The Lawnsmith

The Lawnsmith is Extremely DISHONEST and overly greedy. TERRIBLE mowing and HORRIBLE Customer Service. I was charged on my charge card for a service that I never even ordered. Instead of apologizing, Dan Beutz (owner) argued with me about it when I called. The mowers have also caused LOTS of damage to my lawn and property I saw them hit my garage AND clothes line pole with their mower. I sent several letters, photos, and called Dan regarding my damaged siding and my damaged clothes line pole but Dan will not even respond or address the damage. Yet they keep on billing me. They are quick to take your money, but if you have a problem or issue, The Lawnsmith/Dan won't resolve the problem, are extremely rude, very disrespectful and don't even care when they damage your property! As a disabled Senior who has been treated terribly, I strongly advise others to choose another company.

One week the mower cut my lawn too short and it killed the grass, resulting in tan (scorched) stripes. In the back yard, the scorch marks were parallel lines. But in the front, the scorched grass was in LOOPS, which was an embarrassment. I contacted the owner and he asked for photos. I complied, then he argued that scorching (i.e., KILLING the grass) was “normal”, and refused to credit that week’s fee. I had taken the time to document everything in a long email, but his responses were brief and dismissive. Calling on the phone didnt help, either. I had set up autopay at the beginning of the season, so I decided to cancel that because I wanted to take back control of my payments. So I asked him to cancel the CC autopay and to resume sending (paper) invoices by surface mail instead. But he failed to comply with either request. He KEPT BILLING my credit card AUTOMATICALLY and emailing invoices that showed as auto-paid. I could not believe he had the nerve to KEEP my credit card number, OR to USE it against my written directive. This was completely UNETHICAL, but he did not care. I told him that I would report him to the MN Attorney General’s office, the BBB, and Angie’s List. But that did nothing. No response. So I had to take the time to write reports to all 3, and call my credit card bank to report his unauthorized charge. I still cannot believe he had the gall to do this. I had to wonder if it was because I was a single woman,and he thought I would just give up; wonder if he would have treated a man the same way. Either way, this was a GROSS MISUSE/ ABUSE of customer financial information, and I urge everyone to avoid this business at all costs. (Note re: photos: I tried to upload 4, but AngiesList would not accept more than 2.) (Note re: cost: $25+tax was just the weekly mowing charge.)

Dan and his team are top notch at snow removal. Services are performed in a very timely manner!

With the snow event in April they came out and plowed when I called and emailed them not to. I called and complained and the they sent me a bill for more money then the $30.00 + tax standard fee. they have broken my fence gate every year when doing the lawn mowing. I would never recommend them to anyone.

They have been responsive and flexible.

We pay about $175 a month. They are really professional, punctual and the billing is great.

About a month ago, I "ordered" weed pulling in my front borders, where I have a thistle problem due to contaminated mulch Lawnsmith provided previously. I was told two weeks ago that I was "top of the list" but nothing has happened. My weeds are now taking over and looking like small trees. I am now shopping for a more reliable company, but am stuck with my pre-paid lawn mowing till end of summer. Rate below is hourly for weed removal (in the past they have often used a power grass trimmer in lieu of actually pulling weeds.)

I would have to continually call them, "when are you coming, when are you coming?" And if they didn't get there before the snow fell, that was my bad luck. Wanted to look into resodding my yard and I wanted them to give me an estimate. I had to keep hounding them. So I just quit using them. Once the work was done, it was done well. I won't begrudge them that. The problem I had was with their front office. I would not use them again. The end product is pretty good, but the end product is a real pain. The workers I came into contact with were friendly, very nice. Usually two to four people came. They left my yard pretty clean.

The price is excellent. I will absolutely continue to use them. They do incredible work.

They promised to mow the area - they rarely do, They to not return phone calls. The have left (admittedly minor) 6-8? inch long grass clippings clippings on my lawn. They seem to be focused on getting by, not being professional.

I never have any problems with this company

I talked to them last year about not blowing so hard up against the fence so not as much debris goes over and under. Saw them out today and talked to them as they were doing it again. They offered to blow off my side sidewalk next to the fence but I told them no and that I'll do it because I don't want my mulch blown all over. 1 minute later I caught them blowing it off so I told them I just said I didn't want it blown as I need to do it the right way and not blow shi*t all over. One guy seemed to understand english ok but the other not so well. This company doesn't seem to worry about landscape material and dirt erosion. I could understand some debris going under the fence but they don't seem to try to reduce the amount and creates more work for me.

I don’t think it went well as I was not provided with how this occurred.

I got them through Angie's list. They have a competitive price and the process that they use works for our lawn.

I've hired Lawnsmith on and off for six years for mowing, weed control, clean up and snow removal. While they're good at cleaning out the gutters, removing ice dams and fertilizing, their mowing is mediocre at best and their snow removal is awful. They usually never get to my property within 24 hours of the snowfall stopping and by the time they arrive, ice has built up on the sidewalk and made a permanent home. The crew clears a very narrow, icy path down the middle of the side walk. They do the absolute bare minimum, and even that tiny path is full of ice and snow. It's actually treacherous to get from my house to my car AFTER Lawnsmith comes. Half the time, we can't even tell that they were there. I usually always have to go out and remove the snow myself and break up the ice. The worst complaint is that they religiously, even though I've called, written letters, spoken with the crew and included it in capitals in my service notes, the crew ALWAYS leaves the gate to my backyard either opened or not completely latched. I have two small dogs and live 3 houses from a very busy street. This is absolutely unacceptable. Lastly, I've hired them for Spring and Fall clean up several times, typically every other year. (They do a crappy job. So I do the clean up myself. Then wishful thinking and hire them again for the following season.) Usually, their clean up requires a second trip out to finish the very marginal, sloppy original job. This year, I paid for Fall clean up (2 visits.) They came once and were not able to complete the service because it snowed. I was told I'd get a discount on Spring clean up, but would not be getting half of my money back since I only received one day of service and paid for two. Now, my yard is full of leaves and my side walk is full of ice and snow. All of this, and I've paid more than $600 in the past two months to the Lawnsmith for clean up, snow removal, etc. When I first started using the service, I recommended Lawnsmith to three different people for snow removal. They all fired Lawnservice that first winter season. I wish I was as smart as my friends were, as I keep using them and hoping they will improve with feedback. I'm officially breaking up with the Lawnsmith.

Neighbor hired Lawnsmith to remove their leaves, and while I was home found the 2 guys blew a lot of dirt underneath the cedar privacy fence onto my sidewalk and mulched landscaping. Neighbors yard is heavy shade so not a lot of lawn, rather dirt so using leaf blowers blows it around when dry. I talked to the guys using the leaf blowers and told them that they are blowing dirt under the fence and getting it mixed in with my mulch. I told them they should use better practices and not blow under the fence when other methods could be used to get up to the fence such as rake or vacuum. Due to a slight grade separation between both sides of the fence the dirt is disappearing from my side as well from this making it more difficult to mulch up to the fence and have it stay put. Mulch of course was blown in some exposing the landscape fabric. I would be fine if some leaves blew over but the dirt wrecks my hard work I put in to maintain a nice backyard. They got the leaves out of my neighbors lawn but now created some work for me and contaminated the landscaping mulch with dirt, which over time weeds then have easier growing when dirt is mixed in.

They mow the lawn, do an o.k. job 75% of the time. They focus on speed vs. quality. Don't do a very good job blowing the clippings back in the yard, off the sidewalk (especially the edging) or steps. They often mow around things vs. moving them. I use them only because they are cheap so take that for what you will. We'll see how it goes this spring to see if we continue or find another service.

Good communication, services exactly what we asked for. Some delay because of weather (wet early summer), but other than that just what we needed. Very large yard, decent price for the work. We will use again.

My hydrangeas are now in full bloom, which reminds me of my experience with The Lawnsmith. This company performed a spring clean-up of my yard in 2012 and I contracted with them for fertilizing and weed control. I asked for an estimate to trim four small bushes. When I was told it would cost $250, I said I would think about it. The work was done anyway (without my consent) and I was billed for it. That is, except, the hydrangea bushes by my backdoor. They weren't trimmed because they were in bloom, but the work was never performed. Not sure what happened with my front lawn, but it is pretty much all burned out. My neighbor, who does nothing but mow his grass, had (and certainly now has) a better looking lawn than I do. I complained, but the complaint was never acknowledged, let alone remedied. The proverbial straw came in February 2012 when I asked The Lawnsmith to provide snow removal for a week while I recovered from surgery. After spending close to, if not more than, $1,000 with them the previous summer, I was told they were too busy. Remember these three strikes: High prices, unreliable and substandard service and absolutely no regard for their customers.

I scheduled a date with them and they never showed up. I called and was told they would come by the end of the week, they never showed up. I called again and was told again that they would show up by the end of the week no matter what and again they never showed up. By this time I was furious, I called and told them I would not be requiring their services anymore. A week later I received a bill in the mail for $40 ( the amount for one mowing). I called and left a message regarding this bill on Saturday. No one called me back on Monday. I called and Spoke with Veronica on Tuesaday who informed me that she had to speak with Dan regarding this bill even though she knew my lawn wasnt mowed. She said to expect a call on Thursday. On Thursday I had to call her because she didnt call me to remind her about my issue. Finally after a month of dealing with these people I received an email saying I dont owe them anything.

Lawnsmith was quick to respond to my inquiry for lawn fertilization service. They provided a quote quickly and once I signed up they also had no problem calling me in 24 hours in advance since we have a fence back yard with a dog. I really appreciated the information that they provide regarding the service. So far they have met my expectation.

I've hired the lawn service to do various work around the yard - spring/fall cleanup, leaf removal, trimming, etc. Thus far, I've had terrible experiences with lawn services and have instead opted to do the work myself (much to my neighbor's distress). However, the Lawnsmith was on time, did what they said they would do, and did a great job. I also like that I can easily schedule services online and don't have to call in the middle of my workday to get services. And I know if I do schedule something online, they will show up and do quality work.

I fired them after one mow due to poor quality. They use large mowers that the operator stands on that are big and heavy and are really meant for commercial, not residential mowing. The crew also mowed the lawn extremely fast as if they were running a race. These factors led to an extremely poor quality of cut, with ruts and gouges down to the dirt on my back yard hill and general unevenness of cut throughout the entire lawn. There were thin strips of uncut grass which were missed throughout and strewn grass clippings that had not been picked up. I quickly concluded that their business model strongly emphasizes quantity over quality, which does not work for me. In addition, I have been receiving snail mail and email solicitations from Lawnsmith regularly (several times a year) for the past 3 years even though I emailed the owner, Dan Beutz, in June 2010 and requested that I no longer receive these solicitations. I received these solicitations as a result of being a customer of theirs for only one week before firing them. After my initial request to be removed, Dan Beutz emailed me back and stated that I had been removed from both of these solicitation lists. Not so, as I am still receiving these solicitations 3 years later (I just received both a snail mail and email solicitation in March 2013). In addition to my initial request 3 years ago to be removed, I also emailed Dan last year requesting once again to be removed and informed him that he was breaking the law by not having an "Unsubscribe" link in his email solicitations so people can easily request to be removed from his lists. He ignored my email, as well as my returning his snail mail solicitations by marking them "Refused- Return to Sender". The fact that I am still receiving these solicitations from Lawnsmith, even after numerous requests by me in the past 3 years stating that I wanted to be removed from their lists, leads me to reasonably conclude that Lawnsmith is either extremely incompetent and unprofessional, or they are deliberately messing with me. Either way, I felt it was my duty to inform other Angie's List members of their poor quality service as well as their incompetent, unprofessional attitude.

We have never had any problems with them. They came to do our leaves right after a rain which made for wet heavy work. They did a good job although of course half an hour later our lawn was covered again. But, they will come out again one more time which is great. They also cleaned our gutters recently. Fertilizing and weed control happen periodically through the warm months and they always leave a note on the door and a flag on the front lawn.

The Lawnsmith gave me a quote for spring cleanup, which I felt was reasonable, and they performed the cleanup in a timely and proper fashion. That is the good news. The frustrating news is that I asked for a quote (broken down) to perform 3 other jobs, and I asked for the quote 3 times. I asked the first person I spoke with on the phone about getting a quote and she said they would send out a form with jobs already on it from which I could select. She told me I did not need to tell her over the phone what I wanted done. When I received the form, the jobs I wanted done besides the spring cleanup were not on the paperwork. Through their website, I signed up for the spring cleanup and carefully detailed the other 3 jobs I was interested in getting a quote on in a special box provided. After they performed the cleanup, I called in again, because I had not yet received a quote for the other 3 jobs. This is when I found out that this company has multiple crews and the person in charge never came to my sight, which I would have liked to know in advance. When the owner or manager called me back, he asked again to know what I wanted a quote on, so this time I gave a long verbal explanation to match my online request. He said he would send me a quote, which he finally did, but it was not for the job(s) I had asked for. The information was incorrect, the jobs not broken up separately, and their was a request for a bunch of sod. I never asked or needed sod for anything. By this time, their 3 opportunities to get a quote to me were gone and I no longer wished to use their service, so I did not except the quote. It was another 2-4 weeks before they sent me my bill for the spring cleanup. I write checks once a month and put it aside. I wrote and mailed the check about 17 days later. However by the time I paid the bill I had already received a second bill, and a few days after paying the bill, I received a third bill. So basically, they billed me three times in 21 days even though it took them over a month to bill me after they actually did the spring cleanup. I picked the Lawnsmith because of their rating on Angie's list, so they must do a lot right and my experience may have been the exception, but I gave them 3 chances to get it right, and instead got three bills. Never did get my yard work done this year.