Southern Scapes Inc

On March 6, I found out that Palmetto Green Thumbs was purchased by Southern Scapes. I thought that my bushes were hacked by Palmetto and found out through billing that there was a new contractor. Actually, until I found out who did the work, I was relieved that someone new would be doing my lawn maintenance. Palmetto was not good and not full time despite what they told me about their business. I was in the process of looking for someone else when the contract was up at the end of April. Under the terms of my contract, April was "free" - it was Palmetto's promotion last year to get new customers. You paid for the first 11 months and the twelfth was free. After the new owners made contact, first Sherry through email and then Dwayne by phone, to introduce themselves, I told them I was happy to have a new company and inquired about their business. They said they are full time and Dwayne is a certified horticulturalist. Great. I told Dwayne about my contract with Palmetto and he assured me they were going to honor all Palmetto's clients and their contracted rates. I asked him if Palmetto had pointed out the "free" month deal. He said no. The next thing I knew, Sherry used the card that Palmetto had on file to deduct for April! I called and after several calls and emails, they sent a check and said that they could not honor $155/month and so I should take the money and find a new landscaping company! Based on what they did in March - trimmed bushes using a blunt instrument, and putting weed killer on my lawn without informing me, I am glad to have to find another lawn service. I do not believe that Dwayne does the work. He subs all of it out and does not check up on jobs. He said he did not know that the hydrangea bushes had been chopped down. Yet, Sherry sent me a detailed list of what "their" men did during March (less than 5 hours of work) Buyer beware.

Wayyyyyy too expensive. Sales rep was not prepared to give an estimate on the same day he visited our home but he offered to do it on the spot. Trouble was his estimate was $4000 higher than Window World. He was 30 minutes late.

From the initial visit and agreement to move forward with a proposal, it took more than two weeks for Dwayne to get back to us at all. Even so, we were happy to have found a company to hire. There was a small problem at the beginning--Dwayne's math was all wrong, proposing to charge us for more weeks than he agreed to come, but we caught the error and they fixed it. Once we had an agreement, Dwayne came only once--alone, with no crew, after not coming on the day he told us he would, so that I had mowed the overgrown lawn myself because we had company coming. Only after I mowed did I get a message that he would come the next day. When I told him I had already mowed he questioned the need to come at all. I assured him there was plenty to do. This included edging, walkway trimming, blowing leaves off the driveway, and spraying for weeds. I was home when he came and showed him three small areas to be sure not to spray. Later, when I got home from work I walked the property. No blowing had been done at all--magnolia leaves covered the driveway. No walkways had been cleared, nothing had been trimmed, and the lawn edging was very rough--uneven and incomplete, like it had been done by hand. Because my lawn is very weedy, edging is the most important task--to keep weeds out of garden beds. I am learning, days later, that he sprayed only in some areas but not even half of what I asked for. In other words, he did not complete the job--understandable, given that he came alone. Very puzzling--he'd been out to the house before, so he knew the extent of the job. I sent an email (tried calling, but got voicemail; left a message but never got a response) reminding that our agreement included blowing the walks and driveway, and trimming, and asking whether he used a gas-powered edger (because we own one, if he doesn't). I also asked if, going forward, he would be coming Thursdays or Fridays. Dwayne responded with an email, stating that his company would not be doing the maintenance on our place. No explanation. Dwayne did not meet the terms of our agreement and left us in the lurch, very abruptly. My perception was that all our interactions had been fine--clear, polite, no friction, so this treatment was a big surprise. Today we received a bill for half the agreed amount, yet he did less than half the work we had contracted for. When I asked for an explanation, the wording of the email response was that they are too busy to do work for people who "question everything we do." The respondent also claimed that the bill was for the time Dwayne spent, even though paying by the hour was never the basis of our agreement--we contracted for specific tasks. Dwayne knew the extent of the job from the beginning, because we walked him through it. Our security shows that he worked an hour and fifteen minutes on the one day he came. We did ask why Dwayne did not do the work he had agreed to do. We also asked that the bill be broken down to describe what we WERE being charged for, given the incomplete work. If that amounts to "questioning everything we do," this isn't a company to work with. All in all a very strange experience. Couldn't show up at agreed time, couldn't perform agreed work, badly lapsed communication, and very defensive about the company's failure to deliver a basic level of service. Okay, fine--moving on. We have agreed to pay Southern Scape one third the originally contracted amount, even though Dwayne didn't do even one third of the work. If he wants to be paid by the hour, that's a different agreement...one we weren't party to. Remains to be seen whether the company will step up and do the right thing. We very much wanted this contractor to work out--sad that he didn't. I marked that services were performed because one service out of five was completely, even though badly done.

The company and its owner were one of the kindest I have worked with. They had a lot to do in my yard to give it some curb appeal. They went right to work with fill dirt, mulch , and more. I would definitely hire them again. I feel they are a honest and hard working company.

See comments written above.

Did not use at this time, but would consider them in the future.

Did not use at this time, not because I didn't like them, but got my work done for free.

Goodness, they were great! The work that was done was beautiful and very neat! They even took old brick I had piled around a bush in the back yard and created brick edging around the back patio flowerbed! They didn't charge for it either! The grass edging, the level grass cutting (no gouged areas from poorly-balanced mowing decks), the weed mitigation, clean-up afterwards was always perfect! I'm a yardwork nut and I never got that yard looking as good as they did!

It's been many years I found them and I used to be in the neighborhood yard but I always knew him to be very good at his job and very thankful to find his name and company on Angie’s list. I actually hired him. I had a problem with my backyard when I had done a lot of work to the back yard. I had a septic drain field installed and that just eats up my yard, I mean I had to dig up hundreds of seeds at my yard so it was just a mess and they got it done. They filled stuff back in but they don't really clean it off or find any seed or anything. I hired them to come in and smooth everything back off, put some stuff down and plant some grass seed. They did that work first and I paid him. He did a good job of smoothing everything of. He did exactly what he said he would do but it ended up raining in the area over the following weeks and it washed a lot of the seed that he had planted down off the yard and the grass in most of the places he planted never took but that was more of the rain did anything. I liked that he did everything what he said he would do. I felt the price was a little bit high but I don't know how to compare. I can't really compare and I actually requested him to put in a specific kind of seed and he told me that seed would be more costly and I was fine with that. I asked him when it started raining real bad that a lot of the tenants in the house told me that the grass isn't taking rest. It was raining, the record breaking type raining in this area and when I had called him as saying it might be running down the yard and it could not take because of all this rain but he said that I just need to give it some more time and it should take. I asked him whether he thought I should put some hay on top of it so that the rain doesn't cause anything but he said if I do that the hay doesn't work well on the seed and I would probably not going to get the seed to grow because it's going to keep the ground so damp so he dint want me to put hay on it and that made sense to me but after all said and done the grass didn't take. I don't know if that's worth mentioning but as far as quality I would say for what he said he would do he did a great job. He's responsive. I would use him in the future but I’m just discouraged by the grass not growing and if I would use him and I had an issue again I would check comparatively because I dint realize it's going to be as much as it was when I got an estimate. So If I did have an issue like that again I wouldn't just jump straight towards him but I would do some shopping around and then go to him if people where right around the same price.

They did a good job. I have a service agreement. I pay $250 a month. They are very accurate and on time. I like the company. The lawn looks good and very clean when they are done.

Spoke to Dawayne; we needed our lawn mowed real bad because we had recently moved here and the lawn had not been taken care of. We had plans to do much more with the backyard and use the company further if this company worked out with the mowing and clearing out the yard of small bushes. We saw him pull in the driveway and pull back out; he didn't get out of the truck or even have the decency to knock on the door or call me back to tell me. I immediately called him and his lame statement was that they do yards that are already mowed; they just maintain them. I don't need to pay a landscaper to just mow an already mowed lawn, I can do that MYSELF! We needed a company to get the yard in good shape to do even more things with it. This guy wasted my time while I waited for him to show up at 4 p.m. "F".

All very pleasant stayed until all was completed. Enjoyed workers and Dwayne and his crew, good listeners.

Estimate generated was 3x the lowest bidder and 2x the bid I have accepted.

Contacted through provided weblink seeking estimate on work. Received an e-mail reply about stopping by in the afternoon next day. Following day had a garbled phone conversation which he indicated his intention to stop by in the afternoon. No show. No phone call. Nothing. Sent an e-mail wondering what happened. Received reply "on my way asap." No show, no phone call. Most of the responses on Angie's List were positive so not sure what happened. E-mail writing was NOT that of a college graduate and business owner but rather a teenager who flunked English. Contact at your own peril.

contractor moved in with team of men. worked very skillfully and did not damage any property.

I called Southern Scapes back in late April/early May and made an appointment. Dwayne arrived promptly at the appointment time and we discussed our concerns about our new property. We had some very old, large shrubs along the front of our house that were sparse and some were dead and dying. It didn't look very appealing and needed to be removed and replaced. We also discussed our backyard planting area. It takes up a large portion of the backyard that is sloped. There was a rather out of place tree in the area that was obscuring the view that we wanted removed. We also wanted mulch spread on all planting areas. Dwayne was wonderful, asking what we liked, what our vision was,etc. He made suggestions and we had a great conversation. He really seemed to understand what we were looking for. He told me he'd be back in a week or so to take some measurements and then could make a plan and then he'd get back to me. He did inform me that the bread and butter of his business is lawn care and these landscape projects are fit in around the "regulars" schedule and the weather (which this summer has been incredibly wet). I understood this and was okay with the process taking a bit of time. Dwayne returned, as stated, took measurements, asked a few more questions and said he'd start working out a plan and would email it to me. It took a few weeks, and then I received an estimate for the work with a list of plants he intended to use in the front. I called and asked if he could tell me where each plant was going and he said it would be easiest if he just stopped by and walked me through it, which he did the next day. It sounded lovely! He reminded me that this job would be fit in around his regulars. One morning, I left the house to run some errands and came home and all the plants in the front were gone. It was great! I never saw his guys come or go. The area was clean and no debris anywhere. Talk about no fuss! It was like that for about two weeks before they returned to install the new plants. We were actually on vacation at the time and I informed a neighbor that workers may be there. She texted me that they had come and that the front of our house looked amazing. We came home from vacation and and had a beautiful entrance to our home. The tree in the back had been removed and all the pine needles had been placed. It looks gorgeous! I called Dwayne to thank him and to apologize that we weren't home. He said, he thought we might be away, so he'd been checking in on the plants to ensure they were getting water and were taking. We did call him several weeks later about a couple of the plants that looked a bit under the weather. He came by and inspected them for us. All was fine, and we are enjoying our beautifully landscaped yard.

They were okay, they did a good job on the landscaping work but we were unhappy on their mulching work.

Had to get on his list early as I discovered last year he does keep a busy crew with priority to contracted work. Dwayne came out to the house on the scheduled day to look over the work we needed done. He was easy to work with, attentive and open to working with me on what I had in mind. Had an initial design with price estimates in a resonable time. I had him come out a second time to review what he proposed with my wife present. He was very patient with our questions and need to see pictures of proposed vegetation. A few changes were made and an updated estimate delivered in a timely manner. The estimate was within our budget and I would guess in the middle of expected potential cost proposals. I have dealt with other landscapers numerous times in the past. The work was scheduled but delayed a couple times because of tree issues I had to deal with first. Once the work was done, it was according to spec with meticulous attention to detail. Dwyne was personally involved with the work while it was being done. I am very pleased with the finished product. It should be noted, I had difficulty finding someone to come out last year after first contacting Dwayne and the couple that did come out (one with a "deal" from Angie's list) seemed rushed and / or indifferent with the ideas thrown out were not much to what I had in mind even after explaining my desires. I did not recieve proposals from either company. The lesson I learned is to get on Dwayne's list early in the year. The wait was worth it.

The price was high for "mow and blow" service. At times this was minimal service, and we had to repeatedly had to ask them to do minimal, basic service. Too many times they were there and gone in 20 minutes. This may have been OK if we were not paying $225 per month for this.

Very professional and thorough. Super easy to work with and takes pride in their work. You can tell that he really cares and wants it done right. Great communication skills. They provide similar services to our neighbor, and the work they do looks fantastic. Very highly recommended!

Call them to schedule an appointment - never responded.

I called with a very last-minute request for yard service (my house was being photographed to go on the market the following day and we live out of town, so my yard was in desperate need of mowing/weedeating.) The job was completed within an hour or so of my call and pictures were sent to my cell phone to make sure it was up to our expectations. I appreciated the prompt response & professional manner of our interaction. Considering the short notice, I think they did a good job of making the yard look presentable. I feel confident that they would perform any job up to expectations. I would not consider them to be cheap, but I feel that he charged me a very fair price ($50), especially since it was an urgent, last-minute request.

They completed all the preparation of the yard to ready it for winter. They did some mulching and pruning. They were real professional and reliable.

I pay them $75 every time they take care of the lawn. He does a good job and it is something I don’t have to worry about. The price is comparable with other prices. Everything seems to go really well.

I tried to use him, but he didn't get back to me. His estimate was really late. I had to keep calling him and when he finally called me back I was tired of the back and forth with him. I talked to him on Tuesday and he said he would come and do the estimate on Thursday. I had to call him the following week to ask him about the estimate because he told me he was going to email it to me. He told me he was on his way out of town and he would email it to me when he got back in town. I called him back two weeks later and someone else answered the phone and she told me she would give him the message. He called me back the next day and told me he wouldn't be able to do the job because he was so backed up. He told me he would refer me to other people, but he couldn't say if they did a good job or not. He didn't know their work, but he would just give me their names. It was a real turn off because of the time and when he finally did call me back after I called him two times, he recommended people that he had no idea of their work. I felt like he didn't care. I waited for him and then he disregarded me and the job.