R Yard Care

Unresponsive and no follow up

First experience was removing flower bed for planting grass. Quote given was $250. When job done stated job was $400 but would accept $350. Paid that. Made mistake of asking additional services with fluctuating prices. More interested in getting job done within certain amount of billable hours rather than quality of job performed

Edit: I updated my review from one to two stars as the owner reached out and offered to compensate me for the damage to the garden (reducing my total bill to $400 from $750 after I provided a cost estimate for purchasing 50 mature plants). I am leaving the full review intact because this was my actual experience. Initially I planned on updating this to three stars, but the owner asked me several times to delete the review which made me feel pressured and I didn't feel was appropriate.

I met the owner and he seemed super nice and I was excited to throw a lot of business his way. He said I’d be on the schedule “next week” (a week ago). Thursday (this week) comes around and I haven’t heard from him so I reached out. He says he can come today (3 hours notice). I said I was in meetings all day but we had covered what I needed done (leaf cleanup) and I warned to be sure to be careful with the back gate because I have rescue dogs that are a flight risk and the back gate is held on with wire (it’s there to gain access to the woods and to let equipment out the back so it works for what it’s there for - and keeps the dogs secure). I said I’d tackle the garden myself because I have a ton of perennials, rose bushes, and a huge long established strawberry patch cascading over several large (6ft) boxes. Initially I had said I’d take the day off when they came to work so I could do the garden while they did the yard. Because I never heard back and couldn’t make a time off plan, that couldn’t happen - so basically the agreement was “leaf blower that area only because I wanted to take care to clear it myself”. I get out of work and head to the back gate to make sure it was safe (I wanted to check before letting the dogs out). The gate was just leaning there, unsecured. The wire that held it on was gone. So not only did they leave me with an open gate, but I had no means to re-secure it. I did a makeshift fix with rope and zip ties. I let him know and he doesn’t apologize - just says “we will come fix it tomorrow”. Then I go check the garden because now I’m concerned. They RAKED UP my entire strawberry patch. They destroyed years worth of hard work and when I told him, he offers to go to Garden Barn. He didn’t ask how many plants were there or what the extent of the damage was. He doesn’t say sorry. He says “they’ll be different but I can get them”.

The lack of apology or acknowledgement that there were two pretty impactful mistakes is why I’m giving them a crummy review. There’s a way to run a business. Not acknowledging your clear failures isn’t it. I’m sad I lost so many years of hard work. Needless to say I reached out and declined them coming back to fix the fence or bring new growth berries. I said I’d cut my losses and I wish him luck.

Just so this isn’t ALL negative, the owner is a very nice person - I enjoyed chatting with him and hearing his career history (fascinating).
10/10 as a human - 4/10 as a landscape business owner.

Pro: They did blow the leaves and clear sticks and debris efficiently so it wasn’t a TOTAL loss
Con: Damaging my property and the lack of any meaningful reaction to my legitimate concerns was UNDERWHELMING to say the least.

Edit 1: After I messaged to cancel my follow up appointment and asking if he knew where the waste from the garden was disposed of so I could go try to salvage whatever plants I could, he did send an apology.
“I'm sorry about the garden. I will find out what happened tomorrow. Hopefully we can recover the plants.”
I cancelled my appointment, but his message made it seem like he didn’t accept that. I will be replying telling him I’ll tackle it on my own from here.