Radiant Gardens

The owner of this company did not get the landscaping of my property done in a timely way. She would disappear for days/weeks at a time. left my yard unfinished and a mess despite my paying her invoices for approximately $7,000.00. She did not respond to my calls/e-mails in a timely manner. I have asked her to stop work as the yard is worse than when she started and it will now cost me even more money to finish the work she started by hiring another , and hopefully more reliable , company. I have photos of my yard to document the results.

The owner of this company did not get the landscaping of my property done in a timely wayShe would disappear for days/weeks at a timeleft my yard unfinished and a mess despite my paying her invoices for approximately $7,She did not respond to my calls/e-mails in a timely mannerI have asked her to stop work as the yard is worse than when she started and it will now cost me even more money to finish the work she started by hiring another , and hopefully more reliable , companyI have photos of my yard to document the results

Customer’s Statement of the Problem:The owner of this company did not get the landscaping of my property done in a timely way The project was ongoing with no particular deadlineIn an email dated October 31, from *** ***, she wrote, “I just paid the invoice
through 10/Please finish putting down the gravel ASAP then let's stop there for the fall We can continue in the spring“ She would disappear for days/weeks at a time I explained to her during our initial meeting that I was a small company and her project was rather large scale. I told her that we would average hours weekly some weeks would be more, other would be less depending on the agenda for the week. We started the first phase of the project on 7/17/and the last time we worked was 10/20/working a total of hours - with an average of hours weekly left my yard unfinished and a mess despite my paying her invoices for approximately $7, *** *** sent me a letter dated November asking me to cease all work and clear all of the tools and materials from her property by November 14, 2017. I received the letter on November 13th and immediately called her to talk about the issues. She did not answer, nor did she return my call. I removed everything from her property on the afternoon of November 14th She did not respond to my calls/e-mails in a timely manner I could have done a better job with communication I have asked her to stop work as the yard is worse than when she started and it will now cost me even more money to finish the work she started by hiring another , and hopefully more reliable , company The work that we have done to date on the property does not have to be redone - another landscaping company can continue the work where we left off. When we started, we did a comprehensive cleanup of the front yard and added mulch. The back yard was knee deep in thistle and other weeds. There were multiple blackberry shrubs that we removed. We dug grass out of garden beds, installed edging, amended the soil, seeded part of the lawn, regraded the entire lawn, installed a 40’ french drain to reduce the amount of erosion from multiple downspouts, modified the irrigation, added hardscape, demolished a 10’ x 8’ concrete pad and removed the concrete and sand and aggregate underneath, screened and amended the soil and built a raised bed and pruned various shrubs in the back yard and in the alley Tell us why here

1) Various  parts of the work was completed--i.e. several  different components of the job were started  but no one part was completed. I have  a number of photos to demonstrate this. The one part that was completed was removal of a large concrete pad.  There was a logic to our progression on the job.  For example, we needed to finish building the raised bed in order to fix the grade on the west side before laying down the landscape fabric and the gravel in that area.  We also needed to finish modifying the irrigation and drainage work before covered up the area with gravel.  This process was noted in an email from August 3, 2017 to which I receive no response from [redacted].  Our correspondence on the issue was: Hi [redacted], Prior to laying down the breeze on the west side of the yard, we should route the downspouts to the west edge of the property - which will be 6" of small river rock.  Do I have your blessing to do this?  I want to avoid further erosion *downstream* from the downspouts by leading the water towards the edge.  Please let me know as it will take a couple of hours and solve the problem of drainage in the yard.  We will be by tomorrow.2) The owner herself wrote me an e-mail to apologize for the mess and offered  either to complete the job for no additional cost or to refund money I wrote back that I would prefer  to  receive a partial refund . This is due to the  disorganization  that was demonstrated.  I discussed with [redacted] completing several tasks at no extra cost, but she rejected the offer and instead hired another company to complete the work.  As a small business I cannot afford to refund work already completed and this was a “pay as you go” arrangement, not a situation where all of the money was paid up front. 3) my other concern is that I do not feel that this owner had the  manpower, time, or organization to complete a job of this size and the ethical response would have been to acknowledge that in the first place, rather than take on the project.  I explained at the outset to [redacted] during our initial meeting that I was a small company and her project was rather large scale.  I told her that we would average 8 hours weekly some weeks would be more, other would be less depending on the agenda for the week.  We started the first phase of the project on 7/17/17 and the last time we worked was 10/20/17 working a total of 126.04 hours - with an average of 9 hours weekly.  She said that the timeline was totally open and in an email from [redacted] dated October 31, 2017 she demonstrates her understanding of our agreement with the open deadline, “I just paid the invoice through 10/12. Please finish putting down the gravel ASAP then let's stop there for the fall . We can continue in the spring. “ [redacted] accepted our work on these terms, likely because of the reduced cost of working with a small business.  Otherwise, I would not have taken on the project if it had a short deadline.  Tell us why here...

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:The business owner offered a partial refund and I want that refund 
Sincerely,
[redacted]