Steve's Outdoor Services

Steve was hired to remove snow on our residential property. His crew showed up three times to remove the snow this winter and then never showed up again. Steve did not answer multiple phone calls. He did not explain why no one ever showed up. It's like he dropped off the face of the earth. I would never use him for anything ever again. We are elderly and were not able to get out of the house for fear of falling on our sidewalk. This is the second year we tried Steve's services. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you.

Initially in 2012, at the beginning of the snow season, Steve's people did a good job, though they often did not arrive for 4 - 6 hours after snow stopped falling. Their punctuality became worse during the 2012 - 2013 winter season (often as much as 8 hours after a snowfall after we had already done the work ourselves) and, despite repeated phone calls to Steve, it did not improve. Before contracting for 2013 - 2014, I had a long talk with Steve. He accepted responsibility for the poor service and assured me he had taken care of the staffing problems that had caused the poor service. We have now had two snowfalls this season and Steve's crew has not shown up at all after either of them, despite calls to Steve that he did not pick up and were not returned. After the first no-show Steve finally called a couple days later and apologized, again promising to do better and even sent his crew chief to our house to personally promise he'd assure good service in the future. Six hours after the next snowfall and another no-show, I tried calling Steve. Again there was no response to my voice mail, and after 17 hours we again shoveled our own snow. We will not use Steve for further work.

From complaint to BBB:
Nature of Complaint: Service Issues - An improper or inferior service
Problem:
Steve Johnson and employees sent to my home for seasonal snow cleanup have never once performed the requested snow cleanup to the specified requirements provided to them at the beginning of the 2012-2013 snow season and repeated over the phone and in emails. 
Steve was told in advance: 
* weekday snowfalls needed to be cleared by 7:30a.m. so my wife could get out of the driveway to her job every morning 
* the pet-safe salt that I provided was to be spread over the driveway from the side door of my house to the garage door and over the entire back porch 
* standard salt was to be used over the front walks and city sidewalk 
* the back patio and overlapping space into the back lawn was to be cleared (followed by spreading of pet-safe salt) 
The result: 

• ? 7:30a.m. weekday snow clearing was started late or not at all, with no phone calls before or after the fact 
• * willful ignoring of the pet-safe salt 
• * salt was never spread, nor was salt of either type spread in sufficient amounts, just a couple handfuls thrown down unspread in clumps 
• * my dogs required the overlapping space from the back patio edge to be large enough to relieve themselves, but the cleanup crew thought the space one snowblower wide and one deep was okay, even though I later clarified that the minimum space of three snowblowers wide and two deep was the minimum needed for two healthy dogs 
• * clearing of the back patio was forgotten entirely after the last snowfall 
• * snow from the driveway was never completely cleared, and allowed to build up in snowbanks overlapping the driveway's edges and froze repeatedly making using the backyard gate difficult 

Steve Johnson was unreachable after the very first time I called him early in the season, and never responded to e-mails sent. Steve Johnson refused to return my calls and e-mails including the last time when the back yard was skipped. Steve Johnson is unprofessional and has no sense of customer service and follow-through. 
I deeply regret my mistake of paying for his company's services in advance, as Steve Johnson then seems to have had no reason to do the work as specified or stay in contact with me to discuss what did or did not happen like I believe a professional service company should.

I called Steve twice in two days.  A friend said a neighbor of hers had him clean up her yard and was satisfied, but he did not respond until my second call, which I noted in my voice mail to him.  He made an appointment to give me an estimate for a Thursday at 4:30.  The day and time came and went and he did not show nor call to cancel.  Five days later he has not called.  I have read the reviews and will not contact him again.

Regular weekly lawn mowing has been a real struggle.  They don't come and when they do the mowing looks barely
satisfactory.  They have mowed down three solar yard lights and left the pieces.   I'm convinced we would have received
regular service had we not paid up front.  I have tried to be nice about this but it's getting to be a struggle.  Unfortunately
I recommended them to our neighbor who has the same problem, and I feel very guilty about this.  At least I made the commendation prior to the start of "service".  All my other dealings with Angie's List have been wonderful and I couldn't say
anything but rave reviews.

They came back on a Saturday a week later and was ready to do trimming. I asked about hedges and they said they weren't supposed to do that today. Steve's Outdoor Services said they would trim hedges on a different date. I said that they should have been done today and they said no. I talked to Steve Johnson the owner and he didn't pick-up to verify that I was supposed to have my hedges trimmed that day. Tried to contact Steve Johnson the next day and every hour after that day. After not hearing from him I called Steve Johnson, didn't get a hold of him again, I left a message explaining that I wanted my money back.

Took it down to about 8 feet as requested. Cleaned up all the debris and took that away.

I scheduled an appointment and Steve never showed up.  I have heard nothing from him since.

I found the service to be inconsistent. Sometimes, when snow was light,  everything was cleared to specification and I was happy with the job. But when the snow was heavier, service slipped. Sometimes the crew came at one or two in the morning. Sometimes, parts of the walks were left snow and ice-covered. Once I asked specifically for my driveway to be cleared by a certain time and was assured it would be done, but it was not. The worst case was after the big snowstorm at the end of February. Steve's crew did not appear until two days after the snow had ended. By this time, the snow and ice were packed onto the walkway at the north side of my house. It took me days of salting and chopping to make the sidewalk passable. The only saving grace was that Steve did not charge me for this particular work. I think perhaps his company over-extended itself. He seemed very eager to  have my business in the autumn but I think he had more clients than he could handle when the going got tough. He is a nice man who quoted a very reasonable price, but the service just didn't meet my expectations. I would, however, consider re-signing with his company if he could assure me that my needs would be met.

Great. They did a terrific job. I'll use them again.

Steve comes across as a very personable and caring person, but what I've learned is that he's just looking for your first down payment. He promised a start date then there was no communication. He didn't start the job until 6 weeks after the start date when I threatened him to start it. I met the roofers out there, and they had no idea what our contract was to be. They were just informed of the job the night before; I would've thought any contractor would've had these roofers lined up way ahead of time. They had no idea what they were supposed to do and what materials to use. He then was supposed to start the siding within 1-2 days of the roofing being completed, and after 10 days, he still wouldn't return a call or respond to my email. So after 2 1/2 weeks, I emailed him back that I was completely unsatisfied and as far as I was concerned, he was fired from the job. He has not contacted me ever since, and I told him I would make sure other people were aware of his business transactions and his work, or the lack thereof. Please beware- even if Steve's bid seems good or too good to be true, believe me, it is.