Forever Young Tree Service

The work took much longer than was originally contracted. His team did not show up on the days we had decided on for the work to be completed and instead of notifying me, I was calling him to see what had happened. His equipment was on my property for an extended period of time and we had to call him back to have the work finished because the first cutting was not complete. His pricing was by far the cheapest, but I learned quickly that you get what you pay for.

This was one of the most stressful experiences ever. Steve's subcontractor started off great and then went downhill. We bought the materials which was a bad idea and some of the stress was our own fault for not measuring correctly or getting the wrong things. However, the subcontractor's crew were messy, broke more thresholds than I could count, splattered plaster on the sliding door, and wood floors, dented our range hood, did a sloppy job of painting (there are still places that don't have paint or are missing a second coat), placed crooked tiles and more. I already have a cracked shower floor tile. I think he way underestimated the work or just low-balled us to get the job. In the end, we ended up being over 20% above the estimate and that was with us arguing that we should not have to pay for things twice and took twice as long as they said. When I would contact Steve, the owner who we had our contract with, he would blame it on the subcontractor, and not take responsibility for his workers. He did try to make things right and appeared to sincerely care that we were upset with the way things were going. For the subcontractor, I would rate him a D in all categories except for professionalism and punctuality. He would've got a B in quality if we only graded them on the firs 2 weeks of work. As far as the outside work, I thought they did a great job on the fence, even extending it further than we thought up a hill giving us a larger yard. The grading seems to be working well too. He got his job done with 2 weeks of labor. Unfortunately, it took longer because of weather. But because of the subcontractor, Steve's attitude toward me personally (he was very rude on the phone-IMHO), a job that was supposed to take until August finishing in October and being way off on the estimate they get a C. And that is only because he has an awesome receptionist, Sue, who was on the ball and very responsive to our concerns.

I contracted with Forever Young because Steve was prompt and listened to what I wanted to have done and was able to put in his own ideas that sounded great. After handing over the deposit, Steve took me to visit the nursery where I could pick out the flowers/plants/shrubs/trees that I wanted. With his guidance we got a large assortment of flowers that wold look nice. We agreed on a date to start the job (weather permitting), the job started a few days later because of delay's on other jobs. I was okay with this at first. Steve sub-contracted the wooded seating area, boardwalk and deck staining out to a friend of his. The boardwalk and sitting area came out very nice. Until I noticed all of the short cuts that were taken. The agreed estimate stated that the wood boards would be screwed into the supports with galvanized screws to ensure they wouldn't rust. What I got was standard framing nails. 3 boards were not nailed in at all. 2 other boards broke within the first week because the boardwalk only had supports on either sides but nothing in the middle where all of the weight would be. Then came the deck staining, what a nightmare that turned out to be. I don't know if this was because of a crappy product being used or simply because it wasn't applied correctly but it came out absolutely terrible. The deck immediately collected all the dirt and grime from foot traffic (the deck wasn't walked on for a week after being stained). And it couldn't be removed. Within the first week of using my deck it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years. I told both Steve and his friend who did the work about this and they said it's a manufactures issues and they would call. Never got another response about this (see below for more of the same) The plan was that once the boardwalk and sitting area were completed the rest of the job would be completed shortly their after. The next portion of the job didn't start for another week and a half. Now there was 3 days of rain, but the rest of the delay was unacceptable. When he finally came back, he said since they dug out more of the hill then anticipated they would need to add some boulders to make sure it was safe and all of the new wood chip wouldn't simply run off. This was an additional $500 that was never discussed. I asked why so much of the hill was taken since there is/was plenty of room between the hill and the boardwalk. He couldn't give me a direct answer. I had no choice but to pay the additional money because it would look terrible with one 8 foot section of the hill just cut down for no reason. The rest of the work was supposed to take no more than 3 days but ended up taking 8. I didn't care much since I wasn't paying hourly but it was a huge hassle. There were 2 full days of work that someone Steve had sent over to weed/dig that nothing got done. The last day or 2 I saw the wood chip delivered. What was agreed on was a high quality wood chip. What I got was the leftovers from a wood chipper. Half of what was laid was sticks. When the job was finally completed, $500 over budget, weeks behind schedule and not pleased with the outcome of some of the aspects, Steve and his team promptly left and would not return any of my calls or emails regarding the issues that I found. I was told I had a year and a half warranty on all of the plants and work that was done. When I called a week later to express my issues, I was no longer able to get in touch with Steve but then instead had to deal with his secretary. I gave her a list of all of the things that needed to be fixed/addressed. I then never heard back from her either. Forever Young is by far the worst landscaping/contractor/business I've ever dealt with. If you have the opportunity to hire this company, don't!. Stay away. Update 9/23/2013 Received a call from Steve today wondering why I left such a bad review. I explained to him that everything in the above review was factual, which I can backup by the original quote, emails and post dated checks. He then asked me if there was a free service he could provide (free mulching or something) that would get me to change my review to something "less bad". I said the review would have been different if the job was simply done correctly 2 years ago and I would have gotten a single communication back. He then went on to say he's working for neighbors of mine and they are happy. He looked at my backyard and says it still looks great. I told him it looks great because I brought in a new landscaper this year(Blue Tree Landscaping) who fixed it up. He actually said to me, I know I still owe you something and it's in the shop!. I basically told him, isn't that the point? It's 2 years later and you have something of mine at your shop? After simply telling him that the above review is factual and I saw no reason to change it, he tried to beat around the bush saying that the above was illegal in terms of how I'm representing his company (he couldn't think of the term defamation). If this persists, I will continue to update the review. Beware!

Young never got back to us with the estimate. After two weeks we reached out and talked to a secretary who said we would be contacted that day. Never heard anything again. We reached out one more time and were promised that we would get a response...never to hear anything. Very frustrating. If he didn't want the work all he had to do was call and say so. Instead we were put back 3 weeks on our project timeline because we wanted to give him first shot at the project because he is a neighbor.

Work went well when weather cooperated. That was a little frustrating, but Steve could not control the rain. His employees were very respectful and worked well.

They do good work. Sometimes there is an issue with getting them here to do things. Their prices are fair.

The job went much more smoothly than I expected. It is never easy to have a tree land in your hous. Steve did a great job, and I would highly recommend him.

We had heard that Steve sometimes had problems with timing his jobs...has a tendency to attempt to co-ordinate several at one time which sometimes means jobs are half done for a couple days. However, we did not feel inconvenienced at all with the process. Sidewalk/Apron looks good.