BATES - no more
 

We are finishing up our first year with Bates and I am about to put a restraining order to keep them off my property.

Two weeks ago we had a supervisor come out and promised to have his tech out within a few days to address our problems. We agreed we had mole crickets and need to be treated; however he tried to tell me there is no way
they can treat the crabgrass that is overtaking the back yard. WHAT???

So today, 2 weeks later two show up for the job. One claims to be a supervisor and tries to tell us we don't have mole crickets, we have nematodes. Well that is interesting since they were treating for mole crickets last year, the other supervisor said they were mole crickets and now all of a sudden we have nematodes that they don't treat. I also just learned
the only way nematodes can be diagnosed are under a microscope by a
professional.

The straw that broke the camel's back was when I admit I got a little excited and he told me to go back in the house "I was paying for service not to give
him attitude". Of course I responded if he had given me service I wouldn't have an attitude. At any rate I have a call into Mr. Bates that I assume will
never happen because they are definitely operating under the customer "no
service" policy.

I post this to vent, but even more important to forewarn that they seem to be in trouble with keeping employees (the supervisor from two weeks ago is now gone) and have been told they just don't have the time or techs to send out quickly.

Bye the way, I have researched crabgrass in Zoysia and it can indeed be treated in Zoysia so I have no idea why they are trying to present this as a fact.

Bates
 

I use Bates and think they do the bare minimum. Even though we pay for fertilization, we still pay the lawnmower service to feed the lawn a couple times a year. Bates does keep roaches out of the house, but the lawn portion of their care leaves much to be desired. I also end up feeding our palms and fruit trees because what Bates supplies simply does not do the job. As for the service people Bates sends out, we have Al, and he is a decent, kind man.

Sorry you have had that experience but I have had Bates for years with no issues. They have come back in a reasonable amount of time if there were something additional to take care of. We are on only our second tech and both were professional and courteous. I don't believe there is any company that can please 100% of us 100% of the time. I had bad experiences with companies that received rave reviews on this forum and ate poor quality food from restaurants that were rated highly. I guess we just have to take our chances and if it doesn't meet our standards just make it a lesson learned and move on.

Agree, but I don't think not having crab grass and weeks in my lawn is a
reasonable expectation. I also don't believe it should take two weeks for a
tech to come out to address the issues.

Hope your good luck continues, but as you suggested I am moving on.

A. Contact Master Gardeners in your county for diagnosis and advice. They want you to bring photos and chunky grass samples which can be sent to UF for diagnosis by experts.
The Florida Master Gardener Program ? University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

B. Stuff (crabgrass) that gets in your yard very well may have ridden in on unwashed mowers, (and fungus/pests on hedgers, pruners.) I decided to do much of this work myself.

C. Mole Crickets love light. Consider location of damage to nearest light source. I'll be replacing my pole lamp with a yellow bulb.

Basic Biology of Mole Crickets

Two weeks is way too long for ANY lawn service to show up for a lawn issue. I have not used Bates but, like you, I would not be happy. It sounds like they have a real staff problem.

Maybe they are short staffed. The tech that does our work is a very, very nice guy and is always eager to please. We do have construction going on, so much of our yard is a mess, but the grass that is unaffected sure doesn't look like the grass my next door neighbors have. Hey! I guess the grass IS always greener. :laugh:

I agree we had Bates and they were not concerned in the least when we had a problem.
Called them twice to address the problem and said they would come and never showed up.

Fired them

We have MASSEY; our lawn guy showd me that we had mole crickets--Massey came by the next day and treated our lawn.

We had Bates at our last house and the service was terrible and we dropped them. It seemed each month a different tech was doing our lawn. How can there be any consistency if the tech changes all the time, they can't know your property if it is always their first time at the property when they treat it.

P.s. Mr. Bates never did bother to return my call - no surprise there.
YOU 'RE FIRED!

Need Help!! I want to post information about a lawn service I have that was excellent but I can't seem to find out how to post. Help!!