DREAMSCAPE

We had done business with Mark for at least four years. He plowed our driveway when we lived in Plainville and had done some concrete stair work for us. I would have praised his work then. We decided to continue to have Mark plow our driveway when we moved to our new house in Attleboro. Then we decided to try his landscaping services and had his crew mow our lawn. There's where the problems began. Bills for mowing were frequently accompanied by extra charges: the grass was high (extra money); there were leaves on the lawn (extra $25). The prices were never reduced if there was barely any grass worth mowing. And so it went. I wasn't thrilled but I paid the bills. In October I asked his crew chief to schedule us for a lawn clean up on Nov 8th or 9th. He said he'd put it on the calendar. We had 50+ guests arriving on Nob 10th and wanted the yard looking decent. Well, no none showed up on the 8th. No one showed up on the 9th. My wife called Mark and asked him if they were coming and he had no idea that we wanted something done. The crew chief never recorded our request on their calendar as promised. He said that he didn't have anyone working that day but I'd try to pull a crew together. A couple of hours later a crew arrived and they did what they could to make the lawn look nice with the little remaining 1 1/2 hours of daylight. We were away but an elderly neighbor watched them work. Leaves were blown off the grass into our wooded islands. They did the best they could do with the limited time. Then the bill came. We were charged the full price for a 'Leaf Pickup and Mow.' (AKA Fall Clean Up). To be clear, the leaves had barely started falling yet so now our yard still looks like it has never had a Fall Clean Up. I disputed the bill with Mark and he offered to reduce the price. I paid the amount we agreed. Fast forward to January. As the first major storm of the season descended on the area, we noticed that Mark, within the past day, had swung by and removed his snow plow stakes. He didn't tell us that he would not be plowing our driveway. Then he waited until just before the storm to pull out his stakes. This was a total lack of professionalism and wouldn't be tolerated by any contractor in any business. Good thing we noticed. We would have been snowed in with the storm. As it was, we had to scramble to find a new plow service. Retribution? Oppositional defiance? Unprofessional business behavior? That and more.... Ask yourself: is this someone you'd do business with? We won't be doing business with him again.