ARTE VERDE

Andy's crew was great. But that was the only thing that was great. Andy had almost zero communication, made changes to the design without asking and at the end of the job showed up with a bill for $6000 more than what we had contracted for. I would hire his crew again, but only if they worked for someone else.

Excellent work, any minor concerns or issues were addressed promptly and appropriately.

Andy Page of Arte Verde was hired to do a complete overhaul on our landscaping, including hardscaping, installation of an irrigation system and installation of a water feature. He met with us on three occasions to discuss our project and to listen to our ideas that we had in mind. He brought his portfolio of certificates and pictures with him to show us his work and to give us some ideas. During these meetings, he was responsive to our ideas and offered advice when he felt that we were requesting something that would be outside the budget that we had agreed upon. All of these meetings were congenial and professional. When it came time to do the actual work, we paid him a 50% deposit up front. He told us which week he planned to do the work and we informed him that this was a bad week for us due to work schedules and told him that almost any other week later in the month would be much better. He was firm in keeping that week as his work week on this project and promised that we would have daily meetings in the morning and that he would keep us up to date with phone calls if he had questions. Unfortunately, this is where communication broke down and some of the work was not done to our satisfaction. Several items that had been discussed during a morning meeting didn't turn out the way we had discussed and by the time we arrived home, they were half way done or already done with that part of the project. His team of guys seemed to be competent and we were not sure if there was a communication breakdown between Andy and his team or if Andy communicated incorrectly to his team. Nevertheless, several items were fixed during the week and then other items were only fixed after we sent a letter to him and withheld part of his final payment in order to come to a consensus on what was acceptable to us and what was not. All in all, I was disappointed in how we felt we were treated by Andy. He did have some really good ideas for us and we are happy overall with the project and how it looks. His team always arrived early and were very hard workers and we were very appreciative of their efforts. Once Andy received a letter from us, he called us on the phone and told us that he would come out and fix the problems that we described. After he made the fixes for us, we then paid him the remaining amount.

THE DESIGN WAS BEAUTIFUL. UNFORTUNATELY THE INSTALLATION WAS SECOND RATE. WE CAUGHT THEM OVER CHARGING FOR MATERIALS AND INSTALLATION. FOR INSTANCE SOLD US 8 TONS OF MATERIAL INSTALLED AND DELIVERED AND INSTALLED ONLY 5. WE KNOW BECAUSE WE HAD TO PAY FOR THE MATERIAL WHEN HIS CREW DIDN'T SHOW UP AND THE MATERIALS COMPANY SAID THEY HAD NO ACCOUNT THERE. THE CREW WOULD SHOW UP FOR A COUPLE DAYS AND THEN DISAPPEAR FOR 3-10 DAYS. HE LEFT DEBRIS PILED IN THE FRONT YARD 2 WEEKS WHILE THEY TRIED TO FIND A CHEAP HAULER TO TAKE IT AWAY. THEY WOULD ALWAYS PROMISE THEY WOULD BE HERE AND THEY WOULDN'T SHOW UP. THEY POURED CEMENT AN HOUR BEFORE IT GOT DARK AND DID A HORRIBLE JOB FINISHING IT IN THE DARK USING ON A HALOGEN LIGHT I COULD FIND TO GIVE THEM. WE HAD TO ARGUE WITH HIM ENDLESSLY TO RUN POWER FOR THE WATER FEATURE, HE SAID IT WASN'T INCLUDED IN THE QUOTE. HE TRIED TO BILL US EXTRA TO REMOVE 2 PALMS THOUGH IT WAS IN THE QUOTE. A GOOD DESIGNER, BUT STAY AWAY.