Dondero Lawn Care & Landscaping

Was hired to remove three trees, first went OK, second missed where it was supposed to drop by feet and destroyed a playscapeHe was not allowed to attempt third treeDespite promises to replace playscape via a claim with his insurance company, no payment was ever receivedI even have a letter, hand written by him, promising payment after filing the claim with his insurance companyAfter approximately seven months of attempted contact, by phone, and personal visit attempts, ended up filing a claim with Small Claims Court, and was awarded judgement, as he ignored Court appearance He has ignored Court awarded judgement against him totaling $I strongly recommend not doing any business with him, and under no circumstances allow him on any property with a chain saw

Mulch was delivered and inspected by customer .before dumping .then we called him back his voicemail was full.the mulch that was delivered was our black again that he was there for on delivery .we have contacted the *** police deptbeacuse he canceled a check on matierals that were accepted
by himThere will be no refund .there is owed plus bank fees .thank you very much dondero landscaping

Dondero cut down a tree in my neighbors yard and damaged my fence, he was aware of the damage but ignored all my phone calls

Review: I paid $1,725.00 for a new front lawn which included:digging up old lawn,replacing with new topsoil, and hydroseeding for new grass in the fall. The topsoil was poor quality and was loaded with stones and plastic. There wasn't enough grass seed so very little grass came up. I called Dondero and he suggested that WE put more grass seed down and he refused to return any of our phone calls after that.The next spring we had almost no grass. I raked out 2 wheelbarrows full of stones and rocks from the lawn. Two other landscapers came and agreed that the topsoil Dondero put down was very poor quality and that nothing would grow in it. We now need all new topsoil and grass seed.

Product_Or_Service: Topsoil and grass seed

Order_Number: XXXXX

Desired Settlement: Refund of $1,500 to replace topsoil and grass seed for front lawn. This is the estimated cost from other landscapers.

Business

Response:

Business Response /* (1000, 9, 2013/05/15) */

In response. We did the work in a workman like manner exactly like we said. We did not get paid until the job was completed. The topsoil was raked by hand with hand rake. In closing a lawn is a constant up keep and taken care of. There will be no refund giving. Complaint sounds like a stretch for money. Regards

Consumer Response /* (3000, 16, 2013/06/04) */

Dondero did not put down "topsoil" as was specified in the contract,it was cheap fill loaded with stones and plastic. [redacted] looked at the lawn and said it was poor quality fill and that "nothing would grow in that". Also not enough grass seed was put down. Also no fertilizer or lime to grow grass, as most landscapers do. Dondero did not respond to numerous calls to come look at the lawn and fix it. I have pictures to prove that the grass did not grow.

Review: Ordered 3 yards of compost via telephone from [redacted], the business owner. Order was subsequently confirmed on at least 2 occasions with his office. 3 yards of material were delivered and dumped in the rear area of my driveway, the previously agreed upon location. Delivery driver gave me the order ticket identifying the material as compost.

Landscapers hired on an hourly basis to spread the "compost" expressed serious doubts that it was in fact compost, but rather that it was some type of "soil". Landscapers waited (on the clock) while I called [redacted] office to discuss the problem. As there was no answer, I left a voice mail detailing the problem/asking him to contact me ASAP. [redacted] never responded to this call (or to any of my subsequent phone messages over several weeks as I was never able to reach a live person directly). Inasmuch as the material was in my driveway blocking one of my garage bays and the turnaround, the landscapers spread it in my foundation beds. While working, they called my attention to pieces of glass and pottery they were finding.

Weeks have passed since then. The following cites further unacceptable developments:

1) I have removed from the "soil" numerous pieces of window glass, bottle and pottery fragments, plastic debris, foam rubber, tin foil, rocks, 3-inch pieces of painted wood, gypsum-like chunks, what appears to be coal, and who knows what else! Rain continues to reveal additional debris, all of which has been retained for inspection.

2) The “soil” was so infested with weeds that I spent approximately 7 hours initially weeding the foundation beds and then paid 3 people to weed further but they did not finish the task. In spite of my hip replacement, I spent approximately 2 hours more doing so, but I worry that this infestation will recur. Photos were taken of weeds in the beds that received the “soil” and those which did not. The photos immediately reveal the extent of this most objectionable and infuriating situation. Beyond this, if I had ordered “soil” from [redacted], it would have been topsoil, not apparent fill. Yet his newspaper ads claim that he provides “screened topsoil”. If [redacted] extended me the courtesy of replying, my question to him would be: what was it that you dumped on my property? A second question: what happens if people working in my planting beds are injured by the debris?

3) Approximately 7 weeks ago I sent a certified letter with receipt of delivery to [redacted], outlining my complaint in full and specifying a resolution as covered in the Desired Settlement Section of this complaint form. Again, no response whatsoever to a consumer who dealt with him in good faith only to be presented with this totally outrageous fiasco.

,Desired Settlement: 1--refund $95.72 billed and paid for “compost”

2--reimburse $100 for cost of spreading/removing the “soil” from my driveway

3--reimburse the $48 paid to date for weed removal costs

4--financial compensation for the extensive time I have spent weeding/removing the

garbage from the “soil” (which removal continues) as well as for the most objectionable treatment of me as a customer.

Review: We placed a call to Dondero Lawn Care Supply company to get 8 yards of black mulch delivered to our house. They said they could deliver the mulch the next day. They in fact did deliver the mulch the next day however the mulch was clearly not black mulch as we had ordered but brown mulch which does not match any of our current mulch at the house. The day after the receipt of the mulch I called them to discuss the situation, with no return call. I then called again two days later and still not return call. At this point because the product was not what we had agreed upon or listed on the invoice, I told Dondero we would be cancelling our check for payment. I went ahead and cancelled our check and then finally got a response back via text asking me to send a picture of the mulch, which I did a along with a side by side of the current black mulch that was delivered by the same company two years prior to clearly show that what they had delivered was not black mulch. I sent this off and got no response, I then placed numerous calls to try to get a solution with no call back (4 calls in total). I finally then a week later sent a text to ask about a solution and got a very nasty message about contacting the police for non-payment but received refusal to talk on the phone to work towards a solution. Dondero refuses to accept my calls and will not come out to my property to look at the product they delivered. All they keep asking for is cash for the wrong product they delivered which we will not do.Desired Settlement: My desired out come is to get actual black mulch - they product we agreed to pay for and to get the brown mulch removed from my property.

Business

Response:

Mulch was delivered and inspected by customer .before dumping .then we called him back his voicemail was full.the mulch that was delivered was our black again that he was there for on delivery .we have contacted the [redacted] police dept. beacuse he canceled a check on matierals that were accepted by him. There will be no refund .there is 382.00 owed plus bank fees .thank you very much dondero landscaping