Complete Lawn Care Inc

I would absolutely recommend Complete Plant Health Care, inc. Eric Wenger is the owner of this landscape company. He recently sent a crew of 3 men, 2 of whom have been with him for more than 20 years, to weed, plant 4 Yews, mulch, and create 2 flagstone paths. They did an excellent job and it was a pleasure to work with Eric and his crew.

Weeding and cleanup of gardening areas that had been neglected

Complete Lawn Care has been my lawn care and landscaper for 18+ years. Routine lawn maintenance, conservation easement management, drainage, stone and bedrock, tree service, fertilization and treatment, topsoil and mulch, landscaping, and snow removal in the winter. I am a happy client. We collaborate on tweaks and improvements to my property in Potomac. What is especially nice to see is that the working teams consist of the same men year after year. The owner takes care of them, and they take care of the customers. Some have been with the company for more than 15 years. That says a lot.

I had the nastiest interaction with Eric M. Wenger, the owner of Complete Lawn Care (CLC) today and, despite being excited to possibly hire them (I had them on good recommendation), I will not be moving forward. BUYER BEWARE! I first called and emailed CLC on Friday, 7/15/222 for an estimate on core aeration and seeding services (but I was also open to a full lawn care package too). I got a callback from Jake (who I believe is their customer service representative/office manager), who took down more information and told me I would get an estimate. I told him to have the estimator who comes out please give us a call or a heads up because we have a locked gate, and we would need to unlock it for the estimator to see the backyard. When I asked when the estimate would take place (meaning, would it be within a week, month, etc.) Jake said it would likely be sometime the following week. Imagine my surprise when, without any heads up, on Monday afternoon (July 18, 2022) I get an estimate from Eric, the owner of the company, from a "visit" he did on Friday, without ever having been told that anyone was coming out for an estimate. My first thought was that CLC had done an estimate based on GIS computer software that can tell the size of your lot without the estimator coming out in person. However, when I opened up the estimate, there were notes about the condition of my lawn (specifically, it said "Lawn is in fair condition overall with some broadleaf and grassy-type weeds throughout"), which seemed to indicate that Eric had indeed showed up to my house after all. I emailed Eric concerned, since no one had asked me to unlock the gate, asking him how he could have had a chance to examine my lawn if he didn't see the backyard. Eric replied saying "I called and knocked on the door, but the phone does not accept calls and no answer at the door. There was an SUV in the driveway. I was able to see all I needed to see to provide an accurate analysis and pricing for your entire lawn. After looking at 10’s of thousands of lawns over the past 43 years, I’m getting pretty good at this, and one day I hope to be great." That email rubbed me the wrong way, as I caught Eric in (what I believe to be) three lies: (1) We do not own an SUV, so there could be no way one was in the driveway. (2) My husband and I were working from home all day on Friday, and we have a very reactive guard dog. If anyone had so much as approached our front door, let alone knock, we would have heard it and our dog would have gone crazy barking. (3) My phone was turned on and near me all day, as I was awaiting several important phone calls unrelated to lawn care. I have no record of any missed call from any local number, nor do I have even one voicemail from anyone at CLC. I told all this to Eric in a follow-up email. And since I was starting to feel unnerved by this accusatory, already unfriendly back-and-forth, I called the office to try to straighten things out on the phone instead of emailing. Jake picked up. Told me that Eric had stepped out, and that he would relay the message for Eric to call me back. Instead of a call back, I got another email back from Eric, choosing to fight me again. Instead of what, in my opinion, would have been the customer service friendly thing to do, which would be to apologize and offer to set an appointment for a quick in-person estimate with me, he preferred to be antagonistic instead. Eric responded to me saying it was not a priority for his inspection to determine whether the car in the driveway was an SUV or not, that it was some sort of grey car, and also that my phone was saying it was not accepting phone calls. I've never, ever (!) heard anyone say this about my phone number or have this issue. I was not convinced Eric was telling the truth, but only digging in more. I immediately called the office back a second time (again, to try to straighten things out) and got Eric on the line this time. I told him that perhaps he had looked at Google Maps to do a "remote" estimate of my lawn, because the previous owners of the house had a grey SUV such as the one Eric was describing, and it was their car that shows up on Google Maps. Eric was committed to his lies though, saying that if he hadn't been by the house, how could he have noted that I have zoysia grass (we do not have zoysia grass). I told him that our neighbors had a lot of zoysia grass and that they also have an SUV and perhaps he went to the wrong address. He refused to concede, confirming that I was the second house to the end of the block (correct, but verifiable via Google Maps) and that I had a flagstone walkway (correct, also verifiable via Google Maps -- not to mention, a lot of detail to remember from a quick estimate from four days ago, unless you are actually currently looking at Google Maps!). He would not concede that he had not been by my house in person (again, impossible that we/our dog missed the knock and that my phone was also somehow malfunctioning all at once) or the least that he had confused my neighbors' house for mine. I told Eric it was disappointing that he was choosing to fight with me when I was a prospective customer who was initially very excited about working with him because he came recommended by another landscaper. Eric all but hung up on me at the very end, effectively saying something to the tune of he didn't think this was a good match. His tone throughout the entire call was nasty and curt as h***. It was very obvious he had zero regrets with getting off with a potential longterm client on a bad foot. No remorse at all for the mix-up, regardless of what happened. If all of this nastiness wasn't enough (and it should be enough to make anyone run the other way), I will mention a couple of other nits about this business. First - I've received quotes now from four other reputable companies in the area (one chain, one larger company, and two smaller businesses), and they've all been lower than what CLC offers. Meaning, CLC was the highest quote. Second, on top of that, CLC's pricing is based on a minimum lawn size of 4,000 sq. feet. So if you live in most parts of Bethesda, where our lawns are often 2,500 sq. feet or less (!), you are getting charged more than you really should. Third, CLC makes you sign a year-long contract for their lawn care services, and is one of those skeezy companies that has B.S. tiered pricing to try to up-sell you. This is not universal to all lawn care companies - none of the other quotes I got required contracts. All in all, it seems like Eric doesn't really need any new business and has no incentive to be nice to prospective customers! Or he just doesn't like to be challenged by a young(er), professional woman. Either way, only the man upstairs will ever truly know whether Eric was lying or not, or whether somehow the universe was conspiring against Eric that Friday he came for his estimate and just didn't want him to be able to reach me in any form or fashion. I'll just wrap up this review with how it started with the following words of caution: buyer beware, and look elsewhere (there are other hardworking, small landscaping businesses to support in the area)!

The experiences have been great. We have several dogs and have had to worry that crews would leave a gate open, but they have always been keen to make sure the yard was secure after they finished. The lawn has always looked great. I can never get it to look as good when I have mowed it myself. Additionally, they did landscaping around our pool and it was fantastic. They also treat our lawn for weeds etc.

In less than 8 months into the program, our lawn is turning lush and becoming weed free! We've had compliments. Thank you Complete Lawn Care!

We have used their services for years now and have always been pleased. They provide services throughout the growing season on a regular basis. I don't have to call each time. It's very convenient. I would be more than happy to recommend them to anyone!

My rear lawn (south facing) was completely ravaged by the summer of 2021. It had bald patches and looked awful. Complete Lawn Care did their "Early Fall" service on 9/8/21. Now less than a month later, the lawn is lush, green, and beautiful. I have used Complete Lawn Care for many years and have an annual contract. It is $650 a year for their "Silver Program". I am completely satisfied. My usual technician is Elias. Elias is professional, friendly, and very competent.

Great! They complete all services as agreed and on time

Excellent - already looking much better after 1 treatment.

I’ve had a number of other companies perform this service before and this one has been the best!

We were greatly pleased with the overall quality of work, attention to detail and promptness. This is the third time we've had work done by Complete Lawn Care, Inc., beginning Summer 2020. We highly recommend them.

Company does excellent work. Our lawn looks green and healthy.

Excellent- the men who came were thorough and took great care in my plant beds. Clean-up included removing the cut stems, but leaving the leaves- per our agreement. Though normally I leave the stems up over the winter for insects, this year there had been some construction and we have plans to re-do the beds- so it made sense to take them down early. Was a great relief to not have a leaf blower involved! Looking forward to doing more projects with them in the Spring.

I have been very happy with their work.

I walk through my neighborhood every night and always admired one of my neighbors lawns and they told me they used Complete Lawn Care for the last 20 years. They came for the first time 2 weeks ago and I am amazed already with their seed and the depth of the growth in my lawn.. They say it takes a year or two to get your lawn back - I'm looking forward to seeing how it will look at the end of the year as it looks terrific already. Over the moon already with the results of their work.

The best- that is why I am a contract customer of 20ish yrs.

Jake's team was prompt and professional. They did a great job each week with minimal disruption. I highly recommend them!

Eric and his staff have provided excellent service over the past two years. The lawn continues to improve, with each application. The staff always provide great advice to me whenever they service the lawn.

The mower contacted me on the phone and immediately came out to assess what was needed to mow my lawn and gave me a fair price. The quality of the work being performed was excellent. I'm glad I first went to Angie's List instead of sourcing someone online.

Complete Lawn Care Inc. has provided the most complete, satisfactory and qualitative lawn care that we have had in the 55 years we have lived on our home.

very good....the best lawn service company i have used (been in the same house 30 years) and I've tried a few

Eric and his team are wonderful... Routine treatments are done punctually and the lawn always looks very nice. June of 2019 we required a large water diversion project which Eric worked with us to design and they did a wonderful job! It looks beautiful and works as expected. It was very hot weather for the several days that it took and the team was so hard-working...They had to bring in large step stones to install a long walkway plus river rock for drainage...then all the planting and transplanting and then clean up! It was a job and they got it done beautifully! I know Eric from Master Gardening and trust him fully to do what needs doing. Highly recommended.

Excellently! The result exceeded our expectations greatly. The workers arrived on time and completed the job efficiently, thoroughly and with great attention to detail. I would DEFINITELY hire again and recommend them.

Complete Lawn Care transformed our lawn from a clover and weed infested eyesore into a lush green thick grass lawn, and my wife who was skeptical now thinks I'm the smartest guy on the block. It took a full year, as the company said it would, and the annual cost is not cheap, but well worth it if you want a great looking lawn.