AJ Antico Irrigation

The previous owner used this company for several years. When we bought the home we took them on with a three year service plan. They would come out for an opening, a mid season check up and a closing. The first few years, knowing nothing about sprinkler systems , I took their word. Every time there would be something found that needed repair. I later found out how much they were overcharging, 80 dollars for one sprinkler head etc. I kept the contract because it was pre-paid for three years and regularly declined the service due to the over charging.Last year they changed the appointment for the opening four times with no regard for our time, when I called them to let them know we were well into the season and haven't had our opening. The response was " I don't know what to tell you buddy, we are busy and cant get there to July"....Really July for an opening?? This is the last year they are under contract and when they came for the opening, they said we needed a new vacuum breaker to open the system. I informed the tech it was just replaced 2 years ago and should be fine, there was no issue with it last year and it is sheltered under an extension to the house where no one has access. . He said there was no record of the previous work but it was broken and needed to be repaired. Upon examining the breaker it had clearly been smashed, The plastic cap broken and a vertical strike through the rings. No one has access to this area and it wasn't a crack due to weather, it was blunt force. I don't want to make outright accusations, but this is very fishy. We asked the tech to leave and are seeking other service. Their service contract does nothing more than have them turn on the water and gain opportunity to try and overcharge for work that may or may not be done. You are basically paying them for an opportunity to use questionable practices to overcharge you for services that may not even be necessary. Their scheduling is horrible, their prices are thievery, and their customer assistance is negligent and rude.Stay Away!!

Disorganized, with poor integrity. System startup went fine, although there was confusion about the scheduling. Mid-summer I received email reminding me to schedule my mid-year checkup, which is included in the plan. When I called to schedule, Shannon informed me that the email was wrong and that a mid-year checkup is not included in my plan. Instead she said that I have a credit for one general purpose service visit. If my system was running fine, she recommended that apply it to my system shut down instead. We scheduled that visit on that call. Shortly before the scheduled shut down, Shannon emailed me to say that since my shut down was not included in the plan, I needed to pay $185. I responded that this contradicted our prior conversation, and request that they honor the guidance I was given. Shannon replied that my plan had just expired, so it couldn't be applied to the service. Again, I replied that I scheduled this visit through her, on her specific advice that I skip mid-year service in favor of applying the credit to this visit. This time Shannon apologized for the guidance but informed me that her GM says ?nobody can use their service visit credit for a shut down?. Finally, the service guy actually showed up, started the job, yelled at our nanny when she wouldn't pay him, and they left the job half completed. I admit I?ve never gone back to read the plan. But I expect my vendors to understand their own plans and communicate them clearly. And when they make a mistake, I expect them to live up to their word.

AJ Antico had been subcontracted by our Landscape contractor to install irrigation system about 8 years ago. After it had been installed I purchased 3 year maintenance program from AJ Antico. At the beginning things were going well, but over time the service started to degrade. I did not do due diligence to find out another service provider when I signed the last maintenance contract in spite the fact that I saw bad reviews. This year maintenance visit to open sprinkler system by AJAntico service men was a disaster. They started work before even greeting me by ripping off rain detector from the outside wall of the house and when I asked them to demonstrate what was wrong with it, they refused and threatened me that they would leave immediately and I would have to call office and pay $600 for them to come back. They also said that without rain detector the system would not work. Later I called 2 other companies in and both confirmed that it was not true. The service men also claimed that the valve was broken and I agreed to replace it. When I looked at it after they left, it was the same old valve in place with the cracked lid. There were other issues related to absolutely non-professional and unethical behavior of these service men such as not answering questions, constantly threatening to leave without finishing the job, etc. I decided that this all can be resolved and everything fixedand contacted the president and general manager of the company. I sent them pictures of the broken valve, badly replaced sprinkler head which is stickingout from the ground by 3 inches and a couple of pictures of leaking heads that were also replaced during this visit. General manager had assured me that everything would be resolved. He scheduled appointments to come and inspect the work 3 times and never showed up. Each time I had to take time from work and call him to find out why he did not keep appointment and did not even call me to let me know that he is not coming. Finally he said that he does not know what I want from him. If a general manager acts like that I don?t think this is a company that can be trusted. I was their customer for a long time and this time they demonstrated that they really do not care about their customers, just need to squeeze money out of them. Considering the fact that there are still 2 years left of maintenance program, I asked general manager and the president of the AJ Antico to be reimbursed for these 2 years as I will have to find another company for sprinkler system maintenance because AJ Antico only damages my system. Obviously I was not reimbursed. What I learnt looking for another irrigation company that to replace a sprinkler head of the same brand is between $30 and $40 while AJ Antice was charging me $80 all these years! This was the worst experience with the service andservice provider that I had as a homeowner.

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I had used this company for almost 20 years for lawn irrigation services before the Fall of 2012 - they installed the original system. At some point, they started offering multi-year maintenance contracts, which gave participants a discounted rate on regular maintenance services 4 times a year. The service program was fully payable before the services were ever performed. This worked out well for a number of years, as it was a convenient way to manage the services. In November, when I was contacted by phone to sign up for another three year program, I agreed to do so, pending the signing of a written contract that they would send me a few days later. The previous service program was not due to expire until the Spring of 2013, but the first of four installments for the new program was debited from my account a couple of days after the sales call and before I signed the agreement. Within 7 days, not having signed the agreement, I called the company to say that we had just sold our house and were moving to the city, so we would not need the maintenance program. I requested that the first payment of $149.75 be refunded to me and they refused to do so. Subsequently, I left messages for the manager of the company that were never returned. I wrote a letter to the manager and to the owner that was never responded to. They have ignored every attempt I have made to discuss this issue, and I find it very hard to believe that they would be so unreasonable and rude to a long-time customer over a relatively small amount of money. I am astonished at their total lack of customer service.

They didn't cover everything so there were certain areas that we didn't really understand but there were certain areas that didn't get water. No matter how hard they tried, the plants got ruined or I had to water in addition. This was in a time when somebody in the family was sick so I didn?t follow up immediately. So they tried to correct it but it didn?t work. Till today not everything is covered. In the meantime in 2009, the biggest joke was when I was complaining, I got an estimate about upgrading the system which was about $3000, which was more than the original one. The person was telling me that I needed something different. As of now I have a maintenance contract with them which allows me to complain more and cover some of the things so I hope that they are going to be more responsive. But despite everything, it just hasn't worked out completely. I would not recommend working with them or let me put it this way, I would not take anything from them.

The major problem I have with AJ Antico is that they are not detail oriented enough. Our irrigation system is old (came with the house we bought) and they did not give me a clear idea how bad it really is. It turned out to have a leak somewhere underground on the back of the house and we ended up with a several hundred dollar water bill last summer even though we used sprinklers sparingly. The leak itself is not their fault of course but they should have checked the water meter needle when they started the system in the spring. I had to get a plumber who helped to figure the problem out. I consider this an elementary thing to check in this line of business. After the problem was finally located they said it is not worth fixing and offered to install a complete new system. Thanks but no thanks, I can water my lot manually. We sent a letter of complaint to the owner but got no response.

They would constantly ask to replace sprinkler heads at roughly $90 a piece every spring and very summer. They would mark the sprinkler heads which they deemed to require replacement with flags. It is my opinion that the sprinkler head replacement is just another way for them to get additional revenue. AJ Antico only guarantee their work for one year. This means, next year they could mark the same sprinkler heads as broken and ask us to replace it again. We would only spend about $200 each year in irrigation water bill. So, it did not make financial sense to replace the sprinkler heads all the time. I have doubts of the quality of the sprinkler heads they want to install. They look "used" to me, not new at all. The problem was really their work ethics. After I decided to replace the sprinkler heads on my own, they actually spent the extra time to removed all the flags where they marked the "broken" sprinkler. The outcome was that I considered their service incomplete because I have no way of knowing which of my sprinkler heads would need to be replaced; their time and energy in flagging and "unflagging" did not render any good outcome for their customer. To me, it was as if they didn't check my sprinkler heads at all!! The 180 degree change in their attitude after I realized that I couldn't afford to change my sprinkler heads with them was really hard for me to swallow. The recession was hard enough for people to deal with. The $500 to $800 a year to replace sprinkler heads plus the attitude were too harsh! It is really hard for me to continue my relationship with them.

The crew came on schedule, was efficient and helped deal with a couple of other irrigation issues.

Antico has been only fairly punctual. They are often 1-2 hours late on their appointments. More important, we have not been terribly happy with their work and they always tell us in the spring that we need to have extra work done in order to have the sprinklers work properly. This usually costs at least $500-$700. Our sprinkler system is old, but they have replaced some of the sprinkler heads twice in the last three years because they say the heads are leaking or broken. When we had our sprinklers turned on this spring, we spent an additional $500 to have some heads replaced and some repaired. Even though we did not use the sprinkler system at all this summer because it was so wet, when Antico came out in the fall, the technician said that there were numerous heads that were leaking or broken. I feel like Antico is either not doing the work in the spring or is telling us that things are broken even though they are fine. When our contract is up next year, we are planning to switch to another company.

System worked perfectly 2005, 2006, 2007; 2008 the controller unit may be malfunctioning, and will ask them to check it when they come this year.

They were great. They came at the time they said they would, and they made sure they didn't tear up any more of the yard then needed. There were some problems with a line and they were good about coming back and repairing it.

The installation was very well done. Two areas were missed and had to be added, which they did.

The overall project ended up fine. I had to call them back to make some adjustments. The man in charge actually came back to complete the adjustments. Unfortunately, the direction of the sprinklers were not able to be re-positioned because of the design of the sprinkler system. However, the company did come back in a timely manner and very responsive to my needs. Throughout the process, they were very nice and helpful. I do not recall an exact price for the installation.

We have used this service for ten years now and havent had any problems. They are very reliable and professional. When they schedule an appointment to be here, they are always on time. I know that if there were a problem we could call and they would get it taken care of right away. I guess their price is fair but it seems a little high to me.

They were low cost, very easy to deal with, did a thorough estimate and did not overcharge. However: Zones put in did not consider sunny versus shady areas, so we are forced to overwater our wet areas to adequately water the dry. Zones put in did not consider elevation change within a zone. Sprinkler at the low point in the zone leaked after shut off, causing muddy puddles. Laying the pipe seemed to go well initially, but many places it was put in very shallow (due to rocks), and after the first winter you could see the lines under the lawn. Had to have several service calls to fix leaky sprinklers.

THEY SHOWED UP ON TIME (AT 8:30 AM), WORKED VERY EFFICIENTLY, AND HAD EVERYTHING FIXED AND CHECKED OUT BEFORE 9 AM.

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THEY WERENT AS RESPONSIVE AS THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN.

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