Southern Scapes Inc
About us
**ATTN ANGIE'S LIST CUSTOMERS: PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT COMPANY BEFORE YOU SUBMIT A REVIEW!! WE HAVE HAD SO MANY WRONG REVIEWS AND ANGIE'S LIST SAYS THAT THE CUSTOMER'S OWN THE REVIEWS, SO THEY CAN'T REMOVE THEM UNLESS THEY CAN GET IN CONTACT WITH THEM!! WE TAKE GREAT PRIDE AND WE ARE PERSONALLY VESTED IN OUR SUCCESSFUL COMPANY THAT WE HAVE HAD FOR 25 YEARS! WE HAVE HAD REVIEWS FOR BLIND CLEANING, TREE SERVICE, AND OTHER THINGS THAT WE DO NOT DO!!! PLEASE CONTACT US THROUGH OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.SOUTHERNSCAPESINC.COM OR AT 864-605-1014 IF YOU NEED US! WE HAVE ALSO RECEIVED REVIEWS FROM OTHER COMPANIES CALLING THEMSELVES SOUTHERN SCAPES EVEN THOUGH WE INCORPORATED THE NAME SOUTHERNSCAPES INC IN 1995 IN GREENVILLE, SC!!! ALSO, WE DO NOT HAVE A LARGE ESTIMATING DEPARTMENT THAT CAN IMMEDIATELY GO OUT AND GIVE ESTIMATES, WE MUST SCHEDULE THEM AROUND WORK, PLEASE GIVE US A FEW DAYS TO GET BACK WITH YOU. WE TRY TO RETURN CALLS THE SAME DAY, BUT SOMETIMES THAT IS SIMPLY NOT POSSIBLE. THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME VENT! NOW...Welcome to the Southern Scapes, Inc. website. We are a full service lawn maintenance company that offers everything you would ever need for your lawn. From exceptional design, lawn installation, complete year round maintenance, irrigation, exterior lighting, we do it all and we do it well so that you can concentrate on other things, and leave the lawn to us! (see statement concerning requests for one-time mowings in services not offered) Hi! I’m Dwayne Skelnik, Horticulturist and owner of Southern Scapes, Inc. I started my business in 1991. I have a B.S. degree from Clemson University in Horticulture, and many years of experience. With knowledge, experience, and a proven track record, my company can take care of all of your lawn care needs, period. We generally have 6 employees, and we add additonal help as needed for larger jobs. We currently run 4 maintenance trucks. We offer monthly billing by mail or email. We work with several sub-contractors. (see statement concerning requests for one-time mowings in services not offered)
Business highlights
Services we offer
AND CONTACT US AT 864-605-1014 OR THROUGH OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.SOUTHERNSCAPESINC.COM AND NOT THROUGH ANGIE'S LIST, Lawn maintenance, PLEASE READ OUR STATEMENT IN OUR BUSINESS DESCRIPTION, edging, fertilizing plant material, installing seasonal flowers & landscaping.(see statement concerning requests for one-time mowings in services not offered), mowing, pruning shrubs and trees, repair irrigation and exterior lighting
Accepted Payment Methods
- CreditCard
Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
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83% | ||
7% | ||
3% | ||
3% | ||
3% |
After the new owners made contact, first Sherry through email and then Dwayne by phone, to introduce themselves, I told them I was happy to have a new company and inquired about their business. They said they are full time and Dwayne is a certified horticulturalist. Great. I told Dwayne about my contract with Palmetto and he assured me they were going to honor all Palmetto's clients and their contracted rates. I asked him if Palmetto had pointed out the "free" month deal. He said no. The next thing I knew, Sherry used the card that Palmetto had on file to deduct for April! I called and after several calls and emails, they sent a check and said that they could not honor $155/month and so I should take the money and find a new landscaping company! Based on what they did in March - trimmed bushes using a blunt instrument, and putting weed killer on my lawn without informing me, I am glad to have to find another lawn service. I do not believe that Dwayne does the work. He subs all of it out and does not check up on jobs. He said he did not know that the hydrangea bushes had been chopped down. Yet, Sherry sent me a detailed list of what "their" men did during March (less than 5 hours of work) Buyer beware.
"We recently aquired a small business from a man that had recently took on some large commercial accounts that he didn't have the time or resources to manage, so because we had a larger staff, and a good reputation, the owner approached us about purchasing his business. He had a few residential accounts that were priced much lower than we would have priced them. He didn't have the overhead that we do. We have employees (Not Subs) that are paid well, and several that have been with us for over 10 years! They have free medical, along with dental, and vision insurance. We also carry General Liability, Workers Comp. We have 5 working trucks, and are currently building a new shop after we recently moved from our former location of over 20 years. I say this to say that this review is slanderous, untrue, and should be illegal to attack our reputation like she did and insenuate that we don't do our own work, but sub it out!! It makes me mad as I watch these hardworking guys, especially my husband, start out on a new work day!! Apparantly the owner of the company we aquired did promise this lady a free month at the end of her contract. We were not aware of this. It wasn't even brought up at the closing. After I did the invoicing for April (and we charged her card, along with every other customer that had chosen this method as their form of payment) that evening, the lady calls me on my personal cell phone, and tells me that I need to reverse that charge immediately! It actually scared me! I called the owner of the old company, and he said he forgot to tell us about this at the closing because he offered this as a promotion to 5 or 6 customers, and that the others had already taken their free month, and renewed. I told her that I would reverse the charge in the morning, however, I went in my office and reversed it that night! After the owner explained his past experiences with this lady, along with the constant phone calls, and wanting to know when we had been to her house, what had been done,etc.,we decided we didn't have the time to deal with this customer. Rather than work the last month for free for her, we just sent her the money for her free month, and wished her well. I think I made the right decision after this slanderous review that she wrote to try to make us look like we are an incompetent, money grabbing, conspiring company that was out to get her in some way, Gee! We value our customers very much, and it is unfair to them for us to put any further energy (especially the week before easter) into customers like this. They all know that our employees, along with us, are reliable, courteous, and meticulious (we do not use dull blades for goodness sake!), and we use enviornmentally friendly safe products and there is no need to tell our customers when we put out pre-emergent!! This lady is mad because we didn't want or need this kind of business! We wish her and her new lawn care company a long and happy relationship!"
Once we had an agreement, Dwayne came only once--alone, with no crew, after not coming on the day he told us he would, so that I had mowed the overgrown lawn myself because we had company coming. Only after I mowed did I get a message that he would come the next day. When I told him I had already mowed he questioned the need to come at all. I assured him there was plenty to do.
This included edging, walkway trimming, blowing leaves off the driveway, and spraying for weeds. I was home when he came and showed him three small areas to be sure not to spray.
Later, when I got home from work I walked the property. No blowing had been done at all--magnolia leaves covered the driveway. No walkways had been cleared, nothing had been trimmed, and the lawn edging was very rough--uneven and incomplete, like it had been done by hand. Because my lawn is very weedy, edging is the most important task--to keep weeds out of garden beds. I am learning, days later, that he sprayed only in some areas but not even half of what I asked for. In other words, he did not complete the job--understandable, given that he came alone. Very puzzling--he'd been out to the house before, so he knew the extent of the job.
I sent an email (tried calling, but got voicemail; left a message but never got a response) reminding that our agreement included blowing the walks and driveway, and trimming, and asking whether he used a gas-powered edger (because we own one, if he doesn't). I also asked if, going forward, he would be coming Thursdays or Fridays.
Dwayne responded with an email, stating that his company would not be doing the maintenance on our place. No explanation.
Dwayne did not meet the terms of our agreement and left us in the lurch, very abruptly. My perception was that all our interactions had been fine--clear, polite, no friction, so this treatment was a big surprise.
Today we received a bill for half the agreed amount, yet he did less than half the work we had contracted for. When I asked for an explanation, the wording of the email response was that they are too busy to do work for people who "question everything we do." The respondent also claimed that the bill was for the time Dwayne spent, even though paying by the hour was never the basis of our agreement--we contracted for specific tasks. Dwayne knew the extent of the job from the beginning, because we walked him through it. Our security shows that he worked an hour and fifteen minutes on the one day he came.
We did ask why Dwayne did not do the work he had agreed to do. We also asked that the bill be broken down to describe what we WERE being charged for, given the incomplete work. If that amounts to "questioning everything we do," this isn't a company to work with.
All in all a very strange experience. Couldn't show up at agreed time, couldn't perform agreed work, badly lapsed communication, and very defensive about the company's failure to deliver a basic level of service.
Okay, fine--moving on.
We have agreed to pay Southern Scape one third the originally contracted amount, even though Dwayne didn't do even one third of the work. If he wants to be paid by the hour, that's a different agreement...one we weren't party to.
Remains to be seen whether the company will step up and do the right thing. We very much wanted this contractor to work out--sad that he didn't.
I marked that services were performed because one service out of five was completely, even though badly done.
"First of all, let me say that we cancelled the $45.00 invoice that we did send this lady. We will not accept any money from her. This was basically to cover the herbicide used at her residence. When she asked us to break down the $45.00, I did just say that we thought it was a fair price for time spent. We are not going to say anything derogatory about this lady, we just simply will say that we "quit" because we weren't interested in entering into a contract with her based on our initial dealings with her. I will say that we don't send landscaping crews out as a credit for customers doing their mowing on their own. We simply truly are too busy to deal with this. Perhaps her letter will speak for itself. We do hope she can use Angie's list to find a new lawn care company, and we're sorry that we held her up from doing that."
The company and its owner were one of the kindest I have worked with. They had a lot to do in my yard to give it some curb appeal. They went right to work with fill dirt, mulch , and more. I would definitely hire them again. I feel they are a honest and hard working company.
"We're so glad you were pleased; thanks for doing business with us!"
"We didn't do any work for you either!! You have us confused with another company, please check your records and make the change. We would have invoiced you by mail. Angie's list, someone is either using our name or people are getting us confused with someone else. Please review this."
"Thank you! It was a pleasure working for you."
"We were hired by someone else to provide service. We did what we were hired to do, and we received no complaints."
"Thank you!"
Overall, an excellent job. The workers cleaned up and left no sign of all the removed foliage. I will definitely use Southern Scapes again, and intend to do so to prevent my shrubs from becoming so overgrown in the future.
Dwayne also advised me that to keep the nandina from growing back, I should treat in the spring (when growth begins) with an herbicide. I appreciated this, as it may keep me from having to pay for nandina removal again. (I've had it removed twice in the past)
I was very pleased overall with this experience--it went very smoothly from start to finish.
Licensing
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