Lawn Care Express

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/04) */
Our crew went to the property on 5/13/2015 and found dog feces in the yard. Per our terms and conditions, we have the right to refuse service for animal feces. We alerted the customer to the issue and were told that it was taken care of. ...


Our crew returned to the property on 5/19/2015 only to find more dog feces. The customer denied this when we contacted him, so I personally went to the site with the crew foreman on 5/22/2015, giving him the benefit of the doubt.
I arrived with a 5 gallon bucket and a poop scooper just to do anything to satisfy the customer. At this point, I was unaware that the customer had e-mailed in to cancel. The crew foreman and I cleaned up 2/3 of a 5 gallon bucket worth of trash, dog feces, and a syringe from the property. Some of the feces was weeks old.
There was no obvious landscaping done on the property, and the plant damage appeared to be from animals.
There was no malice on our part, we were trying to satisfy the customer despite the fact that there was obviously no attempt to have the yard cleared of animal waste. Dog waste gets on our mowers and transfers to other lawns. It is unfair to our other customers when we bring dog waste on to their property.
The customer was sent a full refund for prepaid mowing (Check #1272) in the amount of $427.47 on June 1, 2015. We did not charge him for two trip charges or the mowing we did prior to receipt of his e-mail. He did e-mail, but we had not seen it prior to mowing the lawn.
I do not believe the claim for the plants to be valid for several reasons. First and foremost, the damage appears to be done by animals. Second, the plants were not damaged to the point of requiring replacement. Third, the valuation of the plants by the customer was, I believe, punitive in nature.
At Lawn Care Express, we strive to satisfy all of our customers. We ask very little other than to provide us with a clear yard to mow. Unfortunately, this customer did not respect our employees, equipment, or other customers enough to clear the yard of dog waste even after we asked twice for him to do so.
We attempted to go above and beyond by cleaning the waste ourselves, but the customer still abused us with accusations of vandalism and trying to profit by inflating prices for plants that were not damaged by our crew.
It is a shame that the relationship did not work out, but we made every attempt as a company to service this customer.