Lawn Doctor

The cost is for nine treatments, aeration, plus power seed in the fall. Everything is good so far. They gave us a bundle package. It needs a lot of work so we will see. Their customer service is good so far. After we sent in our payment plan, they came out a couple of days later. I thought the price was good for what we are getting. I thought it was a good discount. I will continue to use them.

I contacted Lawn Doctor and spoke with several knowledgeable employees who provided good descriptions of the services they provided, as well as pricing (which was in line with several other providers in the area). They indicated they could have someone out to perform the services within a week of my marking the in-ground sprinklers, which was more responsive than the other providers (especially as I am not a regular customer). A few days later, I marked the sprinklers and called them back, and they said they would be able to come out within 7 days, would give me a call 1 day prior to service, and that I did not need to be home. They needed a 50% deposit since I was not a regular customer, but this was easily done over the phone with a credit card.

I was not home during the service (on a Thursday), and when I arrived home I noticed that there were very few aeration and quot;coresand quot; visible (but peat moss and seeds had been spread). There may have been 50 cores total visible in a 6000+ sq ft lawn where there should be hundreds or thousands, and none of them were over 1and quot; in length (normal length, as indicated by company, is 2-2.5and quot;). I checked the receipt left by the technician to see if any problems had been indicated, which there were not - the receipt indicated that they had performed all services - aeration, seeding, and peat moss - with no comments in the and quot;remarksand quot; section.

I expected, with the obvious unsuccessful aeration, that the company would contact me (or even left a remark on the receipt) noting that there had been problems. Instead, I called the following Monday to inquire if there had been any problems. Eventually, I spoke to the owner. She said that their records indicated that the service had been performed with no comments, but that it was possible that the machine had been unable to and quot;drawand quot; a core if the soil was too dry/compacted (she offered to check with the technician to review this, which she confirmed to me in a follow-up call). When I said I had watered thoroughly the two days before the service, she said that without regular watering over several weeks, the yard could easily have been too dry to properly aerate it. We then spoke at length about possible solutions to make the yard look better, and whether or not Lawn Doctor was going to be part of the solution going forward (short story - they are not).

I had three issues:
1 - Whether or not I had properly prepared my yard by watering (I had, but apparently not regularly enough), my impression was that Lawn Doctors was trying to and quot;get awayand quot; with doing a poor job with the power aeration. They were contracted to perform a service - aerate - and they did technically run the machine over my yard. But it did an ineffective job that HAD to be obvious to the technician doing the work - why wouldn't you inform your customer on the and quot;remarksand quot; section of the receipt, or at least give them a call a day or two later?
2 - I asked the owner what she expected her technician to do if, upon arrival at a customer's house, they found that they were unable to properly aerate the yard due to compacted/dry soil - if they should go ahead and perform the service incorrectly, or if they should stop and inform the customer. She said that she expected them to go ahead and ineffectively perform the service, as the customer should have been informed of the date of the service and the conditions necessary for it to be successful, and it was the customer's fault. I told her I found this unsatisfactory, and would rather have paid a re-visit fee than have it be done wrong (I do understand that from a business point of view they can't afford to have all their techs going to jobs that get postponed constantly).
3 - I'm surprised, if the regular watering prior to aerating was so key to the machine working correctly, that they didn't emphasize it in our 3 or 4 scheduling/setup phone calls. During the final setup phone call, it was mentioned that I should water the lawn before treatment, but it wasn't pushed as a major go/no-go factor in the aeration being done effectively (and definitely not to the tune of and quot;regularly for several weeks or else this won't workand quot;).

Overall, I can't recommend Lawn Doctor of Fredericksburg. They left a questionable impression in my mind after I had to track them down to find out the reason the aerating service was not done correctly, regardless of whose fault it was. I went into a followup conversation with the owner asking to split the cost of the aeration service, which she accepted. I thought that splitting the cost of the disputed service was fair, but I think both of us would have preferred if the entire process had turned out better.

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Lawn Doctor of Fredericksburg called with a special since they new I had a sprinkler system for WINTERIZATION service for 75.00 they came out and Warner spent three hours blowing the air out of the lines with a small pump and texting on the phone. Winter passes I have the sprinkler turned on and the values are busted. The company asked if I had it winterized I said yes and they said it was not done properly and I should call them. I called for a second opinion giving them no details they gave me the same diagnosis of why this happen. Called Lawn Doctor and ERIN was very helpful getting the tech Warren to call me. I must say Erin or whomever answers the calls also has been great. Warren explained to me the way he does their is no way they it was not done properly.

He did not even offer to come and check the problem he kept explain how he has a checklist and he always goes right off it and does not make a mistake. I was just wanting to know if they would come out and check, he explained theat if his boss would approve he could come out and do a 700.00 value check and that what his other boss charged for this check but he would have to check with the boos at lawn doctor. But Warren says he has been doing this for ten years and if it was his fault or slip up everyone he has ever done would be not done properly...WOW...They would not even come look at it....

They were very prompt and professional. We can definitely see a difference in our lawn, even though it is winter. We will continue to use lawn doctor in the future.

During each treatment Tyler assesses our lawn status. If we are outside he gives an immediate update. He is polite and courteous and ensures that our treatments are complete. We had a problem with weeds remaining after a treatment. Lawn Doctor immediately sent someone out to retreat specifically for those weeds. That treatment worked.

Early spring fertilization was horrible - there were stripes in my lawn where they missed with the fertilizer. When I told them about it they came out and refertililzed later in the spring and charged me again! I paid the bill. I would like to note that 3 of my neighbors who use the same company also had stripes at the same time.



Part of their program is to apply weed control. I still had weeds after it was applied. I called, and they said they would come out and spot treat the weeds. Since I work, I don't know if they ever came, because there were still weeds a week after they supposedly came. I called and told them, and they said they'd check it out. I didn't hear back from them, so I called and spoke to a man who told me he had been to my home and that I didn't have any weeds. I told him that I had clover and some other weeds and told him exactly where the clover was. I was told that I didn't have any clover in my yard, he was quite snarky in his tone and proceeded to tell me that my neighbor had clover, not me. Since the area where my clover is was on the other side of my yard, away from my neighbor, I offered to meet him and show him where it was. He got an attitude and was pretty sarcastic and again said I didn't have any clover in my yard. At that point, I asked to speak with the owner and was told he was the owner. I couldn't believe an owner would talk to a customer the way he talked to me, so I told him I didn't want their service any longer. He said and quot;Fine!and quot; and hung up on me.

My experience has been great. We talked to them on a Tuesday and they were out by Friday. Their treatment seems to be effective on my lawn.

The end result has been good but getting things started have been an issue.  The reason is it apparently is no longer Lawn Doctor of Fredericksburg but LD of Stafford.   The communication issues were based on the fact that I was trying to communicate with the Fredericksburg office and it apparently is no longer in existence and calls were forwarded to the Stafford company.  I have used Lawn Doctor in the past in Manassas and the service was very good.  We have just moved to Locust Grove so I needed a company that would service us in this area.  I tried someone else but they were only willing to do 4 treatments and LD will be doing 6 treatments per year and the cost is less then the other company.  The other company was not willing to do my shrubbery but LD will do our shrubs as well.  The other person did a lot of landscaping as well as the lawn service and that is why I believe the service with LD will be better because they will just focus on our Lawn and shrubs, not our plantings or planning.  The person that finally came from LD was professional but waited a good while before coming and never called me to let me know they were even going to do an estimate.  He just showed up at our door one day.   All in all I thought there were communication issues but if they are now on track I can deal with it. if the service is as good as it was in Manassas.

I arranged an 8 month/6 treatment program and set a date for the first treatment. I paid in advance by credit card in order to benefit from a 5% discount. I left very specific instructions that the technician contact me before arrival, so I could secure my dog. I stayed home the entire day. No one ever called or came to the door. Later that afternoon I noticed my gate had been opened and left unlatched. I checked my mailbox and found an invoice. Not being certain what Lawn Doctor had done, I called and left a message; the owner, Steve Lipscomb, called me back. He told me he could not answer my questions, because he had not been the one who had come out to my house. About a week later I called Mr. Lipscomb and told him I had numerous dandelions in my yard that did not seem to be responding to whatever had been done the week before. He advised me that any time weeds are active in the lawn; they?ll come out and treat them. He said someone would be out the following Monday to take care of the weeds. Once again, I stayed home all day. At 4:00, I called and left a message asking when they?d be here. Mr. Lipscomb called me back and said they?d got a late start that day and would not be able to make it. He said someone would be out the next day. Greg showed up the next day. He did come to my door as requested, and he was very polite and professional. He answered all of my questions and treated the weeds. Unfortunately, it rained later that day. A week later, I called again and spoke with Mr. Lipscomb. I told him the dandelions were still going crazy and that crabgrass was starting to emerge throughout my entire front yard. I suggested it might be because it had rained after the previous treatment. He told me someone would be out the next day. I asked him what time, but he said he could not provide me with that information. I strongly stressed the importance of someone calling or coming to the door in advance so I could secure my dog. No one ever showed up. Fed up, I called Mr. Lipscomb the following week and told him I was not satisfied with the service he had provided to date. I advised him I wanted to cancel and get a full refund as guaranteed on Lawn Doctor?s website. He advised me that since he was an independently-owned franchise, he did not have to honor the guarantee if he didn?t want to. He told me to "take it up with the corporate office" and hung up on me. I called the corporate office - they said there was nothing they could do. Eventually Mr. Lipscomb refunded my credit card; however, he took it upon himself to keep $75 for the ?first treatment? and $45 for the additional weed control treatment which was supposed to be free.

THEY DO A PRETTY GOOD JOB. THEY COME OUT WHEN THEY SAY THEY WILL. I DO HAVE MORE WEEDS THAN I FEEL I SHOULD. THE GRASS LOOKS GREAT AND AS FAR AS FERTILIZATION GOES I AM PRETTY HAPPY.