LawnMowingOnline.com LLC

Grass was 12-24".  Order said up to 3".  Grass not cut, contractor messaged customer for compensation.  Customer refused compensation.  Contractor uploaded photos and order cancelled with refund minus $10 trip fee for long grass in accordance with website long grass policy....

  Photos are attached"If we arrive and the grass is significantly longer than described (more than a few inches) the mower may or may not mow the property depending on the length.  If we do mow, we'll send you an email requesting the unpaid portion.  If we don't mow, we'll offer to mow for the correct price or a refund minus a $10 trip fee which is used to pay the mower for his gas and time to drive out to the property that he could not mow.  Either way we'll include photos proving the length of the grass."http://lawnmowingonline.com/whatabout-longgrass.php

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/15) */
Customer was lying about the size of the property on over a dozen order, putting it was less than 10,890 sq ft when the total property size was 15,000 sq ft. Contractor reported them and customer was ban from the website. Customer did this on...

purpose too, when they put the address in the order page it automatically selected the right size but they went back and chose a smaller size yard just so they could steal from the contractor.

Customer ordered on June 20th.  On June 22nd they requested a refund and cancellation.  Since it was accepted by a contractor the order was not cancelled immediately because contractors are removed when a customer is forced to cancel a order because it is assumed the contractor did...

something wrong to force a customer to cancel.  When the contractor was not willing or able to resolve the situation, they were removed.  Since the customer insisted on cancelling rather than reposting the order for another contractor a $15 cancellation fee applied for cancelling within 2 days.  Customer agreed to be charged $15 early cancellation fee.  Fee information is in 3 locations: Terms of Service that all customers must agree to before ordering, the FAQs, and on the cancellation pagehttp://www[redacted]/faqs.php#Q4424. I placed a order and quickly cancelled and was charged a $15 fee, what was the fee for?A:    Cancellation fees are very common in service industry type businesses.  Doctors, dentists, hair salons, moving companies and many other businesses charge fees if a appointment is cancelled within a certain time frame of when the service is being provided.  So we adopted the same polices that those businesses do.  If a person schedules services and cancels within 2 business days of the order being placed LawnMowingOnline reserves the right to charge a $15 fee.  The policy has worked exactly as expected, more orders are getting accepted and mowed and fewer orders are being cancelled.  Avoiding this fee is simple, just do not cancel within 2 business days of scheduling service.  For example, if you order May 1st for mowing on May 2nd, do not cancel on May 1st, May 2nd (1 day) or May 3rd (2 days).  The order can be cancelled on May 4th (3 days since May 1st) and there will be no fee.  Of course by then the order will likely be accepted by a contractor and already mowed so there would no longer be any reason to cancel.  If the order is accepted by a contractor and you choose to cancel, try and work out a new mowing date with the contractor, or message support and request a new contractor if there is a issue with the contractor. To make sure every customer knows about the cancellation fee it is listed in 2 places.  It is listed on the Terms of Service page that all customers agree to before placing an order and the cancellation fee is explained in bold text and underlined on the cancellation page that all customers must fill out to cancel an order.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/11/13) */
A little explanation about how LawnMowingOnline.com operates is necessary to explain this situation. No one employed by LawnMowingOnline.com mows lawns. We provide a online marketplace between people seeking lawn mowing services and those that...

provide lawn mowing services. This is similar to the way that eBay does not sell cars or items, but individuals go to eBay to sell their car or items, since eBay is a also online marketplace. People that provide lawn mowing services sign up on LawnMowingOnline.com. When someone seeking mowing services places an order, the order is sent to people providing mowing services in that area. This is made very clear to customers before ordering, that the service is provided by individuals in their area, not by LawnMowingOnline.com employees. Someone, not a employee of LawnMowingOnline.com, takes the order, provides the service, and the customer confirms the service was provided and requests payment to be released. We do not pay contractors to mow lawns. The customers decide if the service was done and if they should be paid. If a customer says a lawn was not mowed, they are given a full refund, no matter what the contractor says, because LawnMowingOnline.com does not decide if the service was provided. In this case, a contractor took the order, exchanged phone numbers with the customer online through messages on LawnMowingOnline.com, provided the service and uploaded photos. The customer then logged in, reviewed the photos, and thanked the contractor in the messages. The customer was asked "Was the order finished and are you satisfied with the work provided? After you select YES and click "Report Status" the contractor will be automatically paid and there is no way to request the contractor to return if there is a problem or request a refund." The customer proceeded to mark the checkbox labeled "Yes I am satisfied the order was finished, I will not request a refund, please pay the contractor" and clicked "Report Status" to confirm. At that time the payment was released to the contractor in our system, because the customer requested the contractor be paid. As it says, there is no way to request a refund after this, because payment has already been released to the contractor. If the customer feels they are due a refund, this customer has the contractor's phone number. If the contractor does not cooperate, the customer can contact support and request the contractor's name and address so they may sue for a refund. But LawnMowingOnline.com does not have a refund to provide since the payment was released to the contractor at the customer's request.

The company is wrong.  I have never cancelled the order for my lawn to be cut.  The company is demanding this so they can hold me to the cancellation of service.  I refuse to cancel because of this.  I placed the order on the 19th but did not cancel on the 20th.  I have paid for a lawn service which I have not received any lawn service as of to date 9/27/2016.  I paid another company to cut my lawn on 9/24/2016. I will send emails to show they have never even had someone arranged to cut my lawn.  Services have never been rendered and I never cancelled.  They have never refunded any portion of my payment let alone the $15 cancellation fee.  They are the ones that have "cancelled" since no services were scheduled to cut my lawn.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/15) */
Customer ban from website for repeatedly lying about property size. [redacted] SE XXXXX is 43560 sq ft. Order page automatically selected correct size. Customer then changes size to less than 10,890 sq ft which reduces the price by $25. We...

can not mow 43,560 sq ft for the price of less than 10,890 sq ft. The contractors must be paid for the work the contractor is providing and it's not fair for this customer to think they should get a lot more service than what they are paying for. That is like paying for 1 pizza but wanting 4 pizzas to be delivered. That's not possible, where does this person shop that they think that is how things should work? I wonder if they would be happy if their boss told him they want him to do the same amount of work, but get paid 1/4th the salary. Probably not, but that is what this customer is expecting from the contractors on LawnMowingOnline.com

If there is any problem with a contractor not doing a order, not doing a good job or a order not being taken all that can be done is the order refunded and placed again for someone else to accept and complete.  All cancellations, disputes and refunds are done automatically on the website now by the customers.  You do not need to contact support.  Login, click on order, and click CANCEL to cancel and get a REFUND or DISPUTE to dispute the order.  Then place a new order.  Contractors that have cancellations or disputes are automatically given 1-star reviews which will warn future customers to not choose them.If you claim a cancel or dispute button does not appear to you, please respond with your login and password information.

According to the customer's own admission, they were attempting to defraud our company by working out a side deal with the contractor by canceling with us and paying them in cash.  That is not appropriate and I will not assist the customer in scamming our company.

That is unfortunate, it is never good to hear that someone that signed up to take orders on LawnMowingOnline failed to provide services.  The contractor has been ban from the website and sent the buyer's personal contact information so they can try and resolve this situation quickly.  The...

contractor will not be allowed to take anymore orders until this is resolved.  The cancellation was cancelled because the order was taken and there are messages between the buyer and contractor working on a date for mowing.  The last message was 3 days ago on March 27th from the contractor asking the buyer to give them a call when they wanted service and they would be right out:  "Hi [redacted]. When ever you are ready, contact me at [redacted] and I will come right out. I am marking your job as finished, so please call when you are ready for the service. Thank you. [redacted] Posted By: [redacted] [2016-03-27 09:50:27]"  It sounded like the buyer and contractor had resolved the situation.

http://[redacted]/faqs.php#Q4424. I placed a order and quickly cancelled and was charged a $15 fee, what was the fee for?A:    Cancellation fees are very common in service industry type businesses.  Doctors, dentists, hair salons, moving companies and many other...

businesses charge fees if a appointment is cancelled within a certain time frame of when the service is being provided.  So we adopted the same polices that those businesses do.  If a person schedules services and cancels within 2 business days of the order being placed LawnMowingOnline reserves the right to charge a $15 fee.  The policy has worked exactly as expected, more orders are getting accepted and mowed and fewer orders are being cancelled.  Avoiding this fee is simple, just do not cancel within 2 business days of scheduling service.  For example, if you order May 1st for mowing on May 2nd, do not cancel on May 1st, May 2nd (1 day) or May 3rd (2 days).  The order can be cancelled on May 4th (3 days since May 1st) and there will be no fee.  Of course by then the order will likely be accepted by a contractor and already mowed so there would no longer be any reason to cancel.  If the order is accepted by a contractor and you choose to cancel, try and work out a new mowing date with the contractor, or message support and request a new contractor if there is a issue with the contractor. To make sure every customer knows about the cancellation fee it is listed in 2 places.  It is listed on the Terms of Service page that all customers agree to before placing an order and the cancellation fee is explained in bold text and underlined on the cancellation page that all customers must fill out to cancel an order.

After the dispute had ended on the website, the customer only needed to login and click Refund Order at the same place the dispute was to receive an immediate refund.  It does not automatically refund the customer because during the dispute process the customer and contractor could have come to...

an agreement and resolved the dispute but the customer could have forgotten to cancel the dispute so if the refund happened automatically the contractor that resolved the dispute would not be paid.  This dispute ended and the contractor did not resolve it, so the customer only needed to click Refund Order.  Customer did not login and click Refund Order.  Instead, they went to the credit card payment processor to file a dispute.  They will have to wait for them to complete their investigation before the customer can be refunded.  The contractor that failed to resolve the customer's complaint automatically received a poor review rating which will hurt their chances of being chosen by future customers.

Sorry the customer disagrees, but there has been no requests for refunds or cancellations but this customer did file a cancellation and refund request in 2015 so they are aware of how to do that since the process has not changed so I am not sure why they are contacting the Revdex.com instead of canceling like they did before.  That said, since they know how to cancel an order and request a refund, they just need to do that.  If they have forgotten, there are instructions sent in every email they have ever been sent from LawnMowingOnline.  But if they happened to have deleted all the emails we have sent here are the instructions again:  Go to Contact Us, click Cancel Order and follow the instructions.  Please be aware that contractors are held responsible when a customer cancels so there may be repercussions for the contractor including being removed from the website and payments withheld.  If possible, try and work out the situation with the contractor by rescheduling for a new mowing date in the future.  Even if you mowed your lawn today that grass will grow back and will need mowing in the next week or two.  Thank you.

In mid-September the website was completely redesigned.  Now if there is any problem with a order all cancellations, disputes and refunds are done automatically on the website by the customers.  Customers do not need to contact support.  Login and click CANCEL to cancel or DISPUTE to...

dispute the order. Then place a new order. Contractors that have cancellations or disputes are automatically given 1-star reviews which will warn future customers to not choose them.  However this customer decided to file a dispute with the credit card processor instead so the money is held until they finish their investigation.

Customer ordered on the 19th and cancelled on the 20th.  Customer agreed to pay a $15 cancellation fee if they cancelled any order in less than 2 days.  Customer was refunded their order minus the $15 fee they agreed to.  Customer has now contacted they payment processor to try and...

receive that $15 fee.  If payment processors chooses to refund, LawnMowingOnline.com will put the amount refunded into collections and notify credit bureaus of the unpaid debt since this is a fee the customer agreed to pay according to the Terms of Service they agreed to and on the cancellation page they filled out.  Customer is also liable for any attorney or collection fees required while attempting to collect the unpaid debt which could greatly exceed the $15 cancellation fee.  To avoid additional fees and a negative report to the credit bureaus for the unpaid debt, customer is advised to cancel the dispute.  Thank you.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. Thank you for your assistance with this refund. Getting a new website does not justify ignoring all of my 5 previous requests for a refund. Yet they did respond on the very day the Revdex.com contacted them. The clearly knew this was the right thing to do, and it apparently isn't a difficult process. I want to clarify that this was not the contractor's fault. My job posting should have been removed from the website when I canceled it (and received a confirmation email) on 9/1, yet it was still posted on 9/4. The contractor says he HAD to mark the job complete because the company was withholding payment from other jobs he had completed due to this job being in limbo. Other reviews on the Revdex.com site reveal a similar situation. After he marked it complete, I did file a dispute, but it fell on deaf ears.I hope their new website solves all of these problems and they are able to have a prosperous business that is fair to both their contractors and customers. Unfortunately, it's not something I can be a part of anymore.   
Sincerely,
[redacted]