Sunshine Landscape and Irrigation

I hired Sunshine to repair a couple of leaky valves and fix a non-functioning sprinkler. Rather than repair the leaky valves, the service person installed an additional valve and re-wired the zone. He informed the leaks would not as long as the system was not running. For the non-functioning sprinkler, Sunshine advised me to run the system in the middle of the night in order to hear the source of the blockage. I had an alternative company come out and review the work done and suggested solution provided for the sprinkler. They could not believe that Sunshine would not honestly do the job correct and stated they were being lazy and positioning for another service call when the leaky valves got worse. I would NOT recommend Sunshine as their service provided to me was highly unethical and scam-like.

We called them and told them we had new sod and they were not to mow in the back. So the first weeks they did and we called and canceled the service because we had told them not to mow and it takes a long time and you are supposed to wait a month or two before you mow and you lay sod down. Behold the following week I happen to be home and I heard the lawn mower starting up and they are big and they open up our gate and they take that lawn mower right down a whole 150 foot patch of new sod and they ripped it up. And I went out there screaming like a bad giraffe so upset and they were young kids and they were like high school kids and I said, we canceled this, don't you this was new sod and so on? And I said, go! Go, get out of here and I immediately called them and tried to talk to the wife I believe and said, "They have just torn up our sod." The guy was supposed to come out and take a look at it but he never did. So the lawn person who we had contracted to do the lawn is a landscaper came out and he fixed it even though he was the one responsible for damaging it. I was very unhappy. I couldn't see if there's any communication there. I think the price was definitely reasonable.

unknown

Jon and his team are doing an EXCELLENT job with our snow plowing service this year! We were so fortunate to find them - they're very reasonably priced, prompt and flexible. We couldn't ask for a better snow removal company to work with.

Good, completed everything while we were at work.

Initial repair of obvious copper pipe that split due to temperature, the detail work on circuit valves had ben marginal. They returned to repair a valve stuck open the first time we used the system a month ago. The next time we used the system a circuit valve appears stuck closed/inoperative and will need to be repaired. Bottom line: after two service calls, the system remains malfunctioning.

We were quoted a and quot;Worse case scenarioand quot; price of no more than $1000 for our system repair, but the bill came to over $1600. I cant figure how things get worse than the worse case scenario - but I guess that is the way they do business. The workers did a good job, it was just the jacking up of the price that upset me. I complained and they dropped the bill by a couple hundred dollars, but it was still above the worst case price bid by quite a bit. They said it was due to the fact the work was done on a Saturday, they had to pay overtime, but they set up the date not me. The work was fine, but they made many excuses when questioned the over billing. I would look elsewhere.

Jon did an excellent job on something that held great meaning to me and my family. I had a unique situation in that my husband had built a waterfall and pond on our large hill in our backyard. When my husband passed away unexpectedly I was not able to maintain the landscaping or waterfall. Over spring and summer it became overgrown and unmanageable. I was unable to use the waterfall as the pump was not connected and I didn't have a clue. I called another landscaper who advertised his work on water features. He came out, took one look and said he didn't normally work on something the size of our waterfall. Basically, he said he'd give an estimate but then got in his vehicle and drove away. I called Jon on the recomendation of my son-in-law. Jon came out and was undaunted by the project that made the other guy turn tail and run. He recommended going pondless for easier maintenance. He gave me a very reasonable estimate on converting the waterfall and removing the rock and overgrown vegetation. I was so happy with the progress and work on the waterfall and surrounding area that I asked him to also remove rock and replace with mulch a large area under my porch and deck and in front of the pond and side of my house.I am so pleased with the work and am excited to add plants next spring. The waterfall looks wonderful and best of all, I can maintain and enjoy it! My only other option would have been to tear something out that my husband worked so hard to add to the beauty of our backyard. Thank you so much, Jon, for the fantastic job! I can't wait to sit on my porch and enjoy the waterfall next spring and summer. I will definitely use Sunshine for future projects, without hesitation!

Showed up on time, had a large crew working on it. It took them longer than they anticipated and had a hard time letting me know when it would be done. All-in-all they did what they said. I did have to have them come back and lower a couple of the the sprinker heads, and they forgot to leave me a couple adjustment tools which they mailed out to me once i called them.

We have been a customer of SunShine since 1996 when we had them install our lawn irrigation system. We have had Sunshine service the system on an annual basis, along with winter shut-down and spring system activation. The staff has always been professional and knowledgable. Their field service crew has been punctual and their service truck is equiped to repair needed items on the spot, without the need to arrange for another service appointment.

Like a well oil machine.

Piece a Cake.

We used Sunshine to blow out our very old and antiquated sprinkler system for many years. When it was time to replace the old systems we were anxious to have Sunshine do the work since we had good experiences in the past. We asked for a quote in the fall of 2010 but had to contact them to get the quote price several months later.

In the spring of 2011 we had another quote done and were please with the price and went ahead with the project. They were up front with the dates and did the work on time as promised.

The system was installed and works fine but there were some areas of the project we felt could have been improved. My main concern with Sunshine was the lack of up-front communication on the plan for the project and a lack of follow-up after the project was completed. It would have been nice for someone to come to the house to see if the system was adequately watering all areas as promised. In reality we had some zones not watering enough in sunny areas which killed some grass. We adjusted the system ourselves but I was expecting Sunshine to reach out to us to see if their product was performing as promised instead of us needing to contact them in the following months.

Overall, Sunshine did an and quot;okand quot; job. Jon was very pleasant to work with as was the other members of his crew. They use good quality products and for the most part did the job they said they were going to do. However my expectations were not met in the areas of installation details and follow-up. The install crew did not install the heads on the lot line as promised and the yard looked like a small war took place when they were done. In their defense we had a wet spring and the lawn was very moist so the trencher did a lot of damage. However I would expect a professional outfit to come back and fix some of that damage without being asked. At the end of the summer the lawn looked fine with the exception of some dead areas by the street which burned out due to lack of water. We adjusted those zones ourselves but would have liked Sunshine to follow up with us to see if the system was working as designed.

Below were our concerns we provided to Sunshine.

Nice to have’s:
a. It would be nice if Sunshine would have provided a system installation diagram that shows where the heads are installed and where the lines were trenched. I see a significant long term benefit to having this level of documentation for future reference.

Constructive Feedback – Things they could have done from a customer perspective that would have made the job experience better for us:
a. After the walkthrough of the yard with us and before the job begins – send us a diagram of the yard with where you are proposing to put in sprinkler heads, trench lines, and control boxes. We were surprised by the placement of the in-ground control box in the backyard. Adding this step to the process would remove any unexpected surprises.
b. After the approval of the work plan diagram and before the trenching begins – Place flags in yard with exactly where the sprinkler heads and control boxes are to be installed. Walk through the plan with us one more time so we are all on the same page. This step would also serve as a guide for the installation crew and would have eliminated the installation of several heads two feet off the lot line. Also we were surprised the installation crew did not know about the fertilizer system install.
c. Make sure we all agree on the lot lines and placement of sprinkler heads relating to those lines.
d Discuss potential trenching issues: Cutting of major tree roots or soft areas in the lawn where significant damage could occur. e. Removal of old sprinkler system: Make sure you remove 100% of the old system and back fill the holes with dirt and seed.
f. Repair of damaged grass: We expect some damage from the trenching and that’s ok. We did not expect as much damage as occurred in our lawn and were surprised you did not make an effort to repair the bigger spots. I would expect those larger areas to be flattened and seeded.
g. Consult on digging holes in perennial flower gardens: We knew holes needed to dug in the perennial gardens to run the drip lines, what we did not expect is that a landscaping company would fail to notice or ask of the placement of existing plants. A large hole was dug in the front garden that destroyed several Iris’s and other plants. My wife would have preferred to transplant or temporarily move those plants before the hole was dug. At the very least asking before digging the hole would have been nice. Upon seeing the hole my wife voiced her displeasure and the crew did ask before digging in the back garden and that was appreciated.

This is an old farmstead with a gravel driveway and a larger area between the house and barn where we park, so we need someone who can remove snow without digging up the gravel. Jon handled thing quite well. We will use him again.

The crew was scheduled to come between 9 and 11 AM and they didn't come until 11:30. It was sprinkling outside, so the weather might have been a factor, but they were lucky my husband was home when they came out of the time slot. They did a fine job.