SCHMECHTIG LANDSCAPE COMPANY

They are a great company to work with. They are very responsive. I have been using them.

I have no idea if they do good work or not since I never got an estimate after chasing them for one. But judging from their customer service I will never consider them again. I called Schmechtig Landscaping on April 14th looking to get an estimate to repair two sizeable retaining walls and some potential other work. I talked to the office and they took my information telling me I would be contacted. When I talked to the office I made it clear I wanted to arrange a time where I could meet with someone at my house to talk about what I was considering besides the retaining wall work. After three business days of not hearing from anyone I called back the following Wednesday, 4/19. I was transferred to what I assume was a manager. They told me I would be contacted that day. A couple hours later I got a phone call that I was unable to answer as I was in a work meeting. When I was able to listen to the voicemail a bit later, the message was from someone by the name of Jose saying he would be at my house in about 30-45 minutes. Meanwhile this was a couple hours after he called. I had never talked to him and had never agreed I could meet him. Knowing I had told the office I wanted to be there and then to have him say he was on his way to my house without ever talking to him or making any sort of appointment did not sit well with me. When I called Jose back later that day, it turned out he did not go on my property due to wet conditions. He and I then arranged for a day for him to come out on Friday, 4/21 for me to meet with him. Since he was not sure of a time other than after noon, he told me he would call me around noon to let me know what time he would arrive. Well, 2:30pm came around on the day he was to come out and I had not heard from him. I called him and he said he was just leaving another location and would be arriving soon. No apology for not doing what he told me he would do. He came to my house on Friday 4/19 assessed what I needed done and told me he would have an estimate for me sometime later the next week. After 10 days (6 business days) of not hearing from him I called Jose on Monday 5/1 to find out when I would get the estimate. I understood it could take a bit longer than he said but I wanted to move forward on the work to get it done. By this time I already knew I was not going with them because of the horrible customer service but wanted to have the estimate for comparison to others I had. He told me that he talked to his manager since the job was too big for his crew and I should hear something soon. No apology for not keeping me informed. It is now May 19th and I have not yet received any estimate or follow up calls. It is no longer needed since I already hired someone else and the work was done a couple of days ago. This other company came over after Jose, provided an estimate sooner than they promised and has completed the job. I contacted Schmechtig based on good reviews on Angie's list but their customer service and follow up was horrendous. If they didn't want to/couldn't do the job, tell me that up front and don't waste my time.

unknown

.

.

unknown

unknown

unknown

Although Schmechtig might be a wonderful company and do beautiful work, the customer service I experienced was less than desirable. I called hoping to speak with someone about their services and the possibility of working with them to create a master plan. Unfortunately the person answering the phone was short, irritable and more interested in taking all of my contact information (including husbands name and other irrelevant info) in order to get us on their mailing list. She initially advised that we were in their service area and then, after taking my contact info, advised that we weren't in their service area afterall. At best she is new and having a bad day; at worst they are phishing. Hopefully they excel in other areas but beware.

Took several meetings with them to get estimate. Did not seed enough and the covering of what they did seed, did not seem to help. They did stabilize the covering very well; but again it did not help for the seed to take effect. Communication with supervisor was delayed and limited. Found a broken glass on front storm door and their response was contradictory, depending on who you talked to. Tried to add additional cost; however, they removed the additional charges when confronted. The overall job was done reasonably well, with the exception of the grass seeding; still have several bare spots. Clean up of the debris was exceptional. Job took too long in my opinion.

The landscaper came out to talk to us about our ideas and was very uninterested in what WE wanted, was unresponsive and took quite some time getting back to us for the estimate. The survey was done by someone else entirely. Eventually we learned that the landscaper we were working with no longer worked for the company. Someone did call about restarting the process and likely that would have gone much better, but by then we had already wasted too much time. We were under a time constraint and couldn't afford to just start again. Thankfully we hadn't been asked to pay anything for an estimate at that point.

We first contracted with Schmechtig back in January of 2010. We wanted to spruce up the front yard with some professional landscaping, but when we saw the grand total, we realized that with a wedding on the horizon, it wasn’t going to happen. We did contract for the re-shaping of the bed, amending of the soil, and installation of a burning bush and three boxwoods. All of this went off without a hitch. This year, we decided to go ahead with the rest of the plan, as well as to add on a spring clean-up, aeration, and scheduled fertilization program. In order to conserve money, we requested that the number of each plant in our design be reduced appropriately, but otherwise, we were set to go. The spring clean-up was done promptly and very nicely. Unfortunately, we can't say the same about anything else. We all know that this spring’s weather left quite a lot to be desired, and we certainly don’t hold Schmechtig responsible for weather-related issues. However, when enough time and good weather had gone by and the aeration was still not done, I checked in with our salesperson, who was surprised and apologetic, saying there was no reason it should not have been done. It was completed within a couple days. We also wondered about our first round of fertilizer; our salesperson looked into that, and in the meantime, we received a bill for it. It had been done, but we weren’t home when they did it and there were none of those little flags that you so often see when fertilizer has been put down. (We also just got billed for our second round, which apparently occurred while we were vacationing.) So I think a 4/5 is fair for the maintenance portion of our contract. Sadly, it’s more like a 2.5/5 for the landscape design/installation portion. The work was done (or started, really) back in late May. Our main concern was that two beautiful, mature Japanese barberry shrubs were inexplicably dug up and disposed of. Schmechtig did replace those, albeit with much less mature ones, and we’re stilled bummed out about that. Another issue was due to a mis-print (?) on our yard plan that resulted in the wrong shrubs being installed—it’s a little confusing to explain, but in the end, Schmechtig corrected the error and we got the shrubs we thought we were supposed to have gotten all along. Our salesperson, once I called with something close to panic in my voice after seeing the initial installation (what with the missing barberries and the wrong shrubs, plus some really unattractive hostas, among other things), did come by to check things out and asked what we needed them to do to make things right. We discussed what changes would be made and informed him that we would be out of town in the next couple weeks. He assured us that the work would not get done while we were away because he wanted to be sure we could water. Unfortunately, we received a call from a neighbor while we were gone saying that in fact, the workers were there at that moment. She was kind enough to water until we got home four days later, but we felt really bad putting her in the position of tending to our new plants. Once we got home, we checked things out and noticed that where there should have been pink yarrow planted, instead there were pink astilbes. At first, we just wanted to let it go and be done with everything once and for all, but after a few days of taking in the look of the whole front bed, we decided that we wanted what we were supposed to have gotten in the first place. (Did I say this was going to be brief? I’ll summarize from here out.) The work is finished, the bill paid—but only because we were finally able to get a correct invoice with pricing and quantities for what actually was done—which also, unfortunately, required a lot more work on our part than it should have. There were a couple really helpful and concerned people at Schmechtig, which we appreciated; we would have appreciated even more had this whole transaction gone off with about 110% less difficulty and frustration.

We have used Schmechtig for all our landscape design and construction (multiple projects) for approximately ten-twelve years. We have been mostly pleased with all aspects of their work.

Schmechtig was good as far as promptness, punctual, and friendly coming out to my home. I recieved the estimate via e-mail that same day and also a hard copy by mail shortly thereafter. I just felt that the estimate was very vague. It did not give specifics as far as how many evergreens would be planted and the cost of each. I felt the price was extremely high for what we needed and ultimately went with another company from Angies List whose price was a fraction of the cost. Maybe I should have been more upfront with our budget!

This place is very professional and service oriented. They worked with us to draw up plans and working with the design to accomplish exactly what we wanted. They replaced some plants that didn't make it through the winter. We love the way our home turned out looking outside.