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Shimer Landscape, Incorporated

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Reviews Shimer Landscape, Incorporated

Shimer Landscape, Incorporated Reviews (1)

Review: On March 19, 2013 I gave approval to this landscaping company to slope the dirt away from the home according to code, install pop-up drains, and create swales that directed water away from my house to the street. He had been retained because I had

previously an enormous mold problem, where much of my house had been gutted and reconstructed. His job was to be the final job necessary to ensure that water, which causes mold prolifigation, did not settle in my yard nor around my settlement,

but traveled into the swales so that it could be deposited in the street. When interviewing him for the job, he assured me he was familiar with code and this type of job of water mitigation. Per his estimate, which listed most of what the job entailed, he was to remove the front sidewalk and plant material in order to slope a 6" fall from the sill plate for the first 10' and 4" thereafter for every ten feet. This was to be done on all four sides of the house. He also replaced the downspouts, where he promised me pop-up drains, which would be hidden from view. He talked me into removing the previous drain pipes because he told me they were done wrong and he could provide better pop up drains, which he didn't do. Per his drawing submitted to me and my HOA, he drew swales that extended beyond the deck and continued the swale on the right side of the house which were to be designed to downpour water out to the street. He was to replant grass in the entire area that he had worked on. Additionally, during the job I asked him to move my garden, which he agreed to. After he had accepted $15,067, I starting realizing how unprofessionally the job had been done. He did not pack the slopes, which have already started settling as a result. So those slopes are worth nothing as they will continue to settle. He made a mess out of the drains because he did not extend them far enough behind my house and on the side of my house to prevent water from settling by my house. He didn't install pop up drains like he had promised. He wrecked the previously existing swales so that my house is presently unprotected should there be a storm. He did not relocate a satisfactory garden. He churned all my soil so that I lost all my top soil. The hydroseed that he planted would not grow as a result and crab grass grew instead. When the grass finally come up this fall, I found out it was mostly a cheap annual rye grass, which turned brown because it was dying. As a result of his work, I now have a drainage problem on the side of the garden, where the water is not draining. He planted one of my trees there, telling me at the time that it had fungus. When I asked him if it would be contagious planting it in the garden with the other trees, he told me it would not. So he planted that tree in my garden, in the spot where there was a drainage problem, and the fungus is now out of control, spreading to my lawn. There was no drainage problem prior to his work. His men were sloppy in their work, so that my son had to spend many hours cleaning up the erosion mats, removing mulch contaminated by fungus, etc. He refused to cut the unsightly pipes that he had promised. While landscaping my garden, he put all my plants by the road so that many were stolen. He also overcharged me, not providing invoices to show the amount of hours nor material used and charged me exhorbitant amounts for small jobs. Although his estimate noted in his guarantee that I would be completely satisfied, I have been calling him back for over five months, and he has refused to correct the situation. I am now in a worse off situation than before he began and he should be responsible to restore me back to where my lawn was before and to return all the money for work he refused to do satisfactorily.Desired Settlement: Pay me back $15067, which is the amount I paid him, since I will have to pay somebody else to do the same job again. Pay additionally for five hours that my son had to do to cut the erosion mats which should have been done by his men. Return $1000 for the previous drains, which he had me remove so he could install pop up drains, which he never installed. Pay an uncalculated amount to restore a layer of top soil in the area which he worked. Pay $208 to replace the tree that rotted in the drainage. Pay for 6 hours for my son to remove the contaminated tree and mulch. Pay for any other fungus remediation in garden and lawn. Provide a breakdown of the amount of hours worked and the cost of materials for all invoices, including any kickbacks. That amounts to $16,978 plus the amount of top soil necessary to restore my top soil back to where it was before he began his work, fix the drainage problem in the garden, replace lost mulch from the fungus, and remediate the now present fungus problem on my garden and lawn. Because of the amount of damage I cannot come up with the exact amount until the work is done.

Business

Response:

October 31,2013

Dear Sir or M[redacted]m,

Our offices have represented Shimer Landscape, Inc. (the "Company") for approximately twenty-five (25) years, and this is the first time we have been asked to respond to a customer complaint. Prior to filing her complaint with Revdex.com, the customer sent a threatening letter to the Company's president claiming outrageous damages and indicating an intention to sue the Company. At that time I discussed with the Company's president each of the grievances the customer raised in her seven-page demand letter. It quickly became apparent that the customer's claims have no legal basis.

By way of further background, after the Company completed all the work it agreed to perform, the customer contested the amount of the bill. The Company substantially reduced the amount of the bill purely as a courtesy to the customer. Also, at the customer's request, the Company also sent its employees to her home to perform additional work that was never part of the contract. Although the Company was not obligated to make these repeat visits or perform this additional work/ it did so as a courtesy to the customer. When the job was finished, the Company's president walked the property with the customer/ and the customer indicated she was thrilled with the work that had been performed.

That which the customer now complains of is attributable to the severe storms that recently hit the area and her refusal to rely on the Company's advice, Despite the Company's decades of experience in the landscaping business, the customer routinely

rejected its recommendations. For example, the customer would not allow the company to use fertilizer in connection with the seeding. Further, the customer required the removal and replacement of several plantings that had been strategically placed by the Company. Most—if not all—of the customer's complaints could have been avoided had she simply deferred to the experts.

This dispute is also complicated by **. [redacted]'s abusive phone calls and letters which border on harassment as a criminal matter. Prior communications have affected the Company's business operations and have even brought one Company employee to tears. Other Company employees refuse to perform additional work for the customer on account of the customer's tendency to yell, scream, and verbally abuse the workers. The Company has gone above and beyond what was required of it by performing additional services gratuitously, but it seems there is simply no pleasing the customer, It should also be noted that the customer has yet to pay her final invoice, Given the foregoing, I have advised my client to stand by his work and to cease all communications with the customer.

Finally, it appears the customer's Revdex.com complaint is inappropriate at this time given (i) the nature and exorbitant amount of damages she claims; (ii) her stated intention to sue the Company; and (iii) the fact that attorneys are already involved in this dispute. Please contact me directly with any questions or concerns regarding this matter.

Consumer

Response:

November 4, 2013

Dear **, [redacted]:

Thank you for representing this case.

Per your recent email, you had asked whether I had proceeded with a legai suit. The answer is no nor do I have an attorney.

You also requested that I send you invoices, contracts, and correspondence associated with this case, which are enclosed:

Exhibit 1 Letter Response from [redacted] dated October 31, 2013 on behalf of Mr. Shimer.

Exhibit 2a Shimer Landscape estimate dated March 19, 2013. Letter states a full guarantee, "Our name is on every project or service we complete and our promise is that you will be fully satisfied". Exhibit 2b A copy of a property map drawn by Mr. Shimer to be submitted to my HOA committee. In the drawing he noted he would cut out a swale behind the deck and drain pipes that would continue on the right side of the house so that water would flow off my property.

Exhibit 3 Final bill on date of completion of May 14, 2013 for the amount of $15,067.

Exhibit 4 Copies of checks for that invoice.

Exhibit 5 Additional invoice from Shimer dated June 29, 2013 for 'starter fertilizer application'. This work was in response to a meeting between Mr. Shimer and me on June 27, 2013, where I complained that the grass was not growing, there was mostly bare dirt, and crab grass had started to spread. Mr. Shimer charged me for an additional $728 to spread fertilizer on grass that should have grown but had not as a result of his work. The amount included another project to slope behind the generator, which was also work that should have been done under the original contract.

Exhibit 6 Letter from Mr. Shimer dated July 30, 2013, noting a second meeting with Mr. Shimer,

[redacted] of [redacted], and myself on July 29, 2013. Mr. Shimer made many statements, which I refuted in my letter dated October 2, 2013 per exhibit 7. He failed to respond to my complaints of his work of the swales, drain pipes, and grass condition that were noted during the meeting. He admitted that there was a crab grass problem , but that he would not remedy it unless I paid the disputed June 29th invoice for $728.

Exhibit 7 Letter written to Mr. Shimer dated October 2, 2013 complaining about the work in detail and listing the remedies necessary. [Actual date of letter was October 16th but misdated October 2, 2013. This letter was also in response to his letter dated July 29, 2013, where I disagreed with many of his statements.

Exhibit 8 invoices of previous contractors, who installed the initial drain pipes in 2012. [There is an additional invoices missing at this juncture from [redacted], who worked on the front and side drain pipes.] Cost to install those pipes was over $1000.

Exhibit 9 Pictures of my lawn before Mr. Shimer came to work and after he hydroseeded the property. Exhibit 10 Pictures of some of the unsightly drain pipes above ground.

Exhibit 11 Pictures of tree with fungus that he had transplanted in my main garden, which died. After we puiled the dead tree out, we found it had been sitting in a pool of water which had not drained property.

With Respect to Exhibit 1:

In response to Mr. ShimeKs response per his attorney's letter dated October 31, 2013, I will respond as follows:

I live at the bottom of a valley in a development, where most of the water is drained into a retaining pond three homes from my property. Many times in the past, rain water has flooded the wetlands leading to the creek. My backyard is also a steep hill. As a result of living at the bottom of this valley, my basement has been flooded in a past storm. I had gone through two years of contractual work to mitigate mold inside my house at great expense prior to contact with Mr. Shimer. Mr. Shimer was referred to me by [redacted] [not related] of [redacted], who had managed and remediated the mold inside my house. Because of the amount of damage within my house, I had retained a civil engineer to write a report regarding the in-house mold remediation and any other problems he discovered. One of the problems he noted was that there were not sufficient slopes surrounding my house to deter water away from my house foundation and off the property. Thus, it was a serious situation where I had investigated much to remediate my water problems and needed a landscaper/excavator, who knew what he was doing, to adjust the land so that water moved away from my foundation onto the road. I asked Mr. Shimer, prior to retaining him for the work, if he fully understood the code for slopes and swales in order to direct water away from the house and off the property. He fully assured me that he did and then proceeded to tell me he guaranteed all his work.

Shimer's letter dated October 31, 2013 written by his attorney failed to address any of the complaints listed in my letter noted in exhibit 7 or in the Revdex.com Complaint. He refused to mention the proble** with the slopes that were never packed, the swales, the drain pipes, the drainage problem in the garden, the grass condition and the additional costs that I have paid or will have to pay as a result of Mr. Shimer's damages to me. Secondly, there is no civil complaint nor do 1 have an attorney. Throughout the Setter, many statements were made against me, which I deny and object to. The BBS can see my letter in exhibit 7 where ! explained to Mr. Shimerthe problems and the remedies that he needed to do. He had six months to correct the problem from May until November, yet he has done nothing to correct or even investigate some of the allegations I made to see if there were problems. Yet I was accused of sending a threatening letter claiming outrageous damages despite the fact that I had paid him $15,067, borrowed on a home equity loan, and had every reason to expect the job to be done correctly. My yard is now in a worse off situation, and I will have to pay another landscaper/excavator to come in and fix my property, which I can not afford, until Mr. Shimer pays me back. I am concerned that my house may not be protected enough if there is a large storm because of the problems listed below.

There were several statements made in his letter that I would like to address. Paragraph 1 stated that I sent a threatening letter indicating an intention to sue the company. My letter of exhibit 7 actually stated in the last paragraph that "if you refuse to guarantee your work as you promised, I will file a complaint with the Revdex.com by October 21st. The letter clearly stated that I would be filing a complaint with the Revdex.com, but if there was no resolution that I would seek relief under the Unfair Trade Practices Act.

The second paragraph stated that I contested the bill after the Company had completed all of its work. I do not agree with this statement. I told Mr. Shimer on the second or third day of his work that he was only to bill me for actual costs and not the estimate of exhibit 2a. Mr. Shimer agreed with me that he would oniy charge the actual costs.

The second paragraph further made a statement when it implied that employees were sent back to my home 'as a courtesy. In fact Mr. Shimer billed me another $728 for fertilizing the bare ground, which had not grown grass because of his poor work, and for putting a slope behind the generator, which he should have done in the original job. It was certainly not a 'courtesy' when he billed me $728 for problems that he had caused. In my letter of exhibit 7,1 also questioned the fairness of the bill, where fertilizing the work area he disturbed probably took less than an hour, yet I was billed for $300. [I was billed $300 despite the fact that he had previously told me he charged $63/hour] Mr. Shimer never provided a breakdown of the time and materials, which he was supposed to provide.

The second paragraph continued to state that 1 was 'thrilled' with the work when we walked the property. I don't remember walking the property with him until he came back in response to my complaint that the grass had not grown on June 27, 2013. However, during the original work, I remember complaining about the lack of swale in the backyard, the lack of protection for my home, the drain pipe that was too close to the house above the ground, and questioning why he had not installed the pop up drain pipes. I also complained that many of my shrubs had been stolen as of result of his placing them at the bottom of my property adjacent to the street so that people thought 1 was throwing away the shrubs. Many of the issues were not visible at the time of paying the check such as the grass that would not grow, the crab grass, the cheap hydroseed which was mostly annual rye grass, I could not have known at that time if the swales properly functioned so that water flowed off my property.

The letter continued to mention 'severe storms' in paragraph 3 as a reason for my complaints. There was a short downpour that occurred on the day Mr. Shimer applied the hydroseed. He should have checked the weather before applying it on that day, and he certainly should have come back to repair any of the hydroseed that washed a way. There was a severe storm just prior to his second visit on July 29th. But that did not affect the landscape because the lawn was covered with crab grass, which grew as a result of the grass not growing prior to that.

Paragraph 3 continued to state that 1 had refused to rely on the Company's advice and routinely rejected its recommendations. The only advice Mr. Shimer gave me was to use a starter fertilizer when the grass started growing. However the grass never grew because the ground was packed hard and five weeks later I called Mr. Shimer and met with him on June 27th. At that juncture, I agreed to let him fertilize the lawn even through there was hardly any grass on the surface. See exhibit 5 It should be noted that I had a previous landscaper in September of 2012, who planted grass on most of my front lawn. He applied top soil, prepared the soil, provided quality seed, and covered it with hay. I had a beautiful lawn as a resuit and never had to apply any starter fertilizer. See exhibit 8b So Mr. Shimer's advice wasn't always the protocol other landscapers followed. There also were not several plantings as the letter stated, but one tree which Mr. Shimer had planted in an area, which did not look good. I wanted the tree planted back where it had originally placed by me.

Paragraph 4 stated my phone calls and letters were abusive and harassing. As noted in my October 2nd letter, I called him prior to 6/27/13 and met with him on that day because the grass had not grown for 6 weeks. [redacted], who had referred him to me, also called him prior to the July 29th meeting.

On September 28th, I left a phone message after I discovered that also the side of the garden, where he had worked, was not draining properly and was filled with water, I mentioned in that phone call that for the last five months, he had not responded to correcting the damages. On October 15, Mr. Shimer, [redacted] and 1 had a conference call. Mr. Shimer told me the problems were not part of the contract and then hung up on me. For those reasons,I am accused of abusive and harassing communication, which I object to. I had a right to expect Mr. Shimer to provide professional work for $15,067 and to honor his guarantee. He also stated that I 'yelled, screamed, and verbally abused the workers, but this is untrue. This statement is contradictory to the previous paragraph, which stated 1 was 'thrilled' with his work.

Paragraph 5 was already addressed above, where I stated in the letter dated October 2na that I would be filing a complaint with the B8B. The letter stated there are already attorneys in this case, implying that I have an attorney, but I don't have an attorney. I've made my intention clear that I would be filing the case with the Revdex.com.

With Respect to Exhibit 2:

On March 19, 2013 Mr. Shimer submitted to me an estimate. The estimate demonstrated that he understood the code requirements of slopes 6" below the sill plate of the house foundation for the first 10 feet and 4" per 10 feet thereafter. He was to remove the old sidewalk, which was too high to accommodate the slope code. He was to reinstall a new sidewalk, remove ail my landscaping, and replant it. He was to do various other projects such as put down top soil, hydroseed a new lawn in the disturbed area, etc. In his estimate only noted that he was to 'bury downspouts', where he provided metal piping to encase the downspouts. However, he failed to put in his invoice that he also installed a drain pipe system to accommodate the water from the downspouts, but incorporated those costs hidden in the other tasks. He was hired to remove the previous drain pipes that had been installed a year earlier, and replace them with wider drain pipes that 'popped up' to release the water so as to hide any unsightly white pvc piping. [This was the third and final estimate...! do not have the previous two estimates, but apparently Mr. Shimer did not correct the list of additional work as his estimates increased in scope and price. If I remember correctly there was about a $5000 jump per estimate. However, when 1 asked Mr. Shimer at the end of the job if he had packed the slopes so they would not be prone to settle, he said no. Mr. Shimer is a landscaper and he should know that loose top soil will eventually settle if it is not packed. As a result, because he refused to pack the slopes so they would not settle, the slopes will become significantly reduced over the years.

Secondly the map he drew of the property, noting where the swales would be located made me believe that he understood what I wanted. However, there is a problem with the swales so that they are not sloping downward out to the street or even in the back yard. When we had that severe storm in July, I could not observe a water flow and it appeared that water was settling in my yard in pockets of water. Although I asked him to check the swales to see what needed to be changed, he has refused to do so.

With Respect to Exhibit 6:

Mr. Shimer, as noted in his letter dated July 30th, admitted that the crab grass was a problem. His solution was to spray the crab grass after S paid the disputed invoice dated June 29th for $728. The problem was the bill was disputed because I did not believe he had a right to charge me another large amount for items, where he had caused the problem and I felt he had overbilied me with excessive charges that were not itemized for the time spent nor the cost of materials. He had told me that he normally billed $63/hour, and I could not understand how he arrived at a bill of $300 to fertilize the portion of yard he worked on that probably took no more than an hour to fertilize. He also billed me for putting a small slope behind the generator, which he should have done in the original job, where he charged me another $428 for a small job, which amount I questioned.

With Respect to Exhibit 7:

My letter goes into great detail about the history of the case, the amount of communications, the five month delay in Mr. Shimer's refusal to address the damages and honor his guarantee, the additional costs I have spent and future costs as a result of Mr. Shimer's refusual to correct the problems.

The damages listed were:

Work done by my son to cut the erosion mats, which should have been done by his men. I asked for a $315 reimbursement from the final bill to cover the five hours my son spent, yet Mr. Shimer has refused to compensate me for the extra work.

The lawn was wrecked. See exhibit 9 of my lawn before Mr. Shimer came and after. My lawn is mostly brown now with dead annual rye and crab grass. Before he came, I had a beautiful green lawn.

I'm not sure why the grass did not grow, Perhaps he did not prepare the soil, churned the top soil, or planted a bad batch of hydroseed. Perhaps he didn't prepare the soil and it was packed so hard from all the equipment running over it, that the grass could not grow.

I don't know why the lawn turned out like it did, but Mr. Shimer refused to remedy the lawn or restore it back to where it was before he came here.

The slopes were not packed and therefore are at risk of settlement over the years. Mr. Shimer added loose top soil to create the slopes, which is known to settle over the years if it is not packed. Therefore sloping soil without packing it is worthless and will result in the same problem that I had previously.

The drain pipes that release rain water from the rood that he installed were not as he promised. He promised me pop ups that would hide the pvc piping. I already had pipes installed in 2012. Although they transported the roof water successfully Into the swales off my property, they were unsightly and mud backed up into them. Mr. Shimer talked me into replacing them with a superior drain system using pop ups so that the pipes would be hidden. He failed to perform this promise of providing pop ups. He also did not dig the pipes deep enough in the back so that they jetted out above the ground and released water too close to the house. Mr. Shimer's pipes are twice the size of the previous pipes and are even bigger eye sores. I told him at the meeting on July 29th that I wasn't even sure the pipes were releasing much water, because I had not observed more than a puddle in the severe storm prior to that date. The water release is too close to the home and should have been located further out. The water they are releasing, if any, is not going off my property as it was supposed to be. Enclosed are the pictures of the hideous looking pipes that Mr. Shimer installed in exhibit 10. Also enclosed in this exhibit is a picture of the downspout on the side of the house, which he installed crookedly. Although I complained to Mr. Shimer that I wasn't sure if the drains were even working properly and asked him to inspect them, he refused to do so. Please see exhibit 8 for invoices to show that drain pipes were installed in 2012 by other contractors. 1 am also missing one of the invoices for work done by [redacted] for drain pipes on the side and front yard. In all I paid over $1000 to have those pipes installed. Yet Mr. Shimer convinced me to dig them up and replace them with pop over drain pipes, which he then refused to install. I am now in a worse off situation because those previous pipes worked properly to drain water off the property, and I wasted over $1000 of lost charges because that system was dug up. Mr. Shimer's pipes are twice the size in diameter and are not buried properly, are not transporting water off my property, and are an eyesore, if I had known he was not going to install the pop up drain system, I would not have allowed him to tear up the previous drain system, which had been installed a year earlier and had cost me over $1000. Additionally, Mr. Shimer promised when ! paid him that he would come back and cut off the front yard and side yard pipes so that they weren't so unsightly, but he never kept his promise.

Additionally, the side garden off the front is not draining properly. This was not a problem before Mr. Shimer came. He never told me there was any water problem. He put his drain pipe in that garden. I wonder if it is not properly draining or whether Mr. Shimer sloped the ground too deeply where it hit a water table. Yet, when I asked Mr. Shimer to come and inspect the condition of why water was sitting in my garden, he refused to do so. If Mr. Shimer is the cause of the problem, then I request that he pay for all my additional costs.

In that garden, Mr. Shimer had transplanted a cedar atlas tree that he told me had fungus. When I asked him if it was contagious, he told me it was not. I relied on his judgment, yet it appears that the tree was contagious after it sat in water for the last five months and mold/fungus has spread to other trees and in my yard. The mulch now has fungus, and I have been advised to remove it all and put down a bark muich instead to stop the spread of fungus. Mr Shimer refused to Inspect why there was a drainage problem even though he installed drain pipes in that location. I have asked him to replace the tree, hours spent to remove moldy mulch, and costs to remediate the situation, yet he has refused to respond. Exhibit 11 I am not sure why Mr. Shimer did not give me an option of pine bark over shredded mulch, especially when 1 had a previous mold problem in my home. I have been advised at this point to replace all the mulch with bark to stop the mold growth.

Mr. Shimer removed the previous swales, and I believe his new swales are not properly removing the water off the property. It appears that there are some portions of the swales that ascend rather than descend, and in the last storm I did not observe a water flow. My home now has a steeper slope in the back and remains unprotected should there be a big storm, especially when the slopes are not packed and will settle and the back drain pipe is too close to my foundation. I am also concerned that water is continually accumulating around my foundation in this rainy weather. Mr. Shimer has refused to investigate the swales.

He did not appropriately transfer my garden to another location as he promised. As a result there is hard dirt that is hard to dig.

Mr. Shimer did not provide a breakdown of hours spent, specific jobs, and cost of materials in any of his invoices. I believe 1 may have been overbiiled. He told me he charged $63/hour. The last invoice dated June 29th charged me $300 for fertilizing the portion of land which he worked. I doubt the work entailed over an hour of work, yet I was charged $300 for that task. Again I was charged another $428 for a small task, without any breakdown of costs. . Mr. Shimer should have provided clear, fair, and transparent billing especially with such a large bill,

In summary, Mr. Shimer has failed to honor his guarantee stated on his estimate which stated,

"Our name is on every project or service we complete and our promise to you is that you will be fully satisfied". It Is apparent that I am not 'fully satisfied'; in fact, much of his work has to be done over again with the swales, packing the slopes, adding top soil where necessary, redoing the water drainage system, restoring the lawn, investigating the cause of the drainage problem in the garden, etc. Mr. Shimer takes lightly that I paid him a very large amount of money, which I had to borrow in a home equity loan, and I am very upset that I am now going to have to pay somebody else to correct his damages because he refused to repair his damages. Because Mr. Shimer refused to inspect and investigate my problems over the last six months, I ask that he reimburse me the full amount of $15,067. He had every opportunity at that time to determine the extent of damage, yet he refused to take responsibility even though I made several attempts to communicate with him, outlining my concerns. He even had a final opportunity to respond I in his Revdex.com response, requesting to inspect the damage,, but he refused to. Instead he tried to make me look bad. I have also lost much money because this matter has delayed me from working. I have attached enough pictures, exhibits and explanations s at this point to demonstrate that Mr. Shimer's work on my property has serious problems, it has been so difficult dealing with him, and I just want my money back at this point. I am asking the Revdex.com to ensure that not only he reimburse me for a job that was not done properly, but also to pay for my additional damages that have resulted from his work and refusal to correct the problems.

Additional costs:

To pay me back for the cost of the previous drain system, which Mr. Shimer had me tear up. Estimate over $1000

Cost to cut the edges of the erosion matting at $315

Cost to pay for lost shrubs including 6 ever bloom rose bushes $300

Any other unforeseen additional costs

If Mr. Shimer is responsible for the lack of drainage in the garden, which did not exist before he came here, then I want him to pay for the;

Cost to replace the tree at $208

Cost to remove the tree and mulch at $378

Cost to remove rest of mulch and replace with pine bark

Cost to replace contaminated matting where there is fungus

Cost to dig up drain system in garden on front side and make the proper repairs.

Cost for any mold or fungus remediation

I appreciate your help in this matter.

Sincerely,

Business

Response:

November 19, 2013

Dear Sir or Madam,

As you know, our offices represent Shimer Landscape, Inc, (the "Company") with respect to the above referenced complaint. Our offices have represented the Company for decades and have never once been asked to respond to a customer complaint. The Company prides itself on professionalism and fair dealing, and its customers are almost always thrilled with the results. In the rare case a customer develops a concern, the Company is quick to address it.

Unfortunately, this is an instance in which there is simply no pleasing the customer, After the Company quoted and completed the work, the customer asked the Company to combine its two invoices into one, The customer did not believe the final invoice was fair, despite having been quoted the work, and the Company discounted the final invoice as a courtesy. Although the customer communicated to the Company's president, Mr. Shimer, that she has happy with the finished product, she later changed her mind and presented the Company with a list of demands. The Company attempted to address these concerns, even though the work performed was outside the scope of the job that was quoted. As of the time of this writing, the customer still has not paid the invoice for these services. Although the customer continues to make demands, it has reached a point where none of the Company's employees are willing to revisit the property in light of the verbal abuse to which the customer subjected them.

Although we are saddened to hear the customer is still not satisfied with the work performed, the Company has completed, the quoted work in a workmanlike manner and the troubles the customer claims she is experiencing are simply not the Company's fault. For example, the customer's main concern appears to be the grading or slope of the areas surrounding her house, but she fails to acknowledge the grades were set by professionals using a transit laser level. In addition, the customer refused to follow a number of the Company's suggestions and failed to properly maintain the property, which accounts for the drainage issues and poor grass conditions the customer alleges. Further, the National Weather Service's Advanced Hydrological Prediction Service shows historic data suggesting the client's residence experienced abnormally heavy rainfall during the period in question, Thus, as a legal matter, it appears the Company was not the proximate cause of the customer's alleged loss.

Given the foregoing, the Company stands by its work and considers this matter closed, Several attempts were made to satisfy the customer, including discounting the final invoice, writing-off an invoice the customer never paid, and making repeat visits to the customer's residence to address her concerns, Now, after all that work is complete, and after the customer expressed satisfaction with the work product, the customer seeks a refund of the entire invoice. The Company takes the position that it has already went above and beyond what was required of it, and the Company is not willing to invest any additional time or labor into this job, The Company is not interested in mediation, and it cannot continue to incur legal fees for reviewing and responding to the customer's letters, especially when they take the form of a 46 page follow-up. Finally, please be advised that any future communications or notices-should they become necessary-regarding Complaint #[redacted] should be sent directly to me rather than my client,

Consumer

Response:

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because: The company's response has not yet addressed that the company refused to honor its written guarantee that I would be 'fully satisfied'. It is very apparent by my documents sent to the Revdex.com that I paid a very

large amount of money for work which am not satisfied with. Nor has his letter addressed the issues in my response, but continued to reiterate the same language of blaming me or circumstances for the problems despite the fact that there was an unconditional guarantee that I would be 'fully satisfied'. As explained in my last letter, I am not in agreement with his statements and allegations made in his previous letter and repeated in this response, and I object to the same statements being repeated again in this letter while ignoring my response. I ask the Revdex.com to refer to my response dated November 4, 2013 for my explanation of his allegations. With regard to his new statement that the work was done was outside the scope of the job that was quoted, the letter did not specify what work was outside the scope nor has he addressed the fact that all the work was paid for except the disputed invoice dated 6/29/13. The landscaper did not respond to my previous letter of why he convinced me to tear up my previous drain system that was installed a year earlier and replace it with his new unsatisfactory system. On page two of his most recent response, he stated that the issues at hand are 'not the Company's fault'. As an example, he noted that the landscaper used a transit laser level so that his slopes would have been accurate. However, my complaint never stated that the slopes were not the correct height, but that the landscaper did not pack the loose top soil per his admission to me. Thus it is irrelevant whether the slopes are presently the right height when they are compromised because they were not packed and can significantly reduce in the future. His letter blamed me for the 'drainage issues', yet failed to address that the drain pipes were not installed as pop up drains as he had promised. and were not dug deep enough nor far enough away from the house to effectively remove water away from the foundation of my home if a storm were to occur. The letter did not address that the Company refused to investigate if the pipes were even working properly when I asked him to during the July 29, 2013 meeting. His letter failed to note that the landscaper refused to investigate why the garden that he had landscaped was not draining properly in a section where he had installed a drain pipe. His letter made no mention of the swales in his letter, which I stated were now compromised, nor why he refused to even investigate if my concerns were legitimate. His letter failed to address the additional expenses incurred to me as a result of work his men should have done such as cutting the erosion mats or the loss of some of my plants. If there was an unconditional guarantee that I would be 'fully satisfied', then he should have taken responsibility for the grass situation to ensure that I would have a quality lawn. When it was discovered this fall that the lawn was turning brown as a result of annual grasses and weeds, under the guarantee he should have fixed the situation. As mentioned in my previous letter, the previous landscaper planted a beautiful front lawn with no problems a year earlier. In fact, he charged me less than $3000 for the front lawn, front gardens, and a new sidewalk; whereas, this landscaper has charged me much more. I was willing to pay much more because he assured me he understood how to landscape for water mitigation issues; however, as a result of his work, I am now worse off than before.

This landscaper has made no attempt to honor his guarantee despite my documents sent to the Revdex.com nor has he made any attempt to investigate my property after the July 29, 2013 meeting to see if the additional complaints were

legitimate. As a result of his work, I will have to hire somebody else to correct his damage. He has refused to address any of the issues despite the $15,067 he received from me, therefore I have no choice but to refuse his response.

Regards,

Business

Response:

Please see attached response.

Consumer

Response:

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because: The Company has done virtually nothing to remedy the situation. The landscaper continues to ignore the facts of this case, refuses to answer the specific allegations, and blames everything on me and the weather. He has refused to call me and try to discuss the proble** nor has he inspected my property to access the damage. He takes no responsibility for the fact that he took a very large amount of money from me and did not provide me with what I thought I was paying for, after representing to me that he guaranteed his work. He charged me an extravagant fee for less than a week's worth of work, and I expected him to do a professional job. If he is unwilling to correct the damages, then my money should be returned. I did not expect his many excuses now on why the job turned out like it did, but I expected him to try to resolve the proble**. As mentioned in my previous documents, there was a downpour after the landscaper applied hydroseed on the lawn, which caused a minor amount of seed to run down the front yard hill. However, he was still working on the job and should have remedied any damage, if there was any. Yet he continues to blame the weather when he was responsible for producing a professional job before he left the job site. If the soil had been prepared properly, there should have been no runoff. I commented at the time when he inspected the ground on 6/27/13 that the ground was very hard and not conducive to growing grass. He admitted the soil was not very nurturing. He did not respond to my allegations of whether his equipment packed or churned my top soil so that it was no longer 'nurturing'. It did not appear that the landscaper even bothered to prepare the soil to receive seed nor has he addressed this in his responses. The hydroseed produced mostly cheap rye grass when it finally came up, which is now dead because it was an annual grass. He did not address in his responses my questions whether there was poor quality of hydroseed or a bad batch which I could not have known about until several weeks after he finished the job. Large portions of my lawn are mostly brown now as a result of his work, and this was not how my lawn was before he came here. It was his responsibility after accepting $15,067 to insure that the soil conditions in the area where he worked would be conducive to growing a lawn. Yet he did not address any of my concerns on why the lawn turned out like it did. The landscaper blames the healthy rainfall on the grass as the problem, but that is ridiculous because rain is normally an advantage when growing grass. It would have been a different issue if it was a dry season and I failed to water the grass. However that was not the case. Hence, the argument that a guarantee is voided when the customer causes the loss does not apply here. Nor was I responsible for the cheap rye grass! He made many promises to me that he did not do. He continues to reiterate that I was happy with the outcome of his work, but in his responses failed to address my concerns at the completion of the job about the drain pipes that were not installed as promised nor were not dug or positioned correctly. The landscaper told me at the completion of the project that he could not install the popup drains, giving me no specific reason why, and told me that I had plenty of slope against the back of the house so that I should not have a concern about the steepness of the hill in my backyard. Every time I tried to complain about something, he always had a quick answer instead of addressing my concerns. There were also several issues noted in the documents that I could not have known at the time of payment nor had accessed the damage at that point. The grass had not grown at that point, I could not tell the direction of the water flow at that time or if the water was effectively being removed from the property. I was unaware of water drainage issues until several months later. He made promises of coming back at a later date to cut the drain pipes, which he did not do. It is ridiculous to opine that I was happy at the time of payment, when there are so many proble** that I have presented to the Revdex.com. If he was so concerned about providing consumers with quality work, then why has he not addressed any of the proble**? He failed to respond to my allegation that he admitted that he did not pack the slopes. He did not respond to my allegation that because he did not pack the slopes, the slopes are at risk to settle and lose their effectiveness of the height of the slope. Yet he couldn't even come back to pack the slopes and add more top soil where necessary? The landscaper also stated that he made repeat visits to my home to correct perceived problems. The only time he came to correct things was to sprinkle a light layer of top soil on top of the drain pipe in the back yard, because it had not been dug deep enough. The top soil quickly washed away almost immediately because the remedy was only temporary and not effective. The other time was when his workers fertilized the dirt where he worked and put a slope behind the generator, where I was charged $728 for a minor job that should have been done by him at no charge and the invoice gave no explanation of the hours worked or material costs for an extravagant charge. He accused my problems of being perceived, yet by his own admissions in his letter dated July 30, 2013, he noted that crabgrass was present in the seeded area. I have also sent several documents to the Revdex.com, which clearly show the problems were not 'perceived'. The letter also stated that the problem was not caused by a 'water problem', but by a lack of fertilizer, which he previously remedied on 6/28/13. The grass had not grown after he finished his job although I watered the grass for the first month. Why would I fertilize the dirt? That's why I called him to figure out what was going on. Perhaps his fertilizing is why the grass is dead now. He noted in his letter that if a lawn care program was applied to the lawn, it would be healthy and thick by mid October, weather permitting. There was no other lawn care program that he told me about, except that he suggested that the lawn should be fertilzed with a starter fertilizer. He didn't tell me I had to do it but suggested that it would be a good thing to do. Mid-October has now come and gone, and there is not a healthy lawn. Instead there is a bunch of dead grass. In the past I did not have problems with grass growing. As noted in my last response, a previous landscaper had planted the front lawn when he had installed his sidewalk a year earlier with quality grass seed. He applied top soil and prepared the soil, so when the grass was planted, I had no problems. There was no need to fertilize nor was I instructed to do so by that landscaper. So blaming me for a mostly dead lawn loaded with crab grass is not a sufficient response in this Revdex.com complaint. I also could not have known that there was a drainage problem on the side yard, and that the tree he planted there would die in September, which had been a dry month. Yet the landscaper was unwilling to even inspect whether his pipes were leaking. As noted in my last response, there are several more issues that he failed to addess in his present response regarding the swales, the drain system, the slopes, drainage, the lawn, and loss of income because of his actions.

Regards,

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Description: Landscape Architects

Address: 2773 Mountain Road, Manheim, Pennsylvania, United States, 17545

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