decided to put that behind us. He did conduct a thorough inspection of the lawn, and I appreciated that. He explained how Drake could attack the Chinch Bug problem and develop a plan to get the lawn back into shape.
Then came the price.
It was more than twice what I had been paying my previous lawn company. Since my wife and I are retired, I asked if he could email me a written proposal so we could discuss it and determine whether we could fit it into our budget.
"No problem," he said.
He repeated the email address that Drake had already been successfully using to communicate with me. He said either he or the original representative would contact me on Monday to see what we wanted to do.
We discussed it over the weekend and, despite the rocky beginning and high price, we were actually prepared to give Drake a try.
Monday came.
No proposal.
No phone call.
Nothing.
Remember, this was after I had already waited five hours for someone to show up for the original appointment.
Tuesday morning, I replied to the email the Drake office had previously sent me confirming the appointment. I explained everything that had happened and asked that my concerns be forwarded to the area manager.
To his credit, the area manager did call me back. Unfortunately, his primary concern seemed to be the scheduling problem. I explained that we had already gotten past that issue and that my real concern was the missing proposal and the promised Monday follow-up.
He told me that he had emailed the proposal to me twice over the weekend.
I'm sorry, but that doesn't make sense.
Drake's emails had been reaching me perfectly well. I had received multiple messages from them before and had responded to them. Yet somehow, the one email that actually mattered never arrived.
Perhaps it was sent to the wrong address. Perhaps it wasn't sent at all. I don't know. What I do know is that I never received it.
I then asked the obvious question: If the proposal had supposedly been sent twice, why didn't anyone call me on Monday as promised?
There was no good answer.
At least he called.
Incompetence. High price. Low service.
And here's the kicker.
When it became apparent on Friday that Drake might not show up, I contacted another lawn service company. They came to my house this morning, on time, as scheduled, and provided an estimate.
The price?
Less than half of what Drake quoted me for essentially the same battle plan for my lawn.
So after all of this, I didn't have to wonder whether I had made the right decision.
If this is how Drake treats a potential customer before they even have your business, I'm certainly not interested.
