A-1 Lawn & Landscaping
About us
Lawn Maintenance & Landscaping Contractor JUST CALL A-1 !
Business highlights
Services we offer
Aerating & Edging., Clean-Ups, Lawn Installation. Lawn Restoration. Hydroseeding. Retaining Walls. Paver Patios & Walkways. Fence Installations. Deck Installations. Custom Planters & Planting. French Drain Installation. Foundation Sealing. Gravel & Parking Pads. Lawn Maintenance Services - Mowing, Lime/Fertilizer Applications, Pruning, Trimming, Watering
Amenities
Emergency Services
Yes
Free Estimates
Yes
Accepted Payment Methods
- CreditCard
| Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
|---|---|---|
| 40% | ||
| 20% | ||
| 13% | ||
| 7% | ||
| 20% |
"The complainant alleges that we were to grade the property; however, as the contract stated, we were hired to install a new lawn from fence line to front side corners of the house. In accordance to the contract, we were hired to fill valleys and holes; it specifically says in the contract “no work is to be done in the easement”. This customer is attempting to get work done outside the scope of the contract. The General Manger was trying to explain the contract to the customer and that she needed to contact The City as the neighbor had an excess amount of water coming off their property onto hers. The customer’s mother, whom is also the complainant hereto, expressed that she would NOT call the city when suggested by us and would take her complaints to social media. It seems to us she was trying to get us to fight her problem with The City at no additional charge."
The workers showed up on time and laid the sod lawn after laying down topsoil. They made a second trip to get more sod
to completely cover the area. They couldn't finish it the first day so they return the second day on time. They did an excellent
job and there were no seems to be seen. I was very satisfied with the look of the lawn .
I called A1 Lawn & Landscaping in September 2014 to mow the lawn of a house I had just purchased. They initially did not return my call, but I tried again several times and finally got something scheduled about one week later. At that time they took my credit card number for payment. The young woman I spoke with was always very nice. The day it was to be mowed, I came home to an unmowed lawn. I called and they skeptically said they would send a supervisor out to inspect my property as though I was lying. Turns out they mowed the wrong lawn. They came again, but did not mow because they said they couldn?t? get their equipment into the back yard. Later they stated it was because of an equipment failure. After a week of rain, they arrived as I was leaving for work. The two men approached me so I walked them around the yard and explained that the house had been vacant and that was the reason it was overgrown, and that though the raspberry bushes were also overgrown, please don?t mow them back, that I would take care of it since they had lots of raspberries on them. They said they understood and that they would likely need to return another day to complete mowing because the grass was so wet.
I came home to find my raspberry bushes destroyed, the lawn partially mowed, heaps of grass left in the yard, heaps of raspberry bush remains, and grass stuck to the outside of my house and outside furniture. I was horrified. I called and spoke with the receptionist who was very nice and put me through to the office manager who was not. She began berating me and said that I should not have instructed her employees to not touch the raspberry bushes because ?it?s human nature to do the opposite of what you are told.? I said I didn?t think I should have to pay $150.00 to have this done to my property, but that I would pay half because they had partially mowed the lawn. Later, I couldn?t believe that I had offered this. I told her I did not want them to come back and finish the yard. She told me a supervisor would call me back.
After playing phone tag with the supervisor/ owner and ultimately not receiving a call back ? though they say they did, I finally gave up. I received a bill in the mail in October for the full amount, even though they only partially mowed the lawn. I called them again. Repeat above. Ultimately, no return-call from them ? though again, they said they did. When I didn?t hear back again, I thought perhaps they had voided the charge. Wrong. I received a call in November asking for me to call them. Instead of another round of useless calls, I emailed them and sent a letter U.S.P.S., with photos included in the email and to their office.
My email stated again that I didn?t feel I should have to pay for my property being destroyed (raspberry bushes were ALL cut down, grass stuck to the side of the house and outside furniture, etc) and partially mowed, and I included photos of the damage. I received a return email from the Office Manager that minimized my concerns, focused on their call log, and told me I was being sent to collections. I asked for the supervisor to please call me.
Five days later, when I received a return call, the supervisor/ owner started the conversation on the defensive and began referencing the call log. I?m not sure why since I was calling about damage to my yard. When I told him that he was looking at a call log from the wrong month, he placed me on hold, which he called ?terminal hold,? but I stayed on the line and told him it was no problem and that I understood. He asked several times to clarify why I didn?t want my raspberry bushes mowed down. (Really?) He disputed me several times until he read the email his office manager sent and realized she was in fact the one who first made the statement to me that A1 mowing someone else?s yard was irrelevant to which I had responded that I believed it showed a level of disorganization that was ultimately reflected in the damage to my property. He told me that he had not bothered to look at the pictures of my property that I sent him in the email.
The conversation was an awful one. He talked over me whenever I tried to speak and then began to yell over me. When I asked him to stop yelling and asked him to please stay professional, he yelled he was ?speaking firmly and this is how I speak to people who talk while I?m talking!? He spoke to me with considerable malice and it was evident that he was not concerned with my yard, but with being right.
They seem preoccupied with their call log instead of the poor work and customer service. This preoccupation with their call log is also reflected in their responses to other Angie?s List reviews. Maybe this is a chronic problem for them? I was more interested in talking about the bill for services ? or lack thereof and the destruction of my property.
He was bizarrely stuck on disputing who called whom last. When he stated that returning calls is never a problem and that he looks at the call log and ?inspects it regularly?, I said that this wasn?t always true because I hadn?t received calls back and that people on Angie?s list had had the same problem at times. This is when he began screaming at me. Apparently, mentioning Angie?s List hit a nerve with him. He screamed that he had been in business 20 years and that there were certain kinds of people who go onto Angie?s List, etc.
He continued yelling and yelled that he was sending me to collections. I told him that I had already paid, that from the start he has had my credit card number which had not been billed, and that I had finally sent a check the previous week since they had not billed the credit card and were now threatening me with collections. He yelled that I had not sent a check. I told him he may not have received it yet, but it had been sent to his post office box.
If you can imagine a grown man screaming into the phone, this was the case. It was unbelievable. I asked him several times to please stop yelling at me. In between his violent rants, I stated that I would go ahead and end the call, call the Better Business Bureau, go onto Angie?s List, and possibly call an attorney. He laughed at me and yelled ?I?d like to see a lawyer care about $150.00!? I guess he didn?t realize I was talking about the cost of the reconditioning to my yard I will need to do next spring. Then, he hung up on me.
Certain kinds of people do go onto Angie?s list. Educated ones. People who care about the service they are hiring and want to ensure others are warned about a business that can damage their property or who fail to deliver the service they say they would. Even the company I hired to complete another job couldn?t believe how long it took them to arrive to mow and then were shocked at the condition of my yard after they ?finished.?
My experience with A1 was an abusive one. They mutilated my yard and then bullied me on the telephone and via email. No doubt, in an effort to deflect any of their own culpability, they will dispute everything I have said, just as they have done with other customers who have reviewed them on Angie?s List. If you are thinking about hiring them, ask yourself if you feel like being beat up and then paying them your hard earned money for it.
"A-1 Lawn & Landscaping is a locally owned and operated business. The owner of the company is a born and raised Alaskan whom takes pride in his company, employees, work and its reputation. We strive to provide a quality service that will leave every customer pleased with the work received. However, it is not possible for any one company or person to achieve perfection on every job and relation. We did, in fact, mow the incorrect property; people [employees] make mistakes. In addition, this job was requested and scheduled during the rainy season. We emphasize with our staff to communicate all delays to our customers be it weather, crew, or equipment related. We understand this can be frustrating; however, we unfortunately are not able to control certain conditions presented or encountered. We have created systems within the company to process each facet and service provided. From the initial phone call, to the estimate, through to the execution of the job. We have full-time office staff and estimators/supervisors to handle communications from the customer to the crew. We ask our customers to relay instructions and details through our office; this is done so we can document it in the job files and explain it to the crews. We are an EEO company that hires people from all walks of life. From Native Alaskans, Spanish as their first language, hearing impaired, and double amputees; we do not discriminate or judge anyone’s work abilities. We train our managers and supervisors how to communicate instructions to our employees so that the work is executed properly. Structure is key in maintaining a safe work environment and fluidity of services provided. Companies will have customers who are pleased and others whom are not. Whether or not someone is “educated” does not distinguish where information is gathered or interpreted. I presume anyone who reads reviews on forums and web sites will be objective knowing complaints, most always, are fueled with emotion. No company wants to leave a customer with an experience that was poor or traumatic; however, businesses and individuals alike will generate this outcome periodically. We will continue to strive in providing quality services for our customers, a safe work environment for our employees and a future job to those who wish to further their work experience. Respectfully, The Office Manager @ A-1 Lawn & Landscaping Employed with the company since 2001"
"This customer signed up to receive bi-weekly lawn mowing services and instructed us to dump the grass clippings in a designated area. Our company provided this service without complaint during both 2012 and 2013 summer seasons. Toward the end of the 2013 season, the customer called to inquire why we were dumping the clippings on site and we explained that this was upon his direction. Unless otherwise directed by a homeowner, our company does not leave bags or debris on site."
"Upon notice of this review our company researched and reached out to this homeowner. We explained that the weather is a major component to the scheduling of our weed spraying service as the lawn must be dry when applied and remain dry for the next 24 hours. We also researched the deliveries that were ordered and realized that the driver mistook 8 yards for 8 tons. Because the product delivered weighs 1.4 tons per yard the customer did not receive the total product that was ordered and purchased. We extended our apologies for the mix-up and refunded them appropriately for the product not received. The customer was pleased with our response and remains a customer with our company."
"Upon notification of this customer's review our office staff researched the services requested. We reviewed the initial sign up sheet and the grass had not been mowed in 3 weeks. The employee time sheets were then verified to our GPS tracking reports to be sure no error had been made. The two-man crew was on site from 9:50 am to 1:15 pm resulting in 6.5 man hours billed at our hourly rate of $50 per man-hour."
The young women were not sent out with a ladder to do the trimming. When I called the office to inquire why, they said they could travel back to pick one up (5 miles away), so we lent them our ladder. They did not have a hedge trimmer that was light enough for them to lift up to the high area that needed trimmed, so we lent them our trimmer as well. They did not have rakes with them to rake up the debris, so we lent them ours to use too. Despite it all they did a good job considering the situation and were very nice and enjoyable young women trying to work for a living.
In conclusion who ever is in charge of operations, needs training or to be replaced. .
"Our office contacted this Customer on the morning of the 1st to inform her we would be servicing her property. The crew arrives at the office at 8am & is to their first properties between 8:30 & 9:30am; appointments are not set except when requested for estimates. The crew had difficulty locating the property & contacted the office for assistance. It was at that time both The Customer & her neighbor contacted the office exposing the address error. One number was off. One. A clerical error occurred; not only with the crew's paperwork, but with what the estimator was provided. The neighbor's house was visited by the estimator and bid for 1 man-hour. The crew was instructed to take necessary equipment for the neighbor's shrubs. The Customer had much larger shrubs which in turn took 5 man-hours to complete the service. The Customer was only charged the bid amount for 1 man-hour. An error occurred. The incorrect address was entered into our system resulting in this outcome. For our company to be chatised in such an egregious manner is unfair. We have been in business for 18 years, employ over 35 people, and have branches in Anchorage & the Valley. Errors will occur in every business. It is how the business responds to the incident--The Customer will only get billed her quote of 1 man-hour not the 5 man-hours it actually took. The Customer gave us an "A" rating for quality of work. Anyone who reads this posting will have to make their own judgement. Respectfully, Management Staff A-1 Lawn & Landscaping"
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