Empire Yard Maintenance

David responeded to our Friday (6/20) phone call promptly, and gave us an estimate the following Tuesday.. The work was scheduled to be done that Friday 96/27), and the crew arrived about 10 minutes early. They cut down a fairly large and scraggly catalpa tree, cut it up and hauled it away as requested. They spread 2 ton of Santa Fe brown gravel where we wanted it, and moved a very heavy concrete patio table and 3 benches from one patio location to another. The crew blew out accumulated debris from gravel areas before putting down more gravel. After a lunch break (and hauling off the tree debris), they returned with another ton of gravel and 1/2 ton of crusher fine for the pathways as requested. They spread the material where we wanted it. They also poisened the catalpa tree stump. The only casualties from the work were one broken drip sprinkler head (easily replaced by me), and one small clay flower pot. Overall, the workers were efficient and pleasant...and the work got done as we requested. What more could have been done...well,a follow-up phone call the next week by David would have been great, but I that didn't happen. Overall we were satisfied with the work done.

There were three or four people that came out and the job took about two hours. It went fine, they got the stuff done, they cleaned up the yard including all the leaves from the winter. The property is about 85' wide and 30' to 35' deep. They are punctual, they do what they say they will do. The pricing is reasonable. I would tell my friends to expect them to do what they were hired to do, they are punctual and wouldn't price gouge.

It went well. The young men that were assigned were professional and polite.

Service was very good. I have no complaints over the "big deal" that i had. The only strange part that seemed not professional, was the workers showed up and were just standing in the yard when i noticed them and came out to tell them what i wanted them to do that day. Then i asked them if they could haul away a big pile of dirt from the back yard, they said it would be $50 additional, to which i agreed. Then when it was time for them to leave, they left, without saying anything. Which just seemed a little weird not to, you know, check out. But also they left without hauling away the dirt i asked them to. Though they never charged me for it either. So it's a wash. Again, the service that was PURCHASED was excellent, and i'd recommend them. Just some oddities in my opinion about the professionalism of ringing the doorbell when you arrive and letting the customer know when you're done.

The thing we liked best was how we are mid-way thru summer and no weeds in our yard. That is worth every penny! The fall clean-up was fine, we did have to have them come back and completed some items that were not done correctly but they were great about coming back and doing a great job. We plan to use them again in the fall and the spring.

David came out to do an estimate, and he was very pleasant, but there was no advantage to using the deal. (He even admitted as much.) In addition, the quote for the whole job was higher than what we had budgeted. Again, he was very professional and broke down all the costs. I have no complaints about David.

The service was very good. They were very responsive when we called. They cleaned up after themselves and they disposed of the brush.

So I am apprehensive about landscaping companies, because it seemed like I heard more complaints than compliments when working with a landscaping company. However, I was way behind on weeding my irrigation ditch (as well as my yard) and decided I really needed help. I saw the deal Empire had on Angie's list and after reading through the reviews, I felt it was worth a shot. My first bit of advice is to probably speak with the company over the phone. All my correspondences were through email and I think that is where communication got messed up. I let the owner know that I had about half a mile (0.4 to be exact) of irrigation ditch that I needed weeding done and asked about how much of that could get done within the hours I had purchased. He thought that it could be done within the time frame, but that would be about the only thing. I appreciated the honesty and was perfectly okay with that! So two gentlemen came out and started working. They got a short stretch of it done before they had to do a dump run, because it was a lot of weeds to be fair. Only one of the workers came back after the dump run. The remaining worker explained the situation that he would finish up the little bit that they had started on and would have to leave. He let me know that the owner would be calling me to schedule another date to come back. I waited a couple of days and never heard from anyone. I called and left a message, but didn't get a call back. Then I emailed them and got a response. We scheduled the remaining hours to be done on a Wednesday. I contacted them on Tuesday to verify what time to expect them, but I was notified on Wednesday that they had shown up on Tuesday afternoon. The area of the ditch that they were working on is a little bit out of the way from my house, so I don't normally drive by it. Let me be clear that the work they performed was done very well! Most of my frustration was due to the communication issues. They were only able to complete about 1/4 of the ditch, but I thought that someone would have told me that they were not going to be able to do the whole irrigation ditch because the number of weeds exceeded expectations, or whatever the reason was. So my expectations of what they were going to complete in that time frame was higher than what was actually performed. Between my mother, my neighbor and I, we finished off the rest of the ditch in the same number of hours that they did in the small stretch. Their quality was certainly great! I do want to thank them very much for doing a great job on the work they performed. They were all very nice as well, those that I did get to speak to. I just hoped for more open communication and coordination.

They were very professional and nice. They had great suggestions for getting the most out of our yard. We look forward to working with them again.

Two men came out for yard cleanup. They spent time talking on phone and one watching the other work.

Two workers arrived at 9 and promptly began work on resetting disturbed irrigation system, redistributing topsoil, removing excess plant material, restacking woodpile, putting down mulch, cleaning rain barrels and a few other misc. tasks in back and side yards. They were pleasant and diligent.

The owner came to my home for an estimate. Several days later, a crew of 3 men arrived on time and went over the work to be done. They worked quickly and cleaned up everything when they were done. They were very friendly and professional. We are very pleased with their work and wish we had done it a long time ago.

Never showed up on time. After a walk through on the yard, representative said he would email a quote. Three days later I call to request quote and it was emailed two days later.

I am a retired Realtor of over 30 years. I have overseen many projects both personally and for clients. I have rarely been as disappointed as I was with this. The only time David came to my home was when his workers cut through my drip irrigation main line purposely, without asking me or telling me and left for the night. Otherwise, I would NEVER have even seen him or been contacted by him to see how it was going. (Nor have I had any follow up call from him asking how it went.) I discovered the cut luckily before my system was scheduled to go off the next morning. He did come over that evening to repair it but he told me I was overreacting. I don't think so. Twice I made arrangements to have my neighborhood gates open for delivery of the gravel...Twice it did not come as I had been told it would be. The night he was here to repair the cut he promised me he would have an additional man come the next morning to help spread all the gravel (which still had not yet come). On that next Friday morning both loads of gravel came almost at once (AFTER the time I had been told!) so one load (because they were different colors) had to go IN my driveway. It started to rain....The third guy never showed up as David promised to help spread the gravel and a pile was in my driveway, the workers left. (That was OK, there was thunder and lightening.) But there was no way I could have gotten out of my garage had I wanted to. If the third worker had come, I would not have been blocked in. His workers do work hard...I have no beef with them. But David gives no supervision; I had to tell them how to clean up at the end of the day, things that should be second nature. A job that was supposed to take three days took a week. David was totally dismissive of my concerns when they cut through my drip irrigation line...That was just not right that I not be consulted beforehand. I got the absolute barest minimum of what I expected...Maybe even LESS than minimum!!!! Installing new fabric and gravel in my courtyard apparently didn't even include the two feet of earth next to my foundation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't like to give poor reviews but this was not good.

They came out on May 29th and the total quote was $445. The front yard was too expensive but the back yard is $320 and I'm going to take that. I got them from Angie's List. I had another person come by and they gave me a quote for the same job and they gave me a price of $850 and they were very unprofessional. She wrote the information on a piece of book paper. I felt comfortable with Empire because they had a professional contract, the guy was very prompt and very nice but it was just that their front yard price was high so I went with the back yard.

They came when they said, they did what they said they'd do and I liked their speed. I've used them for 3 years now, I believe. I'll keep using their services in the future.

They seemed too busy to get us scheduled. They told us they would contact us by June 01, and I have not heard anything.

We set up a date for the work to be done and the crew showed up on time and completed the work in 5 days. It took a bit longer than the 3 days that were initially scheduled because they had to order additional sod. The yard service was professional, careful with the sprinklers and did a great job.

I am on a monthly yard maintenance service provided by this company. At first I had them coming to my home every week and due to their efficient work, I now only need them to come to my home twice a month. They are great. The owner is always willing to assist in any extra things I need done.

Company showed up on time and did their job. No complaints.

A.J. and Luis were consistent and tireless yardworking professionals, who also almost irritated me with their perfectionism. I would want these same two fellows coming back in the future. I worried that they were going to get heat stroke, because they did not take breaks. I had to nag them like a mother to drink some bottled water I brought out. Before the work was scheduled, Antonio the manager came over and listed all the work and gave me an estimate. I still do not know the breakdown of the various parts of the project, nor do I understand how a senior discount was calculated into the billing. I just agreed that $700 after tax was probably fair, considering two people would be working for about $50 an hour. We senior citizens are weak in our bargaining and price agreements. Something I especially appreciated about Empire is the ease in payment. Paying for yardwork with a credit card is unusual enough, but I loved that I could pay online in response to an emailed invoice. Is that a professional business or what! The only thing that disappointed me was that I asked that weeds be pulled and dug up, not just cut. So my $700 worth of yard work will not last through the summer. I already see 2" stubble all over the driveway and to the side of the garage where the tumbleweeds were cut. It was a huge job, and weed pulling and weed digging would have taken longer than the 6 hours (12 manhours) I paid for, but the invoice acknowledged that the customer was paying for weed pulling and weed digging, not weed whacking. So that is why I lowered the price and quality ratings Bs. I nevertheless feel like my extremely weedy and messy yard was transformed to something very acceptable, both to me and to my critical neighbors. I definitely have other ideas for future work by Empire Yard Maintenance, and I will use them again. I will just know to be more insistent about the way I want weeds dug up next time.

Not well: I paid $99 for four labor hours. Two men came and I don't they stay only a little over an hour. I asked them pull up weeds around a plant in the back yard and they told me they were not weeds. I know what a weed looks like. Initially I told Empire Landscaping I wanted monthly maintainance, and the contract states if they need to stay longer to get the job done it would cost $30.00. I called Empire and asked to set up an appointment for maintainace and for them finish the job. He left me a voice mail stating he was booked and was no longer taking customers. I am not a happy camper.

I bought an Angie's List Big Deal. We rescheduled a couple of times, which was not a problem to me, and two workers arrived on Saturday, May 3, and cleared out all the weeds in a little over an hour. I fully expected it to take a lot longer, but they did a very good job. I have used them before and would use them again.

It turned out very well. It took them a little longer for them to get here, maybe 2 1/2 weeks, because they were very busy. The workers were really, really nice. They were wonderful and listened to all my suggestions. They were great.

It went great. They did as asked. Worked quickly and efficiently. I was very pleased and will hire them again.