North County Lawn Care

Completely dishonest and untrustworthy, poisoned our yard and denied responsibility.
I hired North County to maintain the lot of our new home in a natural state and to control invasive species with the lowest level of chemicals possible.  I had not yet moved in, and had talked with them in person about the importance of minimizing chemicals since we would soon be landscaping the lot with trees and plants.  I only got to see the lot once every six months, and was trusting North County with my property.  Our landscaper (another company) noticed that our mulched lot had not a single weed anywhere and the soil appeared to be sterile.  He saw the North County crew applying some sort of pellets and asked what it was.  The North County worker said he was using "ron"and seemed surprised that the landscaper didn't know what that was, explaining "Caseron" and that that was what was on his work order for the yard. He said he was aware of how bad it is for the soil, but that he was doing what he was told. 
When questioned about this, at first North County denied that they had ever used anything but Roundup.  Then they admitted that "there was a one time error by the crew that had dispersed a handful of Caseron that was immediately raked up and disposed of." However, we found Caseron pellets all around the yard, which was not consistent with their explanation.  North County refused to investigate or account for either the pellets or the status of the completely sterile yard, and suggested someone else had dispensed Caseron to implicate them!  They added insult to injury by charging me a higher rate when I cancelled the contract due to their violation of our agreement, and refused to compensate me for the expense of replacing the soil they had poisoned.  I contacted multiple people in the company to give them a chance to tell their side of the story, but they refused to allow me to talk with the ground crew or supervisor to find out what had happened, and refused to talk to our landscaper who had witnessed it.  I believe the explanation is that, knowing I couldn't supervise their activities, they used harsh, destructive chemicals in violation of our contract, to minimize the effort it would have taken them to keep my lot free of invasive plants.  My landscaper, who had originally referred me to North County, apologized for ever recommending them and said they would never have done so had they known that North County used such chemicals.  However, for me, the biggest betrayal was North County's denial of any wrongdoing and refusal to investigate and correct their actions.

unknown

It went great. They did a great job and were very responsive to our questions and requests.

unknown

They come in and extended the patio. They cleaned up the area and planted new grass around the patio.

Amy? in there office is very responsive, friendly, and professional. She answers messages promptly. She follows up on proposals. She makes modifications to proposals based on my needs. They showed up on time and finished the job on time. The price was fair for heavy work that I didn't want to do myself. They didn't do anything extra but exactly what was required.

Excellent follow-up by Amy for estimate and agreement to execute care plan. Cost in-line with previous caretaker.

They are very efficient and clean up after themselves. They move stuff around and take their time. They check with you to see if there is anything you want done special for that day. I really love the people. They cost a little more but they are worth it.

We've used them for many years. I believe we were one of their first customers; we will continue to use them.

We started when the kid was just graduating from high school, which was about 20 years ago, so he has been around for a while. He now has several crews and he does landscaping as well as general gardening and pruning. They come one of two days every week.