H & H Services

They are very courteous and prompt. They don’t overcharge me and they come in when I ask them to. They do a good service.

In the beginning things went reasonably well. I have a very leafy yard and H and H did a decent job collecting them and bagging them in 2011. I then used them to take care of the mowing the next summer. They came periodically and without notice and did an ok job. Most of our communication was by e-mail which was what I preferred. I usually received invoices within a week of the work. Once in a while they would forget to send an invoice and once in a while they would make demands for payment (a perfunctory e-mail) unreasonably soon after sending an invoice. I always paid very promptly. At this point I had nothing very bad to say about H and H and I was content to use them for lawn maintenance. In November 2012 I requested an estimate for leaf removal. Instead of giving me an estimate they did the work without my consent! When I complained Hilary told me she had misunderstood my e-mail. My e-mail was entitled 'leaf removal estimate' and contained the single sentence "Can you please give me an estimate on leaf removal." I believe that this was an honest mistake. But it was a pretty big mistake and indicated that H and H were not attentive to their customers' correspondence. When I told Hilary about the mistake she became defensive and insulting. She accused me of trying to use her mistake as a pretext to avoid paying for the service. This was baffling as well as unprofessional because I had told her in my complaint that I was going to pay the invoice in full. Hilary's e-mail was actually a little upsetting. It's a shame because she had been cordial- if somewhat absent-minded- up until that point. Overall, H and H does a so-so job until anything outside of routine happens, then they become defensive and insulting.

Very unprofessional behavior. On Dec 17, 2010, I purchased 2 coupons online for 1/2 off snow removal from H & H Services having previously used them for lawn mowing services. The first coupon was used in January and the snow was shoveled from the driveway and sidewalks. The second request was made on Feb 2, 2011, after one of the heavest snowfalls that Champaign had experienced. I placed a call to Harry (co-owner) and received a call from Hillary (co-owner) who could not give me an exact time/date but did say that they would would get there as soon as they could. On Monday morning, Feb 7, there was a voicemail left on my work phone (Hilary) stating that the worker could not shovel the entire drive due to the number of cars in the driveway on Friday. Hilary wanted to know if there was another day that they could complete the job. I was surprised to know that the drive had been shoveled that past Friday due to the amount of snow that I observed on Saturday, on the driveway and zero snow shoveled from the sidewalk. I called and left my cell number so that an arrangement could be made. The evening of Feb 7 Hilary called again, but I was not available (I teach in the evening). I received a letter on Feb 12 stating I owed $25 of a $75 bill (services for snow removal, salt disbursement and snow over 6.00" and sleet minus the $50 coupon). I called the number on the letterhead and spoke with Harry. This man actually yelled, yes, YELLED at me stating "I told you about cars in your driveway...my insurance policy says I shouldn't attempt that...you wouldn't expect the city to ring your doorbell and ask you to move a vehicle". I told him that I had been playing phone tag with Hilary and that I should have been contacted by cell phone and not work phone if there was a car that needed moved. There was snow everywhere, I would have needed to know the exact time to move a car and a simple ringing of the doorbell would have allowed my family to move the ONE vehicle. He said that he wanted me to talk to Hilary. I then received a call from Hilary who also YELLED and was condecending. "the 2 little lines mean inches" . She repeated what Harry said about "you wouldn't expect the city to ring your doorbell". I finally told Hilary that I would not pay for services not delivered and would not be using their services again. She agreed that my balance was zero.

After contacting Harry (co-owner) several times for an estimate, he finally quoted how much he thought the rocks and renting of the equipment would cost. It took weeks to actually get around to setting a date to assemble the shed. It took two days and four men to assemble this simple resin shed. Although the shed is sturdy with no leaks, I made a mistake and allowed Harry to complete the job without any prior quotes in writing, so what I thought would be $250-300, was actually $500 on the day of completion. I told him that this was as much as I paid for the shed and he said that he "had to pay his workers too"! The check was made to Hilary Schroder (co-owner).