Bye Bye Massey
 

I closed on my new patio villa in December. At the time, I was still flying back and forth to Colorado until February, as I was selling my old home there. I needed to get signed my quickly for lawn service, and went with Massey, as I saw there lawn signs all over the place.

I knew better to than to sign a long-term contract (thanks TOTV users), and just went month-to-month, signing up for all their services.

During the winter and early spring months, I had no issues with them, and my lawn looked great. However, over the last month, they have been AWOL more than once. I called them this morning, as my grass is growing quite high, with lots of weeds appearing. The operator on phone said I should be getting my grass cut once a week - when I asked when I am scheduled for my next cutting, she said tomorrow. When I asked when was it cut last, she looked and said it should have been cut last week, but for some reason. She said it has been over two weeks since it was last cut. I told her I am paying for weekly cutting, that isn’t happening. She never apologized, just said let me have the manager in charge of cutting call you. I am awaiting his call as I type this.

A survey of lawns in my neighborhood with Massey, all have lawns much in need of needing mowed. It is really obvious right now who has Massey or who doesn’t’.

Those neighbors who have Dean’s have nicely and frequently mowed lawns. Two days ago, seeing this issue, I gave Massey my 30-day and notice and signed up with Dean’s.

I have read comment on TOTV previously about Massey, but it was just recently that the issues raised on TOTV by them (having to call them out to do their jobs and show up to mow) have affected me.

Funny, that they continue to have such a huge chunk of TV as customers, in spite of so many negative reviews.

Massey and Dean's both have issues and complaints. I use Massey because they are the only company in The Villages that will do every needed service. Dean's will not do irrigation maintenance. Also, Dean's requires a credit card that they can charge every month. But, if they did irrigation maintenance and repair, and might give them a try.

Those new to TV, learn quickly which services, just don’t show up. We have had Deans since “07” always show up, and great office customer service.

Massey got a large chunk of Richmond, and it’s very noticeable, ow many yards are not being mowed by them.

We use Deans not just because they show up, but their techs are not only good at their job, they live and love it. It’s the employees that make the business.

Massey just started doing mowing here about 5 years ago. In many other areas, Massey does not provide that service. We have always been happy with Massey for pest control but I leave lawn and shrubbery maintenance to the companies that specialize in that.

We find Massey to be ok except for grass cutting. We use another service to cut our grass.

I agree - talking on the phone to Dean’s vs Massey is night and day. Dean’s customer service is awesome, Massey is the typical disinterested call-center employee who comes across as “indifferent” and not personal on the phone.

Massey does a great job on pest control, that is because the same guy has been doing it for three years and he is very responsible.

Had them for irrigation. 5 different people in a year doing it 5 different ways and never telling me when they were coming. Got rid of them after a year and have a neighbor doing this for me.

Had them for fertilizing and paying a lot for very little, so they went away quickly.

Technician for pest control told me that grass cutting dept is a turnstyle and stay away so I have.

Massey's been mostly okay for some services, but not for lawn...weed control, fertilization and sprinkler maintenance.

Anybody have any recommendations for another service to improve our lawn?

Nubie to T.V.(2018), saw all the Massey signs , soo no brainer...Signed up for everything, for all the services..Massey showed up to check my irrigation system, told this will take all afternoon...One and a half hour later showed up with a $1,200 bill...After Massey left, I started to think..Called Massey supervisor, show me the work you did for $1,200. .. Supervisor could not, and started to sweet talk(where are you from, etc) about a bill reduction.. Cancelled the whole contract...

Massey rep was honest and said they didn’t have resources for lawn cutting. Bought a 300 electric mower and done in 10 minutes

I use a specialized lawn service to cut grass and trim bushes. Massey for fertilizing grass and weed control and pests. Dean’s for termites. When I had tiny caterpillar like bugs in the lanai Massey came out and set traps for all types of insects. Treated the outside too. A week later the same person came out again checked everything. Three months later I was up north when I got a call from the same person, he had gone to my place again and checked for pest control progress. He also coaches after school at the Villages school. Best service ever! This year the winter was dry and in the spring I had largish patches of weeds in the grass. I called and the next day we, Massey service guy and myself, went out together and treated every patch. The grass was slower to grow this year, but my weeds disappeared after a week or so. So, those services seem pretty good with Massey.

You should NOT be cutting your grass every week in the winter!
 

I use a local family owned business for cutting my lawn. They told me the during the winter months, they will only cut the lawn once, maybe twice a month. The grass goes dormant and requires much less water. During the summer months, they come once a week and have me adjust the watering schedule to accommodate. If you are paying to have your lawn cut once a week in the winter, you are throwing money away.

We closed on our home on 12/21 and did very similar thing--went all-in with Massey and had negative experience with the mowing service--just not showing up to mow. We have since cancelled all services with them except for checking the termite bait stations. Much different experience than where we were from (Louisiana), which struck us as strange. We went with SonLife for mowing and we are very happy with them. Also we love to have an opportunity to support a Christian-owned business.

Lawn services - Dean's and Massery
 

We've been using Dean's - full services - for almost 4 years. I retired 2 years ago and started mowing myself. That turns out to be once every 3 to 4 weeks, in the winter, and 2 to 3 times per week in the summer "growing season". They handle the chemicals and I handle the mowing. My mower mows my yard only hence I don't get "hitchhikers" from other yards.

Hand mowing, rain, irrigation water and Dean's chemicals and we get:

Lots of folks come to the same realization you did, after a time. I finally wised up last year, and bought an Ego electric mower, trimmer, and blower. I now mow/trim my own yard, and it has never looked better. I literally spend less time each week mowing, than I use to spend trying to track down the guy that was supposed to show up and mow.

And, as mentioned, you mow less frequently during the winter months. From roughly November thru March, cutting your grass once every 3 - 4 weeks is sufficient.

Yards in my area with Massey look horrible. My yard was starting to show signs of stress and so I ditched them. Started treating the yard myself using former detailed invoicing on what products to use and how often. Googled a lot and used ACE hardware printed info sheet as well.

I use Sunniland Weed and Feed for St Augustine grass every 3 months and spread granule pesticide for chinch bugs and mole crickets as well. Little tip spread in evening and lightly sprinkle water over granules to get them off the blades of grass as over spreading and leaving the granules on the grass on a hot sunny day can and will burn your grass. I spread the other evening as it was time and it was going to rain.

Definitely putting barrier of pesticide and weed and feed between your yard and neighbors who may care less about their yard having bugs (or weeds) is a good idea.

In the end the yard looks great but it does take a little of my time. Invested in an electric foldable self propelled (makes the task much simpler) mower as well.

If you are not a diy person best advice get rid of Massey. TRY Deans but some say they are no better. Evergreen is another I have seen but not sure how good they are.

We have had Deans since we bought here in 2020 with no problems. Since we are now full time we mow our own lawn and we dialed back the chemicals they were putting down since we have dogs and I worry about what they come in contact with.

They continue to do our termite protection and some other bug services with no issues.

We fired Massey 3 years ago , very happy with Dean’s

Massey
 

We have had Deans for 5 years. Very pleased with them. Good customer service. I have seen a lot of negative comments about Massey this year.

For those who have switched from Massey to Dean's, who do you call to get a quick response on a broken sprinkler head that requires digging a hole, and what do they charge? Dean's told me that they do not repair sprinklers. I don't want to wait days or weeks to get a sprinkler repaired and be overcharged.

We fired Massey for the same reason and even after we fired them for All 3 services they kept billing us. We made calls and emails to them with no response. They are simply a company who does not care.

Massey is not a lawn service. It is a deception criminal corporation.....

After using Massey for all my lawn care services for over fifteen years, mark me down as a positive review. Hopefully this offsets the “many negative reviews” cited by OP.

When I called last year to get a quote on the home I bought they said they do NOT cut the grass.........maybe they quit again? Just sayin they do NOT cut grass

About the same
 

I had Massey for the first year, and Dean's for the second year and my opinion is they're about equal. Both seem to have great customer service when you call (i.e. they'll send someone out right away to deal with a problem), but they aren't very proactive. In summer, my lawn looked bad (weeds/barespots) with both companies. It has become painfully obvious that the best lawns in our neighborhood are mowed (and perhaps fertilized) by the owners. I just don't want to buy and store the materials and equipment to do it myself...I'm retired from that. As the months go on, I'm becoming more tolerant of not having a perfect lawn (like i had up north before moving). I think the big problems with both Deans and Massey is the huge, heavy mowers, transferring weeds between lawns, and the fact they mow my grass (St. Augustine) too short. All the nicer yards in our area (again push mowed by the owners) are a healthy 4-5", mine is lucky if it ever gets above 2-3".

I don't know if they are the worst but I think they are terrible they basically lied to my client and said they fixed the sprinklers when they did not. I live here and take care of a few homes and have built renovations and helped people sell and move. I care and I am honest, I have found that is a valuable commodity.

If Dean's wants to increase their business, they should add irrigation maintenance. That is the only service they don't offer. When I have a broken sprinkler head that requires digging a hole, I need someone who is reliable and will respond quickly.

I wonder if Dean's or Massey ever come on forums like this and read about
the service their providing in TV.
If they did, wouldn't it be in their interest to change the way they do business?

How long can this go on with so many unhappy customers?

Massey
 

I too give a positive rating to Massey for their overall work for about the last 10 years. I give them A- with this disclosure that I have another co. doing the mowing and bush trimming. All companies, with few exceptions has issues getting and keeping employees. It’s a challenging labor market given the growth of central Florida and especially The Villages. Prior to Massey I had Deans - so there you go. We will see if there is anything different with the development of Middleton.

Maybe because they have far more happy customers than the few complainers that post here.

Very true but it does seem that Massey does a pretty lousy job with cutting grass.

So are you saying that when Massey fails to fulfill it’s promises, and doesn’t show up to cut your grass, that one should remain “silent”, at the risk of being labeled a “complainer” by an anonymous person on the internet? I think those that have posted their negative experiences with Massey here are basically positive and helpful people, that have encountered poor services and broken promises from Massey. If you have had positive experiences with Massey, then good for you. If you research previous threads on lawn care, Massey has many, many previous dissatisfied customers, who became happier once they switched out to other contractors.

That is true about services other than LAWN MOWING, and Massey is aware of the problem, I don’t know if they are trying to fix it or get out of the business altogether. Personally, I believe in being fair and post both my positive and negative experiences.

I didn't get that from his post, at all...

Just that this forum has a very "vocal" element that may or may not reflect the opinion of the general public...

Massey unreliable
 

We have had similar experience with Massey claiming to have performed services that they did not perform both in lawn care and with irrigation repair and have switched to Deans and are very happy and our yard is in much better shape.

I think that Massey has dishonest employees who would rather tell their boss they did the service. Hopefully they quickly get fired.

But than again sure other companies have same problem.

Irrigation repair
 

When I need irrigation repair I call an irrigation company that specializes in only fixing irrigation problems. if I need a new roof, I call a company that specializes in only roof work. It could be me, but when I need repairs or service at my house, I prefer to call a company that specializes in that issue only. I had Massey- they expanded so quickly they were hiring young people, barely trained, no experience

So, if you have a broken sprinkler head that requires digging a hole and replacing an extension or gluing a pipe together, who do you call, how quickly can they respond, and what will they charge for a 15 minute repair? I have heard that some of these irrigation experts are not immediately available, and they may charge $150 to $200 for a one time system service call. Massey checks the system 4 times per year for $40 each visit, and does minor repairs for a very minimal charge. They are usually available to make a repair within a day or so. They may not be the best, but they do provide peace of mind that you have someone who is accountable on a regular basis. The problem with sprinkler systems is that they can start to leak at any time, and no irrigation expert can prevent it from happening.

True. My neighbor had an "expert" come over to repair one valve in the controller box and got sold on replacing all 4. Cost $700. Massey will check and repair sprinkler parts, sometimes at no cost. I wouldn't use their lawn cutting service though. Get yourself a dedicated lawn cutting service.

I know Massey is aware because I showed the forum to someone in their office who was up the food chain.

My problems were addressed the next day and I know it was only a short-term fix but I gave it a shot. I really want to stick with them because I like the one call does it all thing. What a pain in the butt this has turned out to be. I don't have the advantage that others do of going and getting the equipment myself. Idios Mio! It's a lawn, not rocket science. Just take care of business. Sick of monitoring it and seeing that my rental neighborhood which currently has nobody living in most of the houses have better-looking lawns than me.