During the 18 months that The Landscape Group was responsible for our lawn maintenance; our yard frequently looked overgrown, diseased and full of weeds. We had weeds up to our knees, shrubs growing out of control, huge diseased patches of turf and overgrown grass. In fact, it looked so bad that we received notices of violation from our homeowners association on two occasions, presumably as a result of neighborhood complaints. They threatened that if the condition of our yard was not immediately addressed we would be fined and charged for a company of their choice to perform the necessary services. This headache and embarrassment resulted in numerous phone calls to The Landscape Group's office manager, Sales Manager (James), and owner (Frank Schaeffer) to attempt to remedy the situation. Eventually their employees would come to our property and mow down the weeds, but they would grow back immediately. We chose The Landscape Group's multifaceted lawn maintenance plan rather than going with several different companies for mowing, fertilization, and chemical treatments because they promised to "own" our lawn. Prior to hiring The Landscape Group we paid for fertilization and chemical treatments from Tender Lawn Care and for mowing, edging and blowing from Curb Appeal Counts. The Landscape Group promised to do all of these services plus prune our shrubs and trees and check our irrigation controls. But ever since they "owned" our lawn in April of 2007, we had the worst looking yard in the neighborhood - despite paying more money for their services.
The Landscape Group never applied chemical weed control, pre-emergent chemicals or fertilizer to our lawn and shrubs, despite committing to do so in the maintenance agreement and charging us for the services. I am a stay-at-home mother yet I never saw their employees or any subcontractors applying chemicals or fertilizer during the 18 months they were solely responsible for our lawn. We never saw a single flag or sign notifying us that pesticides had been applied to our lawn nor were we given any written notification that the service had been performed. My husband and I called their offices and talked to the Sales Manager, Office Manager and/or Frank Schaeffer numerous times about this problem and they repeatedly assured us that the chemical work was being done and that our yard's condition would be addressed and improved. My husband also wrote an email and sent pictures to Frank Schaeffer documenting the severity of the issue in April of 2008, but it still was not resolved adequately.
We recently learned that The Landscape Group is not licensed and never has been licensed by the Georgia Department of Agriculture's Pesticide Division to apply pesticides and weed control to anyone's lawn. I filed a complaint with the Department of Agriculture on October 23, 2008. If The Landscape Group had actually applied chemicals and pesticides to our property they were required to have a Pesticide Applicator's license as well as a Pesticide Contractor's license, they were required to notify us of the treatments in writing, and they were required to post flags to indicate the perimeter of the treated area.
We do not believe that The Landscape Group or any of their affiliates or subcontractors ever applied pre-emergent chemicals, chemical weed control or fertilizer to our property over the 18 months they were responsible for our lawn. In order to repair the condition of our lawn, we have contracted with Tender Lawn Care to immediately resume service and they are doing an excellent job. According to Tender Lawn Care it will take at least a year for our lawn to recover from the damage done by The Landscape Group's neglect. Based on their gross misrepresentation of services and the subsequent condition of our lawn, we do not recommend The Landscape Group to anyone. read more