Land Impressions

I was given an estimate of 880.00 to level remove some soil and install St. Augustine sod into my back yard of 1400sq ft. The company has a special attachment to a small sized bobcat that enables them to till and level all in one step. I believe that this is the reason the price was so affordable. They showed up and leveled the yard, and did a very nice job. I was happy with the leveling, the removal of dirt, and the cleanup of the dirt off my driveway etc. Some of my brick pavers were damaged in the process, but I didn't feel that this was anything unacceptable. Moving large equipment on some sand set bricks is bound to cause a little movement. They asked for 1/2 the payment up front and also said that they would be back the next day to repair the pavers and lay the sod, or the following day. Everything seemed legit, so I wrote them a check for 1/2 the money ($440) and was excited to have sod installed the next day. One of the issues with this project was that I was having major spine surgery on April 28th. I spoke to them extensively about this, and the deal was that since I don't have a sprinkler system, I wanted the sod to be down, and then I could lay a series of hoses and sprinklers so that while my family was here taking care of me, they would just be able to turn them off and on without having to move hoses etc. I also realize that this seems like a completely ridiculous time to start a project like this, but the weeds in the back yard were so much harder to deal with than just grass, it was going to be a major issue when I was able to do my own yard work again in the next few months. Mowing those weeds and dirt created so much heavy waste as opposed to just clippings, and paying someone to mow the weeds was even more of a hassle. Well, as time went on, they kept saying they would be there the next day to repair the pavers, and install the sod. This went on daily for weeks. It got to the point that "Jack" the point of contact wouldn't return my phone calls. What I believe the problem to be was that the price of sod had gone up drastically, and at that point they didn't know what to do. I feel the professional thing would have been to communicate that to me, and perhaps work out a deal with some extra yard work, or mowing, etc. But the complete disrespect and failure to return my calls had me looking at filing a smalls claims court issue. At that point, all I was asking for was my pavers to be repaired, and a refund of $150 to cover the cost of the laying of the sod that I felt that I had already paid for. I thought this was a fair deal especially after all the hassle, and if they didn't want to do that I was going to go the small claims route and ask for $300 to fix the pavers ( I had gotten an estimate), the refund of $150 for the sod installation, PLUS the difference of the new company that had to come and install sod. which was a cost of $900 ($700 for sod plus $200 for installation). The difference of $460. So seeking total damages of $910 plus court costs. Well, sometime in May they actually showed up to repair my pavers. It seems the problem is a huge disconnect between the sales representative "Jack" and the men who actually do the work "James". Apparently Jack had been telling James that everything was just A-ok, but who knows if this is really true or not. James repaired the pavers to my satisfaction and actually did a wonderful job in doing so. James also gave me $100 out of the company expense money they had, and apologized profusely for the problems. I would hire James to work for me on the side but never ever go through land impressions again. The whole experience was stressful, unprofessional, and not even worth the time or effort. I don't believe these people will be in business long.