Pasadena Gardening & Tree Service

I had a terrible experience with this company.  I initially called them because I wanted to have some stumps removed in the front yard, and some plants removed and new ones put in.  John Lampasona, the owner, came out and was very pushy and not interested in my ideas for how the yard should look.  He did all the talking about what should be done, and I mistakenly deferred to him because I thought he knew more than I did.    Big mistake!  I ended up hiring the company to do the work.  At first, after they finished I thought it looked ok, but then I realized they had failed to remove half the stumps (which started re-growing and sending shooting vines up the side of the house again), and the sprinkler system John had pushed me to let him install ceased working.  I called numerous times to complain (about 5 times over the course of a month or so), but John never returned my calls.  I hate to say this, but I really felt there was something sexist in the way he acted towards me (I am a woman), disregarding my ideas and pushing his own agenda, then failing to do a good job or own up to the shoddy work.  The only silver lining was that I finally got so irate that the person who answered the phone and took my calls finally agreed (after John's repeated failure to call me back) to reduce the price of the work by half because they had failed to remove all the stumps.  John never did call me to discuss it.  I definitely urge people to stay away from this company.

The owner, John Lampasona, came on strong.  He came to both properties, did a walk-through, and told me about what he would do to bring the yards up to standard and then maintain them.  The initial costs of trimming the trees, putting in new lawn where the old lawn had browned, etc., was several thousand dollars across two properties.  It seemed far more expensive than what we had agreed upon, but the work looked good and I was happy to have it done.  I only really questioned the cost when the maintenance portion of the contract kicked in.  I regularly received the wrong bills and had to straighten out the costs each month.  The gardeners showed up with the wrong plants.  Things we had initially agreed upon (putting in new plants, etc.) were never done.  I had to call the office several times to complain because the gardeners blew grass cuttings and dirt into the pool each week; even though we agreed on a schedule that would at least set gardening before pool cleaning, the gardeners did not show up predictably and came the day after, or two days after the pool was cleaned each week.  The gardeners cut the drip lines to a pot and only replaced it when I noticed the plant was dying and called John.  The gardeners broke two sprinkler heads and only fixed them when we caught the problem and called it in.   The new grass I paid so much to have put in quickly began to die.  When I called to talk to John about these problems, he had trouble listening, spoke over me, and constantly asked to simply be trusted.  The final straw came with irrigation; I partly chose John's company because his promise includes resetting all irrigation, something I really needed help with, since we have a big and complex system.  Yet, the gardeners somehow reset the irrigation two weeks ago to go off each afternoon....not only against the rules in our town, but over-watering terribly.  When I called it in, and left messages about it, either John didn't hear me or he didn't tell his guys the problem because, although they came back out, I'm not sure what they did; the sprinklers remained set for daily watering in the afternoons.  Overall, despite all the trappings of a responsible business (articulate owner, contracts), I strongly recommend people avoid this company.  The initial outlay is very expensive, the billing is more often wrong than right, the labor is inconsistent and unpredictable, and John has no follow-through on his promises.