The Lawnsmith

Did a great job!

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First mowing everything looked good, second mowing things looked pretty good, but after third mowing it was clear they were scalping the new sod and running the mower in the same tracks each week, creating ruts in the newer sod that was installed last fall. I called to ask that they raise the mower and change the mowing pattern and reminded them the front lawn is new sod If anything the next time they mowed they lowered the mower and they did not change direction. They even managed to very obviously scalp the grass into the dirt in the back yard on well established sod. It looked to me as though the crew did not like working on my yard and was hoping to be fired. I accommodated them Organic fertilizing is generally fine except for a long wide white stripe in the boulevard where they over applied the fertilizer and burned the grass. They did call to suggest that I water within 24 hours but they did not suggest that the boulevard might need extra water.

Overall, my experience was disappointing. There's no other word for it.

They have the equipment to do all of the work and they do it quickly and efficiently. Nobody can clean their own yard like that. They have rotating blowers that they push along and they just did a fabulous job and I will use them again this fall.

Crews are fast, know to make sure my dog is not in yard (or they shoo him in and close the back door) and reliably reclose the gate when they leave, move the pool backwash hose out of the way if I have left it out on the lawn. Snow removal has occasionally been less than perfect (ridge at street after some of those monster snowfalls that hung up my car) but they always come through and fix it if I call. I had to explain a couple of times that the red suckers from my Canadian cherry tree were not intentional plants and needed to come out, and they still miss one tiny patch by the driveway, but they do try very hard to get it right. Work is neat and crew is shy but friendly. I work at home so appreciate the speed at which they finish the lawn and return me to quiet.

We pay them $32 every week. It didn’t start out real good, but I think I have educated them now. It’s hard to judge lawn service people because you almost have to give them a year to get used to your yard. However, they are doing pretty good. I don’t think there is any lawn company out there that does an excellent job. They are okay as long as they use the right kind of mower on our yard. I have to also watch them all the time because if I don’t, then they will use the ones I don’t like. It’s a good thing that I am retired since I am able to stay at home. They are average. Their price is fine and it’s pretty comparable to all the other quotes that we got. Some were higher, but I don’t know if any of them were lower. I called the owner once and told him that I wanted him to come out because they were doing some damage to our lawn. Then the owner did come out and he did agree with me. So, I have only had one problem since then when they were using the wrong mower. I just called the owner directly and I didn’t even talk to the other guys. I called him and he corrected it. He has been pretty responsive. They hire guys that don’t speak English; so it’s hard to communicate with them. I almost have to go through the owner. We would probably use them in the future and we will probably give them at least two years. I don’t think there are any of them out there who are that good. They also try to do as many lawns as they can. If you want them to do it during the weekend, then they charge you more. We have our lawn done on Mondays. So, by the weekend, our lawn is already grown. Next year, we hopefully get a better day. We don’t think any lawn service company is great.

Their crew is very fast and the lawn looks good. The price is very reasonable and we're happy with the service.

I have generally been happy with the quality of their work on my yard and expect to use them for additional yard work in the future. They are dependable and easy to work with. The only issue I have had is that there is one corner of my yard that is hard to get to because of the deck, fence, and a large evergreen tree and they skip mowing it until the grass is pretty long. Whenever I let them know that the corner needs work they take care of it and they do take care of it periodically without prompting from me.

Very well. They are reliable and do a good job

Very easy to work with and they've got some automation around billing going which is good, but cold be tweaked. Price was competitive. I would use for other lawn care needs.

Our yard looks fantastic! Before The Lawnsmith we had a big bald spot in the back of the yard that wasn't growing any grass. Now the grass is growing back, healthy and strong. Plus we do not have any dandelions. It's great!

My Letter to The Lawnsmith (Dan): You may recall that there were numerous issues with the snow plowing this last winter. On one snow fall I called you 5 times over 2-3 days and finally ended up shoveling what your people didn’t by myself. As the snow melted I found the sod in my yard plowed up and that there were tire ruts & humps along the driveway. You sent a guy out with only a small amount of dirt and grass seed. He didn't have proper tools to put the sod back in place so we used my tools and I helped him. He was also uneducated in how to smooth out the dirt he added to conform to the terrain (he just lumped it). He had no options for fixing the tire ruts & humps and he said he would tell you to come back with a roller. Needless to say, no one came back. When I called you a week ago you stated that lawn rollers don’t work (not true) and that you would not fix my yard properly. Based on these facts I am charging you $80 for damages and work not done and/or not done properly. I wisely withheld the $80 March payment and will apply that full amount to the above complaints. I will also be entering this to Angie’s List with a grade of “F”.

I was not happy with my experience with The Lawnsmith. It took them too long to come out and plow. I also think I was billed for times that they did not come out to my house. They use a multiplier to figure out the pricing based on the amount of snow.

The first time it snowed (invoice date Dec 5), they showed up on time and everything was great, until I got the bill and saw $60 + an addtional $10 "plowout" for coming back and removing plow snow. The National Weather Service shows a total of 6.5 inches of snow reported for all of December through 12/5. The second time it snowed was the blizzard on Dec 11. They showed up on Saturday and shoveled the first 5 inches of snow which lets them charge more than once I guess. This did me no good as it snowed another 10+ inches after this and it took them THREE DAYS to come back. By the time Tuesday rolled around and they still hadn't show up, I went out and shoveled everything myself by hand because I had to go to work and because Minneapolis levies a fine if you wait more than 24 hours to shovel snow. I had to take vacation time to shovel the snow myself which had me livid. To top it all off, there was NO COMMUNICATION from the Lawnsmith setting expectations, despite this being the 21st century and there being such a thing as email distribution lists. Every time I called the number on their website I just got a message that the mailbox was full. I sent several emails as well asking for ETAs and begging for some communication. No one ever responded. So I canceled my service with the Lawnsmith. You'd think this was the end of the story, but it's not. The contract states that all service cancellations require 30 days notice. I didn't arrange for other snow removal thinking that it would be mid January before the service ended. When I canceled my service I again received NO ACKNOWLEDGMENT that I'd done so. On 12/20 it snowed 4.5 inches and they showed up over a day later and shoveled. By this time they'd also managed to bury my recycle bin, just as a bonus. I'll probably find that sometime in the spring. On Dec 23/24 it snowed about 5 inches. NO ONE EVER SHOWED UP. And when I finally emailed them to ask where they were, they said "you told us to cancel your service," despite their own 30 day cancellation notice AND having shown up to shovel snow more than a week after I canceled my service. So my sidewalk again wasn't shoved according to ordinance because I was out of town for the Christmas holiday. The Lawnsmith lacks coherent communication and is obviously massively oversubscribed. I had to shovel almost all of my own snow in Dec and had to take vacation to do it a couple of times. My consulting billable rate is $120/hr and I did not appreciate their utter lack of professionalism. Every time I look at my bill for December I get angry all over again.

Contracted with the Lawnsmith to plow the driveway and shovel front steps. First snow of the year they plowed and shoveled, but tore up about ten feet of grass next to the driveway. Owner looked at it and said he would fix in the spring. Blizzard in mid December they never showed up and we called numerous times without a return call. On the Monday the person who answered the phone assured us they would be out, never showed up. I would not recommend this company.

It did not go well. The first snow removal was prompt and the job was done well, however they charged an extra $21.00 because the snow was "heavy and wet." The second snow fall happened on December 3rd. They did not come and remove the snow until late on December 4th and left about a 2" snow pack. I sent them a note stating that this was not acceptable and I ended up scraping it myself. Again they charged more than the $33.00 promised. I believe the charge was $53.00. Dan stated that $33.00 was the "base price." On December 11th we had 18 inches of snow. No one came. On December 12th I tried calling in the evening and the answering machine was full. I finally reached Stephanie at 9AM on December 13th. She could not tell me when they were coming, only that it would be within 24 hours. I missed a day of work. I hand shoveled my driveway and almost all of the sidewalks. I terminated the service. It was a terrible experience.

I was pleased with the bid process, and had actually forgotten I had contacted them previously. They didn't make me feel dumb for doing so when they said they had my quote on file and could just email it to me since they had already been by to do the site survey. As promised they came 2 times and did a thorough job each time. They even did a nice job on the other side of a small fence we have between our property and the alleyway behind our garage. I forget to trim there, so I am glad they didn't. On the 2nd visit I happened to be home and was impressed with the amount of time they spent working on our lot. They didn't know I was here, so it had nothing to do with being watched. I was happy with the service and cost and would look to do business with them in the future.

The Lawnsmith has done a fantastic job maintaining our lawn with their fertilization and weed treatment services. I think our lawn has never looked better! Their prices are reasonable and they do great work.

The quote was quick and the price was the best of all the companies we contacted. They have always come on their appointed days and are very efficient.

Lawnsmith has been extremely professional, efficient, and responsive. I was amazed at how fast they got over here to do an estimate, and then to begin the actual work. I have been extremely satisfied with everything they have done.

They are professional. Their prices vary according to the work that they do. If we have any complaints they would come right out. We are very satisfied with the price too.

Called to schedule a dethatching. They promised they would be there on or before the scheduled date, but received a last-minute phone call the afternoon of the scheduled date saying they couldn't make it - tried to talk to the person in charge, but after repeated phione calls, I could not talk to him directly, the receptionist had to pass my messages back and forth. I canceled my services with them and will not be using them again.

great - they came twice - cleared away leaves and mowed the second time. no complaints. best $175 I ever spent!

They show up, do the work, and clean up after themselves. Their service is very dependable. They call me back when I call them. They did a very nice job on the snow service, and I was very pleased with them. They charged $285 for the fall cleanup. They charge $33 for mowing each time, and they charge $80 per month for snow plowing services.