Wheat's Landscape

This company has failed at every level even after charging me roughly 40% more than the estimates I've been given by the more reliable landscaping firms used by my neighbors. DO NOT HIRE WHEAT'S. I have been trying to get the irrigation system they installed to function since early spring. All these months later, I am still using a manual sprinkler system to keep my flower beds and lawn alive. Wheat's has never once acknowledged their failures or apologized to me. They have sent technicians to fix the problems, but somehow, they never manage to do so. Not only will I never use them again, I strongly recommend against others hiring them.

Wheats Landscaping may be the worst vendor I have had the displeasure to work with. They were expensive, did bad quality work, and tried to overcharge us by thousands of dollars when we terminated our contract with them to switch to another company – who has done a far better job, for literally half the price. We initially decided to go with Wheats because that’s who the previous owners of our home used, and we weren’t familiar with any landscaping services in the McLean area. When I talked to them, I asked if we could pay for just the specific services we wanted, and I was told that Wheats does not do a la carte pricing but instead only does a “full-service” model where they handle everything. They offered us a contract with an $1,151.88 monthly price. We were disappointed by the service we received, especially for the price. The pruning was inconsistent, and several areas and bushes got noticeably overgrown. People came by to remove fallen sticks, but they did not “dispose” of them as per the contract but instead started piling them up in several parts of our property (making it harder to use those areas). For the price we were paying, I expected to be completely satisfied with the landscaping services we received; we were not. We’ve since switched to another landscaping company who charges a far lower price and whose work we’re much happier with, so I don’t think my expectations were unreasonable. Then we get to the most egregious part in my opinion. Per the contract, we sent Wheats written notice that we were terminating our contract effective in 30 days. At the end of that time period, they sent us an invoice claiming that we actually owed them another $2,831.00 in addition to the monthly payments we had already made. The invoice claimed that we owed more than double the expected amount for the total contract. I sent an email requesting an explanation for the invoice. I received a call, during which the person I spoke to from Wheats claimed that when they receive a notice of early cancellation, they convert the entire contract to a “per job” pricing model, add up the amounts based on the “per job” pricing costs they (unilaterally) assign (which are nowhere in the contract), and then determine whether additional money is owed. As justification, he pointed to the language in the contract regarding early cancellation: “If this Agreement is terminated prior to the expiration of 12 months of service, the Client shall remain responsible for all services provided by Wheat’s prior to cancellation.” I agree that I’m not entitled to a full refund for all the money paid under the contract, but the contract doesn’t say anything about converting the pricing to a per job model in the event of an early cancellation. Nor does it include anything about what the “per job cost” would be for any of the services involved. On the invoice, they also improperly backdated the contract to start on May 1, 2022, when we didn’t sign the contract until May 9, 2022, which strikes me as another way they’re trying to overcharge us. I think this is an unethical and completely unjustifiable cash grab that has no basis in the contract, and I’ve told them as much. We only signed the contract because they told us upfront that we could cancel at any time with 30 days’ notice and we understood from our discussions and the terms of the contract itself that our only obligation would be the monthly amount. For them to do a bait and switch after the contract ends by trying to more than double the amount owed to an undisclosed, per service model using prices that were never agreed to is indefensible. As part of this review, I’ve attached copies of the contract and the invoice I received with my personal identifying information redacted.

Every aspect of the engagement was first class - from initial consultation with the designer, Kevin Murray, to completion of the work by what I would consider a very professional crew. Kevin was available to me and to the crew while the work was in progress. The design (a dry creek bed, stone steps, etc.) was faithfully executed, neatly and beautifully finished. We are very satisfied with the transformation of our backyard..

The company over promised and under delivered in maintaining our yard. Despite a clearly detailed contract and expectations set with the account manager, their yard crews performed absolutely the minimum amount of work. I often had to clean up after them. They would demand excessive fees for any additional work. Borderline fraudulent, stay away from this company. BBB should consider investigating their business

Terrible.. I called to get an estimate on landscape work. After I gave my address in Arlington, VA ( south arlington) she said they don't service that area. Sounds suspicious to me.

The staff who mowed and trimmed and who applied herbicides and fertilizers were dependable and did an excellent job. One issue is that Wheat's became complacent over time and the account manager failed to ensure that special instructions for leaf removal, etc., were properly followed. Because it seemed like the account manager was not going to become more responsive, I moved my business to another company.

I used their landscaping designer for a redesign of our backyard. The designer was great and easy to work with. Since then, I have nothing but issues with responsiveness of their customer service people regarding lawn care and maintenance of some of the shrubs and plantings they installed. Their personnel constantly turn over and I have had 4 main contacts in 3 years. They take many days to return phone calls, and everytime I point out a problem they immediately try to sell me additional services to repair their original mistakes. No one seems accountable there, and I would definitely not recommend them for high end homes in Maryland. They seem to take care of their Virginia clients, but awful crossing the river.

Although Wheats does a great job with cutting grass and blowing away debris, it's also great at destroying my flowers and shrubbery. Even though I reached out to them on numerous occasions to discuss the matter, they never responded. Even after I cancelled their service, they still billed me for the next month. Had to show up to their office, in person, to get any resolution.

I submitted an online form on Wheat's website, requesting they come to my property to provide an estimate. They had performed some work on my yard a few years ago and did a decent job, plus they are located around the corner, so I thought I'd try them again. They never responded to my online inquiry so I called their main number. A polite agent took down my information but indicated no "scheduler" was available at that moment, so they would get back to me with a time. No one ever got back to me. I see their trucks everywhere in the area so it seems they are simply too busy to deal with small jobs and pay attention to minor inquiries in the area.

They are excellent. They do everything. They are great. They are probably one of the best in the area. The guy who starts Wheat's just started doing lawns. He never went to college and he built it into a business. he does landscaping in the town we are in and he has a sign up. I have to say, there is so much opportunities. He just started from doing neighbors lawns and he is excellent. People are very happy with his work. Really nice family too. They are very very good. Price is reasonable for what they do. I would use them again.

Same as above .... it did not go at all well.

Great. We were very happy with the results and price. The workers were a pleasure to work with throughout the entire experience.

Wheats has met all of our expectations for taking care of all aspects of our yard care...clean-up, mulching, deer spray, mowing, planting, lawn care, etc....they are excellent

Terribly. It took until last summer to have the clean-up work completed. The sod had to be replaced because it died the first time, and the tree they moved died!

They may be the best, but they are very expensive. I am usually price insensitive for the best, but we are talking grass and landscaping and you can get very good for much less

Wheats works on the lawn across the street twice a week. Because I have a baby that wakes up the second they start (though sleeps peacefully through the leaf blowers used by our own gardeners, and those of our left and right neighbors), I called Wheats and asked them if they could either change leaf blower brands or adjust the time they serviced the home on our street. They said the quieter leaf blowers were too expensive but yes, they would be happy to change the time. Then, lo and behold, they showed up at the exact same time they always had and have continued to since. I called them twice more--even speaking to the manager--and while they were somewhat agreeable on the phone, they never made any adjustment or accomodation. I am not the only one who thinks their leafblowers are exceptionally loud. My housekeeper and other neighbors have noticed the same. I would be embarassed to have these guys blaring their leaf blowers in my yard annoying all my neighbors. I use another service for our own large yard that is a fraction of the cost and much, much quieter. Plus, my guys send multiple workers to do the big jobs so the duration of the noise is shorter. Wheat's only sends two guys who take about 45 minutes with my neighbor's yard. It's painful. Plus, my neighbor's lawn, which was formerly lush and beautiful, looks like it is dying in parts since they started using Wheats last year. For the good of your family, neighbors, and lawn, you would be wise to choose another landscaper.

Over the last 2 yrs, Wheat's has provided various services: lawn treatment, fall clear-up, insect and disease control for shrubs, pruning, and landscaping. The whole team is very professional, keeping exactly to the agreed schedule and carrying out the various services very efficiently. Unfortunately, they over-pruned my camellia, which has now failed to bloom and some branches have died. However, they have taken remedial action without any charge and it now appears to be recovering well. Overall I am pleased with their work and am continuing to use them on a regular basis.

We discontinued with our service with them. I live in a 3 acre property and I live in a fancy neighborhood so my lawn needs to be manicured and well maintained. Their customer service was great but their delivery was not so great. The reason why we discontinues our contract with them, we have a very big house and our lawn was never good on the up keep but the front of the house where we have plants and that is where Wheat?s landscape did a horrible job. Everything died and their recommendation on what we should plant was horrible. I will not recommend them people and I have friends who have used them and ended up cancelling their contract with them as well. The bottom line is we spent $30000 for this and it still look not good. So they were not great. When they did the surface around our pool, they got a sub contractor which they never told us about that. The sub contractors did a horrible job that we had them re-do it. My husband and I are the nicest people but we were just not satisfied. Some tiles were coming up and there was something not right about the job. They were very nice but I will not recommend them.

I have used them a couple times in the past. They do a good job. I would definitely use them again in the future. I would absolutely recommend them to anyone.

Wheat's clean up service put our garden in fresh form to allow us to attend to the neglected plantings and flower beds. We were so delighted with results and Wheat's accommodation of special requests, that we saw our garden with new eyes. After clean out--our garden was nominated for local garden of the year and we were inspired to put some effort into sprucing up. Our garden was one ot those chosen in the judging. Thanks to the hard work of Wheat's team.

The first year the service was great and our rep was fantastic. It's quite possible that he was in our yard more than I was! He was always checking in and catching issues from their crew's work before I would. He definitely understand customer service and was exceptionally responsive. I'm a hard guy to please and my wife thought I'd found a new best friend! Sadly, he retired. The new rep is really nice and friendly, but as a young guy he's probably new to the space and probably overwhelmed with taking on the territory of an old hand. I'm now routinely finding major issues with the service (they don't seem to be catching the mistakes anymore) and response time has gone from hours to days. I would gladly move to a different service (Wheat's is definitely not the cheapest option) to get the old level of service back, but in talking to neighbors the consensus seems to be that they're still one of the best around.

We called this company requesting a quote for some work we wanted done. They said they normally don't do work outside of McLean, but would make an exception and come to Reston until they learned we have a smaller lot. I guess they weren't going to make enough money on us so it wasn't worth it. I was disgusted as we were in a rental house previously where they did a lot of the work. It just showed me it is all about the money for them.

Update on the review. I have since been contacted by the GM. While the call does not change the facts associated with my personal experience, I do feel as if the level of my frustration was not recognized by Wheat's senior management and had it been known, may have been adequately addressed. The apology given certainly seemed sincere and it was obvious he had done his homework about my account prior to calling. Given better communication and responsiveness I sure several of my complaints would have been mitigated. Original Review : Awful Experience - start to finish. I hired Wheat's to perform yard and lawn maintenance for one year. The service was to be all- inclusive. It was not done well and repeated calls and requests for correction were almost never answered until my 4th or 5th call. Promises of having someone and quot;In Chargeand quot; return my call were also not kept. The only time I had a direct response was when I physically went to their office on Park Street with my I-Pad filled with photos of their shoddy work. I was treated rudely by the receptionist and encouraged to leave - several times - before an office manager(?) from 'upstairs' deigned to come down to speak with me. She was appalled by the work (or lack thereof) and did have an 'deficiency appointment' scheduled to correct the situation. (BTW : it should tell you something when they have a name for this type of appointment already in their vernacular.) Unfortunately, this was a one time fix. This service NEVER, NEVER lived up to the promise or the price and there was no-one in a management position that ever bothered to reach out to me to discuss the situation or offer to remedy the problem. I have contracted with another firm for the next year, but was amused by the quote I received from Wheat's for renewal. The price had been increased by more that 30% to perform the same work on less of the areas covered the pervious year. It was detailed to me in the cover letter that this was not an increase, but the price necessary to perform the work they had said they would do the prior year - but this time for real. Unbelievable!

We have used Wheat's for several years. This year was pretty poor service on their part -- after the system was turned on in the Spring, we had way too high water pressure, water hitting front door and windows. We had another tech come out, was OK for a while but then water was not covering all of the yard and sprinklers needed readjusting again for a second time. Called Wheat's several times, talked to 3 people including a scheduler and account manager and was told someone would call to schedule another service (at my expense despite the fact that the service does not appear to have been done correctly both times this year) but no one ever called. Failure to return calls is a systematic problem with Wheat's. Very poor customer service. Will not use them again.Found another local company that is cheaper and responsive, so I will use them instead.

We had several visits from Zach to discuss exactly what we wanted. We made several changes that he gladly accommodated and came up with his own suggestions. As a result of this planning and the excellent work of his crew, the garden looks so much better. They worked hard all day and did a great job. Zach came and went, and returned the following day to check on the quality of the work. I am very pleased and am now using them for regular lawn treatment and shrub management.