On 10/16/13, I hired DFL Design to prune my property. They did a decent job and I was looking for a landscaper to maintain the curb appeal, so when I received a tentative "2014 Property/Lawn Maintenance" contract on 1/28/14, I specified what I wanted them to do (based on their details listed) and returned it. This included everything (spring clean up, lawn and shrub treatment, and pruning) except their "lawn maintenance program" which includes "cutting and edging of all lawn areas, weed, cultivate and spade all shrub beds and blow down all walks, driveway, patio areas, etc." I declined the lawn cutting because his price was too high and we had hired someone else for that.
We noticed that the "pruning" had been done but the property was still very overgrown: the grass looked more like a four-leaf clover field, some shrubs were dead, others were wildly out of control and spreading to places they shouldn't be INCLUDING UP THE SIDING OF THE HOUSE AND INSIDE OUR SUNROOM! Clearly, this meant he had not been treating my property. I called and told Dennis that he was neglecting my property but he became insulted that I would say that. He said he passes my house daily and insisted that he has treated it. He justified his work by saying when he treated the property in 2013, he wanted to show me what a great job they do, so he did more than what was listed on this contract. He stated that for this year, the contacted amount does not include the back of my property and that I should go by what he TOLD me and not what the contract said (because obviously the contract doesn't specify just the front yard). He even went as far as saying that I was neglecting the property! I asked him to send me detailed information on when he had treated my property between the spring clean up and then (at this point, September 2014) - this is when he realized he hadn't treated my house at ALL. When he called back, he didn't say "I'm sorry." His exact words were "Yeah, I have to be to blame for it, I thought she (referring to Lori, his office manager) said no chemicals and it turned out not to be the case. I'm the boss so it all comes back to bite me on the tush so yeah, we can start tomorrow and I can come out." He didn't apologize and passed the blame! I am also quoting all of this because once he told me I should go off of what he says, I started recording the conversations.
He agreed to go back and treat the property but the yard still looked horrendous! He didn't trim much of anything - I have before and after pictures to prove the shotty job he did. I called to tell him that I wanted to terminate my contract and promptly paid the bill despite his poor service.
Unfortunately for me, his company also treats my neighbors lawn. 4 days later, we hear a gush of water and noticed that our sprinkler head was broken by what appears to be his mowers. I have plenty of pictures to prove that the neighbors lawn was cut and based on the lines in the lawn, it falls right on top of my broken sprinkler. When I formally notified him in writing, he asked Lori to reply. She stated "He suggested that you contact the company that you use to maintain your landscape needs, as our company does not maintain your property."
It will cost me much more to have the property brought up to the way it was and he was horrible to talk to and work with. I would say he had a condescending tone and was a bit of a chauvinist. In our last call, he was insisting on giving me some advice as a homeowner but I cut him off and told him I didn't need to hear anything else he had to say.
I would not recommend him at all and if you currently use him and are experiencing issues, make sure you document your interactions. I currently have all evidence of encounters in case I have more damage to my property when his people are next door.
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