SPRIGGS BROTHERS ORGANIC LANDSCAPE & LIGHTING

"We regret that we were unable to get to you in a timely manner.  We are a niche company, specializing in organic fertilization.  There are not many people who do what we do, therefore we get a lot of requests for consultations especially during the spring and summer.  We do these on a limited basis, but during certain times of the year, despite our best efforts, we are unable to get to everybody who asks for them.  It is a service that we do not charge for, and we diligently fulfill all the requests that we are able to do."

"Thank you for your faith in our professionalism and quality of products we use. We take our work seriously and your positive comments are appreciated. When we get a request for work, we try to give a realistic expectation of when the work might be accomplished. Any landscape company worth its salt is busy this time of year. The rain we have had this year has made scheduling very, very difficult. Many of the requests for organic fertilization only have been completed. The requests for projects involving a lawn aeration are another story. We have the best result with lawn aerations when the soil is moist, but not soggy. This year we have had so much rain, that even a little added to the already moist soil makes the soil so mushy that we cannot accomplish a good lawn aeration. It is important to us that we do a good job on our customers' properties and not make a mess. We have been in about five years of drought. Nature has attempted to make up for it in two months. What a challenge for our company! Nobody wants us to be on our customers' property more than we do. We are in business to make money, not to lose it! Typically by the end of May, we are catching up. It is easy to look back at the last eight weeks or so and evaluate what has happened. Our expectations for next week and being able to schedule at least some lawn aerations diminished after watching today's noon weather and hearing that the forecasters are predicting five days of rain, following a weekend of severe weather! Know this: we want to do a good job! How your lawn looks is more important to us than making money! We will get past this!"

"Sorry, but between rain and a busy schedule, we are trying our best to get to customers in a timely fashion. We will contact the gentleman immediately. Unfortunately Angie's List did not get us the information to us in a timely fashion and they screwed up our email address and we were just now able to see this email."

"This potential customer called our office twice asking for his proposal. One of our owners, Mrs Spriggs, explained to the gentleman that we were 2- 3 weeks behind and that when one of the Spriggs Brothers visited with the customer, he explained that it would be 2 to 3 weeks before he could present a proposal because of our work demand. Unfortunately, good landscape companies are bombarded with request in the spring and we all work diligently to get to customers as soon as possible. Unfortunately, when we contacted this customer with his proposal, we found out that he had already made other arrangements."

"We recommend organic fertilizes to be applied at 20 - 25 lbs per 1,000 sq ft. Our goal is to add organic matter and nutrients to the heavy clay an rock soil that most of us inherited in North Texas. Organically, we feed the soil and your soil then feeds your lawn, trees and landscaping. Our goal is to improve the soil which will result in a green, healthy lawn.. Synthetic chemicals, on the other hand, are like being on steroids, they green up the plant, but hurt the foundation of your lawn - they destroy health of the soil and microbial life forms in the soil. Our guys measured the gentlemen's lawn and gave their recommendations based on the measurements of his lawn and the science behind organic technology. As stated by the customer we put down the fertilizer stated for 4,000 sq ft, (80 lbs), and aerated all his lawn. This gentleman would have received a better organic experience had he trusted our representatives’ explanation to him about the size of his lawn and the amount of organic material we recommended for his size lawn. I understand that we live in a day where people's trust level is very low. Had this man done his due diligence, he would have found that we are honest people. Again, our office was not notified about this man's complaint. I have to check Angie's list once a month to reply to complaints and negative reviews. Had our office been contacted we would have sought to answer this gentlemen's concerns. You can't fix what you don't know. We have a toll free number, pick up the phone and call our office. We are here to help and work through any concerns customers may have. We will be calling this gentleman to discuss any concerns that he might have now that we know of his complaint."

"This is a busy time of the year. [member name removed] never emailed or contacted our office that we had not performed the post-emergent. Had he contacted our office, we would have satisfied his request. Unfortunately, his request for a post-emergent was told to one of our service techs and somehow that was not communicated to our office. Again, we strive to give the best service possible, but soetimes we do drop the ball. Our apoligies to [member name removed] and he will be contacted by phone on the next business day."

"Sorry that the aeration did not meet [member name removed] standards. We tell people to lightly water their lawns the night before so we can get maximum penetration. If the customer had contacted us, we would have worked with him to correct the problem. Seems cheap to get on a website and comment about the character and integrtity of a company before you speaks directly to the party your complaining about. I am just now reading this comment some 6 months later because I don't have time to troll comment boards. We put our name on our company because we stand behind our work. Our company is buildt on customer service. I teach my sons and the men who work for us the same principle that King Solomon taught his sons; "A good name is to be desired above riches." We perform over 600 lawn aeration a year. We own 5 lawn aeration machines. We are not perfect, but we will correct a problem IF we know about it. Probably this customer's ground was so hard that the 376 lb lawn aerator was not able to get a full plug."

"I had a lawn consultation with the member. Her lawn was in dire need of a lawn renovation. She had several places where her Bermuda grass was not growing due to shade issues. I explained that her Bermuda Grass needed 10 hours of sun light and that she needed to either (1) Raise and thin out canopy of her trees (2) Plant a different type of grass that required less sunlight or (3) Use some other form of landscaping/ or groundcover to fill the bare places. We provided 3 of the 12 treatments she signed up for in the fall of 2010: fertilization, lawn aeration, and fall pre-emmergent. In February I reviewed the lawn with the member and she was very upset that she had annual Poe, a winter bluegrass, growing in her bare spots. I explained that we had discussed last fall that she would likely have problems in these areas if she did not plant grass or ground cover in these areas. I explain to prospective customers that the #1 deterrent to weed control is to have a thick healthy turf that chokes out weeds and resists seed invasion that nature brings by every time the wind blows. I also explained that we are going to make the ground fertile and not put poisons in the soil. Until we are able to build up your turf to fight nature's weed invasion, we might need to spot spray an organic post-emergent the first couple of springs. I also told the member that when we have warmer weather in March and April, the sun and heat would kill off the annual bluegrass. I offered, free of charge, to spot spray and kill off the annual poe. The member was reimbursed all money that was due. I have specific notes for the initial lawn consultation in the fall of 2010 and the follow up notes from the winter of 2011. One of the reasons we have a 30 minute inital lawn consultation with all our annual fertilization customers and don't sign people up over the phone or internet is that we want to make sure people understand organic procedures and what they can expect as far as results . Organic Fertilization works! It is not a magic "one time" application even though we have had people call and say, "I can tell a remarkable improvement after one treatment." I like to say that one of the main differences between organic fertilization and synthetic chemical fertilization is that synthetic fertilization treats the symptoms and organic fertilization treats the root cause and effect of the problem, i.e., poor soil nutrients, poor soil drainage/soil compaction, wrong application due to sun exposure or water, etc. My last notes from consulting with the member were that evidently, the organic lawn consultation that I had with her in the fall of 2010 was forgotten and that she reverted back to her synthetic chemical mind set of poison and kill what ever nature plants. She was not willing for us to come and spot spray the bluegrass or work through the process of healing her lawn. We did everything humanly possible to resolve the situation and continue a good working relationship with the customer to no avail. One of the reasons we put our family name on our company is that we operate under the principle , "That a good name is to be desired above silver and gold." We stand behind our work and the organic principles we use and work to have a "win-win resolution" with all our customers ."

"Our prices are lower than mostl other organic companies in the metroplex. We put down organic fertilizer at a rate of 20 lbs per 1,000 sq ft. When you compare the cost of organic fertilizer at the local nursery, we provide, spread the fertilizer, and blow off the driveway and sidewalks, at a lower cost than our customers can buy the fertilizer at the store. The reason we are able to provide this service at such an affordable rate is because we buy organic fertilizer a truck load at a time."