OL' YELLER LANDSCAPING, INC.

While there were a few issues with communication and some work that was not done as expected initially, Ol' Yeller worked with me to complete the work as it was agreed to in the initial contract for the original price. They always kept the work site clean and organized.

I called them directly, finally.  They were very nice but it sounds like my job may be too small for them.

I had first contacted the company in December 2014. Clay came to my home and I told him what I needed, and asked him to provide a plan, with the possibility of doing the work. He informed me that a plan was $2k, and would not be started until a $1k deposit was made. I paid $1k in January 2015. At the initial meeting, Clay informed me that he was working on an extensive project, and would not be able to do any installation until that project was complete.. I had been assured changes could be made to the initial draft. After contacting him via phone and email, I finally received the draft plan in April 2015. Again, I was told that the other large project delayed his work on my project. On May 1, 2015, I emailed him that changes needed to be included on the draft and asked him to contact me. I received no response to my email. I paid $1,000 for an incomplete plan, received no response to my email regarding changes. Although I was very patient, Clay should at least have told me he was not interested in doing the installation, or even completing the plan. I assumed Clay thought his obligation for the receipt of half the plan cost had been taken care of, but would think a responsible company would make clear whether or not he was able or desired to complete my plan, much less the installation. I am disappointed, to say the least.

The patio turned out beautifully but we can't say the same for the pergola.  The cedar posts soon developed major cracks.  One post was especially bad and when we asked that they replace it, they refused, saying that all cedar posts crack. Also, the rods that were used to join the 8x8 posts and the 2x8 braces were too short - they didn't go all the way through and were not bolted.   In June of this year we had some high winds that actually moved the pergola and the one post we were concerned about cracked all the way through from top to bottom.  We asked Ol' Yeller to provide us an estimate to repair the damage.  Imagine our shock when they provided an estimate for work that was $4,660.  The original pergola was $5,000 just 4 years earlier.  To summarize, we think there were defects in design, workmanship, and materials capped by inferior customer service.  We're currently getting this work repaired, and not by Ol' Yeller.

unknown

They came to our house and looked at the area to be worked on.  They sent us an estimate in a timely manner. 
They came on the scheduled day and worked with our builder who was less than cooperative.  The completed the job when they had told us that they would.
Matt was very professional and he was excellent at talking to our builder and making sure all was as it should be.
Definitely would hire them again.

.

unknown

It was pretty good. He was knowledgeable. He knows his plans, he worked with us on our budget and the end result was exactly what we were looking for.

They were great!! From the initial consulting with Clay who designed the beds and planters, providing suggested plantings based on his years of experience in Texas, as well as being very attentive to our requests for specific plantings and made them all work together.  Seth and Cody, along with their crews, showed up when they said they would, worked quickly and professionally, cleaned up after each days work and completed the project on schedule.  We couldn't be more pleased with the way it all turned out and would definitely recommend them to anyone needing landscape services.

We had a open fire-pit that was built into a stone patio and garden area. The existing fire pit did not work for us. We still wanted to enjoy a fire but felt a open pit was not safe for the times our grand children visited. We called Ol'Yeller Landscaping to see if they could help us with a design and a way to get rid of the old fire pit and cover the hole it would leave. They did a wonderful job of working with us to come up with a design that would work with the natural rock patio and retaining wall that we already had. We ended up with a beautiful outdoor  stone fireplace built into the retaining wall and the hole where the fire pit used to be, was filled and turned into a perfect sitting area to enjoy a nice fire on chilly hill country evenings. We have been using the fireplace for about a year and haven't had any problems with it.

We had a billing issue with them, which I do not appreciate at all. But they do good work. They are expensive for what they do. They wanted to come out and see whether the yard work needed being done or not. They get to come on a schedule. We don’t need that here, because if we go a long time without rain, then we don’t need our yard mowed. I need to be able to call them and say that I need them to come at such and such time instead of them having me on schedule and coming out. Sometimes really all they did was come out and make dust because there was no grass to mow, so that was really frustrating. They charged me for some work that they didn’t do because they had me on this automatic cycle thing. I don’t use them anymore. The work that they did when it needed being done was fine. It was reasonably priced for what they did. They just say that they are going to put us on schedule. I didn’t find anything, so as soon as I stopped paying them, they stopped coming, so it worked out fine. They are a large company. They have crews that they send out, so it makes sense for them to do everybody in this area of town on this schedule. They want us on a schedule as opposed to when we need work done. It just wasn’t the right service for us. I needed somebody that I can say it rained last week and that my grass is getting overgrown and ask them to come and mow. That doesn’t happen very often, so I don’t need somebody to come out once a month or once every two weeks. Sometimes we are flushed with water and sometimes we are not. I definitely don’t need my yard mowed when we are not. They billed me for some time that they came out because I was on a cycle that they didn’t come out. They have an auto bill thing. It took a while to get that sorted out, which frustrated me since I didn’t want to be on a scheduled service basis anyway. They are a large company with crews. That's why they weren't the right company for us. Their business model is not compatible with our needs. The quality of the work is excellent. The price was fine. I never knew when they were coming. It's obvious that its lawn work and it's obvious that it's been done. But the frustrating thing is that there were times when it didn’t need to be done, but they came and did it anyway because that's what their schedule said. Their scheduling was inflexible. As far as timeliness, if anything they were too punctual because they stick to that schedule whether it needs to be stuck to or not. They came on a regular basis, but I never knew when they were coming. So I certainly couldn’t call up and say that I don’t need them to come this month. If they had included that option, it would absolutely have been a better service. If they had an option where I could call up and say that I need them to come and mow next week and pay them on the spot instead of being on a billing cycle and do it like that; I would have kept using them.

The plants they moved have died, the cleanup was never finished, and
they failed to return on the date scheduled.  I was told they would call
to explain, but I never received the call.

We hired them to clean up our yard, did a very good job, reasonable price. We hired them to do yard maintenance twice a month, very good, very quick. We also hired them to come out and give us a bid to redesign our flower beds, had to pay a fee for this service, but it will come off the total cost if we hire them to do the job. The staff is very easy to talk to and very friendly.

They were very reasonable. O'Yeller did a very good job.

They were here promptly and finished quickly and did excellent work at the estimated price. I would definitely use them again.

They came out and did the work well. They had it all done within a few days. I would use their services again in the future.

The owner returned my call requesting a quote within a couple of hours. She asked me what I was looking for. I explained that I wanted the existing flower beds in the backyard redesigned. I needed the front yard beds re-designed and potentially add new beds based on her suggestions. She asked if I would be interested in purchasing a blue print of designes for my yard (I have talked with multiple landscapers and nobody asked me this up front). When she told me the price for the blue prints would be as low as $500.00 but could be higher I said "No. I don't have the budget for that". She asked what my budget was. I said well enough to get the job done (privately I am thinking to myself about $5,000 - but I never give my budget before a quote for obvious reasons) but I know how many plants $500.00 could buy and I'd like that money to go to plants not blue prints. She responded "Well we require a minimum of a $10,000 budget." I said, "Oh. I didn't know that. I guess I won't be able to use your company after all." She said, "Ok. Good-by." The conversation was a simple and as quick as that. This was by far the most odd conversation I have ever had with a potential contractor. Not sure if it was something I said or if this is truly their policy. Again - very odd. Could have saved me a phone call if they had this policy posted on their website. But I have a funny feeling it's not a policy. And that just makes everything even more odd. Oh well. We are getting a different landscape designer and expect a beautiful yard this spring! :)

The actual work crew was great, including the foreman. Unfortunately, the business owner and the designer were really hard to work with. They kept letting us know that our project was "small", and that we were not their top priority, even though we were spending well over $10,000. One big negative was that they killed half of our lawn and then didn't even ask us if we wanted to do anything about it, and there was no plan from the beginning. In the end, we were mostly happy with the end result, but getting there was way harder than it should have been, especially considering how much money we spent. We would not recommend this company to anyone for a project under $20,000, since they will let you know you are second-class citizens.

They are doing a large project for us.

Overall, we were very happy with the way the project went and with the final product. The only issue we had was with the initial quality of the cedar gates, but this was quickly remedied when we raised the issue. The quality of the masonry work was top-notch, though. I would not hesitate to use this contractor in the future, but would probably do my own carpentry work. Their pricing was much better than any other bids we received and the whole process was handled very professionally.

This was very disappointing since I have been trying for a long time to get this fixed and can't seem to find anyone to do it. I thought joining Angie's List would help but it doesn't look good so far. I have contacted a number of other vendors on the list but haven't heard anything back yet.

Seth is easy to work with, and his work is very high quality. He is extremely reliable.