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City Garden Design Reviews (1)

Trees planted by this company died 4 months after being planted. Paid $6000.00 and have a hand written warranty that is not being upheld.I have never been treated so poorly as I was with [redacted] the owner of this business. First of all we hired him to help us with our landscaping and we decided we were going to plant 24 trees in our yard to start. There was a 1 year guarantee with these trees that is contingent on how well they are taken care of. So 4 months later and after paying $6000.00 to have this done we notice 3 possibly 4 of our trees are dying. We have watered them everyday in the 4 months and look to[redacted] to hold up his end of the bargain to help us replace these trees. (These trees are also in the middle of the row of trees that are living.) We call for this purpose and because we need to have other work done that was discussed and no response for 3 separate times. So we called 3 other landscapers and they came out to price the work and also told us that these trees were not dying due to negligence, that they had other issues and if it were their company they would replace them no problem. We finally got in touch with[redacted] who told us on the phone that it was probably lack of water and he was not going to be able to do anything. He has not even come to look at them! It sounds already like he is trying to get out of what he stated in his contract and this is not going well. He finally comes to look at the trees and is there 2 minutes and immediately says its because they have not been watered and he wants money for another we had planted! What?! This is the most unprofessional business ever! Did I mention we spent $6000.00 on trees?! And this is how we are treated? There are 7 dead trees now and this is unexceptable.Desired SettlementI would like all of the now 7 dead trees replaced with new ones and another warranty issued for those treesBusiness Response Contact Name and Title: [redacted]- presidentContact Phone: [redacted]Contact Email: [redacted]Planting warranty as noted states that the warranty is void if plants are not watered. These plants were dry and wilting when I arrived on site, the surrounding ground was dry and cracked, and upon digging around one of the initial 4 that were turning brown, the root ball was dry. For full analysis I then checked the foliage, bark, and stems for any signs of cankers or any type of fungal blight; which there were none. Another common problem is watering too much which can cause root rot, but that was definitely not the case. The #1 cause of death for this particular tree is allowing the root ball to dry out to a point where it can not recover. With the heat of the Summer and the periods of weeks where we had no rain this can unfortunately happen easily in the 1st year as a plant is getting established. Customer stated that they had to be diseased, but he also stated that it seemed to happen very quickly which indicates that the plant had reached a point of not being able to recover. I have been doing this for 20 years with a BSA in Horticulture. For to me to be able to make assessments quickly is not because I didn't know what I was doing it is because I have the experience to be able to identify the issues. Once I made my assessment I went to discuss with the customer. I explained my findings and told him that everthing was really dry. He said that they were dry because they had not watered yet that day. That said, the plants should never get to the point of being stressed and needing water. I was also there in the morning between the 30 minute window before he said he had to be work so maybe they got watered that day but they went through the whole day of Summer heat before getting watered again. As we were talking on the porch I asked him to come take a look at the trees with me so that I could show him everything that I was seeing. This is to educate the customer and obviously show him how dry things were. The trees were not 20' from us. He refused to come look at them with me. He was then getting irritated because he just wanted me to replace them but wouldn't take the time for me to show him the issue. He ended up going inside and closing the door. For me, at that point my relationship was over with this customer.To back track and go back to the beginning of this issue. The initial contact that they had with me was through [redacted] messenger while I was out of town. Then again he had contacted me saying he didn't have my phone # and to give him a call. In the messages there was never any mention of any planting not doing well and was only to talk about potentially doing more work. There was no sense of urgency for me to respond as far as needing to get out there quickly to look at these trees. When we did talk on the phone is when he brought up the fact that it looked like 4 of the trees were dead. This was during one of those hot dry periods that we had over the Summer so my initial reaction was that the trees were probably not getting enough water. He immediately said that it had to be a disease and that he wanted them replaced and began to discuss the other landscapers that had looked and had given their opinion. I am still not sure why he didn't leave me a msg telling me that there were these issues obviously long enough for other landscapers to have been there giving quotes on other work and then I guess looking at the trees while they were there. I can't do anything to correct a problem if I am not informed of the issue. Yes, I was slow to get back to them regarding giving them a quote on potentially more work but there was no sense of urgency to get out there. Once someone calls me with an plant issue in which plants could potentially die I will immediately get it scheduled to come out and take a look. I spoke to him Wed evening and was out there to take a look Fri morning once I knew there was a problem.In regards to a tree that the customer states that I wanted more money for; this was a 45 gallon tree that in the intial meeting on agreeing on the scaope of work and the trees to be planted, he wanted me to throw in planting this tree. I told him that I could not throw a tree like that in for free. This is a $450 tree plus labor to plant. This was only verbal, but I said that I could plant it but for more money than agreed upon in the contract. He said ok, for more money. Again this was only verbal and said tree was not on the contract. He did no the price of that size tree because I had given him price and size options with the other trees planted. When we settled up after all plantings were done and he compimented on a great job I did, he said that he didn't include the extra for the additional tree even though we planted it. He said that he would get it to me on another project. This bothered me but I did not make a big deal about. The evening we talked about the issues with the trees that were dying I decided to bring this back up. All of a sudden now he says he thought that tree was included in the initial project and is making a big deal about the fact that I wanted them to pay for a tree that they never paid for but agreed to pay for, although verbally. However, they have this tree in their yard, which is not one of the trees in question and was not in contract of work to be performed for the contacted $ amount. Obviously I have some leniency to help a customer out even if they were at fault in not properly caring for plant material even though I am out for the cost of buying new ones. I do this all the time for customers and could give an extensive list of customers that I have replaced plants for even though it was their fault. However I also have the discretion to not under said warranty. The customer would not allow me to show him the issue of everything being dry and educate him on watering and then tries to get out of paying for a specimen tree I planted in good faith. I have never had any complaints before in my 20 years of working in the industry and have always been able to work things out with customers but I am not willing to do anything else for these customers. In the scheme of things I probably should have been working with her instead of him and things may have worked out better.

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Description: Landscape Designers, Landscapers, Horticultural Consultants

Address: 926 Ralph Dr, Cary, North Carolina, United States, 27511-4623

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