Nancys Landscaping & Design

Our first impressions of Nancy were excellent. She was punctual, professional, her work is creative and she had been recommended by several people we know. We met with other landscapers and had options, but chose her even though she wasn't the cheapest, because she had a great reputation and we liked her ideas. We decided shortly after meeting with her to extend an existing water feature, and used a landscaper that she recommended for that part of the project. While we enjoy our backyard and have minimal complaints about the professionalism of her crew (minus a few things listed below), we were very disappointed with the experience we had directly with Nancy. Every time we raised an issue with her, she had a counter excuse - in Nancy's mind it appeared to us that we (the customer) were never right. A few examples: - She said she was getting us the best prices on materials with her special discounts, but we later discovered that in some cases we were charged 3x+ what we could have bought plants for at a local greenhouse (not a discount store). When we asked her, Nancy said that the plants might look the same, but the ones she buys have a more developed root structure - how does a normal person argue with that? She also charged us $128 to deliver the mulch and $65 to deliver the plants - when we needed more mulch, topsoil and grass seed (for an area on the far side of the waterfall that we added) we called the same place and found out the amount of mulch we had delivered to our house would have been free delivery if we'd ordered it ourselves and had the vendor deliver it and the price for mulch was the same as what she charged, so there was no discount. She wound up giving us 15% off the plant cost, increased from 10%, providing a savings of about $135. - The area where the waterfall was installed was in the original contract scope as a rock bed. When we hired the second landscaper for the waterfall, he used his machinery to clear out the whole area, removing overgrown pachisandra that Nancy's crew would have had to remove by hand, which should have either reduced her labor costs or given us extra hours to work with. Nancy agreed to have her crew return after the waterfall was complete to spread the extra rocks behind the waterfall in lieu of clearing the land and placing the designed rock bed. We asked them to also spread the mulch, topsoil and grass that we purchased ourselves for the last part of the yard - she refused without expecting extra money and we ended up doing it ourselves. - There were red ants all over many of our new plants - she said it was our soil and told us how to kill them ourselves. - The plants were placed with dead leaves and flowers on them - no effort was made to remove the deadheads so it looked like we had a bunch of dead plants in our yard until I went out and did it myself. - The step leading up to our deck was broken during the project - the crew was using our deck to stage their food and drinks and we believe they placed something heavy on the step causing it to break. Nancy immediately sided with her crew, made no apology and refused to have it fixed. - We didn't like the placement of several of the plants (about 10) - we described in detail which plants we wanted moved (we thought they were crowded and too close to the steps where people walk). Nancy told us they were fine where they were - someone eventually came back but only moved 3 plants. All of the plants that didn't get moved died. - We had an area with poison ivy that she spotted when she first came out. She later claimed it was in the part of the yard that wasn't in their specs, the chemicals to treat it were $26 a bottle, and we would need to take care of it ourselves or pay her more money for her crew to return, treat it and finish the area. - When we questioned the condition of some of the plants (they looked in bad shape and some looked dead), we were told to snap off the dead parts and they'll come back next year (2010) - we paid for healthy plants this year (2009) and expected better. She also said that the reason some of the plants weren't doing well was our soil and the sun and shade in our yard - when we questioned why she chose those plants in the first place, she once again refused to offer to replace the plants and reassured us that the plants would come back. More than 1/3 of the total plants didn't come back this year. - During our initial meeting, she said she would help us put together a diagram of the yard and plant placement so we would remember what we got and be able to care for them properly. When I asked her for this help, she was obviously irritated that I was asking and said she had to leave in a few minutes so she could run home before her next appointment. I felt rushed as I tried to draw my own picture and fill it in while she dictated what everything was. - The second landscaper who created our waterfall went above and beyond his contract - it was such a different experience from Nancy. We waited over a year to submit this review because we were under the impression that she might have to shut down her business due to illness. However, we saw her several times this summer and each time we saw her we got angry. We felt unappreciated as a customer and would never recommend her to anyone.