Turf Care Enterprises Inc

The guys at Turf Care have been taking care of my lawn and trees for the last year and I have been very satisfied with their service.

After years using a different company with less than satisfactory results, we switched to Turf Care last summer. We have been very happy with the results and appreciate Scott's follow up when we have a question. I highly recommend them.

Overall Turf Care are the best at diagnosing what's wrong w/your lawn.

Turf Care has really turned our lawn around.

We have had several lawn care providers over the past 20 years and we have never been thrilled with the results of our lawn compared to some of our neighbor's lawns. One day my wife noticed a Turf Care Enterprises truck servicing the nicest lawn on our street and she took down their information. After looking up on Angies's list, we found their company had a high satisfaction rating and Angie's super service award so I decided to give them a call. Right from start I noticed they were different. Normally when I have called lawn care companies in the past they give us a price right over the phone. Turf Care was different, they told me that they customize their programs for each individual lawn and that they had to see the lawn to determine what it would need and what the cost would be. They took down my name and number and said all their service advisors were in the field and they would have to have someone call me back. I was assuming that meant the evening when they returned to the office, I was pleasantly suprised when I got a call from Al only 5 minutes later. Al was very polite and professional and informed me he was calling from his truck and applogized that he had a full schedule and could not get there today (I wasn't expecting him that day). He ask me alot of questions about my lawn, my concerns and prior problems with my lawn to help get an understanding about what I was looking for in my lawn and from their service. I basically informed him that I want a lawn that looks like my neighbors who they treat. Al informed me he would be out tomorrow and that I did not have to be home for the evaluation and estimate. I had the entire day off and ask Al when he would be coming as I wanted to be there. Al showed up when he said and we imeadiately proceeded to walk the lawn together while I pointed out my concerns. I was very impressed with Al's knowledge, he check my soil, thatch level and identified the type of grass and disease I curently had. He then set up a program he said would be perfect for my lawn one that would get my lawn looking as good as my neighbors. I was a little suprised at the price as it was more than I was paying in the past, but Al quickly pointed out all the free services that were included in the program he was recommending, like free service calls, free weed resprays, free insect control and a money back guarantee. Al also pointed out the program he had set up for us was a natural based one, using natural and organic fertilizers and other products. We have a dog and well so this was very reassuring. He also informed me that all their fertilizer treatments were in a granular slow release form that would feed my lawn more naturally giving me a much better and even color throughout the year, compared to the liquid fertilizer that my current company was using. When I compared apples to apples, Turf Care actually came out to be a better value. I elected to take all the services that Al suggested. It was nice knowing that I did not have to sign a contract and Al informed me I could change my program at anytime with a simple phone call. I received my first visit last week. The technician who came out (Mike) was clean cut and in uniform. He came to the door to introduce himself. He then proceeded to apply a granular fertilizer and a liquid treatment which he said was for the weeds. He typed up a complete report on his findings, what he applied, what he found, and care instructions for us on how we should be watering and mowing this Spring. I was suprised that the report was typed and assumed it was pre done at the office. Mike took me out to his truck to show me that each of their company trucks are equipted with a computer and printer. That their computers have all the prior history of my lawn, what was applied, what was found, etc. That all the data that he typed today, gets uploaded to the companies main computer each night. He also said that my service advisor (AL) will be monitoring this information to make any nessasary adjustments to my program. So far I have been very impressed with this company! Too soon to tell if I will have a lawn as nice as my neighbors yet!

I'm writing this because even though we didn't use Scott in this situation, I have to say I would use him in a heart beat. He was very pleasant, he was very professional and informative. He has gret follow through but isn't pushy and his last call just impressed me-it's something any good sales person would do but the fact he verbalized it I thought was great-he said he would reach out to me in the fall to see if we were in a position to do anything and also again in the spring and reminded me to keep his card handy should our situation change and we decide to do something sooner.

It went very well. They came out the same day I call which was really nice. He explained everything to me. I was very pleased. I'd definitely use them again.

Excellent job all summer long. Lawn is beautiful even still!

They came out and there was some confusion about what they were supposed to do. The guy started spraying one of our crabapple trees and he was going to spray all of them. I saw what he was doing and went out and stopped him. We didn’t want the crabapples sprayed; we wanted the regular apple tree sprayed. They did a great job but there was some confusion. We had them out to get rid of a disease on a magnolia tree and they did a fine job on that. There was just some confusion and misunderstanding on what was supposed to be done. I thought they had to come out a second time on the magnolia and they didn't. They kept sending me bills for work that wasn't done. The guy that came out was aware of it and he said he would let them know. It took a while to get that taken care of. They had to come out a couple of times for the apple tree and we still had problems with it. The price was okay. The one tree is great and cured of the illness but we still have problems with the other tree. The guy who came out was great. He had to communicate a couple of times through my mother and he was very understanding about that. We might possibly use them again.

LAWN FERTILIZATION & WEED CONTROL: I would not recommend this company to anyone and following are my experiences with them (also, be sure to review the photos attached to this review). After being dissatisfied with my lawncare provider last year I looked to AL to find a new provider for 2011. I found Turf Care Enterprises (TCE) had a lot of positive reviews and decided to give them a call. I spoke with Scott who seemed very knowledgeable and professional. He visited my home, looked at the lawn and wrote up a quote. The price seemed a little high, but I generally ascribe to the philosophy that you get what you pay for. I called and spoke to Scott again explaining that we had problems with grubs in the past and that would need to be part of the applications. We agreed that they would get started and the first treatment was applied within a week or so. In the beginning, everything seemed great and the lawn looked the best in the neighborhood. Then came July in Chicago with record heat - the lawn went brown and dormant (just like the rest of my neighbors). We generally don't spend a lot of time watering our lawn so that was understandable. On July 21 TCE came out and applied a treatment when it was 100 degrees. The lawn was still brown at the time, but two days later came record rainfall followed by even more rainfall the following week. I noticed that all of my neighbors lawns started to green up, but my lawn looked terrible (by terrible I mean 70% of it looked dead and it was very patchy - see pictures). I called Scott and he visited my house to review. He reported that we suffered a lot of "heat and drought related damage." I didn't understand how my lawn was still brown and the other lawns in the neighborhood were green, but he stuck with the "heat and drought related damage" assessment. My neighbors do not water or fertilize their lawns and they seemed fine, but I took his word and decided to wait. I also began watering my lawn several times a week. After all of this occurred I spoke with the guy that mows my lawn. I've only owned the house for two years, but he has been mowing at the house for the past 8-9 years. In all that time he has never seen the lawn look so bad. And the previous owner did not pay for professional lawn treatments. I waited patiently and diligently watered my lawn. Two weeks later my lawn still looked awful so I called TCE again and spoke to Kevin (president/owner of TCE). I explained the issue and he had another service advisor, Grant, visit my house. Grant's assessment came back that it was not heat/drought damage, but bug damage from Sod Webworms and Billbugs. At that point I wasn't sure what to believe. If you look at the pictures there is a long stretch where the damage pretty much stopped at the property line - those must be some pretty smart bugs. I spoke to Kevin again and he explained that bug damage can happen to anyone and that it is hard to detect unless you dig into the lawn and find the bugs when they're actively feeding. He also explained that the bugs may have chosen my lawn over the neighbors because my lawn was healthier/greener (my neighbors don't water or fertilize). During our discussion, he added a lot of reasons for why this could've happened - lack of watering/rainfall, mowing height and frequency, blade sharpness, different varieties of grass, soil composition and compaction, etc. FYI - The person who mows my yard also mows the bordering property and theirs looked fine. Kevin was very professional and is clearly very knowledgeable about lawns. I appreciated the time he spent talking to me, but in my opinion he was just adding a lot of fluff and trying to keep me as a customer while deflecting all of the blame for the damage to my lawn. That said, he did offer discounted pricing on aeration and overseeding. He also suggested a special method of seeding (slice-seeding?) at a discounted price ($375 instead of the normal $750). While I appreciated the discounts I really feel that the damage to my lawn should have been detected by TCE and prevented (or at least minimized). I decided to cancel all services with TCE. Maybe if they had offered to take steps to fix my lawn at no additional cost I would still be a customer. It's now mid-September and after a month and a half of regular watering my lawn has rejuvenated slightly, but it's nowhere near as full as it was earlier this year, or the past several years for that matter. The only good thing I can say is that there are very few weeds throughout the lawn. If hiring a lawn service to fertilize my lawn 6-8 times a year gives me these results, then I'll fertilize once or twice a year on my own and save $500/year on lawn service. TREE SERVICE: Some additional notes on TCE's tree-care division. I called to inquire about pruning several of my trees. Geil called me and said he would come out and take a look and that TCE does not do tree trimming, but could recommend a service. Aside from the pruning, Geil wrote up a list of items that he recommended which included treating my spruces for spruce spider mites (of which he said there was an infestation of hundreds if not thousands of spider mites) and a $350 injection to one of my River Birches because it is chlorotic. I called another certified arborist for a second opinion. He looked at the spruces and showed me how to check for spruce spider mites by holding a plain sheet of white paper under the branches and shaking the branches. If there are spider mites they will fall onto the sheet of paper and be visible. He did this to each of the trees and did not find a single spruce spider mite. He also explained that it was not the time of year for spruce spider mite problems, that they are only active in the spring and fall. He recommended checking again in September, but said the trees looked fine to him. Regarding the River Birches he agreed the one was chlorotic, but he offered a non-injection treatment for $85. Geil did not mention any other options for this treatment even after I made it clear to him that a $350 tree injection was not an option I would consider. For what it's worth, those are my experiences with Turf Care Enterprises and again, I would not recommend them. I had intended on attaching photos, but I don't see how to do that. If I can figure that out I will add them to the report later.

It went great and everyone in the company that I had contact with are all very knowledgeable. The guy who did the treatment did a great job; the weeds are all gone and we have new grass coming in so we are extremely pleased with the job they've done. We felt that the price was reasonable and I like this company because they use a dry fertilizer versus a wet one like some other competitors. I will use them again in the future.

Made appointment with Scott Maxwell for initial consultation. During this consultation he informed me that our lawn was infested with chinchbugs and bill bugs, which were causing the lawn to die off in large patches. He suggested treatment with insecticide as a first step, and suggested re-seeding and continued maintenance as follow up procedures. We only went with the insecticide at this time, but I do feel that we will be using Turf Care beginning next Spring. Scott did a great job, he was thorough, and very professional.

They have been addressing lawn issues for the past four months. I like the reports they leave after an application is made andd our lawn is inspected. The lawn has improved since they started the work, although part of the reason is that we have had a lot of rain recently. Each treatment was about the same cost with grub control an extra treatment.

I was a customer of another lawn, tree and shrub company for many years. Been happy with their service but was wondering if there was another company that would go that extra mile. I think I have found it in Turf Care. From the time I contacted them a specialist in Lawn came and did an inspection told me about the condition of my lawn what he suggested and another specialist came to inspect my tree and shrubs. Both estimates seem comparable to what I was paying. But I feel that Turf Care is providing me with service for my property not an "one size fits all" treatment.

They always showed up. We had a big weed problem at the start of the program. They mostly fixed that as the summer progressed. But the grass didn't thrive under their program. We still had thin spots after a summer of treatment. At the end of the summer he said that we might have an insect problem too. I wished he had told us earlier. I didn't get the last 2 treatments because I just wasn't thrilled with the appearance of the lawn. We are using another company this summer. My next door neighbors are using the new company too. All the weeds are gone, the grass is thick and deep green, and I am much more satisfied. (We have not used any pest control either. I don't think that was the problem. )

overall great. Only issue is billing, they can not do auto pay. Though they finally are taking credit cards

They are actually very knowledgeable and they teach us about our lawn. They are nice people. They are a bit expensive.

They do a good job of maintaining my lawn without using a whole bunch of chemicals. They are excellent. I would continue to use them in the future.

They were very good and very knowledgeable. However, they seemed to be a little bit more expensive than the others.

Their responsiveness and professionalism were good. The quality has been good so far. I don?t know about the price because my husband dealt with that. We would use them again in the future.

They said they would get an estimate out to me but I never heard back.

When we moved into our home in October, our lawn was a mess. I called the "Big Guys" as well as Turf Care to give me an estimate for getting the weeds and pests under control. A large amount of my lawn had been eaten by sod worms as well. 2 other companies just gave me an estimate over the phone ; they never even looked at my lawn. Then they started with high pressure selling. Turf Care came out, met me, and gave a detailed evaluation of my lawn, the problems, and a plan to get it under control over the next year. Turf Care costs slightly more, but they actually know what they are doing and take their business seriously. They applied a fast acting chemical to get rid of the sod worms, and the nastys went away. They also killed off the weeds. Now in the spring we can work on filling in the bare spots and get the rest of the weeds under control.

Overall they were very professional.

The experience went very well. They are extremely good with follow up. They also gave us some estimates for other work that we might want in the future. They have been very good about following up with us repeatedly to see if we were ready to move forward. They were able to take care of the problem with us. They are very professional, attentive, and dedicated to customer service. I'm not sure that they are the cheapest in town.

Not happy with lawn, considering ammount of money I spent.