Frustrations

For all of you business owners who read this blog (I'm sure there are tons), the following is what NOT to do with your customer service. For the rest of you, let me know if you've had any similar dealings with a business that left you ready to snatch yourself bald.

In May, Keith and I decided we were going to have our landscaping redone and a sprinkler system installed. Our housing edition is in the middle of what used to be a cotton field. Therefore the ground is rough and there are no trees. At one time we had a nice looking yard of thick, green grass, but we all know that when you don't water it enough or don't get enough rain, it shrivels up and dies in no time. And in Texas, rain can be scarce sometimes. So our yard isn't looking too pretty as of late. (Basically since we had kids and no time to work in the yard beyond mowing.) (And as an aside, we have planted 5 trees in our yard. 3 are still alive and have survived many years of limited rain, so I think they're here to stay.)

We already knew what landscaper we would use because we've admired their work for years now. Anytime we drive through local housing editions, we can almost always point out their work. It always looks nice without being overdone and is mostly a variety of shrubs and flowering plants that look good year-round. So I called up the landscaper and asked him to come out and give us an estimate. Within an hour, he was at our house, walking me through the yard, showing where sprinkler heads would be and the changes he would make to the flowerbeds. He gave me an estimate and then came back that evening to walk Keith through the same information that he had given me. Keith and I made a few small changes to his proposal and decided to go ahead with it. It was a bit more than we had wanted to spend, but we knew we would like the end product and we had the money saved up, so we decided to go for it.

Keith called him with our changes and told him to go ahead and get started. He said he would be at our house in a couple of days to get the process going. His crew showed up mid-morning one day and trenched out most of our yard where the sprinkler lines would be. It started raining after 4 hours, so they left with about 2/3 of the trenching done. Days went by and we never heard from the landscaper and no one showed up to do any work. (Important note: When doing business with people who have committed to you working for them, keep them informed of the timeline of your job so they will know when you'll be doing the work. It's frustrating for us to have our yard all trenched up for days on end and not know when anyone is coming out to finish the job.)

Keith called him to check in and see what's going on and he said they would be out the next day to work. (We shouldn't have to hound people to do the job they're supposed to do, by the way.) They showed up the next morning and got to work. The landscaper knocked on the door and told me that he was having a hard time getting our phone company to come out and mark where our phone lines are so they didn't accidentally cut them. (All of the electric and phone lines in our neighborhood are buried underground and we have a basic idea of where they are, but don't know exactly.) He had called them several times and no one had come out to get it done. Needless to say, I got on the phone and gave them an earful. We had a laundry list of complaints with our phone company and this was just one of many. So I had no problem letting them have it. (Don't mess with me when I'm already annoyed.) The landscaper told me later that morning that the phone company called and said someone would be out the next morning to get it done.

I will add that when the phone company employee showed up (at 7am the next day), Keith talked to him because he was leaving for work when they pulled in the driveway and it turns out our local branch is severely understaffed at the moment and they actually called him from north Dallas to come out and get this done for us. He also told Keith he was surprised they even needed him to do this because most landscapers have a relatively inexpensive tool that finds buried lines for them and they don't need to wait on the phone or electric company to come out and mark them. Another frustration about the landscaper. They've been in business for over 20 years (it's a small town, so we know that is true) you would think they would have this tool to cut down on wait time for their customers.

Keith called the landscaper and told him the phone line was marked and he told Keith they would be out soon to finish the job. "Soon" turned out to be 3 days later. So this has now been a week and a half of our yard being trenched out with nothing done. They showed up early on a Saturday morning and got to work. They worked solid with just a brief break for lunch and were finished by 4 that afternoon. And I will say the landscaping looked great, which we knew it would. (I will also say that the lanscaper told me that he normally gets an entire job done in 3 days or less and apologized for dragging this one out. I wish that apology had been said sooner, because it felt a bit too little too late by this point.)

He had a couple more small things to do, like install a sensor for the sprinkler system that tells it when it's rained to let it know not to turn on, and put mulch around our trees. He showed up when he said he would, got it done and left. Leaving his ladder in our backyard. That evening, Keith got home from work and started inspecting all the work that had been done. One thing you should know about Keith is that he's a perfectionist. The landscaper was told this at the beginning and even showed this when Keith told him under no uncertain terms would the wiring for the sprinkler system's box in our garage run on the outside of the wall because it looks tacky. He cut a hole in the wall and ran the wires inside it instead (Keith did. Not the landscaper. But I would say that was a pretty good display of Keith's perfectionism.)

When he was inspecting everything, he discovered a small leak in the sprinkler system's cut off valve. If the sprinkler system ever gets a break or leak in the line, the cut off valve enables you to turn off the water to the system rather than having to turn off the water to your house, while you fix the problem. What good is a cut off valve that leaks when the whole point of it is to keep from having major leaks? Keith called the landscaper (can you even imagine how many phone calls he made to this guy by now?) and told him he had left his ladder in our yard and also told him about the leak.

The following week, they picked up the ladder and did not fix the leak. By this point, Keith was livid! It takes a lot to push Keith over the edge, but once you've pushed him there, he ain't coming back. Another week went by and the guy finally showed up to fix it. While he was here, I pointed out 2 plants that are dying because the sprinkler system isn't hitting them. He said it was just the plants and he would replace them, but he didn't think anything needs to be fixed with the sprinklers. Umm, ok, but you're going to keep having to come out and replace dead plants because you can hold your hand over top of them when the sprinklers are on and not feel a drop of water. FRUSTRATION!

To top that off, when Keith got home that night, he checked the leak and said they did a terrible job fixing it. We'll be lucky if it lasts a few years before it will need to be completely dug up and redone. He cannot abide by "rigging" things up in order to patch them together. If he does a job, he does it thoroughly and he does it right. Duct tape and baling wire are not an option when repairing something.

To top all of this off, we got a phone call from our water company yesterday. Our landscaper hasn't turned in an inspection form for the sprinkler system and if they don't get it soon, they're going to shut off our water. Awesome! It doesn't get better than this. Does this guy really think we'll ever recommend him to anyone else?! When Keith called him to tell him what was going on, he actually said "They won't shut off your water. It's just something they say." But then he said he would take the form to their office first thing this morning. I told Keith if he hears back from the water company today saying they don't have the form, I will be the one to call the landscaper this time. Remember my call to the phone company? He won't appreciate hearing from me.

And if our water gets shut off because of his moronic tendencies, there will be hell to pay.

Yes, I said hell.

And if you've read all this in its entirety then you've probably been there done that before.

Once the water company is taken care of on the inspection paperwork, we'll be hounding him more about replacing the 2 dead plants and putting in atleast one more sprinkler head in the flower beds.

I'll keep you posted on the landscaping saga.