ComplaintsforDuke's Lawncare

• Initial Complaint

  07/21/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  Duke's Lawncare (who WAS under Looks Matter to who we had to write our check/deposit out for): * Dishonesty and poor business practices, no scheduling and tells you he has 80 lawns to mow and his crew quit on him! ** He owes me $2,400 and I told him I'd accept $2,000 to resolve.--- May 04 (we paid the $5,000 deposit:. $4500 for sod & install, $2600 for Arborvitaes ($200 X 13), plus $1500 machine. and we were told 2 days work and done within 2 weeks!-- 6 weeks, 3 days after deposit, on June 21, ****** asked for more time, stated he needed 2 more weeks and promised me he would be done by July 04,After 8 weeks of Duke's Landscaping did not finish an d past July 04, he planted wrong size and # arborvitaes (only 8, and they were 8 GIANTS, supposed to be 4-6, no hydrangeas and NO SOD. * Dukes not only wouldn't reimburse me $2,000 I told him I'd except being he did NOT do the sod at all, or bring in the remainder of the arborvitaes, he states he was charging me $3,750 for labor so adding an ADDITIONAL $1800 as his DAILY Labor charges are $1,500 daily! no where in his contract or any discussions did he ever say he charges $1500 in LABOR, as the shrubs and sod included the labor charges.** I called Looks Matter to contact ****** (he is not respinding to texts, until I state there is a problem, then niot again for a while.* Looks Matter told me call Duke's Landscaping because ******* no longer works for them. ******* told me Looks Matter dissociated from him after I paid the deposit to Looks Matter.I tried to resolve in emails and phone messages, and they refuse to respond.** I had a neighbor on June (4 weeks after my project deposit was paid) and she sent me pics and her complaint he did not finish her project, THEN charged her credit card an additional $4,000 without consent or even trying to finish her project.- also relayed ANOTHER neighbor complaint!

  Business response

  07/31/2023

  This customer was given a quote for this project on Feb. 10th 2023. He was very clear he was looking to get the project done quickly so i told him he needs to put his 50% down payment down so we can get him on the schedule quickly and order his plants and sod so they will be here on time. We gave him several calls in between Feb and May and every time we asked him to put his deposit down he had a reason not to so i explained to him the schedule was going to fill up and the window for getting the sod and plants out there quick is going to close. He still didn't make his down payment until almost 2 months after the estimate was sent to him. He explained that the previous contractors took over 4 and a half months to get his pool installed and his concrete poured. And that's the reason he didn't want to put his deposit. I explained to him that he could make the deposit now so that when the other contractors get done everything will be ready to go and he wouldn't have to wait as long. He still didn't put a down payment down until May 04. By that time the schedule was full and he had to wait until we were don't with the projects that put down payments down before him were complete. We came out on June *************************************************************************************************************************************** the grading work he wanted performed on the property. We agreed to that and used the existing dirt to raise the yard a few inches so that when the sod was installed the grass would sit flush with the concrete slab and the pool. We used a mini Skid Steer with a harley **** attachment to till the soil and remove the existing grass as this is the prep work method we use for sod installations. On Day one crews were sent out with a machine and harley **** to pre the ground for tree planting and sod installation as well as grade the yard. We worked for about 4 hours before the skid steer broke down. We called the rental company to come and fix the machine and they had the machine fixed by the next morning which was June 14. On this day crews worked a full 8 hours to get the property graded and ready for sod and tree planting. In the middle of the project both of my workers quit in the middle of the day. so it was my responsibility to complete all estimates and all work for the day. I was transparent with the customer on what happened. We returned on June 27th to plant the trees ************* requested. On May 04 when the deposit was made he informed me he wanted a shorter tree but i had already ordered his trees on may 04 in the afternoon for the 8 foot giants he originally requested and i quoted for him. I had to make a change order and trees can take quite a good while to ship into the nursery. When I arrived to **************' home to accept the delivery the driver told me that they had brought me the 8 foot trees after i already lowered the price for ************** because he wanted smaller trees around 6 foot tall. The trees i planted were more expensive but I didn't charge ************** for the trees i got because it wasn't his fault and I didn't think it would be fair. Also the customer requested 13 trees, i only ordered 8 because i measured the area the trees were meant to be planted and I know the trees can grow up to 20 feet wide. so 13 would be too many in my professional opinion and they would run into each other and die at the tips when they touch. We worked 8 hours to plant the Trees for him. And broke 2 irrigation lines in the process which we came back the next day and fixed with no charge to the customer on June 27th and June 28th. The gap in time form June 14th to June 27th is the cause of three things: Rain, Loss of staff and Falling behind on work. The job shouldn't be performed in the rain or when the soil is wet as it could damage the yard, Create a big mess and have a negative impact on the grade. Also after rain the sod farms normally have a delay in delivering sod because it tends to fall apart on the pallet when its wet. The loss of my staff was unfortunate but i still continued to work and tried to treat all my customers the same and give them all the same level of importance the best I could and thew rain put me behind on mowing yards for which i have over 80 customers. On the 28th it rained again but the didn't stop me from coming out at the end of the day to fix the irrigation that i broke as rain doesn't prevent me from making this repair. From them on ************ we use was not cutting sod and shipping because of the weather. And on July 3rd the customer called and told me he had hired another person to do the sod install because he felt he was doing me a favor because I lost my employees. Even though I told him I would come out and finish the job employees or not as soon as ************ was able to ship sod. Which would've been the same week he called to tell me he got a new contractor. I told him "Thank you for letting me know" and hung up and continued my day and told the front office to send him the remainder of the funds he owed from his quote. Now this is where the customer has misread the quote. I've attached the quote here. We kept the same price for the trees he ordered we just changed the quantity from 13 to 8 because he didn't get 13 trees he only got 8 so he should only pay for 8. All machine services were performed and no more machines were needed on the property to lay the sod as our company only installs sod by hand. Now the service line that says Sod installation has a description that says installation services which means all installation services that were performed on the property. We installed his trees and we performed a grading installation for him. We didn't install the sod because he wouldn't allow us to as he told us he hired someone else to do it. Originally the quote did not directly specify our detailed labor rate which is $1500 per day. But none the less that is our labor rate and we quoted him for that. His original quote was for $8,600. He paid more than a 50% down payment on his own accord. since we didn't install his sod but, we did install the grading and the trees for him as well as prepped the entire yard for sod installation we charged him for the 2.5 days of labor performed and took off the $1750 it would've cost for the actual laying of the sod. That puts him at owing us $1850 for the work we performed for him. A Total of $6850. The other contractors took over 4 and a half months to complete the work and they didn't do it correctly according to the customer. We started work on June 14th and got told we didn't need to come back on the morning of July 3rd. We think this customer was frustrated with the previous workers and is taking it out on our company when we really wanted to accommodate them. Everything was performed except the laying of sod. And had the customer not delayed paying us a down payment for 2 and a half months then his project would've went much smoother. We are requested our remaining payment for work already performed. 

  Customer response

  07/31/2023

   
  Complaint: 20355946
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

   

  1.  I did NOT say I was in a rush on the initoal contact with Looks Matter, ANY rep.      I received a quote in February and after several calls from "Looks Matter" rep,  requesting the 50% deposit,  I explained repeatedly, I have no idea when the pool,  then the concrete  would be completed as the person that recommended the pool company relayed he is way behind on his projects, jers being over 7 months and I should be aware he would push us back.

  ** Point being,   I had NO idea when the pool would be done,  then the required concrete work before the landscaping would be done.

  2.   I'd like to assume he is confused,  though it seems either he is not being truthful  or truly confusing my request.    I was VERY clear that the *** only approved me to have 4-6 arborvitaes,  to allow the view to the water to not be blocked.

  3.  Timeline:    ******* clearly told ** thie project was a 2 day project, 1 day to prep and the next to install the shrubs and sod.  He stated it would be done in 2 weeks, 

  -- as we waited for going on 4 weeks, they said they were waiting for  MY shrubs to come in on a truck with another project because the company they use would not just deliver mine alone.       ** This is an issue as I was already concerned this was a scam and aftre a neighbor broiught by a landscaper to offer to finish,   which we did not use,   I contacted another landscaper a local pool company provided and  BOTh landscpaers said the could order arborvitaes and sod and get them the next day.       ** Then ******* told  me he hadn't ordered the sod yet because of all the rain and the sod companies would not provide the sod till it wasn't so wet.    he said that 2x and then later said he was ordering the sod and again, it promopted  another instance that something is not honest.   I would give him benefit fo the doubt, but then he adds on an extra "labor cost" that is not specificed in the contract (being arborvitaes do not cost $200 each, but includes the cost of the arborviates, and installing / digging/burying them.)

   

  4.  Size of the Arborvitaes:  this is another instance of him him not being honest in his reply:  When I asked why we didn;t get 13 shrubs  (corner lot and big and needed at LEAST 13 arborvitaes for side and back),  he said he thought 8 would be enough as they grow to 10' in diameter and only after talking with him about how long it takes to gorwn 10' in width, he acknowledged abour 15 years,    ??     This makes no sense that he knows the order was 13 on the contract and he decided we only needed  8?     and again,  even though he KNEW we talked a couple times that we wanted 4-6' arborvitaes because that's what the *** approved.       (I said I would have to cut the height down to 4-6' and he told me just leave them and see if the *** says anything.     ANOTHER instance of not being honest.   previously when the *** rejhected mty request to replace my mulch with rock,  he told me just do it and ask for forgiveness after,  that they wouldn;t say anything and i told him I don't do things tat are not approved.

  
  Sincerely,
  
  *********************

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