Corey Johnson Lawn Care & Landscape Design

Corey seemed like a nice guy and we hired him to do a rushed landscape irrigation job to get our yard ready for a party. Knowing our timeline, we made sure he could start right away. After giving him a $300 deposit he pushed out the start date several days. The day he showed up, we made it clear that we didn’t appreciate the lack of professionalism and follow through. He took the feedback hard, told us that he’s had some personal issues, etc., and we agreed to move forward with the clear expectation of not being flakey. Corey and his girlfriend spent a few hours working on front yard with me and my husband, and then asked for an additional $300 deposit before they left. They were supposed to show up early this morning, knowing we would be up and starting at 6 am. I sent him a text at 9:30 asking when he would show up, then again at 11:30 and 1:00pm. He didn’t respond to my texts or calls, so I thought we got ripped off. Finally heard from him at 1:30, which was too late, and told him forget it. We offered to pay him for his time spent and asked for a refund of the difference. He got angry and said that he had spent all of the money on tools and supplies. I said that he could drop them off and we could settle out for his time, and he hung up on us. He said he relocated to Hayward to do my job, which was going to take a few days, and is inferring that we should cover his housing costs. The guy is a horrible communicator and a flake, who never apologized or owned any of the situation. He got over on us, and I hope this prevents other people from getting taken advantage of too.

I wish there was a box for "very very terrible." Corey seemed like a nice enough guy and even though I'm a lawyer and should have known better, I took him on his word about a lot of things such as needing certain payments up front for materials, dates that he should be done. What should have been a one-month project dragged on for more than 7 months during which he kept telling me he needed more money for materials,he was having a hard time with his housing situation, he broke up with his girlfriend (I'm not kidding he used this excuse.) He would leave and not come back for weeks leaving a big mess in my yard, he would show up at 4:00 p.m. when he did show up and only for a short while. Presumably he was out doing his other jobs and using the materials I had purchased for those jobs. The last straw is when for the THIRD time he said that he was out of materials, he started accusing me of colluding with his other staff to steal from him and take his materials and then left the "job" incomplete with his garbage all over my yard. This "man" stole from me, insulted me and then still left me with only a half finished yard. When I told him that I would take legal action if he didn't either return my money or complete the job, he responded in writing, "go ahead and sue me, I don't ******* give a ****." While it's true that suing him may not get me any financial return, I can at least warn other consumers so that they aren't taken advantage of this unscrupulous bully. BUYER BEWARE BIG TIME ON THIS GUY.

If there was an option for an F minus that would be my rating. Corey seemed like a nice enough guy and the quality of his work was fine, but he was so incredibly unprofessional, i.e. showing up late in the day, going weeks with not showing up at all with no response to phone calls and text messages. To make his bad conduct even worse, he kept telling me that he ran out of money for supplies and asking for "just $200 more" for bark or "just $500 more" for rocks. What should have been a one-month project went on for seven months and just when he was a few days from finishing up.... he sent me a couple of messages accusing of me working with his staff behind his back to rip him off and refusing to return to finish the work AT ALL. He essentially stole money from me and despite me being a lawyer, i.e. "should have known better," I was completely taken advantage of and now I have to hire someone else and pay someone else to complete a job for which Corey was already paid in full plus additional money for materials that I can only assume he used for other projects he was working on when he would go MIA from my home for weeks at a time. When I told Corey that I would take legal action against him if he didn't either return my money or return to finish the job, his response was "go ahead and sue me, I don't ******* give a ****." Nice huh? I CANNOT WARN YOU STRENUOUSLY ENOUGH NOT TO USE THIS GUY.

All went well, very hard working and efficient