Tender Lawn Care

Complaint: [redacted] It's really amazing to me how a customer that is so confident of a verbal agreement that he offers to come out of pocket to pay to prove it ( ieputting my money where my mouth is) , and that simple act doesn't convince you that I know without a doubt that we had this conversation and agreement I am not suggesting [redacted] is being dishonest but I am suggesting he either forgot , didn't write it down, or there was a translation issue You should know in our prior dealings that I don't approve any work without knowing the cost as this type of thing is the result I never have with you all or any vendor and this is the exact reason why The simple fact remains I would not have authorized this additional work if the agreement was not made In an effort to close this issue and move on with life , we will agree to pay what we feel we would have had to pay for our day laborer to complete this work Again, this is the direction we would have taken had I not received the verbal agreement that I am confident I received We will offer to pay an additional $in a good faith attempt to provide compensation for the manual labor provided This is full days of labor from our day worker which is what we would have used to complete this task as it requires no special skill or knowledge As soon as I hear back I will drop a check in the mail in the amount of 3883.13.I hope others don't have to go through this, I have never had this happen to me in my years and am very disappointed to be put in this situation Regards, [redacted]

December 31, 2014 RE: ID [redacted] Mr. [redacted] We are both truly sorry that you feel the way you do. It has never been our intention to upset you or say that you are dishonest. We understand that you believe [redacted] agreed to spread the mulch as part of the irrigation fee of $1200. [redacted] believes he did not agree to this. We don't believe that either party is being dis-honest. After receiving your initial response and your copy of the revised invoice, we did apologize for any confusion that it may have caused and taking into consideration your notes itemized the original invoice for a better explanation. See attached spreadsheet of both of our invoices. We thought that this would address any concerns that you may have had. We would have been more than happy to sit with you to review as we are still willing to do that. We believe that both parties involved are successful professional business people and would welcome a meeting to resolve this. We hope that based on our past and current relationship you would be willing. We would like to offer to split the $800.00 cost of spreading the mulch_ That would make the total amount owed to Tender Lawn Care, Inc. $4068.13; your agreed $3643.13 plus half of the mulch $425.00 (including 6.25% sales tax). With all due respect, Mr. [redacted] You have stated that the work turned out great and that you are very pleased with the job and look forward to using us again on future projects. You have stated that you do not agree to pay the $800.00 for the mulch but you do agree to pay the amount of $3643.13. As of this letter, other than the intial down payment, Tender Lawn Care has not received any payment. This invoice will be 90 days past due on January 6, 2015. Sincerely,
    [redacted]
[redacted]

My lawn used to look like a cow pasture because it had so much clover and violets growing everywhere.I was happy with tender lawn's results the first season, but now after two seasons I am amazed at how it looks. No weeds, no clover, no violets--- just beautiful grass.I wish I could have found them sooner.

Complaint: [redacted]It's really amazing to me how a customer that is so confident of a verbal agreement that he offers to come out of pocket to pay to prove it ( ie. putting my money where my mouth is) , and that simple act doesn't convince you that I know without a doubt that we had this conversation and agreement.   I am not suggesting [redacted] is being dishonest but I am suggesting he either forgot , didn't write it down, or there was a translation issue.  You should know in our prior dealings that I don't approve any work without knowing the cost as this type of thing is the result.   I never have with you all or any vendor and this is the exact reason why.   The simple fact remains I would not have authorized this additional work if the agreement was not made.   In an effort to close this issue and move on with life , we will agree to pay what we feel we would have had to pay for our day laborer to complete this work.   Again,  this is the direction we would have taken had I not received the verbal agreement that I am confident I received.    We will offer to pay an additional $240 in a good faith attempt to provide compensation for the manual labor provided.   This is 2 full days of labor from our day worker which is what we would have used to complete this task as it requires no special skill or knowledge.  As soon as I hear back I will drop a check in the mail in the amount of  3883.13.I hope others don't have to go through this, I have never had this happen to me in my 50 years and am very disappointed to be put in this situation.
Regards,[redacted]

December 19, 2014 [redacted] Revdex.com [redacted] Austin, Texas [redacted] -
.RE: ID [redacted] Ms. [redacted], Thank you for returning my phone call...

regarding the above. We are happy to respond and welcome the opportunity to settle this with both parties being satisfied. My husband and I are both sorry that Mr. [redacted] felt this was a necessary action. We have worked with Mr. [redacted] on different projects since 2009 and have appreciated the business. We have been in business for over 22 years and have built our business to what it is today by being honest and fair. We all know that you can't please everyone, and you are correct in the fact that there are two sides to every story. I had originally contacted Mr. [redacted] on a past due invoice and he had promptly called to pay (see email 1) which began the conversation for the work in question. They were having company soon and requested a cleanup etc.. per the Estimate #841, dated and agreed to on 9/19/14 (see Estimate (2)). It is our office policy to collect 50% down prior to commencement of work and the remainder is due upon completion. Mr. [redacted] did pay $1000.00 by credit card over the phone per this Estimate. In getting ready for the work the Freudenburgs decided they wanted additional work to be done, i.e., planting of plants and installation of an irrigation system for the plants. Paul and Lab o did discuss the work and options/costs by telephone and we moved forward. Upon completion I invoiced for the work completed on 10/6/14, Invoice #26095 (see Invoice (3)). The total cost for work completed came to $5,572.81, less his down payment received of $1000.00. This leaves an amount of $4,572.81 due. On October 27th Mr. [redacted] emailed me (see attached (4). His first paragraph states that the work turned out great. They are very pleased with the job and look forward to using us again on the next project. He had a few concerns on the invoice and took the original invoice and hand wrote and checked which items he agreed to and x’d out the items he did not agree to and omitted them. He also explained his opinion in the email. After receiving it I wrote back that I would review with [redacted]. On November 3, I responded to his email (see email 5) [redacted] and I have reviewed your notes. I have taken the original Invoice and broken it down for you to better explain the charges. The only item that we are in disagreement with is the cost of spreading the mulch. 1 understand that you believe this should be included in the irrigation. Spreading of mulch is very labor intensive and our normal fee for mulching is $85.00 per yard. [redacted] estimates that we spread over 20 yards at your house. [redacted] only charged you for the labor portion of this since the mulch was yours. I should have broken the invoice down before and do apologize for any confusion that it may have caused. Revised invoice is attached (see invoice (6)) dated 10/6/14, #26095 Explanation of the charges is as follows: a.            Is part of the original estimate b.            Irrigation installation including labor and material c.             Installation of plants with Top soil/Compost provided by us d.            Installation of plants purchased elsewhere e.            Installation of cypress tree f.             Spreading of mulch [redacted] and I have both discussed this in length and knowing how labor intensive it is to spread mulch it is just not something he would throw in to do. [redacted] and I both agree that if it would have been just a few yards, then yes, we would have probably included it. [redacted] has been estimating costs for over twenty years and it's fairly unlikely that he would make a mistake on something this size. On November 11th I sent out monthly statements and sent Mr. [redacted] a statement along with a note stating that I had responded to his inquiry to the October Invoice and have not heard a response from him. (see email (7)). Mr. [redacted] responded by saying he did not believe that I fully read his email and the spreading of mulch is part of the 1200.00 fee for the soaker water hose laying, please remind Lab o of that. The cost to install the irrigation with material did total $1200.00. $425.00 for the material and $775.00 for the labor. This is not a soaker hose it is a drip irrigation system installed by licensed irrigators. We had to dig for the water lines to add the two additional stations to his system along with placing the emitters at each of the plants to make it a true drip irrigation system. We also completed an irrigation break repair on October 9th at no charge to Mr. [redacted] (see invoice (8). I responded on November 12th (see email (9)) that I did see his email and did respond along with an itemized invoice of charges for his review. As I mentioned in the email, I did discuss the irrigation/mulch charge with [redacted] and he does not agree that he would have included that in the irrigation. Spreading of mulch is very labor intensive and Lab o estimated that we spread over 20 yards at the house. The labor cost for this portion is $800.00. I resent the itemized invoice for his review. I believed it would help explain the different costs involved. No response was received. On December 8th I sent out monthly statements and sent Mr. [redacted] a statement requesting payment for services performed. On December 16th I received the letter from the Revdex.com. I believe that we have responded and tried to explain the invoice to Mr. [redacted]. We have not received any additional responses from him since November 11th, nor have we received a payment towards any of the invoice even the portions that he does agree with. This will be 90 days past due on January 6th. A statement is attached. The total amount due is $4572.81 ($5,572.81 less the $1000.00 down payment). [redacted] and I would both welcome a sit down meeting with the Revdex.com and Mr. [redacted] to discuss.   We appreciate your assistance with this matter and look forward to hearing from you.   [redacted]                                   ...⇄ [redacted]

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: It does not address the central issue and that is the verbal agreement to spread the mulch as part of the awarding of the irrigation fee of 1200. I am very confident of this verbal agreement and am willing to take a lie detection test if needed. I am willing to pay the fee for this as well as the mulch fee if I am found to be untruthful if [redacted] is willing to fund the fee and remove the mulch fee if I am found to be truthful.
I originally offered to sit with [redacted] back on my original response dated October 27. We are past that at this point in my opinion. That offer was not recognized, nor were the issues with the invoice addressed.
Couple of interesting points though , their response now indicates it's "fairly unlikely" that he would make a mistake on something this size. That's at least acknowledging he is not sure whether he made this agreement.
Secondly, additional statements are made that make me believe they are confusing me with another installation:
a. "we had to dig for the water lines to add the two additional stations to his system"... this system was a simple drip irrigation laid on top of the weed barrier and the hose was directed to two existing faucets. There was no digging to water lines required, not sure what this is referring to.
b. [redacted] estimates 20 yards of mulch.... not sure where this is coming from especially since we required topsoil and compost to fill in the entire area a good 6 plus inches and we only had 6 yards of that material to do so. Why would we then need 3 times that amount of mulch to cover the same area to a depth of 1 inch? Does not make sense.
c. the bottom line is I wouldn't have agreed to this ridiculous amount as I have a day laborer that I could have paid $120 to have done this.
I am willing to pay 3643.13 immediately. If [redacted] is still questioning my honesty then let's put that to the test. I am willing as I am confident of the outcome.
It's amazing to me that it's come down to this with all the money we have spent as customers and level of detail that I have provided in validating the invoice, when they are only willing to say that it's "fairly unlikely" that he would have included the mulch spreading....
Let me know the direction you want to take,I have attached a detailed corrected invoice.

Regards, [redacted]