Lawn Tech Inc

Initial Business Response /* (4000, 14, 2014/08/05) */
I am responding to this case now because unfortunately I was absent and unable to respond during the original suggested time frame for doing
so
***
Now, I will go through the sequence of events on the day of May 9/with a more accurate description of the details that happenedAlso, I will clarify all primary miss-understandings, miss interpretations, and untrue statements brought forward by the case file customerI will do so in point form fashion based on responses to quotes from the original written complaint of the customer
1) "They arrived at 4:and left at 5:00" ""a total of minutes"...- My detailed employee daily documentations show that they in fact arrived at 4:and left at 5:Which is standard time for one of my hard working crews and is within the expected average time frame to complete one of our spring clePackagesHowever, depending of the size of lawn and type of lawn, minutes is not uncommon
2) "they rushed through their job"...- They were in fact the most hard working crew that I hired this springBy May 9th they personally had already service over Spring Clean ups so far in the season with the highest amount of compliment and tips.***
3) "they just removed the bare basic""they left most of the dead grass on the lawn"...- Simply not trueLike all my crews, they were equipped with a brand new *** Power rake and proper training on how to set the heights per lawn to maximize dethatching quantity without damaging turf and root structuresMore importantly, the amount of thatch that they had pulled by hand raking and bagging from a lawn of that size and texture was in reality far above the normThis is one of the reasons they decided to videotapeThey made sure to videotape the bags and quantity of thatch removed to help prove a properly executed job
4) "they said they would only remove what their power rake would lift""then they proceed to hand rake with a plastic rake and only remove what is on the surface"...- This first statement is correct! Their job is to power rake the tuff areas and hand rake up what the machines leave behindThey do not hand rake out flowerbeds, or any other areas that are not considered turfInstead, they hand rake the turf by pulling the thatch into piles and then bag those piles
5) "I told them and showed them and they said they do not go that far for cleaning and that it was up to us to vacuum it up" "that is what we hired them for" ..."we paid for something they did not do for us"...- No! There is nowhere on our flyer or any forms of advertizing where we say that we will vacuum up your lawn and/or not leave your property until every blade of dead grass is removed from your lawnAfter a lawn has been properly and successfully power raked the customer will always be able to continue to rake up more grassIn fact, it is because the lawn has been machined properly and the thatch layer broken that this is possibleOtherwise, raking a lawn by hand that hasn't been power raked would not pull up much grass up and be very difficult
6) "They refused to finish the job"...-Not trueThey finished the job precisely as we have been doing it consistently for over a decade and satisfying thousands of homeownersH***
7) "they forced us to pay them $for the job" "they demanded the payment"- *** They simply explained calmly to the customer a few times our policies and procedures and what was done in the jobThen, they asked for payment, which was the exactly same amount that was advertizedThe same amount that the customer was expecting to pay when they arrange the booking date by phone callThe job was done exactly as advertizedIt is only fair to pay for work done to your property
8) " my wife tried to show them the piles she removed and the man yelled at his wife to video my wife""they continued to video us""you do not video your paying customers"...- Normally you do not need to video tape a customer***There was a good reason that the workers wanted to record the instanceIt was bizarre behavior and they suspected there might be a future problem with this customer *** So I feel that they did the right thing to gather some evidence of the encounterI have also used it to show all of my employees at the time as a training example of how to respond properly in cases like that if they ever may occur again***
9) "we called""they have an answering machine" "they do not return your calls"...- Not trueI returned the call two days after I got the massage but nobody answeredThe following day around 2pm I went to the customer house but again nobody was home though there where lights on in the houseAt that time I did an inspection on the lawn to see nothing but a good job done with good results
In summary, it is very unfortunate that the job turned out to be a disputeAs a company offering a service where there is a certain degree of subjective interpretation to part of the job (ie.hand raking), we must be as considerate to the customers point of view while also knowing the balance between standing up for our integrity and policiesTherefore, I can not offer a refund for services not received simply because there was nothing incomplete about that job itself so it would not be fairHowever, what I can do is offer a free fertilizer or weed control application ($40-$dollar value) as a token of my respect towards the customer's feelings and opinions on the issueI would be happy to do so***
Sincerely
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 16, 2014/08/09) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
We understand that the owners of Lawn Tech have to defend his/her employees, however they were not there and they did not see the whole jobThe employees did not work on the lawn for more than minutes as a lot of the time they spent telling us that they did their job and they were finished
My wife did not get frustrated and angry with them until they refused to complete the job and demanded paymentShe said she would pay them once she talked to the owner of Lawn Tech***
*** It takes me more than minutes to cut and bag grass just in my front yard when I am only cutting grass (not doing spring cleanup)It takes more than one hour to cut and bag grass for both front and back yardThey completed their whole spring cleaning job in minutes (Both front and back yard)That's minutes each
***
As far as returning our call for two days and then coming to our home to see for himselfWe did not receive any phone callsWe have call display and voice-mail and there was no caller ID from Lawn Tech and no voice message from them eitherI check my calls every dayAs for him coming to our home two (2) days later and saying he "did an inspection on the lawn to see nothing but a good job done with good results" well this is because my wife and I spent over two (2) hours of our time finishing the jobMy wife and I cleaned everything up, we raked up and bagged the dead grass and cleaned everything up ourselvesThis is why it looked good, not because Lawn Tech employees did a good job
***
Thank you for your offer, however, at this time we will not be looking at any further services from Lawn Tech
Thank you Revdex.com for taking our complaint
Final Business Response /* (1000, 19, 2014/08/27) */
Re: Case #***
Reply
I understand that I was not there the day of the job*** This is why I will stick to the facts and evidence brought forward to me by the video tape, daily log forms, and my personal inspection as a lawn care professional
*** I never stated that I left a messageI called several times from a cell phone and did not leave a message because I wanted to make personal contact with the customer to resolve the disputeI couldn't so I went to the house in person.*** the customer implies that my personal inspection of the lawn cannot be of any value and merit because he did additional hand rakingAgain, Its because the lawn was so beautifully power raked at the right setting that all the thatch layer can be pulled outThis is what ables the hand raking of the thatch into piles possibleNot to mention that the aeration results were great for a lawn of that age and textureSo again, the customer simply doesn't get it and understand that what he paid for was the distribution and printing of flyers, secretary phone time, booking and scheduling, rental of machines and all associated gear provide to do the job, gas for the machine and workers vehicle, the renting out of the employees personal vehicle as a work vehicle, the maintenance of a website for information and booking, the skill of trained power rake and aerator operators, not to mention the general labor and hand raking of individuals at min of their time of straight hard work ethicThe hand raking itself is only a fraction of what the customer is paying forAgain, it's another fallacy to claim that because you can continuously keep raking up grass after a job that that somehow means that the job was incomplete or not done properlyIt's a lawnThere will always be grass
***
***
*** Because of the fact that the customer refuses to cooperate further that I am forced now to do the same and close this case for goodI ask that the customer and I kindly part ways and I request that the customer be not allowed to use any of my services or contact my company anytime in the futureI sincerely would like to publicly thank the Revdex.com for making me aware of this issue and for giving me an opportunity to help strengthen my public relations to those in need***
Thank you

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/08/05) */
This case is a very simply dispute that has already been resolved before my mail notice about it had even arrived. The customer pre paid for a season of mowing then cancelled from the program shortly after. I had been away from my office...

during the time frame that the customer had left a couple messages on my phone in regards to the refund that I had not been completed yet. When I returned home and discovered the massages I instantly returned the call and then delivered the refund in full and in person to the customer 2 days later. The customer and her daughter were both very pleasant and reasonable people and I had apologized for the delay.
*Customer relations and quality control is a very important part of our company. We plan to always maintain the highest level possible while continuing to offer top notch service and the most competitive prices in the industry! Please visit us at www.lawntechservices.ca to get the fullest understanding of who we are and what we all offer. Thank You.