JBJ Lawn Services

They didnt show up when they were suppose to and overcharged for services.

My experience with this provider was not positive and very similar to the previous Angie's review 1.5 years ago. The biggest issue was they charged us $4593, way over the estimate of $1600 they gave us. There were some additions to the original plan, but we did not expect that to be more than $500, and since we were never told there was any change in the original bid, we figured the cost of the additions were negligible. Although the landscaping work was completed satisfactorily, I was not happy with my attempts to incorporate some type of border. I would not recommend them for landscape design, even though the owner told me in the past that that was his favorite thing to do. They had to order more rock to complete the border but given our experiences, my husband decided to complete the border himself rather than have to deal with any further frustration. So the cost did not even represent a completed job. This company is now called JBJ Tree and Lawn Service but the owner John Jacobs is the same. I wish I had read the earlier review before preceding with this work, however given the distance in time, I may have thought it was an isolated incident. It was Deju Vu when I read it. We had similar issues around coming when he told us he would, remembering (and denying) what he told us, a lack of a binding written estimate and avoiding answering direct questions by talking around how hard his guys are working. I do not disagree they worked hard, but the bottom line is we agreed to the job based on the estimate we could afford. If we had known it would be over $4,000 we would never have started the job. Below are more details and the ending resolution. We had hired JBJ in the past for other work, and my main concern at that time was the way prices were given verbally, and when attempting to get a written estimate, John said he did not do that. However he assured us he has never had problems before and that the verbal estimate would be close. In that case it was, so although we had several frustrations with communications and follow through in the work process, we chalked it up to small town operations and decided to hire him again to do our back yard. We wanted our lawn dug up and replaced with rock, and some trees trimmed. We met with John to select the rock. At that time we agreed he would add a border of rock in a different color to break up the colors and would spray the rock after placing to wash off the sand. John said he would come to our house the next day to take measurements. Again no written estimate was done but we have phone text messages that state the cost would be around the following: Labor $900, Rock $500, Fabric $100 and Fees $65. So the total estimated would have been roughly $1600. John had to be contacted a couple times to get moving on the job, never coming the days he said he would. When he started the job I had concerns over the size and color of the rock they were placing. John assured me it was the correct rock but during that conversation I noticed there was no border being placed. John at first did not seem to remember our previous conversation about adding the border, but then attempted to tell me it was my husband's decision not to do it. He started digging up text messages but these related to another part of the yard and I told him so. John agreed to add it but it never came out the way I had thought I had tried to communicate. Again my opinion that design work is not their strength. When I rinsed off one of the rocks, it did look more similar in color to the one we chose, so I reminded him of his agreement to rinse the rocks off after placing. John agreed to do it but acknowledged he was going to let the rain do it. It just was a very frustrating process in that it appeared he did not remember things that were agreed on and discussed. So overall a job that John expected to complete in one day, turned out to be 5 days given his staff of 5 dwindled to 1 or 2 on some days. We did not have a big problem with that until the bill came in. The original price was $4593 but he gave us a 10% discount since my husband is a Veteran/Senior, resulting in $4134. My husband was shocked when he received the bill but John's initial response to this was that he could pay half upfront and the rest later. My husband declined paying until we reviewed further. We realized the brunt of the difference was labor $3110 vs. the $900 estimate. When my husband asked for an explanation of the difference, he was told it was time and materials based on how labor intensive the job is and that it was a fair price. He stated "I gave you a discount and told you that you could split the payments. What else can I do?". The next day I called John asking to set up a meeting with us to discuss the differences. In my voice mail to him I stated that the BBB asks that we try to work it out with the contractor first, so that is what I am trying to do. He called back immediately and said he was willing to negotiate. I discussed my concerns, however John still not seem to see how we had a right to be upset, again citing the hard work that was done. He did acknowledge he should have supplied a written estimate, so because of that, was willing to negotiate some of the day's labor. John did not want to meet, concerned of a confrontation, so suggested we come up with a price we see as fair. I also asked him why we did not receive the senior discount on 2 previous jobs a few months back and John became annoyed saying "those are a done deal, what do you want a refund for that". He went on to say that it was built in the daily rate which made no sense since he had also charged us some of the daily rate on our current job. It was obvious to me he only offered it when he realized the job came in too high. So we emailed him that night, agreeing to meet him about half way, $3000. It was still more than expected but at this point we wanted to get this over with. John emailed back saying his wife would be in the shop and we could drop off the check the next day. As if to add insult to injury, there was one more final unsettling conversation with John's wife. In trying to end on more of a positive note, my husband gave her the check and stated that the guys did a good job. John's wife said something about how she doesn't understand why we are calling them cheaters and why we would not want to pay their guys for their hard work. She ended with stating that "we are only trying to do the Lord's work". I will let the reader determine the irony in that, given our experience.

I needed some yard work done that I couldn't do myself so I called JBJ Lawn Service for an estimate. He came out and I explained that I needed some scotch broom weeds cut to the ground back to a laurel hedge, weed whacking around the perimeter of my property, as well as the road and driveway in front of my house, and then round up to kill the weeds. I also needed some salmonberries trimmed back about 2 feet to keep off of the side of the house and off of the gutters. I asked him if he would use the leaf blower and remove all of the debris and leaves and he said yes. While he was there, he mentioned that he trimmed trees also and I might want to have a few limbs cut down as well while he was there and would give me a good deal. He said it came to $250.00. I asked if he could do a little better on the price and he said no because IT WOULD TAKE HIM HOURS TO DO AND HE WOULD BE THERE ALL AFTERNOON. He also stated that he would stay until it was complete, unless the wind came up and then he would come back later to spray the round up. After convincing me of what a good deal it was because of how long it would take, and how much work it entailed, I agreed to the price. He said he could start the next afternoon. I explained that I had a dental apt @ 2 and he said no problem, I know what you need done and we'll be here working. His crew of 2 guys showed up @ 1:30, and I started showing them the tree, and John Jacobs (the owner), showed up @ 1:40. I left @ 1:50 and by the time I returned @ 2:45, they were gone. The first thing I noticed was that the weed whacking of the road up to my house had not been done, then that the scotch broom had been cut back, but not to where I told him to cut to. And none of the weed whacking around my house had been done at all. I smelled a very strong chemical odor, so could tell that he did spray some weed killer. But one of the problems was the fact that I asked him to weed whack 1st, then spray, so that it didn't leave behind 2 foot dead weeds everywhere. It was also apparent that he had not used the blower because there were leaves and debris everywhere. I assumed that he had to leave in a hurry and that he would return to finish up. After not hearing from him over the weekend, I called him Tuesday to ask what was going on. He said he got busy and would be at my house in 5-10 minutes, and I said that's fine, so you'll finish up? He said that the job had been completed. I informed him that the job was not finished and would he please come and look at it. He showed up about 5 minutes later, with his wife in the truck. He got out and said I don't see what the problem is you can tell that the weeds are dying in the front. I explained 1st about the scotch broom and he wanted to argue and say he cut it back where I told him, and said he never heard me say to the laurels. 2nd I took him around the perimeter of the house and showed him where they had not weed whacked and he got very heated and said we sprayed and it is dying, I can tell just by looking at it. I reminded him that I asked him to weed whack before the spray, and tried to explain why and he changed the subject and started telling me how they cut the salmonberry bushes back and how fast his guy was. I then reminded him that part of the reason I agreed to the price he quoted was because he said it was going to take hours to do and they were there for about an hour. That upset him and he said "so this is about time?" Our guys are fast and your upset over time? I explained that the issue wasn't how long they were there, but the fact that they didn't complete what we had agreed upon in the verbal estimate, and left in an hour. Then he said "So, it's a money issue? I said no, I have no issue paying the money, I just want the work done that you agreed to do. I tried to ask him if he remembered that we had talked about using the blower and said he didn't hear me say that either, then changed the subject again and said anybody else would have charged me a lot more to do the job, and I was being confrontational, At that point, I shut down, gave him the check and told him to leave. I have since sent him an e-mail asking for him to return and finish the job when my husband will be here, but have not heard back from him. I don't feel comfortable calling him, as he was very rude, and condescending and couldn't hear that I JUST WANT THE WORK COMPLETED THAT HE GAVE ME THE ESTIMATE FOR! Lesson learned for me to ALWAYS GET IT IN WRITTING! DO NOT EVER HIRE THIS MAN!