We had sod laid and irrigation put in. We spent a huge amount of money. We went with this company for our landscaping needs because they offered a warrantee. They gave us a one-year warrantee on the sod and a three-year warrantee on the irrigation and sprinkler system. We found out after they did the work that he is not licensed in our county, as he’s from one county over.
Originally, we didn?t want him laying the sod because it looked yellow and dried out. His daughter and their two other workers tried to lay in the new sod, but I asked them to stop and wait to talk to my daughter, to get her opinion on it. My daughter explained to them that we didn?t want the yellowed sod to be installed. The crew called the owner, and he talked with my daughter on the phone, asking who the h*** she was to stop his crew from working. My daughter had to leave for an appointment. Mr. Stram, the owner, came out to continue to work despite our request that he stopped. My daughter cancelled her appointment, came home, and again asked them to stop working. Mr. Stram called the sheriff, who came out, discussed the situation with him, and told us that Mr. Stram was offering a guarantee that within two weeks the grass would be green and great looking, and would offer us a written guarantee to that fact. The sheriff told us we could proceed or not with the work at our choice, but in the meantime Mr. Stram was shouting that he would take us to small claims court if we didn?t go through with the deal. We never did get this specific written guarantee. Our irrigation and sprinkler systems gave us problems early on after installation. We tried calling politely to ask them to come fix the problems, as it was all under warrantee. They refused to respond, so we filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. They finally responded to us with an eight-page letter saying that the company wanted no further contact with us, as we were difficult. We then moved on to filing a complaint with the Consumer Department. Mr. Stram still tried not to respond directly to us, only talking to the Consumer Department worker, though he was told not to use this gentleman as a mediator. We had a mediated meeting and the company agreed to send ?one of his foremen? out to replace the sod in the back and even replace the front grass as well. In exchange, we had to repair our sprinklers and flag them so that the crew could see them all. We did this. Mr. Stram still dragged his feet in calling us back. A month later, yesterday, on May 19, we waited all day for the company?s foreman to arrive. Finally, at four forty in the afternoon, the foreman (who was the only foreman for the company, hired within the last month) arrived to take pictures of the yard. The foreman apparently just mowed lawns and did some scheduling work, which hardly seems like foreman work. This person was a new hire and we didn?t allow him on the property because there was nothing he could do to fix the problem, which he essentially confirmed. He had no experience estimating the amount of work that would need to be done to correct the problems we had. We felt sorry for the employee, as he was hired after the mediated meeting, and didn?t think he should have to get involved.
Service Provider Response
No matter what we did, how hard we worked, (name removed) and her mother (member name removed) were never happy. I can go over and over her "complaints" it won't matter, I will not be drawn into her vindictive behavior. We went before the Consumers Affair Board, offering to replace all of her sod, not just what we installed, but the entire lawn, she said no, they closed the case, she brought us before Pinellas County Licensing, while our application was still be reviewed, we were found guilty of operating without a license, once our application was approved, the citation was removed, we also have our license for Pasco, and we were awarded our license for Pinellas. They went to BBB, who also tried to help them, again, they refused, then she took us to small claims, where we again offered to replace her lawn, not because of any wrong doing, but because we are an honest, hard working family with integrity, at mediaition, again they refused, when it went before the judge, he threw it out\dismissed it, which at that point (member name removed) wanted to take our offer, we were instructed not to do so, we were willing to buy the sod from our competition & install, so what was her issue, we believe she wanted her lawn installed because she refused to follow the warranty paper work, and she wanted her money back too. We had to call the police to her home because of her "behavior", we did everything we promised, yet she has made it her mission to be mean and nasty. In Florida, the majority of people know that Bahia sod can be put down looking brown and dormant, it always comes back, her sod was barely yellow from being on the pallets for 2 days, we also have pictures of her lawn looking beautiful, thick and green within 10 days, which was also shown to all the people involved in this, (member name removed) are very hurtful, angry & mean spirited people. If any one requests the documentation to this, and pictures, they will be provided to you. It is sad that business owners have no website or organization against bad customers, maybe then customers will be honest and not try to get their money back for work done as promised, then want there money back.
