steves sprinkler service

Steve installed a new sprinkler system for us last year. We bid out to a number of contractors and we chose him because he spoke very well when he was out and pricing was okay. I'm only now reviewing him because the installation was done, it was in the middle of the season when our grass was already dead due to the heat. There were aspects of the system I did not like last year, but I agreed to wait until the spring and he said he'd make it right if we still were not happy. During the installation last year, whenever I was home and saw him, the most common comments from him were how difficult our yard was to install new pipes. It was taking him longer than he thought and it was costing him more money than he thought it would. I heard this regularly during the course of the installation. While I understand that there were more roots in my ground than he thought, it's not very professional to complain to the customer how hard the job is and how you won't make as a big of a profit due to the yard even though you agreed to a price and contract to do a service. This year when I had him out again, I explained to him that my wife and I were not happy with how the system came out. His response was something along the lines of I don't know what to tell you. I asked how the yard could be fixed and he said it couldn't, it was designed correctly. I showed him where there was zero water hitting part of the grass and he said again there was no way to fix it. After talking about it for a bit, I then asked what it would cost to fix it and he said there was nothing to do and that it was designed correctly. We discussed this for about 10 more minutes and I stopped arguing with him at this point. I asked him to put in 5 more mist sticks for our flowers in a part of our yard and he said he'd also fix a hose that a rabbit chewed threw. I walked away and when I came back about 5 minutes later, he was gone. The sticks were put in, but the leaking hose was not fixed. I texted him immediately asking about this and he never responded. He's responded very quickly when I first hired him. He is supposed to come back out to add more sticks to a garden bed we are building, and I have it in writing from him that he is supposed to. However, due to his lack of response to my messages, I highly doubt that he will be back and even if he did come out, he'd likely complain most of the time as that has been my experience with him in all of my interactions with him after we hired him. He does not stand by his work and will not work to make the customer happy if they do not like what was done. It seemed as though I offended him by not being happy with the work he did. Customer satisfaction does not seem to be important to him. I would not recommend him for any work in your yard based on my experience.

Steve has worked for me in the past, and did great work. Better yet, he's the type of provider that I don't worry about when they're at my home. I was out of town when he did the work, and I gave him my access code for my garage (and thus access to my home) without reservation. I gave him a budget I didn't want to go over, and he didn't even approach it. Fair price for good work, quick service, and trustworthy. What more can you ask for?