Five Star Landscape

Review: When we hired Five Star Landscaping our backyard was a blank slate. Our house was approximately 1 year old, and the backyard was only dirt, and a couple veggies boxes off to the side of the yard. Among other tasks, they were to grade and complete drainage for the entire backyard. We paid over $18,000, plus interest, of course. A few months after the completion of the job, after we planted and dripped plants within the yard, we noticed we were having pooling of water at the edge of our grass line (next to our concrete), to a planting area within the same area, and an additional planting area next to our air conditioning unit (next to concrete, as well). We lost all of our plants, and two trees, within this area. We called Five Star out to assess our issue, and were told the pooling of water was due to a clogged drainage pipe, which they claimed once unclogged would fix the issue. There was a small amount of clogging within the drainage pipe, which temporarily fixed the issue, although the area was still wetter than the rest of our yard, and when we replanted, those died as well. Once winter came, and the rain hit, the area flooded. We attempted to unclog the drain (which was not clogged), however, it did not fix the problem. Once again we called Five Star out to the property. It took a month to get someone to return our daily phone calls, and once we were able to talk to an actual person, it took another month to get them out to our home. When they finally came out, after a lot of arguing back and forth about the actual problem, and the fact that we were no longer within our warranty period, he agreed to have someone come out to install a French drain, dividing the grass and concrete, which would tie into our existing drainage. He said we would have someone to the house within two weeks... a month and a half later, the job was finally complete. We bought the materials, and paid him $340 to perform the work. Two days later, the area was, once again, sopping wet.Desired Settlement: I have no desire to have anyone from this company on my property, let alone perform any more work. I would like to be refunded for the labor of installing the French drain, $290. I would also like Five Star Landscape to pay for the regrading, and installation of proper drainage to fix the problem they created. This job, which I bid through a different company, would cost $2670.

Business

Response:

Dear Revdex.com,

FiveStar Landscape completed their project

on 05/11/2010. On June 24, 2014 our

client contacted us on a warranty call for drainage issues, our warranty desk

explained to them according to the contract they signed on 4/19/2010 that

irrigation and drainage under contract are guaranteed for a period of 1 year

from completion of project. Since this

warranty expired 3 years ago, we stated that we would come out and look at the

work and it would be billed at our standard $65 per hour plus materials. The client requested that we come out and

give them a quote for the job.

Our estimator came to the house as

requested by client and offered as a courtesy to them that FiveStar would send

out a Warranty Technician to provide the Labor at a reduced rate and the client

agreed that they would purchase all the materials for the job and pay the

Technician directly at a discounted ($290) rate. On, July 23 our Technician completed the work

and was paid for his time. The following

day the client texted that work had been completed and looked great.

As a small business we must adhere

to our contracted warranty periods as stated on the contract.

We do strive to give good customer

service to all our clients so we would like to offer a refund of the $290 labor

paid to the Technician.

Sincerely,

FiveStar Landscape

Consumer

Response:

Dear Revdex.com,

Review: Non-compliance of contract terms; did not provide workable landscape design with irrigation/drainage design.

In July 2012 we contracted Five Start to design our new home landscaping for $1200. Our assigned designer [redacted] met with us to draft a plan for front/rear landscaping with irrigation/drainage. We made (3) payments: deposit, phase 2 review and phase 3 completion. However, the phase 3 started in November 2012 when the rains came - we were not prepared to go back to the site during these conditions and asked the designer if we could finish the plans in early 2013. She indicated that she would make sure that we did get our final plans and suggested that we make the final payment - which we did. During the period of the final payment and prior to the early part of 2013, the designer left her position at Five Star. It took us a bit of work to figure this out; once we did she was amiable to contacting Five Start to complete the plans. We met with [redacted], General Manager who agreed to complete the plans. He came to the site said he would complete them. He went out of town and once again time past; we contact him to let him know that we needed the plans for HOA approval; he then assigned a new designer to us to complete plans. We waited and finally received a single paper with a drawing - no irrigation/drainage plans. We purchased a 5 acre land parcel, built a new home and planned to only landscape around the front/sides and rear of the house. The property requires deer tolerant plants; the original designer understood this but did not communicate this we ended up with a plan list that had 3-4 deer resistant plants. When I called to ask to have this updated we never received a new plant list. It also seemed that Five Star could not even find our contract - I subsequently sent it to them with all the canceled checks and requested a full refund.

Not surprisingly, it was declined by Five Star stating that we had paid for the plans. At this point I reminded them that they agreed to work with us to finalize the plans which had yet to be delivered.Desired Settlement: We paid $1200 for a full set of landscape plans with irrigation/drainage. We received a artist drawing, not even to scale. When I told [redacted] this he indicated that any landscaper could come up with a irrigation/drainage plan.

The contract:

Options $1000.00

Irrigation/Drainage $200.00

Total Design fees $1200.00

Payment Schedule:

10% Deposit

50% at Phase 2, Review

40% at Phase 3, Completion

All monies were paid in full.

Business

Response:

Business' Initial Response

Dear Revdex.com,

Design was initially done last year, and paid for by our client.

In the interest of good customer service the client and our firm have agreed on a refund of $450.00 to settle all matters completely.

Sincerely,

FiveSTAR Customer Service