JULIE'S OUTDOOR ENHANCEMENT

It seemed promising at first, they were responsive at first and seemed to have a professional crew. Julie herself did the design work. Then some warning signs started to develop that unfortunately I didn't pay as much attention to as I should have. First, be aware that Julie charges for her design services, even if you have the work done by them, and they don't tell you that. The bill for the design services just shows up as an hourly charge on the bill when you get it. As a matter of fact, the charges were one of the worst aspects of this service provider - which I will explain. The good: The cleanup work was well done - the trimming, clean up, and planting. Julie's suggestions on the small amount of new design work were good. I had a little hiccup in getting some of the cleanup work finished, I had to call/e-mail and ask when they were going to finish the trimming, but that is expected with weather, spring workload, etc. A few of the plants were not carefully selected - I had asked to match the type of plant that was already in the yard and even told them where to get it, but they planted a different type. The bad: Definitely the worst two things were the billing/finance and the mistakes. Billing: It's really, really difficult to see the overall financial picture on Julie's OED bills, because she doesn't do a roll up or total them for you. She gives you separate bills for plants, clean up work, design work, etc. You have to make sure you understand all the charges and how they total up. When I ran a total, I was quite surprised by the price, it was generally 35% higher than other quotes I have. I went ahead with them primarily because they were the ones who said they could do it quickly - and once they started doing design work the bill clock was already ticking. Make sure you ask for an estimate for design and for the work and make it clear you are not paying until you make your decision. I had expected to pay $6K to $8K and ended up paying $12K+. The bills are complicated and not totaled for the entire job. The mistakes: I asked to include a sprinkler system check. Curiously they decided to do that BEFORE they began the landscaping work, and they did not check the sprinklers AFTER the work was completed. I did not discover this until I returned to my house after I had expected the sprinklers to have been operational to keep the new plants watered and my established plants healthy. What I found is that many of the sprinklers had been buried in the course of the landscaping, and in some cases actually planted over. The time and date on the sprinkler system had not been checked, and the system simply wasn't working. Many of the new plants that had been put in were dying after a few weeks of hot weather. When I called, I got absolutely no response - I sent e-mails and I called. I went out in my yard, dug up the sprinklers, fixed the time/date and programs, and got most of them back working. I called again when my son was at the house, and they sent out a company to fix the mistakes without contacting me - , they did not ask me what I had done or what I wanted done - so I had no say in making sure they were fixing what needed to be fixed. Then, much to my surprise, a week later, I get a bill for $325 for the sprinkler work - work theyhad already charged me $85 as part of my landscaping service (sprinkler check), and work they should have done as part of a quality job after they finished the planting. I asked them to fix a mistake, and then got a bill for it, which I don't plan to pay. There was no warning, no ask, no telling me that they would try to charge me to fix their mistake, and no permission was given by me to authorize any more charges - they just sent someone to fix their mistake (a company called Fire and Rain, by the way, not Julie's), and then sent me a bill! I would definitely stay away from using Julie's OED - I felt I was overcharged, misled, and the assumption was made that I would pay multiple bills with no socialization of them. The bad way overshadowed the good work that was done.

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After being a client for a number of years (paid my bills, was a good customer, etc.), they returned my prepayment check for 2015 with no explanation as to why they discontinued our contract other than to say they wouldn't fulfill the agreement. I attempted to make contact with "Gail" for an explanation and received no response. I then attempted to make contact with the owner "Julie" twice and received no response. In the meantime, I received a marketing postcard from them advertising the exact same service that they had just informed me that they would not provide. Given the conflicting messaging, I wanted to gain a better understanding as to why? A simple explanation would have sufficed, but after trying three times to gain some understanding as to what transpired, I have been ignored. I can only assume that I am now of absolutely no consequence to them. From a customer service and relationship standpoint, I would not, and could not recommend using the services of Julie's Outdoor Enhancement & Design, Inc.

Julie?s Landscaping did a great job with the overall design and installation of the gardens and lawn but after the project was completed the service was terrible to say the least. We had a weekly lawn cutting contract and monthly garden maintenance and found out from our property manager that the garden maintenance and lawn-care was not being done and we were receiving emails telling us it was completed along with invoices. The property manager took multiple pictures showing the work was not being completed and was forwarded to Julie?s but no response from Julie. The invoices were full of miscellaneous charges. Also Julie?s never honored the 1 year warranty on the bushes they planted during the garden installation. 14 of the 70 or so bushes they planted died. For 4 months we followed up with them with either no response and the occasional the ?bushes are on order? After 5 months of trying to work with Julie?s we gave up and had to spend over $1,500+ with another landscaping company to replace the dead bushes and clean up all the work that Julie?s did not do that they stated they did. After the initial design and installation we never received a response back from Julie via email or phone. Both managers we worked with on the project either quit or was fired. Look elsewhere if you?re looking for landscaping design or maintenance in OBX!

They did landscape design. It was lovely. Their after market services were awful. The weekly maintenance was sloppy and riddled with miscellaneous charges. Julie was less than truthful about products being provided. They did not warranty any of their plants. In less than a year over 50% of the plants died. This was all while under her companies care.

they were there within 48 hours after signing contract. crew was great and was done quickly, there were 6 men working for 4 hours. they were careful not to harm suviving plants. they were polite and pleasant.