August 2021
Tough Turtle Turf (TTT):…read moreEXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED - Last night, out of the blue, a rep showed up at my door at 6:30 p.m. saying he was there to walk through the finished job. I asked if we had an appointment I might have forgotten about and he says, "no, I was just in the area and thought I'd drop by". Say what??? You just randomly drop by a client's house 6:30 in the evening, unannounced to go over the work his company did three weeks earlier? I told him I had company and that I wasn't available for this impromptu visit and asked that he come back the next day, Thursday. We agreed at 0900. The next morning, no rep, no call, no show all day. However! I received an alert I have set up on my phone that $5000 was pending on my bank account from TTT. I don't have $5k laying around so now I'm really pissed off (sorry for language) and in a panic. How could they do this? I hadn't even signed off on the job! I made multiple calls to the company throughout the afternoon with no success. I then got in touch with a law firm I have on detainer through work but the office had closed. The next day, Friday, my birthday btw, I called my credit union to tell them what happened and what I could do. They said that because it was pending there was nothing they could do until it went through, which was scheduled for 0908 Monday morning. Guess who was at the bank this morning at 0855?!!! I filed a dispute based on many factors. The credit union will investigate and if the results are in my favor, they will reimburse my account and go after TTT themselves.
Backing up a bit, last Friday - again, my birthday - was spent trying to reach TTT for an explanation and action on their part. Finally, someone answered the phone! I was so worn down, I blandly stated what happened, told them I'd been in touch with my attorney, I'd contacted my bank who will be filing a dispute against them on Monday, that I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and with the CA Dept of Licensing. Wow! Things sure took a turn really quick. The girl sent me to the accounting department to see what they could do to reverse the pending deduction from my bank account and within 20 minutes, I received two emails - one containing a fabricated "contract" with my forged signature, and one was a copy of my PAID invoice with my forged signature signing off on the job. Interesting... this is now getting really ugly. Also, while on the phone with my bank, I missed a call from a TTT rep who also called quickly. He stated he was going out of town but that he'd be in touch with me Monday, today. I returned his call at 0800 this morning and we had an interesting conversation. Seems he just started his position with TTT six weeks earlier and he was instructed on Friday to call me ASAP to sort out the "issue". I corrected him and said "issues". He was nice and I could not fault him for the company he worked for, so I calmly explained my nightmare experience with his company, and he made arrangements to come by today to look at the job.
Long story short, he instantly saw the uneven pavers and slope towards the house, the sloppy protectant seal splattering over my already existing pavers (something I didn't notice), he immediately saw the uneven turf and saw that I had the wrong product installed, he felt the lumpiness under the turf. He noted the unfinished edge on one end of my yard, etc etc etc. He took pictures, wrote a report, and told me that the whole yard would have to be removed, including all the pavers, and redone and that he would have the same workers come back to do the job but under his supervision. I balked at that and he said he strongly felt that they should be held accountable and he couldn't see having someone else come and clean up after them. He said that he had to be honest and that we were looking at at least six weeks out before anything would be done. I asked him the next steps and he said he'd turn in the photos and his report. The company would then get in touch with him at some point to get his verbal report on what he saw and then they'd decide on what to do. Ugh!!!! This is really getting drawn out. Anyway... for what it's worth, I felt some satisfaction, although slight, that someone finally followed through and now we're off on another waiting game to get my yard right. Lordy, Lordy.... UPDATE: Before the promised work started, I learned that great guy that helped me out from this company had left their employ siting they were unethical. Once he left, my issue was dropped by the company, and I haven't been able to get a return call since! Extremely disappointed!