Southwest Greens of the Valley

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They did it all in one day and it was amazing. I would highly recommend them. Mike was very thorough and prompt. He took us to some other putting greens they had put in to see before they started. He had originally gave us an estimate for this work a year and a half ago and they ended up sticking to their estimate when we were ready to start the work. They will be coming back after the summer to re-roll the green. We have been very happy with them.

Tom gave us an estimate of the cost, what steps will be taken before the Putting Green is installed, removal of the turf, spraying of the ground on another visit then installation of the green. We did not need to be present for any of these steps. Tom returned after the installation to test the roll and we agreed the installation needed to be rolled again which is going to be scheduled in the near future. Tom was easy to work with, upfront about costs, materials, the crew that would be doing the work and was very easy to contact with any questions we had.

Overall the green was completed and it is of high quality and I am acceptable to the end product. Overall my experience with SWG's management and Sales person was really difficult, disrespectful and unprofessional. Down right ubsurd. I am a high level golfer and I wanted a green I could use to practice putting and a short chip. I knew from the beginning that this was likely a unique and a bit more difficult than normal green as the undulation was going to be the key to getting the three holes and one chip to work in such a small area. SWG said they were the best in the business and that they had done projects like mine. The sales person also said he would be there on the installation day to make sure the undulation was correct before they put the putting surface on the base of the green. Unfortunately many of the commitments and promises regarding the design of the green disappeared once the contract was signed. I made a grievous error not including a diagram or detail description of the design of the green in the contract. I huge mistake. SWG came to me with a strong referral from someone who was associated with SWG's in the past. So I figured they would be reasonable and that the salesperson heard me regarding the design from the beginning. He presented himself with much confidence and that he would get a great green for me. On the day of installation they had me sign off on the undulation once they had the base installed and we rolled some larger balls on the packed base. Now I have been clear as to the end product I wanted and the salesperson who was onsite had told me he understood. He really changed at this point starting to instill some of his ideas. While some of the ideas were helpful he wanted to make a longer straight putt than I needed and I think that conflicted with the overall objective of what I was trying to achieve in this project. I am a high level golfer and I knew exactly how I wanted the green to work. I needed someone to make the green how I wanted it. Instead I started to get new conflicting ideas and all of a sudden the green would not work how I wanted it. I did not want or need a 15 foot straight putt. I wanted and needed a 5-6 foot straight putt and undulation that allowed me to putt from each of the three holes to the other two holes. So I signed off on the undulation thinking I was still relying on SWG's expertise in installing greens to achieve the end result I clearly communicated earlier in the process of the project and along the way. Well in essence as I learned I signed away the responsibility of SWG to install the green to the project specifications. I had approved much more that I essentially understood I did. And for that I have to own my responsibility. I made a huge mistake in doing that, and that is on me. So after the first install I got a green that was beautiful and rolled nice however the undulation was not correct so I could not putt from the 1st to 3rd hole or vise versa, the break in the putt was not enough and the chip did not work because the same undulation for the putt was not present. There payment terms were 50% to schedule and 50% on completion, not acceptance it seemed. Not the terms I would normally be acceptable to and since I had such a strong referral into this company I did not negotiate other terms. Another huge mistake on my part. So I initiated contact with the salesperson and ultimately with the owner of the SWG of the Valley Franchise. Now this is where my experience with SWG of the Valley turned into effectively a disaster. They were not willing to accept a bit of responsibility for the undulation not being correct and cited that I signed off on the break before they put the surface on the base. While essentially they were correct it was clear that the green as is did not allow for a put form the 1st yo 3rd hole and the chip that we talked about for hours in the planning process did not work. So I have to ask myself where was their expertise I paid a premium for. I say paid a premium for because they were 20% higher price than their less experienced competitors even with the discount I received from the referral source I used. I thought the premium was for the experience and I needed that in this project. Wow! was I mistaken! Their promises of customer service and that they were the experts were non-existant at this point. And their commitment to me as a customer was not present. Absolutely, the worst interaction I have ever had with Management and in the end the Salesperson. I was actually called an idiot to my face. Unbelievable And disrespectful. I had hoped we could compromise and each take responsibility for what went wrong. The only thing that kept us out of court was my willingness to pay essentially for a complete redo of the green. The going rates for greens in the valley at the time was $8 per foot. In order for me to get a green that worked as planned I had to be willing to spend $16 per foot. So from their standpoint I got two greens so I paid double. From my standpoint I got one green I was willing to pay a premium for for that did not work and a second that is now functional and I essentially paid double. The negotiation for the redo was particularly difficult as the owner wanted to include fixed overhead and more profit in his redo price. That position was crazy to me and did not represent good customer service or responsibility. He already made his profit and covered his fixed overheads in the original price I paid. So much for this being a reputable company. Obviously, after this experience I absolutely will not endorse SWG of the Valley. They did not stand by their word from the standpoint that they had the expertise to get the undulation of my small unique green to work right without paying two times the going rate for my green. The crew that ultimately I worked with directly to get an functional green were great. I was very happy with my interaction with them and the supervisor of the crew actually saved the whole project when he worked hard with me to get the green functional on the redo. So in the end my summary is very good quality, acceptable functionality and absolutely terrible customer service and customer commitment from management and sales. The price and the commitment to the customer are too high and terrible respectively. So beware and be thorough if you decide to use them.

The job was wonderful. We would definitely recommend them. The price they gave was wonderful; they didn't go over. They did everything on time.

They did a great job. punctual and timely. We would hire them again!

I liked their work greatly. I would recommend them to family and friends.

A friend recommended them to me. I have got artificial turf and so far they have been awesome. They are going to finish today so I can tell more when they are finished. They are very prompt, very professional and it looks like they are doing a really good job. Their price is very competitive, I negotiated it down and there was no quote. They were interested in competing against the other because I had another company's bid too. The salesman was very professional and clean cut. He had like a Polo shirt on with his company's name and he really looked very professional. They are not the cheapest but they did come down on their pricing. They provide a high quality service. I went and looked at another house where they worked and it was top-notch so I am hoping mine also looks like that.