MARK WILK LANDSCAPE INC

Beware of this landscaper! 1. He presented us with a bill for $1,000 more than the agreed-to price and did not do anything extra! In fact, all four jobs he did for us done incorrectly or not at all. 2. He delivered fill dirt and tried to pass it off as topsoil. The crap he delivered was FULL of large and small stones, wood or all sizes, gravel, a railroad spike, metal, etc. And, he wouldn't adjust the price. We had to paid for processed topsoil. I spent hours trying to pick out the debris. He covered that mess with grass seed and straw. Needless to say, grass can't grow on gravel. We have bought more topsoil and grass seed ourselves to try to fix what he felt for us. I asked him to replace some stepping stones that had to be moved last year. I told him how I wanted it done. He said there were not enough stones and I argued and argued that there were enough steppingstones. He did it the way he wanted to and had 7 stepping stones left over. I had to remove the stones he placed and redo it myself. Guess what? No surprise that there were just the exact amount of stones. He charged for regrading the ground in front of my shed which was not done. He placed rocks around my shed which look good, but the rain water is still draining under my shed. We had a hill side we wanted to do something with, he suggested planting wildflowers, which I thought was a great idea. The topsoil he delivered for the hill was of good quality. We talked in great length about how I wanted it done. I showed him a iron wagon wheel, pitcher pump and a metal rooster I wanted to place in the middle of the hill. I did not want any wildflowers planted in the center of the hill, since they could grow tall and defeat the purpose of my display. I also told him and showed him that I had Phlox I wanted to plant in the center of the hill because it would be a low profile plant. I had to leave for a bit and when I returned, the entire hill was planted with wildflower and everything was covered in an erosion blanket. Now, I will need to remove wildflowers/seeds and cut into the erosion blanket to set my wagon wheel, etc. When I brought this to his attention he said he can't remember unless he writes things down. He NEVER offered to make ANYTHING right. To add to our nightmare, he told his crew not to leave our property until they got a check from us. When I asked about the $1,000 discrepancy, he told me I should have know he made and addition error and he corrected on his end and we should have done the same. Had he told us before he started the work that he found a $1,000 error, we would NOT have had him do the work!!! I told his workers that my husband was not home and we would mail the check. They called Mark and he raced over to demand payment. When my husband got home, he called him and myself names, yelled, bullied us, and would not leave our property without a check. He called the extra $1,000 a "small" error and wanted to know "what was wrong with us". Plus the little grass that is growing, he and his workers walked all over it running around taking pictures of the work he did and told us he's taking us to small claims court and his lawyer would be in touch with us....blah blah blah. This went on so long that we had no recourse but to call the police. At that point, he started bragging about how he works out at the gym with the B.C. police, etc. I can go on and on. We thought $2,820 was a little steep. (A friend checked the going rate for landscapers and he informed us he is 35% higher than most - I can't say this is true...just hearsay.) He presented to us his price of doing everything for $2,820....not the extra $1,000 added to it. Even with being extremely unhappy with his work, we planned to pay him the $2,820. I am sure most people do that to avoid conflict. We hate conflict and drama but, Mark, you crossed the line. Just because we are senior citizens doesn't mean you can bully us, yell and call my husband and an "old man" and other names. Seriously, he intimidated us so much my husband sent me out to buy more surveillance cameras. It truly saddens me that his review will probably hurt his family - I feel really bad about that. However, I cannot allow him to do what he did to us to other innocent people. He is very likeable at first, but good luck getting him to stop talking long enough to listen to what you have to say. The way I look at it, he owes us. Extremely Upsetting!!!

It was a real nightmare for my 93 year old father, me, and my 31 year old son. The first day Mark suggested an alternate timber wall vs. the pretty curved bricks we were expecting. The crew had trouble digging out original footings, and wanted to switch product completely, saying they could save my Dad substantial money. I was out of state, and after viewing some images online, I reluctantly agreed to the change - but only if they used good quality wood, made it visually pretty, and were sure it would save money. Extensive rain was forecast, and the crew continued to put the wall in, but used poor quality fill dirt which turned to a jello. Wall was leaning due to lack of support, and my son (a former landscaper), got involved to guide the process. Many hours later, poor soil was dug out and proper dense fill dirt added (provided by my son), and the wall looked better, but still was not right. Neighbors were even talking about it being so crooked. Our son was present daily to push the crew to make it right, and increase the wall height, as it would not rise above the new concrete walkway being poured soon. Lots of unnecessary time was spent by my son, and calls between us, to get this project to completion. Mark remained absent from the job site for days. The result is not what we wanted, and Mark claimed he could save us a lot of money switching to the timbers. Final bill was MORE than original estimate, and we still are missing a drain to keep the water away from the garage. The wall is made of very rough sawn wood. It is crudely put together, and looks like something that belongs beside a pole barn on a farm, not in a city neighborhood. Extremely disappointed with the end result and value. Recently we found out that all the rich dirt in my Dad's flower bed was removed in the process last year too, and replaced with sand, rocks, and poor soil. So, we just paid an additional $400 to another landscape co. to have it dug out and replaced with finely sifted top soil, so Dad can plant his flowers again this year, at age 93. We can not recommend Mark's business to others.

clean up was ok, but took too long. was told it would be 80.00/hr. most of the clean up was done when no one was home to verify time.
(when someone was home there was more done in shorter amount of time)
a drain spout was ran over and smashed then stuck in between downspout and house.
when confronting company via phone everything was denied and was yelled at and hung up on. did not listen to anything.

He was nice. He was here when he said he was going to be here and I was very pleased with his work. As a matter of fact I got him coming back next month.

Good

,

Available on time.  Did the work.  Mess was all cleared and area looked good when they left.

Most of the landscaping work was done timely and in decent condition.  There were only a couple minor issues and there were some deviations from the original plan but nothing I was not able to live with. 
The major problem I had with this company was the patio paver installation.  It was a complete mess.  They ended up installing 2 different color pavers and never took ownership of their work inspecting the product they were installing.  I contacted them to resolve this problem during installation and after completion and they always passed the buck and did not take ownership in the quality of the work.  They blamed the company they bought the pavers from and were not willing to help fix the problem.  The owner told me it was my responsibility to contact the company he bought the pavers from to take care of the problem.  I contracted the job to be done with the contractor, not the company he bought the pavers from.  I asked for a meeting with the owner to inspect and resolve this issue with me and he refused. 
The companys website states, "We guarantee our work and your satisfaction."  This in not true, in my opinion this is false advertising.  They would not guarantee the work they performed and apparently do not care if the customer is satisfied after they are paid. 
I would caution anyone thinking about using this company.  There are many other great landscaping companies out there.