Backyard Blessings

"We are truly sorry you had a bad experience with us. As you already mentioned, I personally made attempts to fix what you deemed wrong. At Backyard Blessings we strive to please our customers and usually go out of our way to do so. We did exceed our expectations for this particular customer. We did way too much over the estimated cost amount to clean and fix the pond, all of this without charging extra money. Usually, the extra work we do without extra pay helps a person be grateful, and makes their day a little better, but I am learning it doesn’t always work out that way. Some people will take advantage of the kindness we exemplify. Addressing her complaints…she said it in her review, she called to tell me about a problem, and I contacted her quickly with instructions, she is fairly accurate on the timeline. I did let her know I was on my way and she said don’t worry about it “because she fixed it herself.” Then she said one of her fish, a 1 inch black mosquito fish, was dead in the mulch. I asked if it was one of the 3 dried up ones that were out there before we arrived. She said no, there were not any out there before we arrived. Unfortunately, she did not know about the 3 dried up fish (and there may have been more) in the mulch next to the pond before we arrived, she did not even know there were 7 living black fish in the pond. I presume she didn’t see any of this primarily because approximately 2 years worth of dead leaves were piled up all upon the pond bank and inside the pond that we cleared out. Instead of making a big debate about it, I went ahead and offered to deliver her a nice fish with color, in exchange for the 1” black mosquito fish in question, for free. She said no, that’s ok. Since she refused that offer, I told her that she is welcome to come get one at our retail store anytime, this year or next for free. She said ok. That was the last of our communication. A couple of things to note here: this is the first time this couple has ever had service on their pond, as they recently moved into this house with a neglected pond. She didn’t even know about the 7 black fish we found in there because the pond was so dirty and messed up, and we named the new fish “the bonus fish” and she was so happy about the bonus fish. So, she ended up with 7 more fish than she ever knew about. She spent most of her time that afternoon smoking on her porch telling us how educated she is, smoking and watching every move we made. She was praising us about how great of a job we were doing and how excited she was to have us out later in the year, when she could afford it, to do more work on her pond. She is correct in saying that we want long term customers, as that is what we strive for, and that is what we have most of the time: long term satisfied customers. We are not perfect, and its unfortunate that we could not make it work with this customer. As she already said, we made efforts and offers to make it right, to fix the perceived wrongs. A note to all potential and well liked existing customers reading this: If you are a rational, patient and kind person, we highly welcome you to call, email, or come on in because we are going to get along really well and we will bless you and your water feature! We love being in business and doing what we do for people like you! This is Marc Mills of Backyard Blessings."

"We look forward to working with you for many years to come. Thank you for being great people to work with. Its a pleasure, honor, and joy to serve you and all your water feature needs. Marc"