Esposito Gardening Center

Its spray service killed a lush St. Augustine lawn by failing to treat it properly or failing to diagnose and treat fungus. While caring for it on a schedule, brown spots appeared which its tech first called "winter kill." Despite spraying, the condition worsened, and larger areas died; the same tech then said it was chinch bugs. More spraying was done, and the condition worsened. The spray manager came and either couldn't or didn't identify the problem until the lawn was overtaken with what she later identified as fungus. Mr. Esposito came, and she acknowledged it had worsened. They were told I watered 2Xweek absent rain and the cutting height; they confirmed both were correct. He proposed to provide a different kind of sod were I to pay many hundreds of dollars for labor. The spray manager later said I was over-watering because she saw a hose-end sprinkler outside (where it was kept) and the cutting height was wrong, despite the prior statements. A "very poor" rating is generous.

Used Espisito for a year they managed to propagate the weeds and kill several areas of healthy lawn,, Called several times to have some type of remedy they failed to respond for a few months but eventually did. Their response was to wait to see if the grass would grow back..It never did !!!

They have come two times thus far and so far very good!

We hired Esposito's approxametely two years ago. First off they removed our drains around our pool and did not replace them as quoted in the contract so now our lower deck holds water. The polymeric sand that was used never set correctly in many areas of our pavers. They called the sand representative to look at it and tried to fill in the spots with more sand which didn't help. We have had the work looked at by two other reputable companies and have been quoted $21,000 and $22,000 to install drains and resand all the pavers. Besides these issues we have had many other issues with this company from the start of the project that I would be happy to share with anyone considering using this company. I will also be happy to have anyone come and look at the work they performed before we get it redone.

Workers are fine. They come out like once a month.

This batch of sod was really good. Since they don't water their sod, it's important to buy it the same day it is delivered.

Sod I purchased Oct. 3 looks wonderful. Nice and thick. I learned to only purchase sod from them on the day they received delivery. They don't water their sod and it isn't always locally grown. Most of what I purchased in late June died. It wasn't as thick as this "batch". I waited until the weather cooled off to purchase more sod.

It is one of the two larger landscaping companies in Tallahassee. They do pretty good work, I like them. Occasionally they will leave things on the sidewalk and sometimes they leave the lawn a little high, but I have not seen anybody do any other subdivisions better than that. That's pretty much how they all are. I do not know anything about the price. They come out weekly in the summer. If I needed to have landscaping done on the scale they do they then I would call them in the future. These are all postage stamp lots in this subdivision.

The head of the department came out for the assessment. He was extremely knowledgeable and was able to educate me about a lot of things going on with my lawn. Even though the reviews said that they were a little more expensive. They are local and very accessible, I chose to go with them. I've had two treatments, two of five. I signed up for their full year of lawn spraying. I am very, very satisfied. Each visit is $227 and we pay by the visit, even though I signed up for five visits. I think their price is reasonable.

No work actually completed, because I never get return calls. I've given up and am trying other companies.

They are not perfect, but if I ask them to do something they do it. They have a team and the equipment, which give them an advantage over the smaller yard care services. The smaller services were often fine for mowing and blowing, but could not handle the larger jobs. Initially, Esposito seems more expensive than the smaller services, but in the long run, they save money.

Lawn treatment on contract. Job met my satisfaction.

Reasonably priced without selling me on anything, lots of follow up to ensure my lawn maintenance is still up to par. We re-used a lot of what I already had and just moved it around. Just the fact that the supervisor comes by to check on things every 2 weeks is wonderful. If they aren't happy with something, they'll show up one day to correct it without charging me.

I called and spoke to someone who told me that the person I needed to speak with was out. So I left my contact information. Never heard back.

They'll be putting in an irrigation system and more landscaping later on. They are prompt. They do a really good job when they come here. They are courteous and professional. They are reasonable. They do high quality everything.

The first time I needed to mow my lawn after they returned the mower, I turned the key, and the starter did not engage. They returned the mower, but had not fixed the starter issue. Not wanting to pay to have the mower taken back to their shop ($50 a trip), I went to Home Depot and bought a solonoid for $13 and, after about two hours' labor (because the solonoid was in a very inaccessible location on the mower), I replaced it myself. Mower started the first turn of the key. There are several lawn mower repair options in Tallahassee. I suggest you select someone other than Esposito's. I was not satisfied with the and quot;repairand quot; of the starter problem. The other work (blades, belt, etc.) is presumably OK, but I've only used the mower once since I got it back from their shop. Particularly when a customer is paying for pickup and delivery of a mower, Esposito should assure the problem is corrected before returning the mower to the customer.

The tech always calls ahead to give me notice when he is coming and asks if it is ok to come on a certain day. Very thoughtful and professional. He always is there at the exact time and day he had pre-arranged and completes his work promptly. I now have a lawn I am proud of!

Overall I'm satisfied with the services that they had provided me.

The man who came out to assess the lawn appeared to have other things on his mind.

I had to repeat the landscape plan several times to whomever showed up for the day to work in our yard, otherwise some rather outlandish errors occurred. Once I came home to find that my fence was built and quot;backwardsand quot;. The cure offered to remedy the situation was to build a and quot;double fenceand quot;, and then we were charged the full cost to fix the mistake. I could have dealt with the additional charge better if it was mentioned to me at the time the remedy was offered. We settled by paying for half the cost of the additional wood to make the fence a and quot;double fenceand quot;. Mostly I coped with their services by making a routine of coming home from work in the middle of the day to check with whomever was in my yard to see if they knew what they should be doing. It isn't like we didn't spend a lot of time with Ralph Espositos to develop a landscape plan, but most of the workers who would show up would say they hadn't seen our plan or that the plan was useless. Eventually, I became my own landscape designer and job site supervisor and still paid Espositos for the work. And when the final bill came, there were a lot of detailed invoices for various jobs and one large invoice for $20,000 for and quot;materials and laborand quot;. We requested a breakdown of what was included in the $20,000 and quot;materials and laborand quot; invoice. Still haven't received a complete accounting of costs, but what we did receive was riddled with errors (all in favor of Espositos). Some of the materials listed were priced at triple the area's standard price for the same plant/size. Buyer beware!

I had a contract with them. They did an excellent job. They were very professional.

They are phenomenal at exterminating mosquitoes. Right now is the season for mosquitoes. They proved very helpful. They have many other services they perform.

The following is what I sent to BBB I am not going to get into any personal attacks concerning the job at my home. I will simply state fact as it occurred and let you be the judge, without comment. 1. I received an estimate to build a patio and a pergola from this company that was supposed to be just like the one in their show room in December of 2011. 2. I set an appointment with this company on Saturday January 7th to meet with them and go over where this patio and pergola were to be built. I was concerned that the patio should not be built over the sewer line in the event the line needed repair which would require that the patio be dug up in the process. 3. A representative from the company arrived at about 10:00 AM on Saturday, and I waited for him so that we could go over how best to do this – or if it could be done at all. He arrived with four flags to mark the location of the patio corners and the pergola. Once he marked the patio corners he did not have any flags for the location of the Pergola but he said this was not an issue as he would give instructions to the builder to make sure it was placed correctly – and the person building the pergola (this turned out to be a sub-contractor – in fact all of the work was done by sub-contractors) would arrive the next day (Sunday) to place the pergola – I was not given a time. 4. I had an appointment around 1:00 PM so I waited for the person who was going to build the pergola – he did not arrive until late afternoon – I had to leave for my appt around noon. When I arrived home I was happy to see that the guy building the pergola had arrived. I went down to take a look and he already had three of the poles placed with dry cement in the holes – he had not applied water to these yet. I immediately noticed that the posts were placed with the first one being in the SE corner of the patio – instead of inside where the patio was – this placed the pole right on the edge of the sewer line and would definitely put the patio over the sewer line. I asked him about this and he said it was odd that the flags were so far apart – but Greg had told him that the flags marked the spot for the posts NOT the patio, I told him this was going to create a problem – he agreed and before we could further discuss it he pulled the posts out of the ground and said he would be back the next day to finish the job – I will say this that he was very professional about this, and the finished product – once properly placed. He also pointed out to me that Greg was distracted with a much bigger and more important job for this company than mine and that was probably why he was not paying attention. 5. I called Mark on Monday and told him that since the work for me was not a priority for Greg, that I would appreciate having someone help me that was interested in making sure this was done right. I got a call from Greg where he used language with me that I was surprised at and he said that everything was fixed – why was I so upset. I indicated that I was not UPSET, just disappointed, and I wanted someone to help me that was interested in getting this small job done right, it appeared from what I was told that he was otherwise occupied with a more important client – in fact the sub who built the pergola told me that the reason he had to leave the job at my home on several occasions was because he was being called over to help Greg with his “big job”. 6. Early the next week the sub who built the patio arrived and put in the West wall and part of the South Wall. These were not put in straight and I called Mark in the landscaping section and pointed this out to him. He came out and took a look at it and sent me an email (which I can send to you if requested) that yes it was slightly off and they would fix this, which they did. 7. The patio sat like that for a month. I called several times and was told they were having a problem getting the pavers for my patio. Each time I called they told me that they would be in either Tuesday or Friday and that they would call me either way and let me know. Let me make this very clear – although I was promised by Mark, and Mr. Esposito himself to call me on several occasions to let me know what was going on, the only time contact was made was when I called them and I ALWAYS waited at least two days to give them the benefit of the doubt for busy people do sometimes forget. 8. At one point I met with them to select a different stone that they said would be easier to get, but suddenly the stone I originally requested arrived and just over a month after the pergola was started they got the patio done. 9. There was damage to the NW corner where a stone came loose and this was repaired after a couple weeks. Then three months later a section of the patio about three feet by one foot sunk two inches on the west side of the patio. I was promised on more than one occasion that someone was coming to repair this damage. When he arrived it was at 3:00 in the afternoon and he left at 4:30, which is about an hour and a half. 10. Since that time we have had no further issues with the patio or the pergola.

They are reliable and do a good job in taking care of things. They charge a monthly fee.

Very pleased with all aspects of the deal.