Kingstowne Lawn & Landscape

The landscaper arrived timely and surveyed the yard. She had some comments about the drainage problem, took a plat map and said that she would do the concept plan (part of the Big Deal). That was the last I heard from her or the company.

This "Big Deal" was more than worth the price. Alan Macbeth was generous with both time and information. He actively considered my preferences and definitely showed considerable expertise. The landscape design he produced was detailed and very consistent with what I'd hoped for even though I would not have had the knowledge or vision to select plants on my own.

During our initial consultation, Alan mapped out what needed to be done to remedy our drainage problem and provide some additional landscaping. When the total was more than we expected, he provided a way to do it in phases, addressing the most pressing problems first. The first phase was to rectify drainage issues. The crew showed up on time the day of service and completed the work quickly and with minimal intrusion into the rest of the yard. Things looked as we expected them to look after digging trenches for drain pipes and laying landscape gravel and stones. The real test was when rainstorms came through later in the summer. For many years, when it rains hard, a stream forms from our neighbors yard into ours and on into the storm drain. But as I watched a deluge after the drainage system had been put in, I saw no stream. Further, the ground dried more quickly because of the drainage. This service was followed by a grading and grass seed planting in the early fall. With the new drainage in place, the grass seed that was planted was able to grow instead of being washed away or drowned in the wetness of our shady, low-lying backyard. Our backyard has never looked so good! Through it all, we were made aware of dates of service, what to expect, and what we should do to follow up to maintain the landscape. We will definitely follow through with the rest of the work once our budget and the weather allows.

Kingstowne Lawn & Landscape gave us some ideas of what we wanted to do with our front yard. A couple of days later he sent us via email some landscape ideas he had put together. He not only wrote them for us, but also put them in sketch form too. He was very professional and very cordial.

This was a redo of a big deal from a year ago and with some negotiation it went very well. Plan to have the company provide some of the services this year. (2013)

The estimate process worked well.

After we reviewed Mark's landscape plan, we contracted for the work. The office scheduled the work when we would be home so that we would have input as the work progressed. The team leader reviewed all work with the landscape design in hand. the team then proceeded to clear the area and prepare the soil for the new plants. Mark, our landscape designer, appeared, marked the area for planting, and placed every plant. He remained on site until he was satisfied that all the plants were placed per his design. The team finished the planting, mulched the bed, and cleaned up the area. But before they finished the job, Mark returned and checked all the work, then asked us if the work was acceptable, before the team was released. Then Mark reviewed the tasked we would need to perform the next few days to ensure that the plants took hold and grew well. He also informed us that he would stop by to check on the progress of the plantings in a few days and in a week or two. To end the project, Mark called about three weeks after the work was done to ask how we liked the plants and the work. Take Away: 1. one of the best landscape designers and implementation teams we have worked with 2. plants were larger and in much better condition than any other company every delivered 3. work was well planned, executed with our input and following the plan 4. supervision by the designer was far more complete than ever experienced before. Bottom Line - THESE PEOPLE know what they are doing and do a fantastic job.

The bottom line is that I was offered and agreed to a fixed price for this work to be done, and the vendor reneged on that offer and did not fulfill the terms of the contract. This is the first time I have had any contractor come back and demand more money to finish work they were contracted to do under the terms of a fixed price agreement where the scope of work was not changed. I purchased this house this past October and inherited a yard that had not been particularly well-designed. I contacted this company in November and received a proposal from a landscape designer, Mark McGinnis, to perform the specified cleanup work for a fixed price of $2,373.03. Because my primary goal was to remove all of the bamboo from the property, I made a point to clarify what the work would entail and was assured that the price included removing and disposing all of the bamboo, including the roots and trunks. With that written assurance, I signed the contract and work was scheduled to begin the first week in December. A two-man crew arrived the first Tuesday of December with a truck and trailer and began removing the ivy in the front and side yards. By the time I arrived home from work that evening, most of the ivy had been removed, and the stalks of the bamboo inside the fence line had been cut down. That night, I emailed Mark to confirm that the bamboo behind the fence that was still within my property lines would be addressed along with the ivy that remained at the back of the property. He reassured me that it would. The same crew arrived on Wednesday and continued removal of ivy in the back yard. Later that morning, Mark left a voicemail message that they were having difficulty removing the ivy in the back and that a change order would be needed. At that point, he offered to complete the work for an additional $800 (33% more than the contracted price). I returned his call around lunchtime and reiterated that they should focus on the bamboo, if I had to choose between that and the ivy. That evening when I got home, the bamboo behind the fence was untouched, and there were still bamboo stumps, roots, and shoots clearly visible throughout the yard. I sent Mark an email to denote that I was having trouble contemplating any type of change order since the scope of work had not changed. The following day, Mark called to discuss the need for this change order again, restating that it would be $800 to finish the job. When I continued to express my desire to not change any of the terms of the existing contract, Mark provided a second offer of $400 to complete the work. After I balked at having to pay anything additional, he said he needed to talk to his boss and get back to me. When he called me back, he asked if he could arrange an in-person meeting with me and my co-owner along with the company?s owner, Krisjan Berzins, which was set for the following Monday. At the meeting on Monday, Krisjan admitted that the job was incomplete and that the project had been underestimated by Mark. Both he and Mark offered profuse apologies and expressed a desire to find a ?meeting of the minds? while throwing around terms about ?reasonableness.? One excuse given was that the company did not often do bamboo removal and therefore Mark didn?t realize how extensive the work would be. The most off-putting part of the conversation was that Krisjan took this opportunity to repeatedly dress down his employee in front of us as well as to continually disavow the accepted proposal, saying frequently that ?this was Mark?s bad estimate.? The ultimate case put forth by Krisjan was that there were already three truckloads of debris removed from the property and hauling away the rest of it would result in out-of-pocket costs to him above and beyond labor charges. His assertion was that the contract only specified that they would be removing one truckload of debris, so anything beyond that was outside the scope of the original contract. However, both I and my co-owner took the line on the contract to mean that the vendor was providing a truck and trailer for disposal of debris (see picture of contract). That line of the contract does not list a price for this service, e.g. $200 per load. There is no line item breakdown that lists the cost for additional truckloads, there is no language in the contract about such additional charges, and it was certainly not communicated to us that there would be additional costs if all of the debris could not be contained in one trailer. I am especially bewildered as to why we were not informed that this was a problem after the first truckload of debris was collected on the first day of work. The fact of the matter is that if this conversation had been had before the second trailer was loaded, we would have had a much different discussion about our expectations at that point. At the conclusion of the meeting, the intimation was that either we pay them more money to finish the job, or we could pay them for the work they performed and then go find someone else to do the rest. At that point, I requested that Krisjan provide his final offer to complete the work in a written change order for us to contemplate. We were then sent an offer to complete the work for $800, which would represent a cost of $400 to rent a roll-off dumpster to dispose of the remaining debris plus $400 for the two ?additional? truckloads of debris that were already hauled away. His only ?concession? was that he would eat his labor costs, which was presented throughout this process as being an enormous favor to us, even though we were having to pay more money and had also already conceded to drop the requirement that they clean up the property behind the fence (decreasing the scope of work). That $800 cost was, of course, the original amount for the change order that was offered to me the week before, to which is what I already said ?no,? so I felt as if the meeting was an incredible waste of my time considering that I?d already received a $400 offer from Mark. I thus provided a counteroffer to pay for the $400 cost associated with renting the roll-off dumpster, which was begrudgingly accepted by Krisjan. From his final correspondence: ?I completely understand your frustration. Mark made a colossal error in judgment when calculating the amount of labor and disposal required to complete this project. This is 100% our fault, not yours. We are going to get this done for you. Per our discussion, I have agreed to provide all the additional labor at no charge to you. I was merely asking you to cover the cost of the additional disposal. However, at this point, I really don?t want to argue with you. So?I have attached a revised change order for the $400 in additional disposal even though my cost is more than double that.? The dumpster was delivered the next week and a crew returned on successive days to finish the removal of the bamboo. As a parting shot, after the dumpster was removed, we had to collect a large garbage bag?s worth of debris that had not quite made it inside the container but was left in the street surrounding it. There are also still a few bamboo stumps and roots that were not removed (one in a very conspicuous area right off of the main patio), and the acorns were not removed from the front lawn. Because I know the owner reads these reviews, I will now answer the ?what would you do if you were in my shoes?? question that Krisjan asked during our meeting, for which I didn?t have an immediate answer because I was perplexed as to why it was being asked. First, I would have honored the fixed price quote and apologized for wasting the customer?s time with an in-person meeting as soon as I saw the property and realized that this was simply an employee error. Then, I would have told all of my employees that when there is a request for non-routine work (such as bamboo removal), you should take a work crew leader with you to survey the site before offering a final fixed price. Finally, I would not repeatedly dress down that employee in front of the customer or make the employee apologize multiple times to the customer or constantly try to disclaim the company?s responsibility by citing the employee?s error in judgment or otherwise make the customer witness the berating of the employee for his error. That is unprofessional and uncalled for behavior and was particularly uncomfortable for me to observe. Frankly, the whole process felt like a shakedown. I was presented with the choice of paying more money to get the job completed by Kingstowne Lawn or face contracting with a new vendor for even more money to clean up the mess created by the work that had been done. I would certainly recommend that my friends (and Angie?s List members) be very wary of contracting this company for any type of service since the owner refused to honor the fixed price contract amount and further proceeded to argue that the customer was somehow being unreasonable for trusting the prices quoted by his professional staff.

A very polite gentleman showed up. He asked me what I wanted and I told him that I needed advice about my back yard. He wanted specifics. I pointed out an area in deep shade that had been rid of English ivy and other vines and asked him what could be planted there. He asked me what I wanted, and I said perhaps someting like Hosta. He agreed. I then showed him another other area where a large tree had been taken out, leaving the stump. I'd already made a small oval garden in that area, and asked him what else could be planted there. He asked me if I had any ideas, and I pointed out a butterfly bush that needed more sun. He then suggested moving two butterfly bushes from their curent locations to the tree stump garden area. And that was it. I had expected more general landscape advice about the yard, and perhaps a diagram.

The representative came on time to do a Landscape design and sketch fr my back yard. He was very professional and listened to my goals for the ways I wanted to use the space. He asked me for my budget for the project. He told me that he was very busy and that the best way to reach him was by e-mail. Fine with me since I also work on e-mail. Within a week he returned an estimate and sketch of the project which was set into several phases. I liked the plan but was surprised that the budget fr the whole project was about 3 times the amount that I had given as my project. Perhaps I did not understand the question. In any event, I was interested in the project and e-mailed the representative with some follow up questions. I received no answer from him and since that time have not had time to pursue further. I will probably get some other estimates and then decide if I want to follow up with this estimate.

Everything went very well. The landscape artist came to our house to get an idea of what we wanted and we exchanged emails to confirm the diagram, materials, and costs. The scheduling took a week or two due to the holiday season. The workers did a great job, showed up on time, and installed everything. After the installation we asked for some additional stones and had them correct a few things. The diagram was not a architectural drawing so some of the dimensions were off which lead to a misunderstanding on both parties what the layout of the stepping stones should be. There was also a misunderstanding on our part as to the size and mixture of the stones. We had envisioned small gravel, but they used a mix of small, medium and large stones. The good news is that Kingstown worked with us to correct everything and make us satisfied. They even offered to give us more stepping stones for free. In the end we are very pleased with the quality of work and materials, but we were most pleased by the customer service. To make your experience better make sure you get a clear understanding of the plans and materials being used. I would recommend asking to see a similar installation to ensure you are getting what you want the first time. We used email and pictures but they did not fully paint the whole picture. See the materials first hand and try to visualize how they will look in your set up. Maybe even ask for a rendering. Our job was so small it really didn't justify it but it would have been useful.

Very good with noticable results!

Allen is passionate about plants and clearly has genuine expertise. We also had a consultation regarding a new planting bed and he provided a detailed plan. We had other home improvement projects which took our attention (and money!) so we didn't plant anything before winter came. Allen said he would call during the spring planting season to see if we're ready to proceed.

Update- after the winter, I noticed that one of the plantings had died. I had followed all the care instructions that I found online since no one ever followed up with me after my initial work. It took a little while to get in touch with someone to discuss replacing the plant. When I finally connected with the designer, there was limited communication with scheduling. I actually came home from work one day to find that the plant had been replaced. Fast forward a month- the plant is dying again. I'm not sure if I just really lack a green thumb or if this plant was just not a good fit for the yard. Also, I've noticed that party of the plantings that I had them rip up last year are sprouting a bit. It seems that they didn't fully remove everything that I had requested. Jodie was very respsonsive and sensitive to the fact I wasn't trying to spend a lot of money. The service was completed while I was at work. I was very happy with the look of everything. My only complaint is I never heard from anyone after the service was completed (with the exception of my bill). I was hoping that someone would contact me to see how I liked everything. Overall, I am very happy with the service provided.

The company was very prompt in returning my initial phone call and setting up an appointment to walk my property and discuss the landscaping possibilities. The woman who helped me was very professional and she provided me a sketch within one week, much sooner than I had expected! Unfortunately, the sketch was rather basic and lacked some creativity regarding how to design my awkwardly-shaped front yard. Although I appreciated the timeliness and professionalism of the landscape designer, what she quoted me for the work she had designed was, in my opinion, a little lackluster and overpriced. Unfortunately, I was not able to discuss this with them because Ihad also contracted a different landscape designer at the same time, and the sketch I received from that company was much more to my liking. All in all, a very professional company. Had I not contracted another company at the same time, perhaps I could have worked with Kingstowne to come up with a design that I liked.

I was sent the plan promptly and he followed up twice to answer questions and advise on the best reasons to go with one tree or another. He had excellent suggestions and I followed all of them. We wanted to complete the work ourselves and he was positive about that.

We used a posted special on Angie's List for a Landscaping proposal. First person, came out and submitted a design. We were not happy--probably more my lack of communications of intent--and said so to the owner when he sent an email asking about our experience. The owner asked for another chance, personally came out, interfaced with both my wife and I, and gave us a proposal we liked, so we chose to go with Kingstowne--Krisjan Berzins is the owner's name. Krisjan worked well with my wife and I and addressed our concerns and provided an excellent product. We are pleased with the work.

Alan MacBeth worked with us to get a "dreamsheet" plan together and then to start with a reasonable "first phase" in time for the fall planting season. He assisted use with ARC approval and timely troubleshooted a call back when we realized the back edging had been forgotten by the crew.

Great service! We got some really good advice from Alan. He walked our entire property with us and gave us pointers on all of our options. He provided us a design for our front yard that will work well with some of the limitations of our property. Alan's knowledge about landscape and willingness to be thorough is apparent and I appreciated the flexibility and availability by email.

It was just OK. I'd rather not go further since there was very little interaction.

Contacted Alan at Kingstowne Landscaping via email and managed to set up an appointment - this was quite difficult due to my busy work travel schedule but fortunately Alan was very flexible. The landscaping plans were done in a timely manner and sent via email. Communication was great and allowed my husband to participate in the discussions during his Afghanistan deployment. Although we didn't go ahead with the project at this time due to other more urgent priorities we fully intend to have them do the yard in the future.

They offered a special for $75 do do an estimate on landscaping. I had several items I wanted to have completed. They showed up on time and we discussed my needs. I got the original quote fairly quickly and it was pretty expensive. I asked for a revision and I had to ask twice before it showed up. Both times the costs were higher than other quotes I had received so I took my business elsewhere.

We bought the promotion to get a landscaping design. For this, we got our money's worth. The sales agent contacted us, came out promptly, was friendly and knowledgable, and took a lot of time with us on the visit. I also found the office staff to be incredible friendly and professional when I called to make the appointment. The difficulty arose when trying to get the estimate and sketch back. It took weeks and there were some administrative mix ups that were not being addressed. After finally getting the sketch, I never heard from the sales agent again. Although our transaction was complete, we were quite serious about getting the landscaping planned and finished. Perhaps, he did not sense that we were a viable customer. In fairness, I did not reach out to them. My feeling was that, if I had to reach out so many times to the sales staff at this phase, what would our experience be when the work was underway? Overall, we got what we paid for: The sketch.

Kingstowne does a nice job and is professional.

The consultation was professional and went quite well.