DAO'S LANDSCAPE

I left two message for Dao's Landscape, but never received a call back.  Very unprofessional.  We have hired another service.

He showed up early on a holiday to do the work which was not appreciated.  The bushes were trimmed way too much and looked bad.  He added costs along the way.   When we called him to say we weren't happy with the work he set up a time to come back and meet with us.  Then he came at a different time when we weren't home and called us to say the work looked o.k. to him.  We were very disappointed by the work done and the lack of follow up.

Overall it went quite well - see above. As with any yard work, it's up to the owner to keep up with it over time.  My wife and I will be empty nesters pretty soon and we may move to a smaller house in the coming years.  It'll be nice to enjoy the yard now in our remaining years in the house.

Dao was very prompt to come to my house for an estimate and was able to provide phone numbers for two people who'd had work done recently to be used as references. When I called him back to say I wanted to proceed, I had to leave a message. He did not call me back, so I called again in a few days and he picked up this time. He was back out to my house within an hour to discuss details, then sped away to order the necessary materials. He started work at about 9:00 AM the next morning, and was finished by 1:00 PM, supplying several tons of boulders as a border to an irregular oval garden and dirt to fill it. He did not put in the plants, which I wanted to do, anyway. His orignal estimate of the project was $1,300, and when he finished, he told me he had had to use more dirt than originally estimated by $50, which I paid. Having read another review on Angie's List, I knew he would expect a check at the time of project completion.

Dao came to give me an estimate the same day I called. The estimate seemed reasonable, so I hired him. He and his crew arrived before 7 a.m. the next day, and absolutely transformed the backyard. They cleaned everything up quite well, too. I did get one sort of surprise. I had asked them to remove a buck thorn and we agreed on a price for it, but once the branches were all cut off, Dao asked if I wanted the stump removed too, and that was extra. I don't think the price was unreasonable, but I had assumed that removing the bush included the stump. I will be more clear next time. The only tricky part was that he wanted to be paid each day for that day's work, and he wanted a local check (not my cash advance checks). It wasn't really a problem, but I hadn't thought to ask about payment options ahead of time. Overall I was very pleased. My next-door neighbors couldn't believe the transformation either, so they hired Dao to do some work in their yard too.