WITTMAIER E H & SON

I contacted a number of yard care companies regarding my home in North County, which I use as a rental property. Yard care, other than light weeding, is not part of the tenant's responsibility. Usually the mowing/edging service that cares for the yard is adequate to keep down overgrowth. This year, though, with the hot, wet summer, and lots of Japanese honeysuckle coming from a neighbor's yard, unwanted growth was out of control. I selected Wittmaier to do the work, speaking directly with Larry Wittmaier, the owner. He made a site visit and provided an estimate, again by phone. At this time, we are not in agreement as to the amount of the estimate; my recollection is $2,000 and his recollection is $2,500. He also recommended "raising" the sweet gum trees on the property, meaning that they had low-hanging branches that would impeded mowing and should be trimmed up. I said I did not need that, but Mr. Wittmaier was convinced it would be beneficial, so I consented to including the trimming. The results were excellent as to quality of work. It was clear that the crew were extremely good at trimming. All the shrubs were beautifully shaped, and mulch was put down in the right places. The crew even transplanted some peonies to a better location from their previous site. However, the crew also worked on a bed of shrubs in front of the house, which I had indicated they should skip, as I had other plans for it, and in the process of using weed killer, killed one of the two creeping evergreens I had planted there five years ago. After the first phase of the work, neighbors confirmed that work had been done, and I paid an initial bill for $1840. Mr. Wittmaier promised to have the remainder of the work completed by the time of my inspection visit the first weekend in August. He kept that promise, working over some of the hottest late July-early August days of this year (2010). The second bill was much larger than expected: $1230, bringing the total charges to $3070. That is at least $570 dollars over the original estimate (based on Mr. Wittmaier's recollection) and as much as $1070 (based on my recollection). When I called about the difference, Mr. Wittmaier conceded that he should have called me before proceeding over estimate, and suggested I could reduce my payment by $100 or $200. At this point I could use some help from Angie's List in determining what is fair. I think Mr. Wittmaier's company does excellent work, but I only approved the tree trimming within the original estimate, and did not approve additional removal of an entire dead tree, which the crew did as well. I would like to resolve this in a way fair to both of use, but am not sure what that is. -------------- I'm writing this some days later from the above. I have not heard from Angie's List about the dispute, so rather than wait, I decided to accept the contractor's offer to cut $200 from the total price, and pay the remainder. I discussed this with the contractor before making the decision. Summary of my experience: The contractor does excellent work, but I told him that his standards and priorities are more in keeping with more manicured neighborhoods, and I cannot afford some of the measures he implemented. In addition, he strongly insisted on doing tasks that I did not want done, such as raising the canopy level of some trees. He clearly had a vision for my yard that was more important to him than my input, and the fact that he killed one of my shrubs did not seem important to him.. If you can afford the best, and want a take-charge contractor, I would not hesitate to recommend this company. If you want to be more in charge and are on a tighter budget, I would suggest looking around for another provider.

I have used this company for a year now. I called for an initial consultation. Mr. Wittmaier came on time and walked over the property with me. I told him what I wanted done. He told me what he recommended I do. He gave me a price, which I accepted. On the scheduled day his workers arrived on time, did the work quickly and efficiently, and left me with a beautiful yard.