Manzano Landscaping

I contacted provider on 5/23, he responded same day asking address, when could he come by to give free estimate and what needed to be done. I responded back to him with the requested information and even included my telephone number. On 5/27 i sent him another message asking if he had gotten my response. I still have not heard from him and I notified him today using same message chain, that he obviously did not want my business, but a reply would have been appropriate. I have now lost a week of trying to find someone.

I have a very, very large front yard and side yards completely surrounded and partially occupied by trees over 100 feet tall. The leaves they generate each fall continue to accumulate until well after Thanksgiving. In fact, the entire neighborhood is in the same situation and in addition we all accumulate even more leaves from the surrounding woods. This creates a significant leaf removal problem that needs to be addressed annually. For some years my solution has been Manzano Landscaping. I have emailed Alex Manzano annually for leaf removal and have been extremely pleased with the results. I have always had a rapid response from Alex to my annual email and have had substantially the same crew handle the work every year. They appear to have worked together for years in that there is no wasted motion and there is a high degree of coordination as they work. I have always been very pleased with the crew's efforts and their thoroughness. They have always been aware of the scope of the work to be accomplished and had the skills and motivation to follow through with great efficiency .They always arrive with the necessary equipment and have it available when needed to remain productive, again, without a minute wasted. The crew is polite, cordial, responsive and a pleasure to speak with if a question arises. This April the crew completed leaf removal as usual and the grass is coming in completely free of leaves. I anticipate many more contacts with Manzano Landscaping. These leaves just aren't going away by themselves.

They were supposed to come out on the 3rd of May to trim bushes. There were several phases of the project. I think he was unhappy that he couldn't come do a one time thing. He was charging $2000 for everything. He would never return calls and then I would get an email randomly at night. I told him I wanted him to come on the 12th, he said he would be out the 19th. I couldn't do that because I had power washers coming that day. He came and he didn't have the right equipment. He was aggressive the first time I spoke with him.

Spring trimming was fairly good although trimming azaleas in Spring means less blossoms. My one species of Yew shrub was given a haircut...which should not be done to Yew trees, as a garden-center employee/customer for almost 15 years, i learned this lesson the hard way. I wont argue with specialists but I know my Yew tree is not in good shape after the "haircut" The trimming was done in one day much to my satisfaction even aside the issues ( which are very minor). I was happy to pay for their services. I have a Zyosia Lawn which did not green up till about the 8th -12th of April. I reminded Alex and Co. that I needed to be mowed and he was " backed up" and they would get to me. They did eventually mow the lawn ( Sunday 27th ) and string trim on Sunday, which was quite unexpected. Not been mowed since then. After various enquiries I'm told again " we are backed up" and that " I won't be able to mow again until next week, so I completely understand if you need to find someone else to do your mowing." The guy is a gentleman on the phone, and really was trying not to be an a** but ...come on. This is NOT the way you win over customers. A different Lawn company said they would happily mow my lawn, ( charging me extra for the long grass) so based on what was told me I have cancelled my contract. No hard feelings I wish them only the best but clearly they need some qualified people to help Manzano landscaping out.

The representative was very prompt in getting a quote to me and scheduling service. They did work in advance without payment - and then I dropped a check in the mail. That's unusual and I appreciated the trust. The first time the crew came out, they ran out of mulch. I called a few days later and the crew came back and remulched a number of areas to thicken up the beds. Impressive, not even a problem with that. I mentioned that I was somewhat dissatisfied with the weed pulling before the mulching and they offered to spread weed pellets at no charge. Wow. The price was excellent, the yard is large and has a lot of areas to mulch. Excellent, I'll be calling them this fall!

First called Alex by phone listed on Angie's list. Spoke with Alex on 4/11/14 and explained the services I was looking for. I was hoping for same day service. He indicated he had availability between 11-1pm but I needed to email his yahoo address so his secretary could route the job to him. I proceeded with the email and never heard nothing at all. No email response, no call back and it's been 8 days. This is extremely unprofessional and I totally wasted my time. I would never use this service ever and would not recommend it to anyone.

Request was sent 3/20/14 and Alex responded the same day and said he would be out the next day to look at my property and get back to me with an estimate. He was a no-show (I have 24 hour surveillance cameras so I know). On Sat, 3/22 I sent him an email inquiry. On Sun, 3/23 he replied with an apology and said he was in the field, but would be out on Mon or Tue. The next day (Mon, 3/24) we had snow so obviously there was no way for him to get a good look at the work areas, which is completely understandable. He did not contact me again until Thurs, 3/27. Apparently there was still too much snow on the ground so he said he'd be out the next day (Fri, 3/28)--and he did at about 10:20am. The snow had melted by then. I waited for over a week to receive his estimate before making another email inquiry (on Fri, 4/4). He responded quickly and gave the same excuse--too much snow on the ground, which was completely false. It became clear to me that he was not interested in my business so I told him I would find a company that was. Even if he had given me an estimate (2+ weeks after asking for it), I was not confident he would do the work when promised. He was very polite and apologetic, but when you say you're going to do something for a customer you do it, not make excuses.

The contractor did a very good job with a spring yard cleanup prior to putting my house on the market. This included weeding out the beds, removing all the leaves and dead branches, trimming the shrubs and putting down new mulch.

I called Manzano Landscaping after completing a bunch of research on Angie's List. As the Super Service Award winner for 2013, I expected great things. I called Alex Manzano (the owner) on Monday 3/10/14. He asked me to visit his website to fill out a quote request. Alex stated Manzano Landscaping does quoting on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings and he'd be happy to provide me a quote the following day, or Wednesday at the latest. I didn't hear from him Monday evening to confirm for Tuesday, so I assumed Alex would visit on Wednesday. I still didn't hear back by Tuesday (3/11/14) afternoon, so I proactively called a 2nd time to confirm for Wednesday. I spoke with Alex directly again and he said he'd be out on Wednesday (3/12/14) between 8-9am. I arranged to arrive late to work the following day to await my appointment. 8am came and went. 9am came and went. At 10am, I called Alex again, but reached his voicemail. I left a message to ask if he still planned to come out and if not, please let me know so I could get back to work. Alex left me hanging all day and NEVER called me back. The project I needed to complete was brought on by the city inspector, so I was in a time crunch to get quoted and completed. I ended up calling a different landscaping company that came same day to provide a quote and was forced to use a personal day at work. Needless to say, I won't be using Manzano Landscaping and I have no idea how they won a Super Service Award. My project is going to end up costing $20,000+, so I guess Manzano is doing well enough to where they don't my money, or anyone else's. As an employee of another Angie's List 3 time Super Service Award winning company, I would highly recommend looking at other landscaping companies. Manzano waters down the award for great companies who really deserve such kudos.

On Dec 1st, 2013, we contacted Alex Manzano via email requesting the leaves be cleaned up and our gutters cleaned out even though we have gutter guards. Our records showed that we had used Manzano Landscaping previously for fall leaf cleanup work. We received an email response that very same night saying he would stop by to see the property and provide an estimate. The next day, Alex emailed us saying he did not do our job before, but he offered us a quote of $350 including hauling & disposal. We have a cancelled check written to Alex Manzano on Jan 2, 2013 for $280. Perhaps that should have been our first clue of what was to come. On Dec 3rd, we accepted that quote if it included the roof as well and asked if he provided a gutter cleaning service also. On Dec 5th, I emailed Alex asking him to please take care of the leaves, including hauling & disposal and just let me know about the roof and gutters. On Dec 6th, Alex emailed me saying rain was forecasted for the weekend and Monday so he would schedule our job as soon as possible, but that he would have to take another look at the roof and gutters and give us a price for that. He asked if the cell phone number he had was the best way to reach us. I told him it was and thanked him. On Dec 11th, Alex emailed us to let us know he had not forgotten about us and said we will reschedule as soon as the snow melts. I responded with ?Thanks Alex?. On Dec 17th, Alex emailed me asking if the snow in our yard had melted yet and that he was tentatively scheduling us for this Sunday (12/22). On Dec 18th, I responded saying that the snow was gone and thanked him for staying in touch. On Dec 21st, I received an email from Alex stating that our job was scheduled for tomorrow but one of his guys was out sick and jobs were backed up so he was going to have to reschedule. He apologized and said he would keep us posted. I told him I understood and to just keep me posted. On the night of Jan 7th, 2014, Alex emailed to let me know they were planning to do our job the next day and that he would call or talk to me when he was here regarding the quote for the gutters. He thanked me for our patience. The next morning, I emailed him back to let him know that we were doing some remodeling inside so there may be one or more trucks in the driveway, but he could park on the road if necessary. On Jan 8th, Alex did some leaf blowing but we did not ?connect? to discuss the gutters. However, that night Alex emailed me to say they would be back the next day to collect the leaves and the gutters would be an additional $80. Early the next morning, I emailed accepting that quote and thanking him. Despite that fact that it took about six weeks from initial contact to get the job done, I cannot fault Alex Manzano for delays due to weather or other factors not within his control and I sincerely appreciated that he kept in touch via email to keep us posted on the situation. However, it was at this point that things went seriously down hill. We had what looked like small trees growing out of our gutter in the back of our house. That?s how we knew that the gutters needed to be cleaned out despite the ?guards? that were installed and why we asked Alex to do it. When Alex came to the door to announce that he was finished, I was not sure what the quote for the leaf job was, so he reminded me saying that it was $380 for the leaves plus $80 for the gutters. I took his word for that and I did not walk around the yard at that point to review the work because the weather was nasty, I had contractors working inside the house, and, quite frankly, I trusted that he had done a good job. So I gave him a check for $460. And then I asked him if he got out the trees growing in the gutter?thinking that we were going to have a good laugh over it. But, much to my surprise, he said, ?No.? As surprising as that was, what followed was even more alarming. When I asked him why not, he said he didn?t know if we wanted them removed because some people like to leave them because they like the way they look. (Of course, he could have asked me!) I was astounded and all I could say was, ?Really?? He said he would come back ?next week? to finish cleaning out the gutters. Then I checked previous emails and realized the original quote for the leaf removal was $350 vs $380? so, bottom line, we were overcharged $30 + $80 for a total of $110. It gets worse. I relayed all this to my husband who walked around outside and said the leaf removal job was poorly done. When I walked around outside the next day, I had to agree. We waited to see if Alex would at least realize he overcharged us and contact us to mitigate the situation by returning $30 and actually clean out the gutters as he promised, but that never happened. So, my husband called him to express his disappointment with the work and the fact that we were overcharged. Alex did not offer to refund the overcharges and his excuses were indefensible in our opinion; e.g., some people like things growing out of their gutters. At that, my husband told him we were done and we would not be calling on him for future work.

Service was great. He was very prompt and reliable.

Alex was really great and professional! He came out and looked at the yard and quoted a price. We shook on the deal and he was out the next day with his crew! They made quick work of the leaves and took them away. My yard looked absolutely fantastic when finished! Look forward to using Alex this coming spring for regular lawn maintenance!

Alex was very responsive in providing an estimate for the work. He was reasonably priced and did an excellent job. I would highly recommend him to anyone. This is the second time I have used him for yard work, and I plan on continuing to use him for future work.

They were punctual and responsive - at first. Then, my husband called them again for follow up service and no one ever returned our call. That is our only issue - otherwise we would have continued using them.

Cleaned yard, trimmed bushes, mowed yard.

Started out by contacting the company on Friday late afternoon, 10/18/13 by telephone and then completed the "Request an Estimate" from the company's web site. The impression I received by the telephone conversation is that someone would be out on Monday. When no one showed up on Monday, I followed up with an email asking an update when someone would be able to come out and give me an estimate. I finally received an email response on Wednesday, 10/23/13 to say " I apologize for the delay in getting back to you. I got backed up on a big job over the weekend and have been behind on checking emails. I am doing estimates tomorrow, so I can stop by then to take a look at your property and get back to you with a quote." Well, Thursday passed and no phone call or email with an estimate (not even left at the door) so on Friday morning, 10/25/13, I had a telephone conversation that I should receive my estimate shortly. Again, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday passed and no email with an estimate. On Monday, 10/28/13, I sent another email and no response so on Tuesday evening, I had a short telephone conversaton (long enough to give my name and address) before I was disconnected (no contact from the company). It has been 3 weeks so I have decided to move on and find another contractor!

The work was completed as scheduled; they did a fantastic job.

I can only say good things about this company. Alex came the same day that I called and gave what I thought was a reasonable estimate. I had ivy and weeds growing along the sides of the house, underneath the azaleas and rhododendrons and ivy growing all along my back fence. I knew that it was not easy work and Alex's estimate seemed reasonable so, I decided to give the work to him. Although I had called other companies the same day, I didn't get an estimate from them til after I had asked Alex to proceed with the work. Once I saw the other estimates, I realized that Alex's rate was really reasonable. He came about a week later when I wasn't home and completed the work. He did a wonderful job and called during the work to see if I wanted the ivy removed from the neighbor's side which to me exceeded what I had asked for but his willingness to do that was nice. I asked him to remove some stacked pavers from the side of the house to the back and he even did that and didn't charge me any extra fees. They also removed the weeds from the yard and cleaned up around the areas. I am very happy to report that I have found a company that I will use for my future yard work and highly recommend him and his company. Thank you for doing such a great job !

I had used their services before. I liked the fact that they were able to complete the work in a day. They did a good job and my wife was happy. I am planning on using their service next year.

They were very good and had some good ideas and it has really worked out well. They really knew what they were doing and how the drain system works. The solution has been working out well for us in this area. Their prices were very reasonable. He did everything he was supposed to do. We would definitely use their services again.

I felt they had good pricing and the quality of the work was OK but it seemed like it took them awhile to complete the work.

They did a great job cleaning out the flower beds and laying down and delivering the mulch. It was just not a very high quality mulch. It was also frustrating because his truck kept breaking down and he had indicated he was going to have a huge truckload of mulch of delivered. They didn’t let us know that they weren't coming with a large delivery of mulch. Their prices were cheaper or comparable to others. We would definitely use them ago to clean out the flower beds but we would have our own mulch brought in.

Alex was very responsive throughout the process. From coordinating an time to come out for an estimate to responding to inquiries, he always responded in a timely manner. Additionally, he and his team worked efficiently and effectively in the hot summer sun. What would have taken me days to complete literally took them a couple of hours. No matter what was asked, they were willing to do it. As mentioned above, Alex and team, cleared grass to make a mulch bed in which he planted 5 crepe myrtles. The trees are doing very well and the bed looks great. My only negative comment is that I don't think enough mulch was put down, but I never went back to Alex to question it. All-in-all, we are very happy with all of the work that was done. It looks great, and we have received MANY complements from neighbors and people just walking by. We love the work that Alex and his team completed and would definitely have them back for future projects.

The service was great and the prices were very reasonable. We had received several bids and theirs was the most reasonable. They were on-time, professional and fast.

Mr. Manzano had some vehicle issues the day of service but he was upfront about them when I called to check on time of arrival, which had not been established beforehand. Once his crew arrived, they worked (he with them for much of the time) withoout stopping for four and a half hours. Mr. Manzano checked with me several times as to height of the bush trimming and agreed for a nominal additional charge to haul away some branches underneath the undergrowth. We also did a visual inspection together upon completion. All in all, working with him was easy and beneficial to us both, I believe.