DOYLE LANDSCAPES

They did a bunch of digging and fixing the situation in our back of the house, so we won’t have water coming out anymore. They did some French drain and piping. He was easy to talk to and explained well what the problem might be and what his solution was and were clear on what they were going to do, and they had to actually work underneath the deck so it was kind of difficult.

If you're looking for shoddy work and an unresponsive company to rip you off, look no further than Doyle Landscapes. First off, we had to provide almost half of the $1800 estimate up front which made me a little nervous. Once they cashed the initial check, it was very difficult to get Doyle Landscapes to return our phone calls in order to schedule their services (which made me even more nervous). My wife left several messages and still no one from Doyle's called back. Eventually, we were able to schedule them to install our french drain and to build a retaining wall between my neighbor's patio and my own. I went outside to check on their progress periodically. It was surprising to me that they had rented a sod cutter to safely remove the grass layer, but for digging the actual trench for the drain, this was done manually by the crew with shovels. I questioned their methods in my head, but I'll admit that I'm not a professional (either). Upon completion of the work, I raised a concern with the owner about the depth at which they had installed the end of the drain pipe. It was raised above the level of the surrounding soil and formed a small mound in the yard where it terminated, all of which is on community property in my neighborhood of townhouses. I told Robert that if the lawn maintenance company were to continue to edge the yard as they normally do, they will destroy the pipe. Robert's response was something along the lines of "it'll be fine". I'm pretty sure I'll have to fix that myself in the near future. And now, on to the retaining wall and the beginning section of the drain. Through their excavation, Doyle Landscapes managed to cut several buried coaxial cables. But that's okay, because they told me they didn't think anyone was using them. Sigh. As for the thick orange coax that they unearthed that is definitely still in use, they just left it laying on top of the ground in a nice unsightly manner. Yet another thing I guess I have to fix myself. And finally, they clearly underestimated the number of stones needed for the retaining wall. I discussed with Robert Doyle that the wall was incomplete and that we could not leave it that way. He didn't have any extra stones with him, so he agreed to come back out with more stones to finish the retaining wall. Fast-forward three months: Robert Doyle and his crew have never been back out to finish the retaining wall. I have sent several emails to the company over the last three months and received zero replies. My wife and I have left voicemail messages with Doyle Landscapes and have never gotten a single call back from them. Imagine a house that was under construction when the housing market crashed a few years ago. The house was half-finished and then was abandoned by the builder. That's what Robert Doyle's retaining wall looks like. The main difference here is that he got his money - all of it. I'm kind of hoping that they've gone out of business. That's about the only scenario that I can imagine that would make their lack of response at all acceptable. I finally took it upon myself to finish the retaining wall. And I must admit, the part I did looks pretty darn good. My advice to you is to avoid Doyle Landscapes at all costs. Pay a little more if you have to in order to get a reputable company (or do the work yourself. I guarantee that you are at least as good as Doyle). As it turned out, a trench digger was not the only tool they forgot to bring that September morning. They also failed to bring courteousness, common sense, and professionalism. I guess they don't have any of those in their tool shed.