Mile High Yard Works

4/29/14 - Came by to look at yard for estimate of landscape to front and backyard, ask us to email layout of yard and told us he would get back to us with the estimate. Emailed the layout that day to the email he provided, did not hear back for several days, called the gentlemen to check the status of estimate and was told he would talk to his office and get the estimate to us as soon as possible we never heard back.

The agreement was for $400.00 paid 12/9/2013 we would get 200 feet of lights installed, removed and stored, all we would need to do is call when we are ready for the lights to be installed in 2014. Problems started when my husband called to have the lights installed the first of December, he was advised someone would call back to schedule the install, no one called back. he called again and was advised they could not find our lights and it would cost another $350, of course we told them you are out of your mind find our light and bring them to us. we called back after no one called or came by. We called back and our calls went unanswered. Some lights were dropped off however they were not our lights, there is only about 50 feet of lights in the container and about 10% of them are broken. I called 830 626-3455 and advied her the lights dropped off are not ours, we have been trying to get this strait for 2 weeks and I want ny lights or a refund by 12/12/2014 and it did not happen.When I was talking to her all she keept saying was you got it, never apologized or even tried to appear concerned or interested she very unprofessional. I want my lights or a refund ASAP.

They recently have been bought out by Green Pest Control. I have a contract with them and use them every two weeks to do my yard. It costs $50 to mow, plus taxes. If I have them do other stuff, such as one time I had them trim big trees -- so I had to pay extra for that. Their prices are very reasonable. When they trimmed my branches they came out, climbed up there and trimmed them off. He did it in such a way that they will not grow back very fast so I won't have that problem in the future so I won't have to have them back out. I did not know they could do that, but apparently they can. I have used them for almost two years. I have never missed them and they come out exactly when they are supposed to, except one day when it was pouring rain. Then they came back and made up for it.

If I could give a grade lower than an F I most certainly would. Mr. Bonner came in with enthusiasm, telling me how they could turn my yard into a masterpiece and that he had a pond expert that couldn't wait to design my water-feature. He said that now was the time to do it because he could give me off season pricing and some cash discount. The only drawing of the proposed landscape was one that I had designed to show them what I wanted. Since there was no plan drawn up, I needed to stay around at all times to direct the work. Throughout the job the supervisor would mention that "this might be a little bit of an upgrade" Not once was an amount given to the supposed upgrades until I was presented with the final bill which showed $28,440.00 worth of upgrades. Some were legitimate but much of the cost was extremely inflated and items were charged for that I didn't receive. First came the water feature that consisted of a top waterfall that ran about 15 feet into a koi pond. They spliced the liner at the bottom of the pond because they were trying to use leftover pond liner from a previous job. It immediately collapsed and had to be redone. The top waterfall leaked and had to be redone. He charged me $2,250.00 to "redo the pond". The finished pond immediately turned stagnant. When I went to a water feature expert I learned that the pump and skimmer were not only installed incorrectly but were not sufficient and that it should have a complete filtration system. $1,000.00 later and a lot of work I now have a working but unfinished pond. I was charged $850.00 for commercial grade weed barrier under ALL mulch areas. I only have two areas under trees that are done correctly. I have 8 areas with absolutely no weed block and 4 areas where it was partially covered. There are places where there are 3 inch gaps between the weed block and the house and gaps where it was spliced together and not overlapped. The weed barrier is as much as an inch away from the edging in many places which allows weeds to grow inside of the edge of the bed where it has to be hand weeded. As they were mulching the main front bed I noticed that there was no weed barrier on a third of it. They said that they had run out but would get more before the rest of the mulch was put down. Long story short, mulch was deceptively dumped over the bare bed and I now have weeds and stickers growing thick. Because I have an ailing husband and I am in my 60's I was striving for a less labor intensive front yard. Yesterday I was finally able to get out there and weed. Several hours later, exhausted and covered with fire ant bites, I had a pile of weeds that was enough to fill a 30 gallon trash can. Some of the mulch is so thin it barely covers the weed barrier. A full load of mulch that I paid for was dumped in the vacant lot next to me. The flower beds were filled with top soil instead of bedding soil. It is so gummy and clay filled that I have to dig it out and replace it with garden soil where ever I put a plant. The grass was delivered a week and a half prior to installation, I was told that because it was dormant it wouldn't hurt it to sit that long. It has pulled through but I was charged full price, $225.00 a pallet for dormant grass that I have since learned was discounted to Mr. Bonner during the winter season. My irrigation system is a mess also. I was assured that the irrigation man was a specialist. When I told him that it would be hooked up to a well as soon as we could get it in he told me he didn't know how to hook to a well. He obviously was not a specialist because the way he set up the drip stations has already caused the pump to burn out. When it came time to connect it to the newly installed well Mr. Bonner refused to send somebody out to show me where I should connect on. I had to remove sod and dig trenches until I was able to find the connecting place. Many of the station covers are down in the ground 6" to 8" deep and there are areas that are sunk down because of poor back fill. Some of the heads need to be adjusted, the drip system was never completed and he took all of the materials that I would need to be able to finish it myself. He refuses to honor the warranty and fix these issues. I have had to hire an irrigation service to come out and deal with some of the more pressing issues. The stepping stone path that I'd asked for became an $870.00 flagstone walkway that I didn't even want and intend to have torn out and replaced with stepping stones. They put a river rock edging in an area that I had told them should be made to match the other side and now will need to be redone. I could go on forever. I am left with unfinished pathways, an unfinished irrigation system, a rain drainage system that was left incomplete and covered up so that the rain is washing out underneath the cement steps, a driveway that is scraped up and a pile of rocks, dirt and debris that was dumped in the adjacent vacant lot. The only completed work is the rock and iron wall and fence that he subcontracted out which was originally bid at $3,600.00 and was "upgraded" to $9,400.00. I have been told by Mr. Bonner that he is "done with me" unless I agree to pay him another $10,000.00. He is now the new owner of Schulz Nursery in Marion. I hope he is more ethical in his dealings with his nursery customers than he has been with me.

It went well. I might use them again. I'll check others out before I decide if I would use them.

I just stumbled upon them and they were really close so I thought I should contact them. They’ve been excellent and they have done a really good job. They’re not really expensive. They’re really helpful and nice people. It’s a very small company. They do the work and they let me know before they leave so I can check to make sure that everything has been done. They’re very efficient. I’ve never had a single problem with them. The price was good because when I was in Florida, I paid more than that to have my yard done.

This company already performs regular lawn cutting services for me twice a month and they advertise they do "anything outside" so I asked them if they could switch out the wood fence posts for metal fence posts. The fence is less than 6 months old, but already was warping pulling apart from the rail. Rather than deal with the builders to fix the problem, my husband and I decided to upgrade to the metal posts. They sent out their marketing person to measure the yard and figure the quote. Our communication was mostly by email and she gave me a dollar amount for what it would cost to do the yard. I did not receive a formal written estimate and was told the job would take 2 days to complete. 1 day to take the fence down and install posts. 2nd day to put the fence back up. Mile High Yard Works gave me a fair price for switching the posts and even gave me 2 months to pay in installments. I received comparative quotes from other companies and Mile High Yard was a little cheaper. I thought all was going to go well until the project was given the green light. I was told they were "busy" and would get to me not that week, but the following. I let almost 3 weeks go by without a word and finally called asking them when they would begin work. They said they were "busy" and it had rained so they were swamped. I was still understanding at this point, but urged them that my neighbor was closing soon on their newly built home and our fence adjoined their yard so I would have liked to switch the posts before they moved in so I nor Mile High would need permission to access their yard. They finally arrived to complete the work and it was done in 1 day. The fence had not been completely taken down as I had been told. After the job was completed, one of the workers came to the front door to let me know they were leaving and I gave them the first check. I went outside to look at the fence and noticed that upon switching the posts, the trajectory of the fence was slightly altered leaving gaps where the fence met the front side of the fence. This was on both the left and right side of the house. My gate was no no longer latching because of the change and I also noticed that 1 post in the corner was still wood. Also some of the pickets were falling off and had not been nailed back. I called their office and asked that someone come out to look at the work done because it seemed the job needed to be "finished" and polished. Immediately I met with resistance and defensiveness from the marketing director. She immediately told me that if her guys caused the damage they would fix it. I explained to her that I didn't imply her workers caused damage, it was damage already done to the fence but had not been addressed. She spoke to the owner, Tommy, and she said that herself and Tommy would be out Monday morning to inspect the workmanship of the fence. Come Monday morning, Tommy and herself did not show up, instead they sent the same worker out who had completed the job. He said he could nail down the falling pickets and cover the gaps with more pickets as well as fix my gate. He said that (and the is the first time I was told that the quote was for only 9 posts) and this is the reason that the last post had not been changed. I asked him how much it would be to have the last post swapped out and he said over $200 for material and labor. Calculating the math in my head, I compared this estimate to the work already done ($200 per post would be $1800 and I paid $1000 for 9 posts) so obviously they were over charging me for this 1 post. I told him I would not pay for that last post, but what them to do the "finishing of the project". He agreed and I returned to the house while he returned to the truck. After I while I noticed that his truck was gone and I had to call Mile High Yard Works to see when he would return. They informed me that he completed the work and had left. I went outside to make sure the work was completed and still the gate was off, the gaps were still there, and he had only nailed the falling pickets back into place. At this point I called my husband who then called Mile High Yard Works to complain. They promised me that Tommy the owner would be out. Tommy came to my home the following week and upon arrival admitted to me that there should not have been this many problems with a simple job of switching posts. He looked at the gaps and then said that with post switching there should be minimal change in the direction of the fence. He then looked at where the posts met the rail and so "Oh" as if to acknowledge that the were not flush, but crooked and obviously crooked enough so that the fence now has gaps in it. He said they could add the pickets to cover the gaps, but just kept repeating "see this wasn't apart of the original quote". We also discussed that last post and I told him that the worker that come out told me the quote was for 9, but 10 were needed. Tommy then became disgruntle telling me that they would come fix it and that he "didn't care, whatever, we will do it". I asked him what the charge was and he said "no charge, whatever, we will fix it, but you knew it was for 9 posts". At this point I was taken aback at how sour his demeanor had become. He said he could not complete the job today because they were "busy" but would come tomorrow or by the end of the week. I walked into the house and he left using the side gate. As I walked into the house, I replayed the conversation we just had and realized that Tommy was implying that I was cheating him because I knew the quote was for 9 posts and I was having more done. I went to the front door and opened it to clarify this information, but Tommy had already gotten into his truck. I never received a quote or estimate outlying the details of the job. It was the Marketing person's fault that she miscounted the number of posts needed for the job and she only provided me with a dollar amount for the project in an email. It has since been 1 more month and the fence has not been completed nor has the post been changed. They did call me today to ask for the 2nd installment on the fence, but did not mention completing the work. I inquired about this and the office person stated "Oh Tommy is so busy he probably just forgot". I would not depend on this company to do any other service properly than just cutting your lawn. It appears to me that this company is too "busy". Upon signing with this company I had requested that someone come out to my home on appointment to do a landscaping plan for how I wanted the yard to look and help map it out so that I could establish a budget and a timeline for completing this rather large project that would have included hardscaping, plants, shrubs, trees, and other structures. They said "sure! we will have Tommy come out and speak with you. Just have all your ideas together for the visit" I have never had this visit. I had chosen them seeing that they did do the landscaping across the street from one of the restaurants down town. My opinion is that they are "busy" doing high profile jobs that their customer service is lacking for the other "not so important" customers this company serves.