H Landscape And Color Design

Used them for 4 years. Their beginning work was good but quotes and billing were never the same. Invoices were sent several months after work was done and paid for with a “balance owed” for work not agreed on. After Covid this over billing got worse and invoices doubled. That’s when i stopped using them. Invoices were never itemized so i never knew what the increases were for. Poor record keeping, billing and poor customer service.

I called Michael "H" from "H" Landscaping and Enterprises and got a bid on landscaping my front yard.  I asked if he could give me a list of the plants and flowers he was planning to put in my yard. He told me he could not tell me until the contract was signed, so I wouldn't steal his ideas and go with someone else. 6/13 I agreed to go with him. ( I was never given that list, though I asked multiple times.) He told me that next week was booked but if I paid the deposit he'd get me the following week. I agreed. The deposit was for half the work -$1100. The $2200 was for new shrubs and flowers in front yard, removing old dirt in beds and adding new soil/mulch, redoing my beds, all new landscaping rock around flowerbeds and 3 trees, and new sod throughout all the front yard. He sent me elaborate pictures of flowers and plants done at other jobs indicating it was similar to what would be done in my yard. He told me the job would take 2 days to start and complete. Then I was told it wouldn't be the following week of 6/24,  but it would be the first week in July. I said ok. He didn't show that week. Then he said he'd come out Monday July 8th. He came out with 3 slow men and they worked for 3 hours while he sat in his truck. They removed my old rock around flowerbeds, pulled a little bit of dirt out of my beds (nowhere near what I wanted) and put what they said was $50 of mulch down (I think less). I had no idea the 1st day was only going to be 3 hours, but at least the job had finally started. Tues afternoon I sent a text asking when they'd be showing up and he informed me they weren't coming Tues. He didn't show up any other day during the week either. I called him Friday and he promised he'd be out Monday and Tues 7/15 and 7/16 and would finish the job. He didn't show. I text him on Wed the 17th and he informed that it was too hot and he'd come back in October. I had now wasted over a month with him and my yard looked worse than when I started. I asked if I could get the remainder of my money back, minus the 3 hours of work and $50 of mulch. (During all of this I lost my job and being a single mother I needed that money back because I was extremely dissatisfied with his service and professionalism.) I was thinking he would probably charge me $200 or so for those 3 hours, but nope! He said it was $575! Nothing was done or put in. His explanations were things like drive time, or saying he bought the rock when in another text he said he hadn't, he also tried to blame me on taking a week and a half to decide on his services, when I told him I was meeting with several landscapers . Michael then told me to pay the other $1100 and he'd do the job but wouldn't guarantee or replace any shrubs, flowers or sod that would probably immediately die..uh no thanks. I said I didn't trust him and didnt want to lose anymore money. This has been the worst experience in dealing with a company ever and I want on record the money he stole and time he wasted.

I had ordered some mulch previously, but two beds were added.

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I asked Michael to bring in a mixture of annuals and perennials for my front yard. I was not very happy with some of his selections. Michael was very accommodating. He removed the plants I didn't like and came back with several more substitutes, way more than he had removed. I am very happy with the result. His eye for color and design is very good. I would heartily recommend him to anybody that needs help with their yard.

Michael is very professional and completed the work in one day.

Excellent work, timely, reasonable; for seniors can pay monthly; has book keeper.

Owner Michael Aytch is quiet and reserved, but he really knows the lawn and garden care business. He is not very big on small talk, but he is very respectful and consciensious. He is there to get the job done and done well. He closely supervises his workers and makes sure debris is picked up following their work. Lawn maintenance (mowing and trimming) is a flat weekly fee billed monthly. Other projects such as major trimming, weeding, and mulching, etc are charged separately depending on the size of the project. Michael always provides a written estimate for major projects so there are no surprises and I find that his prices are very fair. Unlike some other lawncare services, Michael is very knowledgeable regarding when and what to use for lawn treatments - fertilizers and insecticides - and how to best care for your lawn. When I have a question on a bill or a special request to be done in my yard, his office manager Beverly couldn't be more charming and courteous and great about follow up. I have and would recommend H Landscape and Color Design to my friends and family.

I'll start by saying this, I suspect Michael or someone in his office will respond to this post with similar excuses that he has given to me on numerous occasions. This will be very detailed, because I want all potential customers to be well informed and Angie's list says they want all the details. Now, I have used H Landscaping for at least a year now for my regular lawn service - mowing & blowing on a biweekly basis. I chose him because the previous owner of my home used him and it just seemed easy to continue with his service. This service consisted of mowing a fairly small yard, blowing/cleaning, and edging (which didn't happen consistently). It takes his team 20 min. to do the work.

With that said, things got off to a rough start more than a year ago. His crew was inconsistent in showing up once every 2 weeks. I would text asking when they were coming, only to be met with empty commitments and excuses. Remind you, it was more than a year ago that I started using his service. I let his excuses go and continued with his service.  Needless to say, things continued to be inconsistent. Sometimes they would hedge bushes, sometimes not. They will throw tree waste in my City of Houston trash bins, which is prohibited by the city and I could be fined as the homeowner. Yet, I continued to let things go and use his service.

Additionally, each time I receive an invoice, I find myself having to review it in great detail which has always resulted in finding over billing. Invoice timing is also extremely inconsistent. At times I would get billed 3 months of service and then I'd get an invoice on a monthly basis. They even sent me an invoice for over $1500 for work the NEVER performed and that I never gave approval to perform. When I contacted Beverly, she said Michael (the owner) had marked it as completed and that's why I was billed. I can only imagine how many owners never catch this. Beverly has been great to deal with and at this point, she is the only positive I can find. 

Most recently, I asked them to do extra work - weed the flower beds, clean the bed lines (as they didn't consistently do this, resulting in grass growing into my flower beds), and trim about 4 bushes in the back of my yard.  The fee quoted for this was $250. Beverly called early one morning saying Michael had an opening & would be by that day. He never showed. He did show the next day - June 16, 2016. I PROMPTLY, that same day, received an invoice - for the 3 months prior lawn care (which I had to ask about when I was going to receive) AND the cleanup service he had just performed. I reviewed the invoice and yet AGAIN, I was overbilled for the cleanup service. The invoiced amount was higher than the quoted amount. Beverly was quick to correct it.

Now to the June 16, 2016 service - within 2 days of that service a very mature lime tree in my backyard was suddenly leaning over with a broken root. I contacted Michael's office about the issue, since it correlated with the time they performed the service. I asked that they come out and tie it up with landscape stakes to support it. Needless to say, I received a myriad of excuses about how the tree had too much fruit, how he told the prior owner about it needing to be trimmed, how the roots are rotten, etc., but that he would come see what he could do. He continued to insist the tree had never been trimmed and how he told the prior owner it needed to be trimmed. Well, on the contrary, I hired my regular tree company to prune the tree canopy at the end of last year. His excuses just kept coming. He stopped by...a day after he said he would, but did nothing to help support the tree. I had spent more than an hour the day prior, in the Houston heat, trimming some of the branches so that it would be easier for him to support it with landscaping stakes, which is what I asked him to do. He did nothing, but continued to make excuses...blah blah blah. I didn't ask for excuses. I asked him to fix it since it seemed to have fallen at the time they did the cleanup service....either by injury from his workers or by coincidence due to the soil disturbance of pulling weeds. Whichever the case, I just wanted him to fix it.....

If he knew or felt the tree needed more trimming or was compromised, he never communicated that to me until now when an issue occurred RIGHT after he was in the bed doing work. If he knew this tree had a history of issues, that he previously communicated to the prior owner, then EXTRA caution should have been made in working in the flower bed where the tree is planted. I am now at risk of losing my beautiful tree.  Michael told me he himself was the one who worked in that flower bed, so at the least, he needs to take responsibility for this, not make excuses. This possibly explains why, when I went to support it myself with something (I pushed it back up using my back as much as I could & stuck a 2x6 to hold it up), I found an old extension cord tied around all of the tree limbs. Nonetheless, he did NOTHING to help fix the tree. His excuses consisted of - "there are too many "fruits", "that's why there's fruit drop and you only get 10 "fruits" per year" (which is SOOO an exaggeration on his part. I get a lot of good limes off that tree. I also do consistent feeding & professional trimming), "I told the prior owner she needed to cut it. It has never been cut" (bologna...I had it cut just this past fall), "your roots are rotten", "No shovel hit it. It has rotten roots" (I never said a shovel hit it. I said it fell after THEY worked in the bed)....and the excuses continued.

For this reason on top of the overbilling, crappy service, etc., I have decided to terminate my more than year long service relationship with them. He has a bad reputation in this neighborhood as well. All of my neighbors cautioned me not to use him, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt, overlooking many things for more than a year now. Well, I've had enough. This was the last straw. He should have made this right, but made excuses instead. So I'm letting the Angie's List world know to be careful when engaging his service. Caveat emptor - buyer beware!!

Michael - after more than a year of using your service since purchasing this home, you and your team are fired. I know I'm probably not one of your top income producing accounts, but that shouldn't matter. A customer is a customer, especially when that customer has a good payment history and has overlooked SOOOOOOOOOO many things.

The work was done as discussed and it looks great.  Michael provided some great ideas and we have received many comments about how great our yard looks.  They were able to get all the major work done in one day so they worked fast.  I appreciated the fact that they forgot to lay the mulch in the backyard and they came back the next day to get that taken care of.  The only issue I would mention is that there wasn't much communication regarding scheduling.  After some extended rain delays I had to reach out and find out when we could have our work completed after about 2 weeks.  It would have been nice to get a call at some point just reassuring us that we were on the schedule especially since the deposit check was deposited right away. 

Michael did stop by about a week later to check up on the yard and see how things were which was nice.  He mentioned coming back to replace a couple of flowers that died right away, but never made it back. I haven't reached out yet to get it taken care of due to travels but I don't anticipate there being any issues with getting that fixed. 

Overall, I was pleased with the work.  I just feel they have a lot of work going on (they take care of many, many yards in our area) and overlook the communication and service part just a little. 

unknown

I do not use H, but one of my neighbors does. It is frustrating to just complete cleaning my lawn and sweeping a portion of the cul de sac and then watch the crew blow debris from 2 houses over to the curb in front of my home. When confronted, they did a weak attempt at clean up. I have let it pass before but finally had enough. I can only assume that this happens elsewhere since it is so much easier to just blow debris around than to actually clean it up. I will never use their service and caution anyone who wants to remain on good terms with their neighbors. I tried to call H to voice my concern but there was no answer and the voice mailbox was full.

unknown

Called and owner came out as agreed. He had some good ideas and explained what he would do differently to correct our drain problem. He said he would write up a quote and send it later that night or the next day. Never came. Had to ask repeatedly over the next couple weeks to finally get a written quote.
He was very nice. Just not quick with follow-up. We used someone else.

Did everything he said he would do --- even some extra things not discussed.
Was really most interested in the quality of the work and result.
Was professional, a pleasure to work with --- and all of his crew were great! Friendly, eager to help and you could see that they respected and very much liked working for and with Michael H.
I recommend him enthusiastically!

He was happy to redo the estimate adding or changing plants for the proposal. We met and spoke on the phone a few times.
However when it came to scheduling that was a problem.  I was working some week days and have a locked gate on the driveway so I needed the work done when I was not working.  I also would not have spent a chunk of change while I was not at my landscaping site.
After one call for me to leave my gate open, to which I refused, it was difficult to get a work date from Michael although I left countless phone messages and spoke to his then scheduler, Beverly.  Although she was polite she often did not get back to me
in a timely fashion.  As the weeks and months rolled on still no scheduling.  At that point in June-July I informed them that I would have to postpone and thin at the end of September as there was still no date to begin.  I had given a deposit of $690.40 earlier on 4/8/13  as Michael requested, even though he did not call me to schedule.  He did pick up the check quickly and said we would talk soon. As summer started with the heat and lack of rain, I had to postpone landscaping as there were trees and bushes to plant,until later and notified H. Landscaping by phone.  They agreed it was best to wait now. In August-September I could not reach him and when I finally got Beverly she informed me that she no longer worked at H.Landscaping!  So by this time I had decided that H. Landscaping was a poor choice last March to do my remodel landscape.
I informed them that it had taken far longer than the April contract had stated, 90 days, so I asked for my deposit back.  He agreed
but I literally had to chase him down on my street several weeks after agreeing to bring me a check.  He claimed he did not know which house was mine and he short changed me on my balance of $340, after charging me for the sprinkler inspection and the grub
spraying.  He also claimed he did not know how much I had really paid!  He gave me a check but it was $40 short!  He claimed he only had one check and this was after a previous conversation when he claimed he does not have checks because he does not use them in his business!!  Although I mailed him a note and a self addressed stamped envelope he has not returned our $40!!  I also left a message with his mother at his home number which I had from his card.
He was a bad choice and people should be aware before using him.

Showed up on a Sat. morning and spent half a day spreading top soil, fertilizing and putting down some insecticed.

He did not skimp on the top soil.

A few weeks later I had him back to trim up my bushes and spread mulch.

Very happy with the work.

All of the work was done beautifully. They even finished up everything 2 days ahead of schedule! They did a great job with the yard work and tree trimming. The prices are very reasonable, and they were a pleasure to work with. I highly recommend H Landscaping  and Color Design to anyone who needs lawn maintenance or landscaping work done.

H Landscape And Color Design was on time. They did the job quickly and correctly.

Michael! his new come on a weekly basis he is always available by phone.

Michael and team have been taking care of our plants and flower needs for about a year.  A few months ago, we turned over the entire landscape care to him, including mowing, fertilizing and  maintenance.  He is always on site with his crew.  He has an amazing gift of visually planning without a drawing.  Let him do your color design once and you'll trust his instincts and recommendations forever.  Because of his work, we won yard of the quarter in our neighborhood.  In fact, his yards have now won 3 out of the last 4. 
Good service, good work and a very good guy. 

I found this company simply because I walk through my neighborhood every night and as I walked I saw some of my neighbors had beautiful spring flowers and elaborate landscaping and the company sign in the yard. I called the number on the sign. Michael came out the next day and we discussed what I needed. I also asked about installing a sprinkler system and he said he had a licensed guy who could do it, including obtaining all the appropriate City permits. Two weeks later my sprinkler system was installed and I had a beautiful new flower bed. I just can't say enough about this company!