Boulder Outdoors Inc.

Review: We hired [redacted] of Boulder Outdoors to do some work on the front yard of our house. He came with a crew of his young nephew & 10-11 year old son, to do a full day of of physical work?, even though he states that he has 9 employees. He also let me know the night before he came that he fell out of a tree recently & was unable to perform physical labor. The quality of the soil he bought-(18 yards in total) was subpar for the job, it had broken glass, tree limbs, bricks etc in it-I took many pictures of it. This was supposed to be finely screened top soil which by [redacted] own admission was "Screened to only allow 1/4 inch rocks or smaller to get through", there are hundreds of large rocks mixed in the soil he also didn't do the work that he was supposed to. Bottom line is we agreed on a $1300 price & he wanted to do the job & keep as much money in profit as possible even if it compromised the quality of the job. Also he verbally agreed to accompany me to a wholesale Nursery-(which is not open to the public, landscapers only) & pick out plants & bushes to plant on my property, a few days after he was paid, he called & left a message on my phone saying he was to busy & would never be able to go too the nursery with me- not that he couldn't go for a little while but NEVER. I feel this was another example of him just wanting to make as much profit as possible while doing as little work as possible.Desired Settlement: I want a refund of $500 so I can hire someone else to finish the job properly, I had 3 more quotes since [redacted] did the job & $500 was the lowest quote I received. At 1st he said he would come back but I do not want to deal with him anymore. When I tried to reason with him he made excuses & was very rude on the phone.He also tried to say I wasn't clear in my vision, [redacted] was the last of 5 estimates we got & I was perfectly clear with the game plan we had in mind, how we wanted the front to loo

Business

Response:

[redacted]

I met with [redacted] for a landscape estimate, on Saturday April [redacted] as we began the estimate, I did ask if her husband was going to join us, she stated that he was not. [redacted] explained to me what she wanted in regards to the bed location between her property and the neighbor's. She was interested in screening out part of the neighbor's house. The area of her property where this was to take place was a very low area between the two houses in a kind of gully. I explained to her that in order to get an affordable screening plant that area would need to be raised up a few feet; other wise she would need very tall plants which are quite expensive. She understood this and was in agreement. My proposal was based on this conversation, to build a raised planting bed, which the privacy plants could be planted on. For this project I purchased 10 yds. of fill dirt to build a base for the planter. I also purchased 8 yds. of screened soil to top dress the planter with 4" of screened soil. These materials where purchased from Bitle & Sons.

My first step in building this planter wa s to clear the area of preexisting plants, trees, weeds, rocks etc. Once I had the area clear. It was time to lay out a shape at the property line, which we had discussed, but at this point [redacted] was expecting,the placement of the bed at a different area, which didn't coincide with privacy screening that we had discussed, after several minutes of trying to get at exactly what she wanted, I asked her to have her husband come out so

that we would all be on the same page. [redacted] joined us, and I explained that it wasn't going to be possible to have a privacy hedge that they wanted, close to the access gate, on the property line and still have an open space to access the gate with their ride on mower. I was never told that they wanted to access this gate with a ride on mower, when I first met with [redacted]. After explaining that what they were looking for in this area would not work they decided to forgo the privacy bushes and have me build a plant bed which was to be like an island. I was not prepared to install soil and seed in an area that I thought was going to be a bed with privacy bushes. I was only left with the existing earth (soil) to grade and seed and the existing soil did have rocks. We raked out as much as possible. The fill soil did have some rocks and roots and that is normal for fill soil, since it hasn't been run through a screen. The 8yds of top soil was up to standards and was purchased from a reputable supplier, Bitle & Sons. (Receipts can be provided) If I had known that I was going to do grading and seeding in this area I absolutely would have had additional top soil for this. The materials that I had purchased and that were at the job were based on my original conversation with [redacted] as was my proposal.

I followed and executed my proposal. I installed six 6"x6"x8' treated timbers for the raised planter bed and installed top soil. I built the raised planter, not in the design scheme that was originally discussed, but what it was changed to as per my discussion with [redacted] and [redacted]. [redacted] 3/4 into the job. I executed each phase of the proposal accordingly. There is nothing wrong with the materials that would hamper the growth of any plants installed in this bed. The rocks in the bed would actually aid in drainage and soil stability.

I also never spoke to [redacted] the night before the job and told him that I was not able to perform physical Labor. I perform physical labor on a daily basis. Yes I did have and accident over 1 1/2 years ago where I sustained some injuries, that have since healed. This in no way impedes on my ability to do physical labor, which I did do at the job. As far as going to the nursery with [redacted] this is a No Charge Service that I sometimes provide to my customers. It was to be for future work that they had wanted and it is contingent upon my availability and work load.

In regards to my crew, I do have a crew of employees; this job did not require all of my employees to be present. It was a small job and did not call for more than myself and one employee. The job consisted mainly of machine work, as far as my son being present; he enjoys coming to work with me on occasion in

circumstances when I can bring him. He is not there by any means to do a full day of physical work and nor do I expect him to, he just enjoys helping out.

This job was done according to my proposal. [redacted]. [redacted] was present and supervised the job in its entirety. Furthermore, while I was on the job, my employee disappeared for several periods of time, after confronting my employee, I discovered that [redacted]. [redacted] was asking him to plant and transplant different plants throughout her back yard that were not part of my estimate or my work, to the point that I had to speak to her that we needed to stick to the written proposal for that day's work and that I needed my employee to be with me as I am working. At no point in time did [redacted] or [redacted]. [redacted] question the materials installed or the work that was done and I was paid in full $1,300.00.

[redacted] called and expressed that he was unhappy with the soil. I explained to him that when I originally met with [redacted] she had not been clear on their plan for this area, only after I had been 3/4 in to the job did I ever meet with [redacted]. I did offer to come back and add additional soil; I was never rude when I spoke to him. I called the next day to set up an appointment and my call was never returned and a complaint was filed.

Sincerely,

Consumer

Response:

At this time, I have not been contacted by Boulder Outdoors Inc. regarding complaint ID [redacted].

Sincerely,