Quote:
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 could have written this post myself. We paid outrageous amounts of money for mediocre service. We have been through several companies. We explain what we want, just as you have explained. We put out the problems every week; and nothing is done.
Our latest person assured me over and over again that he had three people who would attend to our problems. On most weeks, it is one person who definitely doesn't have an eye for detail.
I am tired of going out in our yard and flowerbeds and street cleaning up after the guy when he leaves. The last time, I pointed out all of the grass clippings in the road and street curbside. He got defensive and said that it was impossible to clean up the clippings. It's amazing that I found a way to do it myself.
Yes - I am going to look for yet another service. BTW - I am on this forum because we are looking at The Villages as one of our retirement options!