Jersey Shore Landscaping

Of all the work I had them do, the Edgestone was most important and most expensive. I have a stone driveway and the stone spread out over the past two years I have been living here (new home; new loose stones for a driveway). I wanted the Edgestone to keep the stone in a contained area where my driveway, turn-around and walkway are. At the time of the estimate, I explained to Brian, the owner, that since the stone spread out, I wanted the stone brought back in and then the Edgestone installed so that it would prevent any stone from spreading like it did before. The workers, including Ron, did not rake or bring in any of the stone until I told them to, and at that time, only did a little to make me believe they were doing it. They threw dirt over a lot of the stones to hide them. On the last day, when I talked to the owner, Brian, he stated that it was normal to have some stone in the dirt. I agree that some soil can contain some stone, but the amount of stone that was in the soil was not normal and it was unacceptable. I have done my own landscaping and gardening for some time and I am not stupid, or a fool. A month later, as it had rained and so much stone on the outside of the Edgestone was now showing because the dirt they put over it washed away, I contacted Brian to ask him to fix it - to do the work I paid him to do. He had a very bad attitude, gave me a very hard time, said some terrible things about me and to me, and said that "no one has ever given him a bad review before" (probably because he was being very intimidating, I was even hesitant to write this review, but I am not going to let anyone bully me around, or take me for a fool, and I feel others need to know what kind of work they do/don't do). I did find it odd that there weren't ANY reviews here until I posted mine - no positive reviews because obviously no one had anything positive to say. Now I am sure once he finds out about this review he will have people he knows submit positive reviews to try to counteract this negative review, but I am telling the truth and have pictures to back me up. When I showed Brian some more puctures and asked him if he could honestly say there was nothing wrong with what was done, he then finally agreed to make things right (or so I thought). We decided to wait until the weather was warmer for him to do the work. On March 10, 2014, I reminded Brian about the work he said he would finish. At this time we were having days in the 60's, so I thought it was time to contact him. We made an appointment for Friday, March 14. He sent the same worker, Ron, with two other guys. Ron was the one who was supervising the work last time and did not do it right. He's also the same guy who damaged five of my trees. Again, he didn't do what was supposed to be done. They took out some of the stone but I would say about less than 1/3 of what needed to be removed. The rest was mixed in with dirt (again), or covered with fill from grading that was incomplete from last time and was being completed the same day. I had to keep telling them, "what about that stone there and this stone here?", etc. It was sickening. They're not blind - they can see the stone, they know they were there to move it from outside the Edgestone to inside the Edgestone, so why are they asking me if it's all right if there is still stone outside the Edgestone? Of course it's not all right. I was so tired of telling them what to do, I just conceded and told them it was fine when it really wasn't, but I wasn't about to stand there, telling them what to do when it was clear what needed to be done. When Brian emailed me to ask about it, I told him the truth, which is exactly what I have written here. It's not my job to stand over their shoulders and tell them what to do. Even when I told them the first time, from the beginning, they didn't do it. And now when they came back to fix it, they came on a morning when the ground was frozen so they could use that as an excuse not to pick up some of the stone. I thought he was going to postpone the work because it had been cold since the day before and the weather report was that it was going to be freezing that night and the next morning, both in my town and in his. If they show up in freezing weather and can't do their job, THEY should have said, "we have to come back" without me having to tell them they need to come back. Just the fact that Brian did not come back here himself to correct what Ron did wrong and just sent Ron back here when I told him all the problems I had with Ron - that tells you something right there - that Brian didn't care if it was done right. He had some excuse why he wasn't here and if it was valid, he should have postphoned the work, not send someone who didn't do it right in the first place. Bottom line, from my own personal experience with Jersey Shore Landscaping: You have to supervise all their work to make sure they do it, do it right, clean up their mess, and don't damage any of your property. They are not reliable - you can't count on them to do the work they say they are going to do. They were disresptful towards me and my property (borrowed my hose without asking then did not clean the expensive nozzle attachment which broke because of dirt and cement embedded on it). Ron, the supervisor, continued to smoke on my property while he was working even after I asked them not do - this was in the fall and there were dried leave all over my one-acre property. Their attitudes can be very bad at times. I would never recommend them to anyone. I was deceived by the fact that Brian is supposedly a volunteer fireman and thought he could be trusted.