CAROLINA MULCH PLUS INC

Finished worked looked fantastic, Will was neat and cleaned up after completed job, highly recommend!!!

It's difficult to find a positive aspect of this experience to start off with. After the salesman came and gave us an initial estimate of approximately $1, 950 and an initial delivery date, we thought everything was set. But the delivery date came and went with no word from the company. We called to find out why no one had come and why we had not heard from them, and were told the truck had broken down, required repair, and they were now backed up. We waited almost two full weeks past the initial estimated delivery date, and the only time we received information/updates was when we called and asked what was going on and where we were in the queue. When the truck finally arrived on the Friday before the July 4th weekend, it was too big to get up our driveway. Even though we live in the mountains and are not the only people who have a steep slope driveway, once again a job was placed on hold because the estimator had not considered the basic question of whether the equipment could get onto the property. The driver did make several attempts, creating deep gouges in the road at the base of the driveway in the process, but was unable to get up the drive. They had to leave, take the truck back across town, unload the mulch and load it back onto a smaller truck, returning to our house several hours later. By now, it was after lunch and the 2 young men were rushing to complete the job. When they got to the back corner of our property, where it adjoins the driveway and backyard of a neighbor, something went wrong with their truck. Instead of continuing to blow out mulch, it was blowing out a black powder. Instead of stopping and returning again to the shop, the men tried to work with the machinery and ended up blowing huge amounts of this black powder onto our neighbor's property, driveway, house and porch. The windowsills of our house were also filled with it. Our neighbor's screened porch, which is approx. 15 yards away from the point where they were working, was covered inside and out with the black powder. It would seem this could only have happened if they held the hose pointed at their house while it was blowing the powder. The men ran out of time to work and had to leave without completing the job. Due to the holiday, it was several days before they could return to complete the job. When they returned, we asked them not to do any further work at the back of the property unless they could assure us that no more powder or mulch would blow onto our neighbor's property. They didn't even talk about whether it would be a problem, they just moved to a different part of the property and began working there. They finished blowing mulch in the other areas that had not been done previously and then presented us with an invoice that was adjusted to reflect the mulch they did not use. However, we were still charged for the mulch that was churned to powder. And the truck they brought the 2nd week leaked hydraulic fluid in the driveway and stained it. We have made multiple phone calls to the company asking them to make reparations to our neighbors for the damage that was done to their home and property. Their house and driveway had to be powerwashed in order to remove the powder that was blown onto them. The people at Carolina Mulch started out by giving them, and us, the run-around. We contacted the salesman, who said he would send the truck driver to talk to them. We didn't think this made any sense, but were hoping that perhaps Carolina Mulch was one of those companies that empowers their employees to make decisions to help people. But when the truck driver finally went to talk with the neighbors, he only told them he couldn't do anything about the problem. We have made multiple phone calls, each time being told that things would be taken care of. But nothing is ever done. I personally spoke with Chip Gould, the owner of the company who said he would turn it over to his insurance company, but now he won't take calls from the people involved. We had offered to pay for the cleaning of our neighbor's property, but they want Carolina Mulch to make it right. The other thing that bothered us is that we were not told the of the potential the type of mulch we had chosen had for being toxic. We were given a choice of two types of mulch, at the same price, and not made aware of any difference between them. So of course we chose the hardwood shred over pine needles. But any leaves or grass the mulch came into contact with, died. This never happened with the mulch we bought from Asheville Mulch Yard and spread ourselves. So many aspects of this experience were distressing. But none of it is as distressing as what our neighbors have experienced as a result of our decision to use Carolina Mulch Plus.