Alvarez Lawn Service

The deal was supposed to cost $500 including the material. I paid him a check for $500. They never bought the material as agreed. I had to go buy it myself from Lowes and had it delivered to my home. After missing his appointment to show up for 2 days,he finnaly showed up. he started laying the stones without using any gravel or glue. he said this is just for us to look at the design and once we approve, he will actually do the work by gluing the stones. He then disappeared and never returned our calls. Not only that, but also Stole two pieces of tools from my garage. now my front yard has stones all over my drive way. complete mess. They clearly did poor work and don't care about about their customers. I am reporting this to Cary Police department for not delivering service, stealing my money and stealing my tools Very disappointing! Buyer beware,

I hired Alvarez's Lawn Maintenance after I found a small ad stuck on my mailbox from that business. I initially called to get a free estimate to pick up pinestraw I had ordered, to put it out for me, to trim 8 small holly bushes, to do some edging and to do some weed whacking on one side of my home. He also added another estimate for $27 to cut my lawn. (My lawn takes a half hour to cut so I passed on this service even though Edgar insisted I have a big yard). I asked for the estimate in writing. Edgar looked slightly annoyed but wrote the quoted prices on the back of the tiny ad. I had kept that as a back up to consider using as I had intended to hire another man who I had met a few months earlier. I had called the original person I had planned to hire and he was booked until August so I opted to call Edgar Alvarez as I wanted to get the pinestraw I had ordered several months earlier, picked up and put out. I should have listened to my gut feeling about Edgar as in my initial meeting, he seemed quite unfriendly with a chip on his shoulder. Nevertheless, as I wanted to get the work done. I called him and we arranged for a time very soon when he would do the work. I had figured maybe he had a bad day the first time I had met him so opted to give him another chance. Knowing that my earlier meeting with him was not very positive, I made a real point to happily greet him despite me seeing Edgar dump a soft drink in his hand into the street in front of my house. I wasn't happy about that but overlooked it although I later cleaned it up. I went up to greet him with a smile on my face and stuck out my hand to say hello when he arrived. He gave me a very weak handshake which made me feel like he didn't want to shake my hand. However, he was on time and had a helper with him (whom he didn't introduce me to but later told me was his son). I made a point of greeting his son (who looked uncomfortable when I said hello and smiled). His son was plugged into an Ipod. They unloaded the pinestraw and I showed Edgar where I wanted the pinestraw laid. He seemed to listen but I got the feeling that he didn't like much customer (female?) direction. Soon, Edgar's son started to put the pinestraw out. Edgar started trimming the holly bushes. I went in the house as I didn't want them to feel that I was looking over their shoulder. I went outside later and noticed that the pinestraw was not put in all the places I had intended and that some places where it was put needed to be moved. Edgar acted very exasperated when I kindly asked if a few spots could be moved. It was done and he opted to do it in other places his way, rather than mine. I did bring them both glasses of ice water as they looked hot. They both seemed to appreciate that. (After they left, I wound up moving some of the straw to the places I had originally suggested). Edgar then started trimming the bushes. Again, they were not taken down that much. In fact, one bush was hanging over the driveway when Edgar was done with it. I asked him to please trim it more and he looked unhappy that I wanted it trimmed more. However, he did trim it a little more. I brought him two empty garbage cans for the trimmings. He said he could take it away but I said that yardwaste pick-up was that day. To make it easier for him, I suggested he use my cans and leave them at the street. He and his son cleaned up some trimmings and did add them to my garbage cans for pick-up that day. Meanwhile, his son was weed whacking on the side of my house. He too, cleaned up some of those trimmings using my cans. However, he whacked off some of my long standing periwinkle growing down the hill. When I asked him about it, he denied doing so. It was too late for me to do anything about it. I assumed he would have known not to kill a living plant. Apparently he didn't! I did also see Edgar do a little edging (unevenly) using a shovel which was part of our agreement. I assumed (falsely), that the edging price he quoted would include edging the lawn areas. He said no when I asked him to please do that. He said that would have to be another day. He looked sweaty and unhappy. I said okay and went to pay them. I assumed since he kept saying that he's a professional, that all was tidy. Unfortunately, I did not inspect the work while they were there. That was a big mistake on my part. I paid them after 2 1/2 hours of work. Edgar then said they needed lunch money for the added 5 bales they picked up (as originally he had quoted me $100 for 30 bales). I had them keep one bale for me to use at a later date. So I gave him an extra $15 for lunch and asked if that was enough. He said yes. So they left. I then went outside to recheck the job as Edgar had assured me all was completed. When I went outdoors I was horrified to see that almost none of the bush trimmings were cleared away. I worked on cleaning out the bushes myself for an hour and a half . It was a very prickly and messy job and one of the main reasons I had hired out this work. I further discovered that the trimmed bushes were not cut to be the same size and were not nearly trimmed enough. I was shocked at how they look (they still need more work). I came in the house and called Edgar letting him know that the bush trimmings were left. He said he would send his son the next day to not only clean up the bushes, but also, do the lawn trimming for an added $20. The next day, no one showed up or called. I have lost all respect for Alvarez Lawn Maintenance. They clearly do poor work and don't care about how they treat their customer. Perhaps he thought he could get away with it as no man was around. Very disappointing! Buyer beware, especially single women. I definitely wanted to forewarn others about the poor quality of work they provided.

It was okay. Kind of average. I called them up and requested that they come out. Basically, they just came out and cut the grass and left. I've never even saw them or talk to them before they got started.

I have been using them for several years. They are very good. Their pricing is very reasonable.