Wheat's Landscape

This company has failed at every level even after charging me roughly 40% more than the estimates I've been given by the more reliable landscaping firms used by my neighbors. DO NOT HIRE WHEAT'S. I have been trying to get the irrigation system they installed to function since early spring. All these months later, I am still using a manual sprinkler system to keep my flower beds and lawn alive. Wheat's has never once acknowledged their failures or apologized to me. They have sent technicians to fix the problems, but somehow, they never manage to do so. Not only will I never use them again, I strongly recommend against others hiring them.

Wheats Landscaping may be the worst vendor I have had the displeasure to work with. They were expensive, did bad quality work, and tried to overcharge us by thousands of dollars when we terminated our contract with them to switch to another company – who has done a far better job, for literally half the price. We initially decided to go with Wheats because that’s who the previous owners of our home used, and we weren’t familiar with any landscaping services in the McLean area. When I talked to them, I asked if we could pay for just the specific services we wanted, and I was told that Wheats does not do a la carte pricing but instead only does a “full-service” model where they handle everything. They offered us a contract with an $1,151.88 monthly price. We were disappointed by the service we received, especially for the price. The pruning was inconsistent, and several areas and bushes got noticeably overgrown. People came by to remove fallen sticks, but they did not “dispose” of them as per the contract but instead started piling them up in several parts of our property (making it harder to use those areas). For the price we were paying, I expected to be completely satisfied with the landscaping services we received; we were not. We’ve since switched to another landscaping company who charges a far lower price and whose work we’re much happier with, so I don’t think my expectations were unreasonable. Then we get to the most egregious part in my opinion. Per the contract, we sent Wheats written notice that we were terminating our contract effective in 30 days. At the end of that time period, they sent us an invoice claiming that we actually owed them another $2,831.00 in addition to the monthly payments we had already made. The invoice claimed that we owed more than double the expected amount for the total contract. I sent an email requesting an explanation for the invoice. I received a call, during which the person I spoke to from Wheats claimed that when they receive a notice of early cancellation, they convert the entire contract to a “per job” pricing model, add up the amounts based on the “per job” pricing costs they (unilaterally) assign (which are nowhere in the contract), and then determine whether additional money is owed. As justification, he pointed to the language in the contract regarding early cancellation: “If this Agreement is terminated prior to the expiration of 12 months of service, the Client shall remain responsible for all services provided by Wheat’s prior to cancellation.” I agree that I’m not entitled to a full refund for all the money paid under the contract, but the contract doesn’t say anything about converting the pricing to a per job model in the event of an early cancellation. Nor does it include anything about what the “per job cost” would be for any of the services involved. On the invoice, they also improperly backdated the contract to start on May 1, 2022, when we didn’t sign the contract until May 9, 2022, which strikes me as another way they’re trying to overcharge us. I think this is an unethical and completely unjustifiable cash grab that has no basis in the contract, and I’ve told them as much. We only signed the contract because they told us upfront that we could cancel at any time with 30 days’ notice and we understood from our discussions and the terms of the contract itself that our only obligation would be the monthly amount. For them to do a bait and switch after the contract ends by trying to more than double the amount owed to an undisclosed, per service model using prices that were never agreed to is indefensible. As part of this review, I’ve attached copies of the contract and the invoice I received with my personal identifying information redacted.

Every aspect of the engagement was first class - from initial consultation with the designer, Kevin Murray, to completion of the work by what I would consider a very professional crew. Kevin was available to me and to the crew while the work was in progress. The design (a dry creek bed, stone steps, etc.) was faithfully executed, neatly and beautifully finished. We are very satisfied with the transformation of our backyard..

The company over promised and under delivered in maintaining our yard. Despite a clearly detailed contract and expectations set with the account manager, their yard crews performed absolutely the minimum amount of work. I often had to clean up after them. They would demand excessive fees for any additional work. Borderline fraudulent, stay away from this company. BBB should consider investigating their business

Although Wheats does a great job with cutting grass and blowing away debris, it's also great at destroying my flowers and shrubbery. Even though I reached out to them on numerous occasions to discuss the matter, they never responded. Even after I cancelled their service, they still billed me for the next month. Had to show up to their office, in person, to get any resolution.

The staff who mowed and trimmed and who applied herbicides and fertilizers were dependable and did an excellent job. One issue is that Wheat's became complacent over time and the account manager failed to ensure that special instructions for leaf removal, etc., were properly followed. Because it seemed like the account manager was not going to become more responsive, I moved my business to another company.

I used their landscaping designer for a redesign of our backyard. The designer was great and easy to work with. Since then, I have nothing but issues with responsiveness of their customer service people regarding lawn care and maintenance of some of the shrubs and plantings they installed. Their personnel constantly turn over and I have had 4 main contacts in 3 years. They take many days to return phone calls, and everytime I point out a problem they immediately try to sell me additional services to repair their original mistakes. No one seems accountable there, and I would definitely not recommend them for high end homes in Maryland. They seem to take care of their Virginia clients, but awful crossing the river.

They are excellent. They do everything. They are great. They are probably one of the best in the area. The guy who starts Wheat's just started doing lawns. He never went to college and he built it into a business. he does landscaping in the town we are in and he has a sign up. I have to say, there is so much opportunities. He just started from doing neighbors lawns and he is excellent. People are very happy with his work. Really nice family too. They are very very good. Price is reasonable for what they do. I would use them again.

Same as above .... it did not go at all well.

.

Great. We were very happy with the results and price. The workers were a pleasure to work with throughout the entire experience.

unknown

Wheats has met all of our expectations for taking care of all aspects of our yard care...clean-up, mulching, deer spray, mowing, planting, lawn care, etc....they are excellent

Terribly.  

• It took until last summer to have the clean-up work completed.  The sod had to be replaced because it died the first time, and the tree they moved died!

They may be the best, but they are very expensive. I am usually price insensitive for the best, but we are talking grass and landscaping and you can get very good for much less

unknown

unknown

Over the last 2 yrs, Wheat's has provided various services: lawn treatment, fall clear-up, insect and disease control for shrubs, pruning, and landscaping.
The whole team is very professional, keeping exactly to the agreed schedule and carrying out the various services very efficiently. Unfortunately, they over-pruned my camellia, which has now failed to bloom and some branches have died. However, they have taken remedial action without any charge and it now appears to be recovering well.
Overall I am pleased with their work and am continuing to use them on a regular basis.

We discontinued with our service with them.  I live in a 3 acre property and I live in a fancy neighborhood so my lawn needs to be manicured and well maintained.  

Their customer service was great but their delivery was not so great.  The reason why we discontinues our contract with them, we have a very big house and our lawn was never good on the up keep but the front of the house where we have plants and that is where Wheat?s landscape did a horrible job.  Everything died and their recommendation on what we should plant was horrible.  I will not recommend them people and I have friends who have used them and ended up cancelling their contract with them as well.  The bottom line is we spent $30000 for this and it still look not good.  So they were not great.  

When they did the surface around our pool, they got a sub contractor which they never told us about that.  The sub contractors did a horrible job that we had them re-do it.  My husband and I are the nicest people but we were just not satisfied.  Some tiles were coming up and there was something not right about the job.  

They were very nice but I will not recommend them.  

unknown

I have used them a couple times in the past. They do a good job. I would definitely use them again in the future. I would absolutely recommend them to anyone.

unknown

Wheat's clean up service put our garden in fresh form to allow us to attend to the neglected plantings and flower beds. We were so delighted with results and Wheat's accommodation of special requests, that we saw our garden with new eyes. After clean out--our garden was nominated for local garden of the year and we were inspired to put some effort into sprucing up. Our garden was one ot those chosen in the judging. Thanks to the hard work of Wheat's team.

The first year the service was great and our rep was fantastic. It's quite possible that he was in our yard more than I was! He was always checking in and catching issues from their crew's work before I would. He definitely understand customer service and was exceptionally responsive. I'm a hard guy to please and my wife thought I'd found a new best friend!
Sadly, he retired. The new rep is really nice and friendly, but as a young guy he's probably new to the space and probably overwhelmed with taking on the territory of an old hand. I'm now routinely finding major issues with the service (they don't seem to be catching the mistakes anymore) and response time has gone from hours to days.
I would gladly move to a different service (Wheat's is definitely not the cheapest option) to get the old level of service back, but in talking to neighbors the consensus seems to be that they're still one of the best around.