Pitzer Landscaping

Everything went smoothly, from the initial contact to the follow-up conversation after delivery.

I ordered 1/2 cord of firewood from Norman. I did not realize until the day of delivery that stacking was $25 extra, but that was added to my request and the wood was stacked where I asked. As I have seen in other reviews, the first batch of wood Norman delivered was VERY wet and would not burn, no matter what we did. Even after some of it was indoors for 3 weeks, it still would not burn, water just seeped out everywhere and the fire died out. I called Norman to let him know, and he offered to exchange out the wood, which he did the very next day. The new wood he delivered is burning very nicely. While it was annoying to have to switch out the wood, Norman did it promptly and was professional about the matter. I do believe he wants his clients to be happy, and I will order wood from him next year.

See the statement in the block above this one.

I called to order firewood from Norman Pitzer after reviewing previous Angie's List reports. I called a week ago and was called back the same day. I was given a quote which was very reasonable and we scheduled a time to deliver the wood. He called the night before as he said he would and stacked all the wood where I had asked. I left a check under the matt and everything was perfect. He even called that night to make sure that I was satisfied with everything. A professional experience all the way around

If you do business with Pitzer?s be sure to get everything in writing. In 2010 we used Pitzer?s to tear up and hydro seed our front lawn. They did a nice job and appeared to be conscientious about their work with a couple follow up visits to check up on their work. In the spring of 2011 we completing re-landscape our back yard. At the time there was no question that we wanted Pitzer?s to do the grading and seeding work. In fact, we didn?t even get any other quotes (mistake 1). After some initial grading, Pitzers?s charged us for multiple truck loads totaling $1,000.00 for the removal of soil which they said was ?bad? and could not be used. This was an extra over their initial quote. After the pitzers completed the initial grading we had a different company install a new paver walkway and patio (this company was attentive, professional and wonderful ? Landscape Teacher). Pitzers was then to come back, perform the finish grading (which I was charged additionally to add more ?good? soil), then hydroseed the grass. Before this work was performed I was very specific in my direction that I wanted the yard level with the newly installed pavers. After the final grading and hydroseeding was performed, I can home to find the grade was not as directed (level with the pavers) and the grade itself was terrible with high points and low points. This is when the service level dropped off. I met with Pitzers at least 3 different times showing them and pointing specifically out all the low spots and where the grading was not satisfactory. When they came out, the work was completed incorrectly, insufficient and not as I specifically directed them to do. In fact on one occasion they added dirt to an area where I told them was high and needed removed! I even went to the extreme of taking landscape paint to outline the areas needing regrading. That still didn?t work. Please note every time Pitzers came out I would physically show them what was needed and they never once wrote down any notes. I even mentioned this to them several times. During this time return calls were not as prompt and the general tone of the conversations was not good. Finally on August 17, 2011 I spoke with Norman Pitzer on the phone. From the beginning he was argumentative telling me that he had tried calling me several times (he never left voice messages) and that he did exactly what I told him to do. Which was incorrect. In order to resolve the issue, I offered to pay for all the additional materials (soil, etc.) needed to finish the job to our satisfaction and that I would be onsite with him so there so I could direct all their actions/ work. He said fine and he agreed he would call me at the beginning of September a week before he would come back out. I never heard back from him so I took it upon myself to finish the work properly. It took approximately 13 cubic yards of soil, several bags of seed, and a vacation day to complete the job myself. Please note he charged me $1,000 dollars to remove ?bad? soil. Regardless, I did tell him I would pay for the additional materials. After doing it myself we now have a beautiful, level, full of grass backyard. Everyone in Central Ohio knows we had a very wet spring and dry summer. Probably not ideal for growing grass but I understand this and my issue with Pitzer was about not listening to what the client wanted, never completing the job as required, and overall satisfaction with service. If you use this company be sure to get exactly everything in writing or they will do the job as they see fit and not what the customer wanted. Additional note, I've attached pictures of what ?finished? yard looked at different times during the summer after Pitzers had ?completed? the work. Please note the first picture of all the knee high weeds. This is what it looked like after we came back from a weeks vacation around July 4th. If you use them you might want to ask where they get their topsoil as the soil provided to us apparently had a lot of weeds in it along with some other pictured debris. What is laughable was Pitzers told me the weeds came from seed blown from the neighboring yards! I would agree if the weeds were dandelions. I?ve also included pictures of the finish grade after I was done fixing the yard in September. Note that almost the entire back yard is dirt. This is how poorly their job was getting the final grade to where we requested. Update January 4, 2012 - The statements in their response are inaccurate. I was not out of town for 3 weeks, and we did water when it stopped raining. If he called he never left a message. False statements.

Very responsive and delivered exactly when he said he would. Waited until now to review because wanted to see how wood would burn--it's GREAT. Best firewood we have had. Thanks

Called on Monday and delivered wood by thursday. Left check in screen door and unloaded wood exactly where I requested. Wood is dry and seems to be good quality. Would definatly use again. Called back after delivery to check on satisfaction.

I called Norman late this year and he explained he was two weeks out on deliveries. Within a week, on a Sunday, he managed to fit me in based on the fact I am a repeat customer. Friendship and loyalty to your customers. It does not get any better than that.

Mr. Pitzer returned my call promptly and described the product and his service in detail. He advised that he was busy, put my name on his list for delivery and provided his estimate for one cord of firewood, dumped. Despite this, I felt his delivery time was acceptable. Prior to the delivery, Mr. Pitzer confirmed the order, obtained directions to my residence and my instructions for the delivery location on my property. The wood delivered was a good mix and cut and split in pieces small enought for about any fireplace. Mr. Pitzer was polite and personable on the phone.

Have used Norm for the last 2 years- will continue to use him for firewood- Norm was prompt in getting back with me, scheduling around my requirements and delivering a top quality product. He even educated me on how wood is in a cord! Norm followed up afterward to insure that our expectations were met- great to have good service and product!

They did a good job. They were a little high. They communicated a lot, it took them a few weeks to get everything. It was raining so they couldn't cut it at the time.

spoke to norm about 3 weeks prior to when it was delivered as he was running about 3 - 4 weeks out for firewood(will note that he was up front and honest about having a pretty lengthy lead time on ordering the wood and wanted to make sure we were ok with that. appreciated that as it kept us from waiting around wondering if we were forgotten or if we were going to hear from him). As promised, he kept in touch along the way contacting us as it was getting closer to delivery. Ended up hearing from him a little sooner than he had thought (maybe just under three weeks), we set up a delivery date and he called about 30 minutes out to let us know his guys were on their way. dropping it off took all of 2 minutes and the guys were great . We were super satisfied with the quality of the wood as well as the quantity (it was a bit more than we expected). Got a follow up call from norm about an hour after the delivery to make sure we were satisfied. as this is our first winter with a fireplace, and first time ordering firewood, he spent about 10 minutes telling me all his tricks and pointers to starting a great fire.

This was a 100% positive experience. Norman Pitzer was very cordial, prompt, and expert at scheduling and describing his service and product. He was also flexible. I made a mistake: I didn't ask him to have the wood stacked ? until I thought of it that morning. But Norman told me that he would have his men do it ? and they did. (Of course, there was a reasonable service charge, discounted for Angie's List members.) The wood looks great. Norman told me that all his wood has been aged a year. It looks very dry and is split nicely for my fireplace. I'm very happy to have found Pitzer Landscaping and Firewood on Angie's List!

I keep promising myself not to get aggravated at stuff, but there are times when I just can help it. This is one of those times. The quote for the project was $1,150 per day, to take a team (size not defined) two or three days to complete, with simple math, somewhere between $2,300 to $3,450. To make this very clear, the $3,450 or so was NOT for the entire yard. In fact, it was only about 2/3 of the back fence line, or to put it another way, about 20% of the total back yard. When I did the math, I realized that the cost on a pro rata basis to clean up the entire back yard could approach $10,000. YIKES. LOL. OMG, etc. I only wanted the middle and east thirds of the back fence line cleaned up. The middle third, the nastier of the two sections, a real tangle and overgrown mess. I wanted 7 very large pokeweed bushes and 3 freewill large honeysuckle bushes cut down, 3 varigated leaf dogwoods trimmed back, the flowering stalks of 6 yucca plants, plus whatever limited amount of hand weeding was created by all of this, with everything hauled away. Infuriated by the sheer outrageousness and inherent insult of the quote, I went out the next day and did the middle third of the fence line myself. It took me, with my happy homeowner tools and two very old and sore female shoulders, about 1 1/2 hours to do this particular section, tie the large stuff up into 5 bundles and fill 3 yard refuse bags. OBTW, the work stated above is the actual count of the plants I took out. The next day, I paid my lawn service company $20 to haul it all to the dump. His explanation in support of the estimate covered all the usual and expected points: equipment cost, worker's comp, insurance and bonding, plus there was no direct access to the back yard. Well, I put in that double wide gate for a reason, and actually there is access to the gate, but why bother with facts. I've schlepped this stuff from back to front for years, so I know exactly how far is it. BTW, it took two guys less than 10 minutes to walk stuff from back yard to their truck. WOW, that is a heck of a problem. The sheer outrageousness of the estimate inspired me not only to do the work mywelf but to write this. This was not then, and never will be a job that 1) should have been quoted at two or three days at $1,150/da, or 2) should have taken a team of young strong male backs, using professional grade tools and with the proper equipment, anything close to two or three days to complete. End of discussion.

I left a message on a Monday morning, Norm called back within hours, was out to give us an estimate the next day. He gave us ideas for landscaping around our new driveway, didn't feel like he was trying to "upsell" us. We ended up selecting Norm to do the work about 2 weeks later. The job ended up being bigger than he thought - he estimated 2 days' work but it was 3 due to the massive amounts of old mulch/pine bark that needed to be removed. Also, our backyard cannot be accessed by bobcat, everything had to be wheelbarrowed in and out (and up hill!). However, he stayed true to his estimate and didn't charge extra. End result is a massive upgrade in curb appeal, everything looks wonderful. We will definitely have Norm come back in the Spring, he had more ideas that we will consider going forward.

very responsive on the phone and was quick to schedule, did several walk thrus of what I wanted but did not write anything down. Some items had to come back a 2nd time because of communication issues (forgot what I told them?) ie different bush trimmed more when I told them which one I wanted redone @ least twice, weeds not all removed the first time. Removed some items I told them not to (and some plants ripped out that I wanted to keep, I asked owner if guys knew the difference between weeds and plants and I was told they did but still happened). They did try to make it right by coming back and did mulch more than I think they intended to (which cost them man hours/$) but I felt I was clear @ what I wanted but they didn't listen closely (so not really my fault that they didn't give correct estimate). Felt I had to spend alot of time explaining what I wanted, many walk thrus, took up my time, still didn't get it until the end but at least they kept coming back to make it right so I thank them for that. Maybe taking notes or drawing a picture of where landscape items are that customer wants done would help with communication in the long run (I know he thought this was a "small job" but this is alot of $ for me).

I use Pitzer all the time for firewood but I am NOT one of his regular customers for yard work. In spite of that Norm had a crew out within two days. They did a tremendous job on a trimming project that would have taken me a week. They resolved it in a few hours. The work was excellent as was the clean-up. As always Norm is a pleasure to deal with and his crew was very professional. If you need something done this is the company to use. Fair, professional, courteous and the price is always right too.

We called them twice and left messages but they never even bothered to return our calls

This is a small family operation. They worked fast, did a good job and included everything I had asked them to do.

My one-acre yard is wooded and sloped. A lawn was first established on it over 20 years ago shortly after my house was built. Over the years, the backyard got shadier, the grass got thinner and thinner, and the soil eroded. The grade of the yard and the sparse ground cover resulted in so much erosion that the tree roots in the backyard became exposed and the yard was a muddy mess every time it rained. I called Pitzer’s on a Thursday in early March to get an estimate for building up the yard with topsoil and establishing a new lawn. Norman Pitzer called me back the same day and arranged to come out the next day (Friday) to look at my yard. Norman and I walked through the yard together and I told him about my concerns. It was raining at the time, so Norman could see how the water ran through the yard. As he assessed the situation, it was very apparent that Norman had a lot of experience with this type of erosion and runoff issue. He explained in detail how he would tackle the problem and gave me a breakdown of his charges. His approach was educational rather than high-pressure. The following Monday, Norman called me to see if I had any questions for him and to point out a related concern he had thought about over the weekend. He came out again that day and we discussed his concern: the sloped garden area that ran from the end of my driveway down to the backyard. He suggested that, since I planned to invest a lot of money and effort in a new lawn, I might want to consider some measures to reduce runoff into the new lawn and erosion from that area. We both agreed that this area should be addressed with some tiered, stone retaining walls. Norman gave me a very reasonable quote for doing this. He also agreed to take care of some bare and sunken areas in my front yard that needed more soil and seed -- which he threw in at no extra charge. I hired him. Norman was very particular about the work that he and his team did in my yard. He made the timing of my project a priority because the weather had to be just right (dry ground for spreading the soil, followed by spring rains for germinating the seed). The project was very labor intensive. There was no way to get a soil slinger to the backyard, so the soil was all dumped in the street, carried back by bobcat (load after load after load) and spread by hand. Norman then spread and raked in a special blend of grass seed, hydro-seeded over that (because over-seeding would attain the best results), and again raked in the seed. He ended up providing an additional tandem of soil and repairing a large part of the side yard at no additional change, because he thought that improving the side yard would help slow down the runoff from the side to and through the backyard. After finishing the the seeding, Norman set up hoses and sprinklers around the perimeter of the seeded area to make it easier for me to keep the soil moist during seed germination. Five days after the seed was spread, we had a record-breaking storm that dumped 3 3/4 inches of rain on the yard in less than a day. Norman called me to follow up on his work and came out to see how the soil had held. There were a few ruts caused by the massive, flood-level downpour, but overall the yard was surprisingly intact. Norman made plans to come back and fill in the ruts once the ground had dried enough to walk on. Unseasonably cold weather and heavy rains continued mercilessly throughout the next month and a half. These affected the germination and growth of the new grass seed and made it impossible for Norman’s team to fill in the ruts without sinking into the dirt. (They did come out and attempt the repairs but found that doing so would do more harm than good.) Norman therefore arranged to re-hydro-seed the entire area, which he could do without walking on the area, and to come back when the ground was drier to fill in and reseed the ruts. When Norman first came to see me, he probably could have offered to do an abbreviated and more superficial job, using less topsoil and covering a smaller area, just to improve the aesthetics of the yard while keeping his costs down. However, he clearly wanted to do the job properly, so I would never again have a problem with bare areas or erosion. It was apparent that Norman had a lot of experience with this type of project. He talked about the importance of adequate amounts of soil, the right kind of soil, the proper grade, the right kind of seed, the best timing, etc. He also suggested several other things he could do to help the yard (like spreading gravel under the deck to reduce soil erosion from that area, trimming lower tree limbs in the backyard to allow in more light and wind to dry up wet areas), explaining how the combination of measures would result in a better lawn with less runoff and erosion. He was very sensitive to my wish to reduce or slow down any runoff that naturally flowed down to my neighbors’ yards. I always felt that Norman was very honest and was interested in doing the best work possible for me. He also used the best products, including the right shade grass seed mixture and premium topsoil with an appropriate blend of manure and sand. The project turned out to cost more money than I had originally planned to spend. However, given all the materials (e.g., 140 tons of topsoil, gravel, mulch, heavy stones for the retaining wall and walkway) and work that had to be done, the price was more than fair. In fact, Norman ended up doing far more for me than I had a right to expect under our agreement. He followed up with me on a regular basis and came out to the house many times after completing the project. Norman is very responsive, responsible, and courteous. He takes a lot of pride in doing a job well. In addition, he is an extremely nice, thoughtful person -- the kind of person I take pleasure in working with.

He was there on time and followed up the next day to makesure I was satisfied. He clearly stated if I was unhappy in any way to contact him at any time and he would take care of the issue. What a nice company.

Norman is a good guy and tried hard to provide wood that was fully seasoned and that would burn. But in the end, two months after original delivery, the wood is still too wet to burn on its own. It simply isn't "seasoned" firewood as advertised. Norman will tell you it was harvested 12 months prior to delivery - and that may be true - but the bottom line is it is not dry enough to burn consistently. I give him credit for coming back out and dropping off more wood in an attempt to find a dryer area of the pile. However, to get an A rating, you have to deliver a product that performs to expectations and this wood does not.

We purchased a half cord of firewood from Pitzer in 2008 after checking their Angie's List rating. We were very pleased with the service, delivery and the quality of wood. When we were ready to purchase a full cord this fall, we called them again. The wood needed to be custom-cut due to the small size of our fireplace. They delivered well-seasoned, quality firewood, the perfect size, on time for a fair price. We are extremely pleased and plan to purchase all our firewood from them.

I ordered a full cord of firewood and it was delivered promptly the next day. It was delivered and stacked at our request. As usual, the wood looks very good and burns well. The load of wood appears to be at least a cord. Mr. Pitzer always follows up with a call soon after delivery to make sure that we are satisfied. The customer service is excellent. I would highly recommend ordering wood from this company.

Pitzer Landscaping & Firewood called back right away to give the quote. They arrived on time, gave a prompt quote and showed me the brochure and it was great.