I am saddened to have to leave this review, but others should be aware of Michael Mariano's…read morebusiness practices.
He started out as a decent lawn maintenance person. Spring clean up was usually sufficient, and mowing every two weeks was ok. I understand his prices are on the low side, and so I figured I pay for what I get.
At the very beginning, I explained that all leaves needed to be blown to the front of my property - at the curb but not in the street. They get picked up by the town, which has simple rules. He did that for the most part, but every once in a while I noticed he blew the leaves to the back of my property, where they would never get picked up. Sometimes he denied it, and sometimes the excuse would be that they were too wet to blow to the front. (Every other landscaper did it properly - why couldn't he?)
This last time, he blew all of the leaves in the back of my house to the back of the property. When I emailed him to tell him it needs to be blown to the front, he said it was NJ Transit's trees, so their leaves, so that's why he blew them onto their property. I was speechless. That response was absurd. Considering I have a huge, 80+ year old tree in the back of my house, his response was beyond ridiculous. (I was actually hoping he just had a bad day, and would re-think his response, and take care of the leaves, but that didn't happen. That's really why I waited so long to write this review - I wanted to give him an opportunity to make things right.)
He also never bothered removing the branches that fell before and/or during the season. I actually had to gather them up myself and move them to the front of my property. I asked him to remove them at that point - and he said he would.
Instead of removing them, he buried them under the leaves he blew to the front of my property. I didn't even realize that until they (Chatham Boro) came to remove the leaves, and discovered the branches. They got pissed off (rightly so) and tossed them all over my lawn. I emailed Michael and told him what happened, and once again I asked him to pick them up - and he said he would. He never showed up, and I had to arrange to have them removed.
Now, the leaves he blew onto the back of my property are all over my property as well as my neighbors properties. It looks like it was never even done!
If I am asked to clean up the mess, I will be taking Mariano Landscaping to small claims court to recoup my expenses.
There were other issues, but these were the most blatant issues.
I highly recommend that you spend a little more for someone who is ethical, honest, responsible and reliable with at least an inkling of common sense.
