TruGreen Lawn Care - 5905

This company is a true representation of how every horrible company should run itself. Rude customer service, incompetent lawn workers and managers with false promises. STAY AWAY!

TruGreen is, hands-down, the WORST company that I have EVER dealt with. They serviced my lawn for about a year before I fired them, and there’s so much wrong with them that I don’t even know where to begin. I was having my lawn fertilized by another firm that was actually doing a halfway decent job, though the lawn didn’t quite look the way I expected it to. So, I gave TruGreen a shot. Big mistake. The first summer went pretty well (in spite of TruGreen, not because of them), but by the following May, I began having serious lawn problems: numerous widespread dead patches, along with an unreasonable assortment of weeds. When the technician came to fertilize the lawn, what did his service note say? “I noticed some areas of your lawn are greening up faster than others. Your lawn should green up more evenly as it warms up.” Nonsense. The lawn was fine in early spring, so it wasn’t a failure to “green up.” It was actually greening DOWN! After calling the office to complain, a different technician came out to investigate. What did his service note say? “I noticed a disease called Red Thread is active in your lawn. This disease is favored by the current weather conditions and NORMALLY (emphasis added) does not cause permanent damage.” Now, let me get this straight: My lawn has a disease that it MIGHT NOT recover from, and despite the fact that treatments are readily available, you did NOTHING to cure it? Wonderful. Thanks for that. One of the technician’s other service notes said that if I had any questions, then give him a call. Ok, maybe we’re finally taking a step in the right direction! But no direct phone number for the technician was provided, and when I called the office and referenced the technician by name, they didn’t even know who he was. It’s truly pathetic, but this company doesn’t even know who its OWN EMPLOYEES are! Several weeks and several complaints later, the lawn was still deteriorating. In addition to Red Thread disease, they also noted the presence of Brown Patch disease, but still did NOTHING to cure it. Incensed, I called the office and told them that I’m an inch away from canceling their service, and if they want a snowball’s chance in **** of keeping my business, they’d better get someone to my property WHILE I’M HOME so we can discuss the problems face-to-face. When the technician arrived, he indicated that the lawn was being attacked by a fungus, and that a fungicide needs to be applied. Ok, now maybe we’re getting somewhere! When I asked him to schedule an application, he replied, “You’ll need to call the office and do that yourself.” Excuse me…WHAT? So now, when a technician notices a problem, it’s up to ME to call the office and request further treatments? Their OWN EMPLOYEES don't have the authority to order additional service when it's CLEARLY needed? Totally absurd! When you take your car into the shop, has your mechanic ever said, “You need a new radiator, but you’ll have to call the Parts Department and order it?!” Totally unprofessional and absurd. Fearing that the treatment would never be done, I called the office and requested the fungicide. Did anyone ever show up to apply it? Nope. Of course not! That was the last straw. I terminated my relationship with them, and received a refund for the remaining balance of treatments. Now, even a marginally competent company would call a departing customer to say, “Gee, Mr. Smith, we’re very sorry to hear that you’re leaving. Would you spare a few minutes of your time to tell me why you made that decision, so that we can learn from it and provide better service in the future?” It’s Business 101, not to mention common courtesy. Did TruGreen do this? Nope. Of course not! But this is the most mismanaged company I’ve ever seen, so why should that be a surprise? If you demand a meeting with a technician, then good luck with that. Ask for a firm date and time range for the next service so you can be home to speak to them in-person, and all you get is, “Oh, we don’t know when they’ll be in your neighborhood.” Really? So at TruGreen, you wake up on Monday and go to work, NOT KNOWING where you’re going to be and what you’re going to do that week? Their policy appears to include avoiding direct contact between the technician and the customer. After all, you know how big a pain in the rear end you PESKY CUSTOMERS can be – always wasting their employees’ time with questions and complaints! I gave TruGreen many, many chances to make things right. But they are so unprofessional, so incompetent, and so completely blind to their customers’ needs that I doubt they could make my lawn look good if they had a truck full of green spray paint! Their incompetence is so gross that it defies belief. It’s nearly impossible to be that bad at something. It’s almost as if it’s intentional. They know their service is awful, and they simply don’t care. All they’re interested in is taking your money and providing the BARE MINIMUM service, while hoping that you’ll be too stupid or too oblivious to notice their shoddy service. Then, when your grass is half dead, they’ll blame everything and everyone – including the LAWN itself – except themselves! It’s a complete insult to any reasonable person’s intelligence. I’ve decided to forego all lawn care services, and have taken over the job myself. Yes, TruGreen has soured me THAT much. I’ve been purchasing the Scotts products and began following their fertilization schedule. Even with very little experience in this area, my lawn looks better already, and I’m confident that I can do a much better job than TruGreen did. So do yourself a favor and STAY AWAY from this miserable excuse for a company.

Never showed up for 6th treatment. I called and they have rescheduled, but 8 weeks between applications is unacceptable when I paid for one monthly. Weeds continue to grow even after treatment.

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They offered us a package when we first got it. What they do is we pay the package and they do the lawn for the whole year, fertilizing and all that.  There is a whole lot of stuff in there that they do for us. Our grass was in a worse shape so they had to do more work on it than we thought.  They are alright. They come on time. They are quick and efficient. They put all the little warnings out for the dogs and let us know. It doesn't end till October. They work with us on price. The guy called us so obviously they wanted the business. He was very nice. They usually come early in the morning. They come 9 o'clock and are done pretty quickly. They have uniforms and nice trucks.

Except for customer service personnel, extremely unprofessional.   Weed application did absolutely nothing and my lawn was full of weeds, dandelions & clover.  Shrub "specialist" had never heard of the thrips bug that was damaging my boxwoods (treatment is simply spraying oil) and never commented on what to do about a few failing rhodie's.  Was quoted one price for tree & shrub application and then told that it would cost more than twice what was quoted.  I cancelled all services (lawn, tree/shrubs & ortho insect control) and will never use Scott's again.

It was horrible. I'm going to fire them. I don’t mind paying money if it works. I hate it when I pay money and there is no impact. The previous time I used them, the price was $925 for the aeration, seeding and service call. I had been paying them $134 for the routine fertilization and weed killing. They do six or seven of these a year. I had them do the aeration and seeding because the rest of it was such a disaster that I had to really reseed the whole lawn. They missed one of the appointments. They just didn’t come one time. It was in the late spring which is fairly critical. So my lawn was a mess all year, and I blame it on them. I had to do the over seeding with the aeration for $900, which did absolutely nothing. I didn’t get a single wad of new grass out of that. I was on a business trip. I was not sure that they came. They said that they did. The season ended. They left a phone message asking to prepay for the entire next year's season. I am not always home. I haven't been able to speak with them directly. I won't be inviting them to render their services again. For most of the times, they showed up. Presumably, they did what they are supposed to do. I paid them over $2000 over the course of the summer, and my lawn is worse than when I started. For what they do, it's a very competitive cost. I did bid it out to a number of people, and they are in there. They are not the cheapest; they are reasonable. With regard to quality, the effectiveness was highly suspect. The times that I tried to contact them, they are not easy to get a hold of. They missed the one appointment. The other times, they were okay. It's not like they weren't professional.

I am not a lawn care professional, however, I could do a better job on my worst day with no preparation, forethought, or effort, than this company could hope to accomplish on the best day, in perfect conditions, with step by step instructions. 
Let's take tour through the lived and very real incompetence that is the TruGreen experience.
Sign up, get charged nearly $400.00...so far...the plan involves a total of $900.00. In return for that expense  what you get in return is quite simply rushed, shoddy, and work that gives every indication of intentional inadequacy. I do not need to exaggerate.
Job 1: The goal was to aerate the entire lawn. This was done inconsistently [entire sections of the lawn were missed] and they also skipped back yard. Half the lawn for all of the money!
Job 2: Seed bare spots on the lawn. This was accomplished only to the extent that seed was tossed in the general vicinity of bare spots, without any true desire for those seeds to grow into actual grass. No surprise...no grass has grown.
Job 3: Treat the lawn. Did not happen. They decided to skip that step entirely. 
How many calls does it take to have the work done properly? One? No, one call is for sleek professionals with a reputation to uphold and protect. Two? No, two calls are for professionals who may miss a call because they're so busy checking to make sure that every job is done correctly. Three calls? No three calls are for companies that simply cannot take the time to care about the work they do. Four calls? Nope. Four calls are for companies that  simply hope to be bad at what they do.  Five mind-numbingly useless calls, where pleading and politeness have no impact whatsoever...are for companies like TruGreen that are  engaged in the effort to be actively and purposefully incompetent. TruGreen has shown to be adept at only one thing, ineptitude. 
Do yourself a favor and save yourself some money, never think about using, and DO NOT EVER use TruGreen. They are a disgrace.

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The guy that showed up seemed to be good. The lawn was pretty good.They were all right but a little expensive. They were getting more and more expensive.

Had used Trugreen for a few years. The first few years where great but these guys turned terrible in my last 2 seasons with them. 2 years ago part of my lawn dies 3 days after they applied a fertilizer.  I called Tru Green and they said someone would come look the next day, no one showed up. A few days later when someone came to fertilize they blamed the dead grass on my dog and "too much shade". Makes no sense since the grass was fine for the past 5 years with my dog and same shade.

I rehired them this year since I did a massive remodel on my house and much of the grass died. I told them I wanted lawn aeration now in the spring and for starter fertilizer to be put down instead of pre emergent. Tru Green totally ignored this and put down pre emergent. I cant understand why or how the person applying this thought it would be a good idea to place something that will prevent grass from growing considering half my yard is nothing but dirt. It clearly shows no care for my lawn what so ever and a complete incompetence to do a simple job.

When I called to complain I was told a service manager would call me back. A week later no one did and when I called again I was told my service was cancelled.

I appreciated his honesty. I liked the fact that he was recommended by Angie's List. I am going to have him do the service for my lawn.

After they supposedly seeded, there was no seed anywhere and no divots of dirt which I paid for. I then would monitor them and determined that they were not coming at all at times and others purposely missed a lot. I called about 30 times and not once was able to get a manager after being assured I would. Also, had such an attitude from most of the people I spoke to.
I had to fight it on my credit card. I finally received a call from a manager then in which I explained the situation and they said they would get back to me. They never id.
This hands down is the worst company I have ever dealt with!

Since service was moved from Marlborough to Albany to Upper Saddle River, there has been little communication about the changes as most communications have been moved to a 800 number call center, no local interaction with those who would know their customers.  Service was scheduled for last week, no one showed, called and got through to a manager who said service would be on Monday for sure.  No one showed and at 5:30 pm someone called to say they would be out on Wednesday.  I had the lawn mowed and leaves cleared on Sunday ready for Monday's over seeding and aeration.  Now lawn is covered with leaves again.  I asked to have Christine the mgr. call me. No call, so  called, reached the 800 number call center and was told there was no note in the system for her to call me.  Left another message for her to call today.  Very frustrating.  Service is delayed for employees on vacation, out sick, equipment not working. 

They did the work, they might not have been that professional, but the work was done.

We have used them for several years. The weeds are not kept in check properly and they say they will do a free treatment between visits and you have to call them. You never get the free treatment and the weeds are not taken care of. They do not spray for the crab grass at the right time. They always try to sell you different products and they do not seem knowledgeable on what products go with different types of shrubs.

I am very frustrated with them. I have called for extra service and they said they are coming in, and they do not show up and it has been very frustrating. The manager, when I dealt with him he ultimately came up and it was probably a 2.5 hours or 3 hours drive from his home here, but he came last night and he was delightful. The people who actually service the property are very pleasant, and when they do come they seem thorough. However, I have just been frustrated by the fact that they say that they are coming and then not showing up or if I call for the extra treatment they always schedule and do not get here. Of course I was away and I left the papers and no body ever showed up. Regarding quality, my yard looks like awful. The manager, once I get a hold of him, he reacts. He was here last night and he is trying to make things right right now. The people, when the come, they are very professional and very polite.

This time around when we used them here it did not worked. It's way overrated and a lousy license and what they sell in the bag is a whole lot better than what they spray on the grass.