L J Temple Landscape Services

I found this service from an add in the local newspaper. I contacted them. I was given verbal prices for costs of services which was $60.00 first half hour then $1 a minute thereafter and they would do whatever it was I needed. On this particular day, we had about 4 inches of snow but by the afternoon I would guess that it had melted down to less than 2 inches. I ran an errand and while I was gone a wonderful neighbor had come over and ran a shovel over the driveway for me. The service showed up later that afternoon, and Mic (the owner) introduced himself and I explained that obviously I didn't need plowed out and he asked if I wanted salt spread. Since the temps were predicted to get below freezing I said that yes I would like him to do that which he did. The following week I get a bill for $64.00 for that service and along with it was a contract. This contract listed everything including things that Mic never talked about such as it is $55.00 just to show up and first half hour of work. Then prices depending on what equipment they ended up using, which was more than $60 , never mentioned in conversation, and I read other statements as they would decide when they would remove snow and if it was a "weather event" which I take to mean, snowing for more than a day, that they would decide how often to come plow. This service, knowing that they had not provided full disclosure of all their pricings and terms to me before arriving the first time, should have informed me of how much it was going to cost me to spread that salt which he did not do. I contacted Mic the day after I got the bill and asked why it was so high. Of course it was because he performed this service and I knew what the cost of his service was. Yep I did, see above. When I mentioned I could have spread that amount of salt myself for much less, he said "Yes I could have". That was all it took. I told him I had no need of his services going forward. I would have thought knowing he did not yet have a formal contract, that he would have been willing to have a discussion and compromise but I guess he has enough customers, he did not need another one. Oh, and by the way, I didn't charge him for his helper going behind my garage and using the bathroom.

Came home to find grass thrown over mulch beds, ruts in yard from machines running on "too wet" ground (rushing to get job done for $$?) and patches of grass that were never mowed. Just too sloppy for my standards! Wrote a check for work done ($55 over quote), and called to cancel planned weekly mowing service.