Root Design

First contacted them the beginning of March. We signed a contract saying they would spend no more than $10k on the design phase. I knew they were expensive, but I thought it might be worth it- I'd seen a design I liked on a website and our new yard needed a charming factor. We had to give them $3500 as a retainer. Weeks later, no contact. I called and they gave me a song and dance about how busy they were, but they were on it. They sent me a preliminary design which I approved. I asked them to please communicate better, get started, and let me know how it's going once a week. More weeks pass. The bottom line: Whenever I called to see what was happening and why no one was working on the yard yet, they'd give me a "calm down" call and say everything was going great, it will happen, etc. By the end of August, with nothing done yet and non-existent communication (until I have to call them), we cut our losses. We think that we were "too small" a project for them, and that they just swept us under the rug while all the big projects got done (with famous folks and big yards). It was very discouraging, and we're back to square one! Horrid service, and if your name isn't McConnaughy, I think you'd be wise to skip these guys. The high price doesn't match the lousy customer service. They just don't need your business, and don't aim to please if you're a small-time client. Our budget was $30-40k, which is far from "small-time" for our little yard, in my opinion. But to them, that must be a second-rate deal that they'll get around to when they feel like it. The owner of the company is arrogant- he can afford to be, he's got lots of big clients so he doesn't need the little guys! Lesson learned. When I wrote an email to fire them, the owner basically threw my husband under the bus, saying "he might not have explained properly to me how we work". Really? Is tying up a customer for 5 months with no communication, no actual work, and blaming customers a part of "how we work"? Good luck with that!

Design was excellent. Quality is mostly good.  But getting it done, getting it finished was a pain.  Communication was not good.