Bay Country Lawns

TruGreen will notify the outside collection agency to cease all collection activity regarding the balance of $ Please allow to weeks for all collections regarding this balance to stop

TruGreen will notify the outside collection agency to cease all collection activity regarding the balance of $55.00.  Please allow 2 to 4 weeks for all collections regarding this balance to stop.

Review: I have been trying to get a resolution on what I owe for 3.5 months. My first call concerning this matter was on April 19. On that call, and office person who is no longer at the [redacted] office, told me that Corporate has been sending these out and we don't know why, just ignore them. I asked to have a letter sent to me from the office manager saying that I did not owe the amount that was shown, but did not receive any letter, email, call, etc. I followed up with the company to find out that the person I had spoken to did not have the authority to send any letters and was no longer there. I have called several times since, including 2 times in the last 2 weeks. During these conversations, both times I have been told that the past due was for a service that was more than 2x what I "owed" Today (7/23/2013) I found out from Pam that when I received my first past due notice dated 4/5/2013 that it was for a service on 4/4/2013! At no point have I received a bill of any kind since I paid for a year in advance on 12/19/2011. At the end of the year, we did not receive a notice of renewal, a bill for services or any correspondence. We have, when we have been home and the technicians have showed up at the house, refused service pending resolution of this matter. We officially cancelled our service with Bay Country on July 10 when we returned a call to Office Manager concerning our past due account. We requested a bill be sent to us so that we could pay the outstanding balance and received an e-mail saying our account was cancelled. We did not receive a bill but rather received a collection notice from TransNational upon return from vacation. I have asked to speak with someone in the billing department, Management or higher concerning this matter but have been told that no one in the local office has the corporate billing offices number so I could call them. Neither of the persons I have spoken with in the Office Manager position have been able to help resolve this issue.Desired Settlement: I would like to receive a call from the corporate billing office to talk through these issues. I want to receive a bill - something that I have not received in over a year. I want the collection agency recalled and I want this removed from my credit report. These issues are not mine, but their faulty billing service.

Consumer

Response:

From: [redacted] <[redacted]>

Date: Sun, Jul 28, 2013 at 7:59 PM

Subject: Re: You have a new message from the Revdex.com of Metro Washington DC & Eastern Pennsylvania in regards to your complaint #[redacted].

To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>

Thank you for your follow-up on this complaint. I was contacted late last week concerning the issue from Bay Country Lawns. They have informed me that I will be receiving a refund due to overbilling and have recalled the collections agency.

Review: Last summer, I subscribed for Bay Country's annual service plan. When I signed up, I requested a contract stating the terms, one of which was one extra month of service for signing up. The bill I received did not include the one extra month of free service. The person who 'sold' me the product no longer works with Bay Country and the when I am able to speak to someone from the company of the phone, it is usually always someone different and new who can't go back to my contract because they do not provide anything of this nature to their clients. I have been erroneously charged $55, and do not wish to pay it because I was told that I would receive this month as a free month of service for signing up. I tried to speak with the company prior when I received the bill but again, it was always a different person or no one would answer. More recently, I received a collection notice and am unable to even get through to the company's phone line that is advertised on their website and on the bill.Desired Settlement: I would like the $55.00 fee adjusted and correct the issue with the collection agency. Bay Country's inability to be responsive to me should not cost my credit to go down. I have followed up but never received a response from the company.

Business

Response:

TruGreen will notify the outside collection agency to cease all collection activity regarding the balance of $55.00. Please allow 2 to 4 weeks for all collections regarding this balance to stop.

Review: this company promised to mentain my turf , but even after more than 2 years they could not do it , now my lown is full of weeds and showing very poor results inspite of several complaint . then I requested to terminate the service and refund the prepaid fees., it has been more than 9 to 12 weeks and I did not get my money , every time I call they promise they will send it in 2 to 3 weeks , but nothing happen , I need a refund of the value of the whole year as to repair the damage they caused will cost me much more than that amount

Business

Response:

Dear **. [redacted],

Please allow me to apologize not only for the length of time it has taken to process your refund, but that you felt it necessary to request a refund in the first place.

As per your original request at time of cancel we are processing a refund in the amount of $1,041.80. This refund is money prepaid for services not yet rendered.

If you have not already received your refund, we expect that you should receive it within the week.

Upon review of your complaint we've decided to send a Service Manager to your property to analyze the current condition of the lawn and determine what, if any, services we can provide to improve the overall health and appearance of the lawn.

I will have Service Manager, Wayne Newman, reach out to you to set up a meeting on the lawn.

If you have any questions or concerns during this process, please feel free to contact me at ###-###-####.

Sincerely,

General Manager

Review: We signed on with BCL 2 years ago on April 30, 2011 after having just moved into our new home. The yard looked okay in the front, but the backyard was needing some help - lots of patchy areas and the whole left side with mostly dirt and weeds. The salesman who signed us on convinced me that with their service, all the patchiness would go away and that at least after a full year of service, we should start seeing a really good lawn. My husband and I are no lawn experts by any means and were happy to put all our woes into hands of the "experts." So, in good faith, we got a 1-year contract (paid ahead by credit card) for the regular 6-7 visits per year. And then continued month to month for another year. By April 2013, I really had a good look at our yard. After 2 years, the front was a little greener but still had patchiness, but the backyard NEVER changed. I called BCL to have someone come and re-evaluate our lawn to see what the problem could be. After a breakdown in communication between the office staff and field personnel (this type of thing has happened to us more than a couple times with BCL), they finally got a lawn specialist ([redacted]) to come see our yard. He told me that our backyard was highly/hard compacted and that there was NO WAY that any treatment or service that they provide could have ever helped our lawn and that we needed a complete turf renovation in order to get the grass we were hoping for all this time. So, for 2 years, they continued to treat our lawn, bill us and accept our money when their treatments were doing nothing to improve it. When asked, [redacted] agreed that it did not seem fair that we had paid our money for 2 years, when we were never going to get the results we wanted. Well, we suspended service so we could get our turf renovation done and I sent a letter on April 30, 2013 to BCL to state our case and ask for compensation for the 2 years of ineffective service before continuing our service from them. With no response, I called in mid-June to see if they've come to a resolution and talked with a manager ([redacted]) who asked me to allow him to talk to [redacted] first before they come to a decision. Just 2 days ago, a BCL service member arrived at our door and informed me that he was here to service our lawn - this is after I've already suspended service so we could get our situation with BCL settled and resolved. Again, no communication between office and service personnel. So, our experience is that this company is poorly managed with no attention to detail and no regard for true customer satisfaction. Our termination letter is now in the mail.Desired Settlement: Bay Country Lawn's Lawn Specialist [redacted] stated that the there was no way our lawn would have improved by the service they provide due to it's condition of being highly/hard compacted and that it was needing a turf renovation instead. But in good faith, we paid BCL for 2 years with the understanding that we could have an improved and healthy lawn if we kept up with treatments.

We would like to be refunded for 1/2 of what we paid them from April 2011-April 2013 to account for the ineffective service to our backyard.

Business

Response:

[redacted],

Thank you for your feedback in regards to our service. We strive to give the best customer service possible. I see we have dropped the ball here and I do apologize for this. Since we have not had a manager evaluate the lawn I can not agree with the assessment made by our specialist. Most lawns in this area have major soil compaction/clay/ rocks etc... However we have made major improvements in lots of lawn with these issues. It does take time and normally several seeding but it can be done. As per your request we have cancelled your service with us and issued a refund in the amount of 310.30. I hope this resolves our issues.