King Green

"We are always sad to see a disappointed client. A lot of the time people just have the wrong idea about what our company provides and is able to do. In this case their weed control applications were all done at same times they were done in the past so I am not sure where they got the idea there was a delay. I do not see that our manager suggested that. The big problem here was not the weeds themselves but the conditions that led to the weeds. Simply put, the first step in weed control is Always, Always a full, thick and healthy lawn. Everything else comes in a distant second with the actual weed control products being not nearly as important. To get that full, thick lawn we fertilize well and encourage our clients to water and mow regularly and also to re-seed each year to fill in gaps left by the inevitable summer heat issues. If these steps are not taken by the homeowners the lawns will begin to thin out and invite weed pressure. Nature does not like bare spots! She will fill them in with something and it is not usually fescue! Despite our communicating this via email, phone and flyers, and trying to get them to do the re-seeding each year, it does not look as if this was ever done. The result was a slow thinning of the lawn which, in turn, allowed the weeds space to grow. I am sorry that it appeared we were rushing over the lawn. I do hear that from time to time but I point out that we are professionals with the best equipment available. Of course we do it faster than the average homeowner. We can never be sure how long our tech/s were out there but the actual treatment time for 1000 square feet is about 30 seconds! With an average lawn it takes just a few minutes to receive all the product it needs. Even less if it is being serviced by a two-person crew. Again, we hate it when someone misunderstands what our company can and cannot do. If this lawn had been re-seeded properly I am sure it would have looked great and there would have been very little weed pressure. We can only do what we get asked to do! And I would like to point out that we are locally owned and operated."

"We are always sorry when people are disappointed with our work. We tried very hard to give this client what she wanted despite the fact that we would normally not have accepted doing the partial job that she requested. She called the day we did the service to say she was not happy with the job. The crew chief said that the lawn was very dry and hard packed despite us mailing her preparation instructions which said that, for best results, the lawn must be watered well before aeration. Our manager told her to water heavily that weekend (the original job was done on Friday October 21st ) and we would send another crew out on Monday or Tuesday to re-do the job. This we did on Tuesday October 24th but the ground had obviously not been watered and was still very hard making it difficult to pull plugs. Even with the hard lawn the aeration would have worked if it had been watered afterwards according to the directions we left with her. The original price she agreed to was $199 but we changed that price to $88 for her as she was unhappy. We then heard nothing from the client until we called her 45 days later to see why she had not paid the $88. We have no record of anyone saying there would be no charge. I did call the customer recently to see what we could do to make her happy but she, while courteous, did not want to discuss the matter. She had paid the $88 before we talked. I am not sure what else we could have done here. We did as good a job as the soil would allow the first time. We, again, instructed her to water before we came out a few days later to re-do the entire job. And then we cut her price by more than half to try and satisfy her. We do all that we can to please all our customers and are sorry that we could not do any more this time."

"We are always sorry to disappoint and lose a client. We appreciate the client reaching out to us and giving us feedback regarding their lawn. The history of this case is essentially that which is laid out in the client's letter but there are issues that are misconstrued. While we did, indeed, lose two experienced techs during this summer (One of which just came back to us. I guess the "grass wasn't greener" after all. :-) ) we will NEVER put a tech on a lawn who does not know what the products are and how to correctly apply them. The senior folks tend to know a little more as to the "whys and wherefores'" and they are undoubtedly better at communicating issues to the client. King GREEN has some of the best initial and ongoing training in the industry and we pride ourselves having the best employees. We boast some of the best retention numbers in the field. The average length of service for our techs is over eight years! In this case, the lawn looked great in the spring but then started to suffer in the summer as fescue, a cool-season grass, will. The problem is that if you give the turf enough water to avoid the heat/drought stress you tend to run into the Brown Patch Fungus. Brown Patch cannot be caused by improper use of chemicals. We always leave a brown patch flyer prior to the heat kicking in (April/May) that explains the disease and what can be done about it. We put notes in our newsletters as well. Fungicides are offered but most people do not get them. Beginning in June every invoice we print has a large box printed right in the center whose heading is "Brown Patch is now Active!" advising our clients to call us if they suspect a problem. (There is a box there for the tech to check if they notice active disease but I cannot say for certain it was checked in this case as it is left with the client.) When we get a call about problems a technician, or manager, will go out to investigate and either call the client or leave information about what is going on. The system does work. We are not a full-service landscaper that is out there every week so we communicate using flyers, pre-printed and handwritten notes and phone calls. The customer called with a concern and we told them what the issue was and left information about it. This is exactly what we did in this case on more than one occasion. In late July, well into brown patch season, the client called about the issue and our service manager (19 years in the green industry) went out and diagnosed the problem and said he saw definite signs of there being too much moisture present. The presence of black algae on the ground, certain aquatic weeds and brown patch clearly indicated that there was water on the blades and ground for extended periods. He mentioned this in a note and gave them our watering guide and brown patch information. None of us can say what the neighbor's soil is like nor what they do, or do not, do with their lawn. The simple truth was that this client's lawn was not being watered properly. They called again two weeks later and our service manager went out again diagnosing the same issue and offering the same information and advice talking directly to the client on two occasions. It is absolutely possible that the watering times for the neighbors and our client were the same but their irrigation systems, water pressure, topography (shade, low spots) and/or soil composition, etc. were vastly different. The evidence was undeniable and the results of not listening to our advice was that the lawn suffered greatly. King GREEN and our clients are on the same side. We both want the lawns to look good and the clients to be happy! We should also point out that lawn care is a process and the first year is always the toughest. That makes it doubly disturbing to lose a client in that first year when there was really no reason for the lawn to have suffered and our client to have to been disappointed."

"Thanks for the great review! There are eight applications in our yearly program."

"We are always sorry to lose a client, especially when it could have been so easily avoided! Normally we get nothing but praise for the professionalism and helpfulness of our office staff so this was a real shock to us! Upon learning about this I, immediately, called the client. We had a pleasant conversation and she was nice enough to admit that she may have contributed to the tension on the phone. But that is certainly no excuse for anyone at King GREEN to be rude to a customer! We have great office staff and I often feel sorry for them as they are the “first line of defense” for us. They are always the first to talk with clients who have problems and that can be trying. This client was surprised by an application in February. We have always done our first application of the year as early as late January or as late as mid-March. Though we have worked with this client for two years, both of her previous round #1’s had come in early March so it was logical for her to think that this is when we started. We have always had continual service and this is noted on all our literature. We did add one additional service to our program this year. This was to get us out on the lawns one more time during the summer to address stubborn weeds and add minerals during the hottest time of the year. Many of our clients felt having us out there then would be beneficial. Any client that does not want the extra visit is welcome to skip it and some have. This change was put out on our website, all the literature we use, all of the mailings we made to clients and on all our social media outlets so we really did not try to sneak anything in on anyone. I offered to credit this person's account for the amount in question and asked what else we could do to keep her as a client but she, politely, refused. I, again, apologized for the treatment she received and any confusion about the program telling her we would be happy to have her back and to contact me directly if she needed anything else. Dave"

"The client and I talked just after the review was posted. I went out to the lawn that day and consulted with the techs and service managers that had visited the lawn. When I got out there I would have absolutely agreed with their assessment of the lawn in that it showed all the signs of heat/drought stress and a fungus problem. I would add that he has many trees on the property and that has its own issues. I always say that if I ever write a book on lawn care I am going to call it, "Trees are Bullies"!! :-) 2015 was the hottest year on record and 2014, when we began treating the lawn, was the next hottest. With all those trees, and the record heat, it was logical that the lawn would have suffered greatly. Trees compete for water and nutrients with the turf. They also block needed sunlight. As they grow bigger the areas affected by them naturally grow bigger as well. The only inconsistency with that is the timeline that the client mentioned. Normally, you would see more damage during the summer itself. I reviewed all that we did in that time and saw that we had only applied lime and dry fertilizer. Neither of which should have caused anything like what we are seeing. The grass that remained was healthy, there just wasn't enough of it! The client has always done his own aeration and seeding so I cannot speak to the effectiveness of that but he spoke about in the correct terms. The only thing we did that could have hurt the turf was to have applied WAY too much fertilizer but that would have hurt the turf in a different pattern and in a different way than we are seeing. Putting down a damaging dose of fertilizer, in the temperatures it was applied, is simply just hard to imagine. In trying to assess the situation the client mentioned that he did not put any products out himself but did have another company working on his trees and shrubs around that time. Unfortunately neither of us would have any way of knowing if anything they did could have harmed the lawn. Again, the pattern of damage would probably have been different than the very consistent nature of the thinning pattern we are seeing. In November our service manager went out and, logically, suggested their original thoughts of summer damage and he, at that time, and I, in December, both thought there was no aeration and seeding done. The client says it was done in late September and it began coming in well but then something happened. As we were out with Lime on August 9th and applied fertilizer one time in early September I am truly at loss as to what could have happened! All this said, we did talk to the client and have offered to come out and do some seeding and aeration as soon as the weather breaks this spring. This will be at no charge. Again, if the timeline the client suggests is accurate, then I am at a loss to find a cause either with something we did or even someone else did. BUT we will stand with him and help as much as we can!!"

"Thank you for the kind review! We appreciate your business and we're glad to hear you're happy with the service!"

"We appreciate your taking the time to post a review. Glad to hear that you're happy with our service!"

"We are always sorry when clients are disappointed with our service. This case was probably more an issue of timing and patience than anything. We did not even get a full year to work with the lawn and the first year we have a lawn under care is always the toughest. It can be frustrating, especially for the client who expects things to get incrementally better with each treatment. We started working with their Bermuda lawn in the fall, just as it was going into its dormancy. In fact we never even got treat the Bermuda through its growing season as the client cancelled just before the warm weather, that would have activated this warm-season grass, got started. As the first step in weed control is ALWAYS a full, thick and healthy lawn it is not surprising that there was weed pressure during this time. We always provide free service calls to handle stubborn weeds and expect them the first year. The winter damage the client spoke about was just that, winter damage. The winter treatments we apply cannot possibly hurt the turf but the frigid weather we had last winter certainly can. We saw many Bermuda lawns hit hard with freeze damage. Some common Bermuda lawns were entirely killed by the extreme cold. I am sorry that I did not get a chance to talk to the client about this and explain that Bermuda, as warm-season grass, has real trouble with single-digit temperatures and can be damaged and killed by them. Proper fertilization and care during the growing season would have brought the lawn back again. I am sorry we did not get a chance to show the client that."

"We are always sorry when there are miscommunications. When we get a new client we always try and get out there to do their first service as quickly as possible. This time we jumped the gun a bit as the customer had wanted to wait awhile. We apologized for our "Over-eagerness" and were happy to make this right for them! :-)"

"Thank you so much for taking the time to post a review. I will make sure Scott sees your message!"