Reviews of local pros in Sparta, Michigan

Amazing crew led by an amazing person who actually cares to keep his clients safe! Huge thank you to Mike and his crew for taking care of his customers! Please Stay safe out there!

Alternative Lawn Care has been doing our lawn fertilizing for years. We've always been really happy with them. When it came time to sell my parents house, their landscaping was overgrown with weeds. I contacted Dusty at Alternative Lawn Care. He went right out to the house and gave me a quote. The price was really reasonable compared with other quotes I received so we went ahead with the job. They were quick and did a fantastic job! From the time I first contacted them to the time the job was done was less than a week! So pleased with how the yard looks now. Will make the curb appeal and first impression so much better as we try to sell the house. Highly recommend!

Called them on February 9th, April 1 to get on spring leaf vacuum. Never showed after several calls and them saying we are on the “list”. Now late May and no leaf removal. We put a mini golf course in the spot we pile the leaves up so now the neighborhood kids don’t have a place to play until we figure out a solution with another company that keeps their word.

I used this company to remove some bushes and build some new mulch beds on the side and front of my house. At first glance the work seemed fine and they were very timely. However, within a week plants that had been in the area where the mulch beds were made were already growing in and it looks like nothing was actually dug up or any kind of barrier put down. Just some mulch was applied. I guess I had assumed new mulch beds meant the area would have the old plants removed. Large bald patches were left in the yard from the machinery used and I was told that it would be fixed by the person that completed the landscape work. 2 months later nothing has been done. I emailed my contact at the company twice to ask about these concerns with no reply. I then used the web page contact form with no reply. And now I've left two Messenger messages which gives me auto replies that the messages have been received but I never get a human response. I had initially asked for lawn mowing to be done as well but after a week decided we did not have the budget (we are paying per mow with no contract). In each contact attempt I asked that they stop the mowing and yet keep coming home after work every other week to see that they still came to mow and am now receiving bills for mowing that I keep asking to stop. To be honest I never intended to leave a bad review as I certainly believe in giving a company a chance to make it right but at this point I'm just hoping the review will mean they will finally contact me back!

I called the company to get an estimate on some landscaping I wanted. Called at 11:00 am, they came out that day, gave me the estimate. I have to say they are the hardest working crew. Knowledgeable, friendly, and professional. The work they provided was great, turned out beautiful.

We got a quote for our patio repair in March, the price was right, Mike was super friendly, we got scheduled for April. The weather didn’t cooperate, but there was no communication with me that we’d need to reschedule or even that I was still in the radar.

It’s June 10th and still nothing. I’ve called numerous times. They hardly ever answer, and when they do it’s “I don’t see your order… OH! There it is. Let me call you back once I figure out what’s going on.” Then they never call back. One time I called THEM back at the end of the day on a day they promised to call me back, and I was told “Yep, you’re still on the schedule, just waiting on the right weather.” I tried calling twice today, no answer, no option to leave a voicemail.

If you can’t do the work for whatever reason, JUST TELL ME. I would have gone with another company by now if I hadn’t been strung along. The whole point of this repair was to get my patio usable for the summer. Now it’s looking like I won’t have the work done until mid July at the earliest.

I could not be more dissatisfied with their lack of communication and service.

Mike is a pleasure to work with, and their team has done a great job for us during this winter.

Horrible service, terrible communications. Doesn't matter how many times you call or email, they'll just ignore you. They make promises on site, once they're done good luck getting them to honor their commitments.

I am editing my review to include a direct response to Alternative's reply:
No, I was referring to this year. Ask Alex, who I spoke with on the phone multiple times and never even attempted to answer my questions. "Oh, the guys have been out plowing, I haven't been able to talk to them." Or to Cynthia, who replied to one of my emails and ignored the other. You added $275 to my bill from last year for the same work you always do. I know how long you were there because I HAVE IT ON MY SECURITY CAMERA. The only explanation I got was, "we have a service fee now." I made multiple requests for an explanation of the costs and for an itemized invoice. I either got silence or, "I'll have to look into this."

That's not including the conversation my wife had with the guy while he was there.

Why would I waste my time reaching out to you directly when your company has been blowing me off for more than a month? My first call with Alex was January 6th. It's funny, you guys just ignore me outright for weeks when I do call and email. But a negative review hits google, and you respond within hours.

I thought I hired them to mow my lawn. They didn’t show up the first week. I tried leaving a voicemail and email message. They didn’t respond to either. I fired them!

I stopped in and talked to the receptionist about getting a estimate on lawn fertilizer and getting to the root of the problem. I was told that I would be getting a call and then someone would be stopping by to help out in a day or so. No phone call and no one stoped out to give an estimate. Very unprofessional. I won’t waste my time calling again. Update first of all you said he would call he never did and if he did stop by he didn’t leave a business card or any paperwork telling me what he recommended. Not sure what you were thinking but if you Don’t call and I don’t know when your coming am I supposed to just sit home 24-7 waiting for you to show up. Like I said in my comment very unprofessional service. If it was going to be awhile before you showed make an appointment. This is why you have a 3.9 in customer satisfaction.

I’m extremely satisfied with the landscape and hardscape work Alternative lawncare/Frank and Brad’s team did on our newly built home. We had 60 ft and 2 tiers of outcropping retaining wall installed, rear wall, as well as 2 patios with a firepit and seating wall. Top soil, grading, irrigation and hydroseed. They were very professional and did excellent work at a reasonable price. I would highly recommend.

Huge shoutout to Kevin for helping me shovel my driveway! First heavy snow of the season. He had a plow and asked if I wanted help and saved me like an hour of work if not more. Very much appreciated!

Mike worked with me to make my vision a reality and really went the extra mile to meet my timeline. The crews were all very professional and personable and did great work. I am very happy with my patio and sod installation. I definitely recommend!

Don't use if you value your time and money. Alternative was recommended to us by our neighbor when they were very early in the process of working with them (our neighbor has now left his own 2-star review after experiencing challenges with them). When we first called Alternative, they were responsive and got us on the schedule just a few weeks after we got the quote. The main guy we worked with was nice and did a good job on the mulching around the house and stones beneath the deck. After the topsoil and hydroseed was done, we watered the lawn 3 times per day as instructed using multiple sprinklers we had placed around the lawn. At one month, we had many bare patches, a ton of weeds, and some grass. We contacted Alternative to see if they could come back to re-seed. They sent Mark out who told us our lawn was "below their standards" and that he would take this back to the team and get back to us on next steps. Then when they didn't get back to us, we started reaching out. After 3 weeks of us calling them and emailing them, we heard nothing. If we got a response, it was always "we'll get back to you." They never did, we had to escalate the issue, and we've now hired a different lawn care service to redo our lawn. And it's been a night-and-day difference. Do not use Alternative unless you're looking for a "get in and get out" job with no customer service.

Left the grocery store this morning to find that one of their trucks hit the back end of my car. After taking pictures and moving my car forward so I could load my groceries the driver of the truck and claiming to be the owner of the company came out. I told him that he hit my car he instantly denied saying he had senors on his truck so that wasn’t possible. When I showed him the pictures he stated that I must have backed into him. I am not sure why I would back up to load my groceries but that was his response along with let’s go look at the cameras and that he had better things to do. A simple “I’m sorry I didn’t realize I was that close is there any damage?”could have really de-escalated the situation. If he won’t take ownership on something this obvious I definitely wouldn’t trust him on my property.

Sam was prompt in returning my phone call and was even able to get onsite same day to review our problem. He was able to find the problem and even helped point me in the direction of an electrician to help, because it the problem was outside his services. Appreciate his willingness to help.

Sam made the unenviable task of replacing the full septic and drain field much more tolerable than expected. Clear and easy communication throughout, outstanding professionalism, and a great final result. I’d absolutely recommend Sam and his team.

They’re simply aren’t enough superlatives to describe how professional and productive Sam and his team were! They were simply fantastic, and we were very pleased with the demolition and the grading of our property. So much so that as we build our new house, the new builder was selected with the expectation he would employ Sam and his team to begin the project. We have tremendous respect and trust in him and his team! We would highly recommend them to anyone considering the services that Shear Outdoors delivers!

Sam did a great job prepping my site for a barn build. From beginning to end there was clear communication, and it is easy to tell that he takes pride in the work he does. I would highly recommend him and will be using him for future work.

Shear Outdoors is the company to call! Our septic tanks failed and we had grade issues, Sam and Co. had it handled in no time. Sam explained the issues and worked with us to come up with a solution. Our situation was challenging and Sam met that challenge head on and exceeded expectations. Shear Outdoors FTW!

Quality customer service at an affordable price.