KEVIN WOOD LANDSCAPES

June 13, 2011 Appointment with Sheryl McLaughlin of Kevin Wood Landscaping at new home to review and discuss plans for landscaping.  Sheryl was very nice and easy to talk to.  We walked the property and discussed the front yard drainage problems and possible plans for the backyard.  Our future plans were to remove the existing attached garage and rebuild a stand alone garage along the fence line. Sheryl suggested  how the attached garage area could be reclaimed and used for a patio area. We also discussed how a deck could be built from the back entrance and how the slopping ground could be landscaped to accommodate the deck and access to the rest of the yard.  We discussed her fee and the dollar range for a full set of plans.  I agreed to a full set of plans. At that time she asked for a $400 deposit.  I recall her saying that she had a few client ahead of me and was lead to believe that it would be a couple of weeks before I would see a draft.  I gave her a copy of the plat of the property showing the property lines and the house.  Also informed her that I was having several trees on the property removed and that I would let her know so she could arrange for the landscape architect to visit the site.  He did visit the site to photograph the property in preparation to draw the plans.

I informed Sheryl that we had a move in date of July 15th.  During our time at the property Sheryl was interrupted with several phone calls.  I can see how she might have missed my telling her of our move in date.

June 15th emailed Sheryl about the tree removal schedule and ask about the architect visit.  The Michael Nate, architect responded and he visited on June 21st.  On June 27th I emailed Sheryl as to the status of the 1st draft of our plans and to let her know that the foundation work for the house started and would be finished by July 1st. No response. June 30th emailed Sheryl about the progress of the drawings. Sheryl responded that she had been out of town on family business and was headed to the office to check the status of our drawings. Exchanged a few more emails and was informed that there were several more client ahead of my job. I was disappointed since that is not the expectations she set for me on our first meeting. We were informed that we could seek help elsewhere if we felt that they could not meet our schedule expectations. And that we would only owe them for the work done so far and a accurate base plan.   I kept asking what a base plan was but never got an answer. As of July 17th still no plans or even when we could expect to see a 1st draft . 

One month later and more projects for this house we decided to postpone our landscaping plans with Kevin Wood Landscaping.  We emailed Sheryl to inform her of  the postponement and if there were any funds remaining from the deposit and to send the basic plans they had completed.  $400 deposit was used for her consult and for the architect's time.Those were some very expense pictures. I wonder if we could get those pictures since we paid for them.  As for the basic plan, it was an enlarged copy of the plat we had given her with round squiggle marks to indicate the trees on the property! Nothing else.  We were very disappointed that it took a month to just draw a few squiggles on an enlarge plat we gave them.  Landscaping is a big expense but we choose to call Kevin Woods Landscaping because of Sheryl's radio persona.  We enjoy her radio show and appreciate the knowledge she shares with her listeners.   Bottom Line:  Totally disappointed with lack of professionalism. Expected more from a company who has a representative with such a public presents.

I had Sheryl out to do a consultation. She walked around the yard and took some notes concerning what I had in mind. She said she would have the plan completed in just a few weeks, but she did not finish it when she said she would. About a month after our initial consultation, she passed our job to an employee whom we had never met or consulted with. This person drew up a plan that only partially reflected what I had discussed with Sheryl. This employee came to our home and discussed the plan with us. We indicated that the plan did not reflect what I had explained during the consultation, and the employee said he would redraw it and bring it back another time. Sheryl called and asked for clarification, and I believe that she took over redrawing the plan herself (she said she did, anyway). Rather than being apologetic, she seemed very defensive, impatient, and somewhat rude when I talked to her. She delivered this second plan and we paid for it, at that point frustrated with the entire experience. When I reviewed the plan and the estimates later, I realized that Sheryl still had not fixed the major defect in the plan, nor had she bid the primary feature which we had discussed with her. On further study of her plan and consultation with other landscape designers, I realized that many of the plants she (or her employee) had chosen for key areas in the design were entirely inappropriate to the spaces and conditions where she had planned to place them. We are thankful now that we did not hire her company to implement the plan. We are left, though, with a relatively useless design that we paid several hundred dollars for. It is entirely possible that Sheryl would have worked with us further to correct the deficiencies in her design, but we did not choose to request additional revisions since she seemed wholly uninterested in really satisfying our needs or our desires in our prior experiences with her. I will not hire this company for any landscaping work in the future, and I would not recommend their design services to anyone.

These folks are very busy. Greg mentioned that they have about a six month backlog of work at any given time, and it took them well over a month to get the design back to me. When I first met Greg, we talked about budget. I said I could afford $5,000 to $10,000 now, and maybe another $10,000 in a few years time. Greg said, "Well I'll make the design based on $20,000." I said, "That's fine, but we'll have to split it into two phases." Their estimate to install the plan they designed for me was $37,000. I worked with Shelby to bring this down into my budget. She made an estimate for the front yard that was $12,000 and an estimate for the back yard that was $10,000, but these prices basically covered only beds, borders, and plant materials. Then I got a call from Greg, and he told me, "This is as low as we can go and still put the Kevin Wood stamp on the project." I realized I was out of my league and decided to seek landscaping help elsewhere.

It was wonderful to have the entire project handled so professionally and beautifully. The work was completed rapidly and in the same price range as our other estimates. The creative solutions to the problems of our particular landscaping tasks of a 30 year old home, have resulted in a beautiful back yard. We appreciate so much the coordination of the many parts of the job.