NorthTech Irrigation

I received some of the worst customer service I've ever experienced from NorthTech Irrigation's Office Manager, Tricia. In trying to contest a $50 invoice she was at no point interested in my perspective or experience, and was more interested in either getting me to pay the invoice, or having me switch to another service provider. You heard that right. My business was worth less than a contested $50 invoice after paying thousands over 5 years. I've managed service teams for a long time and I understand the give and take needed to retain customers while also making sure to get invoices paid. She does not understand this, and chose to lose a customer over her ego. In all communications and correspondences, I have been kind, considerate, and professional; while she consistently lacked all three. Full Context: My irrigation system was installed by NorthTech in 2020. That first year I tried multiple times to get a couple of heads moved from my neighbor's property into my own (unsuccessfully), and struggled with a leaking head for nearly a month including multiple visits to get resolved. Two years later I tried NorthTech again, and asked them to split one zone into two so I could get better coverage and to finally move those heads into my property. The team didn't move the heads into my property, and argued with me that they could achieve the same result I was looking for by not splitting that zone in two. I ended up paying the same amount I was quoted for the additional zone, and after a few weeks realized I still had a system that didn't work as I expected (I have to run that zone for 60 minutes to get proper water coverage in the back, while the front gets way too much water; and due to water pressure issues, that zone fails to fully startup sometimes). I tried to get them to do what I had originally asked, but they refused unless I was willing to pay for another project. The next spring I called to see if I could get a discount to properly split the zone, and was again told I would have to pay full price for the labor, or I could buy their annual package (startup, mid-summer visit, and winterization), and they could help make sure that zone functions properly. I agreed to try this, but the technicians were never able to get the system to consistently work all summer long. This year I was late to starting my system up, so I defaulted to NorthTech in mid May, and again paid for the annual package. In the middle of summer, when installing a fence, I needed the original two heads moved onto my property, and they agreed to do it as part of my mid-summer visit. After the visit, they sent me an invoice because it took the technician longer than the allotted time to move those two heads. I tried to express my dissatisfaction with being charged for a visit I had already paid for, and for a task which I had asked multiple times for them to address over 5 years. Tricia simply refused to take any time to understand my position or my frustration. Her stance was simple. She didn't work for NorthTech back then, they don't have any records from back then, so I have to pay the invoice. My experience was irrelevant. I tried multiple times to see if there was room to compromise or something, but she was not interested in me as a customer. In the end she simply stated that if I was interested in moving forward with NorthTech I needed to pay, otherwise I should find another provider. I was so shocked, I never responded to that email. Now winterization has arrived, and I was notified that they would not provide the winterization service that I had already paid for until I paid the outstanding balance from summer (~$50). I pushed back because it didn't seem right to withhold a service I had paid for due to another dispute, but Tricia was not going to budge. In the end, she offered to pay the summer invoice with the pre-paid winterization, and send me the (~$30) balance. She not once tried to retain me as a customer, and never expressed any desire to understand my perspective in what transpired.

Terrible experience from start to finish. I gave the company the benefit of the doubt in the beginning, even referred several homes to service with them. Our latest issue put it over the edge as the company refused to cover a simple repair on the second leak we've had in our 2 year old system. Initial Installation: 1. Sprinkler heads spraying all over the place. 2. Multiple locations where the sprinkler hose was showing on top of the yard, not even dug in. 3. Multiple sprinkler heads that weren't dug down far enough 4. Yard was ripped up from the trencher, the crew did a terrible job of patching. 5. The trencher sliced a 10 inch gap in our BRAND NEW asphalt driveway 6. A few weeks in, had a puddle in the yard due to a leak. The trencher clipped the hose and caused a leak. All of the above issues took weeks to resolve with the company. That said, they did come out and fix the issues. I had a great experience with Ryan who was knowledgeable and was not part of the installation crew. Latest Issue Another leak in the system. After the laundry list of the above issues, the company refused to come out free as charge. I identified the leak and sent a picture via email. Took two days for a response and again the company refused to cover the labor on the installation. Parts are under $10 and the labor would take 15 minutes. Company lost 5+ households of business, instead of taking care of a customer that has been through **** and back. Not to mention, why does a 2 year old system have a leak?? Nothing but issues with this company... Take a higher bid from a company that cares about their customers!!!

Company did service on 10/25/18. In spring 2019 I had no water thru pipes. Had pipes dug up, not by them, and it was found that 10+ feet had ruptured laterally, having frozen and burst over winter. I complained to NorthTech, who first argued that system had frozen before they did the blow-out (unlikely because barely below freezing only a few nites and warm all days in 40s to 60s). In any case they also contradicted the assertion by stating that the tech had walked around the entire area and observed all spouts as he blew them out and the blow-out was complete--obviously not possible had the rupture already happened! They would take no responsibility for the damage to my system and suggested that I try one of their competitors next time. I suggest you do the same.

Surprise $35 trip fee suddenly added on top of actual $107 service fee, increasing cost of service by 30%! When confronted, rep claimed that a notice was sent by mail -- which we NEVER received -- claimed that others were now charging such a fee (which I disproved for him) and still refused to credit us AT ALL. When asked for the manager, rep claimed there wasn't one... only one other rep who would say the same thing. This extra $35 trip fee is also NOT listed anywhere on their website (just reconfirmed). Stay away... find someone else. Don't get ripped. Not worth it.

Everything went great. The tech did some small adjustments and advised on some possible. I have had this same tech before and he is awesome. Fast, professional, knowledgeable and very personable. I really enjoy working with NorthTech.

Overall, NorthTech did an excellent job assessing repairs needed in my lawn sprinkler system after it was torn up with a massive city project that spanned a full year. It took a few appointments to fully assess what the problems were and the best ways to repair them...they got the job done & everything's working well now.

NorthTech Irrigation provided winterization service for our neighborhood in 2016. This year it was decided to move onto another company, but NorthTech didn't like this. So NorthTech decided to just reschedule everyone that did the winterization in 2016 with them. This is shaddy business and I will never utilize their services again.

Technician was punctual. Did check and submitted report in time to City of Woodbury. Charge was reasonable when compared with others quotes. He was great and professional.

We will know next spring I guess. We were told by them to leave the sprinklers (or sprinkler valve?) open so that if there is any water in the system, it should drip out and not freeze and we should be "O.K." The level of certainty I'm looking for when I'm facing the possibility of putting in a new system next year!

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Delayed billing, 7 months.

We have used them the past year and half since we moved into our house. They are prompt and can get you on the schedule quickly. They do take a long time to bill you for instance they performed services for us in May and we did not receive the bill till February.

I recommend them. I dealt with them for about three years. The person I started with left the company and it took a little bit of adjustments and picked up again. They have been able to service my needs. It's of reasonable cost and they do a good job. They are moderately responsive because sometimes it takes a little while to get them on the phone. Way back, three or four years ago we had a lot of landscaping done for our house specifically in the front and we had all kinds of lightings put in like house lights, spot lights and so on. It marked the edges of our long driveway and pointed some of our interesting trees and stuff. We had a triple A repair truck came out and it ran into one of the lights and this year my wife put it off the driveway and in order to get the car out we had to dismantle one of the path lights so we are having them come back again to get the path lights together. The way they got it set up in order to get replacement bulbs for the lamps and so forth we have to go through them and just can't go on the internet and find it and buy it from someone else. They are continuous supplier of replacement stuff and it works. All the work we have them do has to do with lighting. They are little bit hard to do business because they can't come right away and it takes a little while to get it done depending on the situation but once I get the right person they generally do a pretty good job. They show up when then say they are going to show up.

Arrived when expected and cut out bad section and placed a splice on the irrigation line.

Pattern of the system was great. Installation was a problem they used old equipment that did major damage to our lawn.

It went really well. The system works as was provided in the contract and also was very flexible to optimize the system without any push back or extra charges.

They were punctual, did what they needed to do very quickly and everything got fixed that needed to. The one thing that did stand out is that they said that an invoice would come in the mail and it never did for both of the times they came to fix the sprinkler head and the blow out. I ended calling them in December because no invoice ever came and they sent me a bill after I called back and asked for one. So that was a little frustrating.

Well, my expectations were that they would remove all of the rock. But as we were having new plantings done, we were asked and quot;what do you want us to do with all of this rockand quot;. As my other contractor planted the area, they would fill 5 gallon buckets with rocks from under the mulch. Apparently my instructions to clear all of the rock was interpreted to mean clear some of the rock. They were also to put an ample layer of black dirt down for the garden. This layer turned out to be pretty thin. When the control boxes for the sprinklers were installed they were set too high and the lawn mower didn't clear them on the first pass. They ordered too much mulch and rather than spread it evenly around the house, they just piled it on the garden so it was a foot deep in some spots. I have always had a good experience with Northland in the past with sprinkler maintenance and I am going to assume they didn't understand what the expectations on this job were. They offered to re-do the area but unfortunately we moved right along and other contractors were out to complete their jobs and re-did what had to be done so as to not impact their schedules. I will use them again for my sprinkler maintenance but the landscape work will have to go elsewhere.

I have used Northland for the last 7 years on a yearly basis for my irrigation system and landscaping projects. They have installed 12 zones including drip lines and creative watering issues for problem areas. I have over 2 acres irrigated without issues. They open and close my system on a yearly basis without hassle. They installed an automatic liquid fertilizer system in my sprinkler system and a wifi rain sensor. They only use commercial Hunter irrigation products that have lasted in my system over 10 years. They contact me and use email to confirm dates. They are always pleasant and prompt. I also have had them do landscaping including plantings, rock beds, mulch, and landscaping pavers with excellent results. I would not hesitate to recommend them.

Selfscapes led the effort to landscape our front yard. They subcontracted with Northland to put in the landscape lighting for our front yard. This included pathlights an spotlights. Northland (Tim Skaar) put in sample lighting and helped us adjust it until we had the design that we liked (including assuring that the lights did NOT shine so as to annoy our neighbors). Tim had very good suggestions and was willing to work with us to get the final solution that pleased us. In December, a handyman backed into one of the pathlights and, when the snow melted in the spring, Tim was right there to help us repair the light (at no charge!). Tim has helped us with several other maintenance issues and is always great to work with. Visitors to our house have remarked on how great the landscaping, overall, is and how attractive the lanscape lighting is.

We have a large corner lot in Stillwater, where this company is located. We were looking for someone who would hydroseed our lawn before winter. I sent a request to their website asking for someone to contact us for an estimate and gave a very detailed outline of just what we were looking for, along with our address. Never heard back. Not a call, not an e-mail, nothing. Won't consider using them.

Great job. I have been using another Irrigation system but they have not been returning my calls and are becoming more difficult to get in touch with. Northland had sent me a card in the mail as I had need to contact them once before for a problem and the other company did not get back to me until a month after the work was already completed. Joe came right over, fixed the problem and then sent me a reminder to get my sprinkling winterized. As the other company has again not gotten back to me, I call Joe and he was there the following week and took care of all of it. I definitely will use him from now on.