Dixon Teter

"Well lets see: 1. We did an impossible job in an impossible location in 3 days that he could not even get anyone to bid on. We had to do the entire project working through the neighbor's dog waste filled yard with no access save by wheelbarrow. That meant moving 18 tons of collapsed stone and masonry by hand to a dumpster in an alley and hand loading into the wheelbarrows and hand unloading over 100 yards and up a ramp we had to install to get over the steps! Then the reverse: moving 10 tons of pressure treated 6"x6" material; to the rear to build the replacement wall - you remember: the collapsed wall that the township wanted to fine him for not doing. Oh yes, that unprofessional aspect where the township was fining him $600.00 for failing to get it done. 2. I saved him from the township fining him $600.00. They actually rescinded the fine. 3. The original contract was for $35,750.00 yet he said that he only got $15,635.99 from his insurance company. The final end project cost was reduced to $18,250.00 but he added $6,250.00 which we did for $4,965.00 - "done at cost as a customer courtesy" because of his overall financial state. And to paint a less than rosy picture: this is a row home in a - shall we say - not affluent neighborhood. 4. Perhaps he considered it 'unprofessional' to want a signed contract. And a new signed contract for the revisions. I do not. A signed contract protects both the customer and the contractor. 5. Perhaps he considers it unprofessional to request payment of the balance due on the day of completion as specified on the contract that he signed. It is not - that is simply being businesslike. 6. Perhaps he considers it 'unprofessional to offer discounts to Home Advisor customers. His $26,750.00 project was completed for $23,215.00. 7. Perhaps he considers it unprofessional to only remove the concrete and stone from the collapsed retaining wall as specified by contract and not take out the neighbor's trash - which he said I said I would do (I certainly did not). He finally agreed that trash removal (and we are talking old rotting rugs and bags of unrecognizable filth) was not part of the job and when told that it would cost $200.00 said that he would give me $100.00 for it. That meant an extra truck trip to dispose of half a ton of trash. We did that for him. 8. He was 'conveniently' not home the day we completed and this is a man who was never away from home so I have not been paid the $14,190.00 balance due. Nor have I had a response to my e-mails such as saying "I am sorry we had to go to a funeral the day that you finished and I will mail your check out right away." I will revisit these comments as to the status of payment. Payment was due by contract terms on the day of completion. Customer, who was home every day, left home the day of completion and failed to fulfill the terms of the contract. He was billed again and failed to pay. After 30 days he was billed with interest - as per the terms of the contracts which he signed. After two months still no payment. Now he has instituted a viscous assault on my reputation reporting me to the state AG claiming 'elderly abuse' - anything to get out of paying. (I am older than he is). My lawyer told me long ago that any customer who rather than paying finds fault is a deadbeat and must be treated as such. This goes far beyond 'deadbeat' and is an assault on my sterling 53 year reputation."

"I wrote to Home Advisor: Dear Home Advisor, This customer has been posting reviews recently that are nothing more than malicious libelous lies. I demand that those reviews be immediately removed and that any further input from that customer be blocked. Among the things he states is that I demanded immediate payment. My contract terms, which he agreed to and signed, are Balance due on day of completion. Any contractor is entitled to ask for payment upon completion, which we did namely, complete the job: which was to remove the blacktop at his driveway entrance that had decayed and collapsed and replace using E.P. Henry pavers. He also said that he was moving to California in a week or so another great and entirely reasonable reason to get paid immediately before he left town forever. He states that the area has standing water. And, like a bratty 3 year old, he says that he stands there with a hose making puddles. That is a lie as well. Proof of that is in in the picture I enclosed to Home Advisor which they will not post. E-mail me at dixontXXXX and I will send any photo to you. The picture showed as described: "last night (as with the night before) we had up to an inch of rain in a massive downpour. Very early the next morning I drove45 minutes and took the picture. As evidence of the rain you can see standing water on his blacktop area, an area we did not work on as it was not his concern. You can also see little puddle bits on the street. What you DO NOT see is water on our paver area! He finds fault with the grading and seeding we did to either side of the area. What you see in the picture is that where we regraded and seeded the sides of the paver entrance grass have begun to germinate. What he does not mention, and I did not take a picture of this, is that for free we regraded a major puddle area in the center of his yard while we were there. After the rain there was not only no puddle on the paver area there was also no puddle in the center of the yard and again the grass has begun to grow. Home Advisor will neither remove his libelous comments nor allow posting pictures. I am more than happy to send a copy of this photographic proof to any customer that asks. Please send requests to me at dixontXXXX In my 51 years as a landscape designer and contractor I have never encountered such lies defaming my reputation. I will not stand idly by while he lies and destroys my excellent ratings on Home Advisor of which I have been a member in good standing since way before when you were Service Magic. I have served over 10,000 customers since I started my business in 1968 and many many return time and again for more work. Just this week two customer from 8 and 10 years ago contacted me and have now contracted with me for new work. Last week it was a customer from 2 years ago signing up for another major phase of their landscaping. Always great to see old customers returning! And yes, it is inevitable that there be some bad apples; and yes, we are not perfect; but we do fix things so this is among the worst I have encountered. We went above and beyond for this customer because he insisted ? begged to have this done immediately since he was moving to California. He told me that he will be renting the property out but not coming back. My schedule is posted on my web site and we are booked 2 months. I told him that I do not let customers ?butt in line? so he would have to wait. But then my amazing and sterling crew finished a larger longer project a day early so I contacted him and said that instead of pulling another up I would insert him. I made a special trip to meet him and get paperwork signed and lay it out so I could get materials delivered and get his urgent project completed. We did that. Almost immediately he started complaining about puddles. I came out and looked and saw none and no evidence that there had been oneo"

"I have explained to every customer wanting to improve their lawns since 1968 that building a lawn from seed is a process that takes time. I explain that in a sod farm under ideal professional management that process takes 18-24 months and that in a homeowner situation that takes 24-30 months. During that time a well managed lawn will be steadily improving. I explain that I do not do lawn services just installations but I always say that I am happy to advise as to how to care for the lawn at no charge or that the customer contact a lawn maintenance service. This customer's very small lawn was thatch raked and seeded with perennial ryegrass seed and fertilized, as was specified in her contract. That was done last October. At that time of year weed killing is not recommended since weeds are going dormant or dying off for the year at that time anyway. And applying weed killer means that you cannot apply seed. She did no watering. Two weeks ago, in mid-April, she called complaining that her lawn was not doing well. I reminded her of the fact that building a lawn was a process and when she vehemently complained I said that I would rake over and apply new seed at no charge. She complained of weeds. I explained that I could either kill weeds or seed not both and that a light over seeding was the proper procedure and that she should do weed killing in a month. At is time in the season I had 40 customers already scheduled. She called 3 more times actually threatening me! She demanded that I put aside all the customers who had already arranged for projects (large and small) long before she called. She loudly threatened several times that she would write a bad review. A couple of days later I had two men rake and seed again at no charge. She called immediately - not to thank me for doing what I promised but to complain that we did that too quickly! She further astounded me by asking if she had to water the newly seeded lawn! As I did previously, and as I do for every customer for plants or lawns, I gave her detailed watering instructions via e-mail. My thanks for doing that free follow up work for free is this rather ill-informed review. What this woman really wants is a sodded area with no care required. Sod was not in her budget. No care is of course impossible. As is her whole attitude and manner of dealing with anyone. If contacted I will go into more detail - I would not want another contractor to experience her terrible behavior. She actually promised not only a bad review but that she would go back and comment on any comments that I might make!"

"You have got to be kidding! This customer rejected the color I suggested as the best match for his old wall that was to be extended (his existing wall was of a style block no longer in production). I went out of my way as a customer courtesy to take him samples. Most customers drive to the distributor to look for themselves but he could not be bothered with such a trivial thing. He chose the color from the samples I took him. He actually demanded that I look at his wall after business hours. Entitled much? I am not a servant I am a professional of 50 years experience. My business hours are extensive: 55 hours a week: 7AM-5PM Monday-Friday and until noon on Saturday so such a demand was way beyond acceptable. A further demand was that we curve a masonry wall. We then drew the outline of the wall with marking paint on the ground for approval prior to starting. He watched that and then approved the design curves and all. He then complained that it was too curved! As a final insult this customer accused us of stealing his a couple of wheelbarrows of gravel that were lying on the edge of the driveway in the way of the project. He said that gravel had been there for a year. When asked if he wanted to save it and where he would like us to put it for him he said that they could be used for the wall project. In answer to his accusation I told him we removed no gravel and that the only materials hauled away were the shrubs that were taken out to facilitate the work and the excavated subsoil - both as per agreement. I would never refer any contractor in any service field to this person. P.S. He had the nerve to act as if he never wrote this review and called to ask for more work. I refused. Once bitten never again."