OLM Landscape Group

We called them, they accepted the request to give us an estimate. They even showed up onsite and looked at the retaining wall. 1 week later we call, where is our bid we ask? The lady on the phone was confused, her guy went out insight. She would contact him immediately. Another week, nothing!!! They put us behind 2 weeks waiting to get a job done. Thankfully we found another company and they were actually interested in working and supplying us with a bid. And they were onsite within a few days working. I do not like being jerked around. OLM's behavior was rude, unprofessional and I would never recommend them to anyone. It has now been 3 weeks and they still never ever called us back or ever sent us a bid. Not that I need it! Thanks for nothing!

Overall, the weekly landscape maintenance crew does a good job. They mow, edge, and keep the beds raked free of weeds. It took 2 or 3 visits before they settled into a regular weekly schedule -- once they got my property on a good schedule, they have been very reliable about coming each week, on the same day. They typically leave a note each time they visit, checking off the services they performed that day. Occasionally the visit day may be off by one or two days, either because of a holiday, or very bad weather. But overall, I have been satisfied with the mowing and edging work they do. This firm also installed a backflow device on my in-ground irrigation system. It was a bit tricky, as the system was installed by a prior homeowner without a backflow device, so they had to do some diagnosis and then the install. I thought they did a very professional job -- they obtained the proper permits, and completed the job in a timely and neat fashion. No problems since. The backflow installation was about $800 with tax. This company does have some issues, however, with communication. At times requests for a special service or with service issues such my requests that they do, or do not, do certain tasks, seem to not make it through to the weekly crew. I'm not sure why. They do want customers on an annual contract for maintenance services, and I have found them a little difficult to deal with in getting to satisfactory terms. The biggest issue I have had with their crews is in getting them to keep to the fertilization schedule they promise. It has been glitchy, with me having to make repeated requests for them to get this part of the services done. I will say that in the past I've fired landscape companies pretty fast, as it's a business that tends to have unreliable providers. OLM's mowing crew is better than many.

We contracted Hal to put a fence around our property. He estimated the above mentioned price. We walked the entire line that we wanted fenced down the hillside from the house and 10' back from the street. Of the three estimates we got his was the lowest (we assumed because he was already doing monthly landscape maintenance contract on the property). The estimate was to include a 4' gate to the right of the house and a 12' gate to the left. When Hal's workers came and started construction we noticed right away that they weren't making any kind of gate to the right of the house and only a 4' gate to the left - meaning no vehicles could come into the back yard for delivery of construction materials or equipment for future projects. When my wife tried to ask the workers about the discrepancy none of them spoke english. My wife called OLM/Hal to ask about this, and remind him about the agreed gates and he proceeded to BERATE and YELL at my wife! He yelled at her; "YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THAT'S GOING TO COST ME?!? YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT! " When I called about this he proceeded to yell at ME! I was very calm. I explained that he and I had discussed this on multiple occasions - how much fencing, the area to cover and the gates. And that we could either come to some type of agreement or I would see him in court about it. At that point he calmed down and said "OK.. look.. I just can't do that for the estimate I gave you, I'm sorry". I then continued and said "Hal, you will never raise your voice at me on this or any other subject again. Not when we're talking about *my* money. And you and I better come to an agreement on what you're going to do *right now* or I will never pay you". We agreed to a single 4' gate to the left of the garage. After all was said and done Hal had the gaul to try to charge my credit card TWICE for the work...! A month later when his crew came in to do monthly landscape work they BROKE the gate. When my wife called Hal and complained he said "How do I know it was my crew??" I called him and calibrated him on that subject as well - the next day a half-baked repair was done. The gate ended up falling apart and I rebuilt it myself. In early 2009 I terminated his monthly yard maintenance contract as well. Now here we are, four years later and the fence is falling apart. The vertical posts he put in are twisting and tearing out the crossbeams that hold the fencing. I know fences require maintenance and repair over time but I expected better workmanship and professionalism from him.