COMPLAINT: Peter Lawner, Belmont, Mass.

I hired A Yard & A Half Landscaping to plant trees in my backyard. Only one of the three hemlock trees looks decent — the other two haven't filled out and one looks diseased. I followed the directions for watering, but the trees never thrived.

When I call, Eileen [Michaels, the owner] is impatient, blames me for the problems and has been rude. They came out and said the trees appear to have been dying because of a lack of watering, and they even replaced the trees with the same negative results.

DESIRED RESOLUTION: I would like A Yard & A Half Landscaping to take responsibility and plant three healthy looking hemlocks in my backyard.

RESPONSE: Eileen Michaels, owner, A Yard & A Half Landscaping

We take great pride in our customer service and it's never our intent to be rude or impatient with our customers. We planted three hemlock trees for the member in 2006. In 2007, we replaced two hemlocks that had died. In 2008, we replaced one hemlock that had died.

In 2009, the member informed us that two of the hemlocks looked terrible. Even though his guarantee had expired, we took samples of the hemlocks and sent them off to a plant lab, at our own expense, to find out what the problem was. The lab test results indicated that the plants were not watered adequately. The member was sent a copy of the lab results and given instructions on how to save the suffering hemlocks.

STATUS: Stalemate