DON MC GILL LANDSCAPING

Don McGill was not responsive. He never showed anyone on the HOA where the sprinkler controls and valving were, even after numerous attempts to schedule this. He and his crew set the sprinklers on automatic timers and left. The landscaping was unimpressive from the start, but the HOA thought it would be best to judge the landscape as it matured. It looked like anyone could have gone to their local home improvement store and purchased these plants and put them in the ground...no imagination! One of the reasons a landscaper is hired is to have ideas that most folks do not. This was definitely not the case! Don's responsiveness was one of the worst from contracted vendors the HOA has ever seen! One of the Blue Atlas Cedars in the island died within 2 months of being planted. The flower changes for the island were not heeded and the original landscape choices that Don started with were planted, even though the HOA had specifically requested otherwise. It took Don about 8-9 months to replace the Blue Atlas Cedar that had died, but not without almost weekly calls from the president of our HOA. A second Blue Atlas cedar died within 7 months of being planted and Don was notified of this as well. He immediately accused the HOA of not taking care of the trees. He said they were not being watered properly and that we were at fault. In December 2011, the HOA notified Don McGill that we needed to be shown where the sprinkler system control and valving was to winterize it. He said that it would be helpful for them to winterize the system. The HOA agreed that it would be a good idea to have someone watch where and how they winterized the system so we could operate it ourselves in future years. Don McGill never contacted the HOA and let them know when the winterization was going to take place. In fact, the HOA president called Don and asked for the time and date of the winterization and he indicated that it had already been done. In early 2012, the HOA board members took the stakes out from around the Loblolly Pines, as they did not need the support anymore. The HOA president called Don and asked him if he wanted the stakes to use on another landscaping job. He was told "no" and that we could do with them whatever we wanted. The president stored them in case we had further use for them. In March of 2012, we had noticed one of the loblolly pines on the north entrance of the neighborhood had died and the HOA called Don to let him know (as the tree was still under warranty) and to ask about the second Blue Atlas Cedar replacement from the previous fall. Don was not responsive in scheduling the replacement trees. The president of our HOA called Don weekly to ask about an ETA on the replacements. Finally, in August 2012, the trees were replaced. But the Loblolly pine at the North entrance was not staked in the ground appropriately and fell over. After replacement of the trees, Don called the HOA president and asked where the stakes were. The president relayed the conversation from the previous 2 months and said he had stored them so the HOA could use them in the future since Don had said he didn't want them. Don then said, "Well, you'd better have them, or I'll charge you for them!" Completely opposite of what he had said earlier. He was offered the stakes again and never took them. One of the other HOA board members eventually had to install one of these stakes in the ground to support the fallen tree. Professionals don't act like this or treat their customers like this.