Green Grass Lawn & Sprinklers

This company did some landscaping for me some years ago in 2009. First they did a retaining wall for me. The owners son Eric noticed it was not right, so they fixed it.  He was so honest about the job having to be fixed. In 2010 I hired his father to do a drain system for my yard, that went well.  I thought I could count on that quality of work for this job I hired him for in 2012.  

Wrong, I had them landscape my flower beds around the house. My property sloped downwards, so they had to grade the beds so the water would drain away from the house.  I also was told that I would benefit from a river rock border for better drainage for the flower beds on the side's of my house. It did not go well at all. They may have diverted the water but the beds were piled too high with soil & mulch, so I question it. Eric told me they are fine.  I told him I will watch them and see how they would hold up with the rain and if the mulch will stay in place. I know in time you add more mulch, but after a few rains showers the mulch was washed  to the end of the beds and you could see the weed barrier and the plants root's were 4" above ground. The river rocks could not be seen, they were covered in dirt and mulch. Many of the new plants they put in died because the root balls were so far out of the ground. 

I called Eric, he came, I was promised the beds would be fixed, plants would be replaced because they were dying. Plus the tree they planted in front bed was dead, also to be replaced. I also paid him for sod & labor for a spot on the side of my house. It was very HOT that summer, so he was to come back to finish the job when it cooled down.  I also paid for and wanted Lilly of Vally plants, Eric ordered them, they never arrived. Well, they still have my money and I have never received the sod or plants.

Well, that was in 2012 and I am still fighting them. I have filed a claim's with the BBB, they inform the BBB they will fix the problem, Eric sends the BBB a copy of an e mail they send to me saying we are going to fix this and never show up. I file again, again with the BBB, it goes in circle's.  I even caught this company, Eric  going in and out of my neighbors house, so I waited for him out side by his truck and said Eric you are here, right across the street from me and you do not even stop over to even discuss our problems. He came over, looked, again agreed the plants were not planted right and would solve this. I have called, e mailed them, never to receive a reply. 

So please do not use this company.  Eric is not the business or professional man his farther was. I have had his father Ed, servicing my sprinklers system for years. He was always a fair & honest man, but he is not stepping in or up to the plate to correct his sons mistakes. His son is to take over the business, well that's not going to work out.  

I also found out that they hire there workers from CRAIGS LIST, so you do not know who is coming to your house. I have had several different workers never the same person unless the sprinklers were being serviced.

One of their employees came back to my house  after the work was done and wanted to come in and talk. So please be very care-full.  

I have taken steps to take them to small claims court, I hope this will work.

By the way.... My neighbor had a problem with Eric too. The workers knocked off boulders from they're retaining wall and had to rent a bob cat to put the boulders back in place. They weighed about 60 to 90 lbs. Eric billed my neighbor for the rental charge for the bob cat or should I say tried. Neighbor informed Eric after the contract is up they will not be using them any more. They wanted out of the contract, but was refused.

I have plenty of pictures of their work. If any one want to see them just get in touch with me or just stop by to see for your self. I was told I could add them to this review, but have not figured out how, I will find out how. I also have copies of the e mails from Eric & Nina promising to  return to fix the problems and do the right thing because they are in the business of pleasing their customers.. HA 

Green Grass Lawn & Sprinklers LLC also had a different address than the one that appears here on Angie's list... when they did my work. It is still Eric Williams Ed Williams .   It is or was 

5510 NE Antioch  #297  Kansas City, MO 64119  Phone # 816 505-0190 , KS: 913 669-4548

It was hard to connect with owner Eric to get the job bid and started.  I put in extra effort to contact him however because I was very impressed with his knowledge of landscape, drainage, able to tailor to our needs.  He was also the only landscape company who offered to plant grass seed.  All of the other ones only offered one option "sod". 

So when the job started I was at home to watch progress.  The man in charge(not Eric the owner) said right away "I don't know how I am going dig this drain trench the way its drawn. Water does not flow uphill"  He began digging in a different direction which was not where the owner had drawn it and would have dumped in an already low area in my neighbors yard.  I knew this was wrong so I called Eric. After Eric called the man digging he did stop and start going the right way.  After that the man was visibly irritated.  Acted like it was a real inconvienence.  We knew it was the correct way and how important drainage is with a retaining wall.  Then he attached the French drain to the downspout too low and  water would not have drained so then the man was directed to move it up. 

Ok then the plants went in,  dogwoods in back and hostas in front. from the street looked awesome as did the retaining wall.  Just beautiful.  Then upon closer view the wall was still stunning but the dogwoods were visibly in distress and full of mold spots.

The man in charge told me yeah the nursery talked me into this, said all their dogwoods looked like this because of all the rain we had had.  He said they will pop right out of it. 

Then the grass seed went down and the blanket to go over it.  We watered it as was instructed.  Only a few springs of grass came up.  Even my neighbor who installed lawn sprinklers told me " Don't waste your water, I think you are seeing all you are going to see.  Just re seed in the fall.

Back to the moldy hostas,  after about 4 weeks it was apparent that the plants were not going to "snap out of it"  Even though we were watering the leaves remained black spotted and many leaves fell to the ground.  And these were plants that Eric suggested for the landscaping.  So I sent him pictures of the sickly plants and they replaced with Azaleas. which was our 2nd choice.

Now it is a good 2.5 months later and here's the update:  The retaining wall looks great,  The plants all look great except one of the azaleas.  But the grass...... Ok yes I know it needs to be re-seeded.  I have to call a company to do that but the so called bio-degradeable blanket did not do that it is now all brown instead of blue and I don't know if we will have to rip it up to re seed or what. also now there is a nice long crack in the earth right where the underground drain is and where the water surfaces the drain itself is not level with the lawn.  It doesn't look very good.

I did try to get a contract with Eric for lawn maintenance but hi s plans were too confusing.  He tries to do a Good Better and Best to choose from.  I couldn't understand them very well.

I had them originally do some landscaping. I was very pleased with the work. As a result, I decided to have them come out the following spring to do some pruning, mulching, fertilizing, general cleanup to keep things looking nice. That went fine for a couple of years.

In 2014, I decided that I would not have them perform this service. I contacted them in March 2014 to let them know only to discover that it was too late to cancel for the 2014 services. The original contract I signed back in 2012 had a rolling one-year clause. If I did not notify them at least one month before the new one-year period started (which was based on the date I signed the original contract), they assumed I had agreed to the services and they had me on the schedule.. Unfortunately, I had signed the contract in March so I would have had to notify them in February. I agreed to pay $125 as a penalty fee to get out of the contract for 2014.  This is my fault to not remember the terms of the contract I signed previously, but I think they could be more up-front and notify you each year that you need to cancel by a certain date. 

I think they would be okay to use for one-time projects but you need to be vigilant if you use them for any ongoing maintenance services. Read the agreement they ask you to sign carefully. If you can be organized enough to keep track of your "cancel by" date, then you might be okay using them. I haven't decided if I will or won't use them in the future. If I do, I definitely will only sign for the specific project and will not sign another open-ended contract.

We have a rather large yard because we live on a curve and most of it is on the side of the house.  It was in pitiful shape because we never watered.  It was just too big to spend all day several days a week moving the water sprinkler around the yard.  Joe and his team installed an irrigation system and renovate our yard (a very kind term for "Boy, this is a mess.  We really need to do something.")  Anyway, his cost included the lawn renovation and was the same as a competitors just for the irrigation system.  And, best of all, we actually have grass again.  He does expect it to take a couple of years to get it to the place where my husband wants it to be, but we have contracted with him to do that.  For now, it is on track to go from one of the worst (not quite the worst) lawns in the neighborhood to one of he best.  You will love working with Joe.  He is an extremely nice person, patient, answers all your questions, offers advice to help with specific problems areas, and checks on your job personally.  We had an extremely difficult place in the back of our house where we could not get grass to grow AT ALL.  It was really frustrating because we tried everything.  He suggested a different type of seed and, of course, much more water than we had been able to put on it before.  But, with the new sprinkler system, that was not problem.  It comes on and goes off, and we don't have to do a thing.  It even has a rain sensor so that if it rains at least 1/4 inch the sprinklers won't come on until the next day.  We really love it and are looking forward to beautiful grass and fewer weeds.