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Originally Posted by GrumpyOldMan
We have been here 1 1/2 years now and are on our 3rd or 4th lawn care company. (one took the job and then never showed up)
It seems they all want to charge a bundle and then spend as little time as possible actually doing any work. And with the constant turnover of employees by the larger firms, any "special instructions" get lost in the turmoil.
For example, we have a couple of large dogs (Great Pyrenese and Labrador Retriever). We have a CYV and put a sign on the gate to NOT open the gate until knocking to let us know they are there so we can lock the dogs inside since we let our dogs run in the back yard. We also give the lawn care specific instructions to do this, so the dogs do not get out and run loose. This usually works until the first time a new hire comes, and they walk into the backyard, and the dogs dash out.
The second problem we have had is these larger companies using riding mowers with people that don't know how to use them. Some of our grass (and the grass of several of our neighbors) was killed by a new employee of Massey scalping our yard down to the sand last year - it still has not fully recovered. They came out and looked and basically said, sorry, we will try to do better. I said, no thank go practice on someone else's lawn.
Now, we are paying a significant premium to our current lawn care company. We chose them and agreed to the premium because we thought if we paid enough we would get good service. So much for that theory.
We pay, as part of the contract, to have the weeds in the hardscape controlled. So far they have not controlled them and now with the spring, you can almost not see the rocks because of all the weeds. The "owner" of the company came out and didn't even apologize, he just said, it must have fallen through the cracks because we started after the weeds were treated in this area - 2 months ago. He said they would be back in our area in a few weeks and take care of it.
Seriously! We are paying this company easily 50% more than any other service we have had and he says they will take care of the weeds in a few weeks.
I am sick and tired of this.
Can anyone provide the name and number of a GOOD RELIABLE individual that does lawn care. Someone that does the work, and doesn't send out a teen that was flipping burgers last week. Someone that takes pride in their work.
Our requirements are pretty simple.
1. Mow the yard when it needs it - we have very LITTLE grass, most of the front is rock.
2. Trim the plants and trees when they need it.
3. Pull the weeds in the rocks, poison the weeds in the grass.
4. inspect and adjust the irrigation as required.
5. Fertilize as required.
That is it, I don't want to have to CALL them to tell them there are weeds, I want them to actually look at our yard, and take care of it.
Sorry, for the rant, I am very frustrated. I paid less to have acres mowed before moving here, and we have not gone with the low price spread here.
As my wife says, all we want is to look at our yead when we get home and think, "'that looks nice". It seems to be too much to ask.
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I understand your frustrations over lawn companies! I have used the same lawn guy for 4 years and while things are never always perfect, I still keep him because I'm not sure if anyone else would be better.. BUT...If we changed these Villages policies about having to have real grass in the first place, we would all be better off! If only we were allowed to use that new artificial turf, we would be able to: Fire the lawn guys, not have to worry about sprinklers being broken by lawn movers, USE LESS WATER, not have to listen to the noises of mowers, worry about our pets, see less emissions into our air, save money on the grass cutting service, save time from sweeping up after them when they don't blow all the dirt out of the driveway and sidewalks, save money on sprinkler repairs.. I've heard that in the recent past some Villagers that live in the smaller yard, patio homes had used that synthetic grass to landscape their yards and The Villages told them to remove it! All this is really a no brainer and I only wish that more people would come forward about this matter of having synthetic with the powers that be here! They can make this optional if they want, some folks can have the real grass or be a new ager and say to heck with real grass and be more environmentally friendly.. I would love to hear other people's thoughts about this and maybe even start a petition of some sort. I will be the first in line to sign a petition! What do you all think??