Manthe Lawn Care and Landscape Construction LLC

Description of Work: ..

Description of Work: They were very quick and efficient. Tidy clean up of debris too.

Description of Work: They cleared out all the old landscaping, enlarged the beds, put down weed barrier and mulch. They were a bit later than anticipated, but apologized for the delay. They did great work, were very friendly and helpful. I liked them, and will probably call them again if we have any work in the future.

Description of Work: This is fourth review I have made on Angie's List. This was the second Big Deal I have purchased. | |Unlike the others, this is a difficult review to write. I have very mixed feelings about this experience. | |ORIGINAL "BIG DEAL" AND WORK REQUESTED: |I was looking for a Landscaping Service to remove some dead bushes, weeds and shrubs, clean up several landscaping beds around the yard and re-do the beds with ground barrier and rock.Other landscaping companies had failed to show up for estimate appointments. I had just about given up when I saw the Angie's List Big Deal for 8 hrs. of landscaping work for $299 from Manthe Lawn Care and Landscaping Construction. I purchased this offer on July 22, 2014. | |CONTACT WITH SERVICE PROVIDER TO GET ESTIMATE: |It took a week for me to be contacted. This was on a Tuesday. I was informed that this was their first "Big Deal" with Angie's List and there was some confusion about how the communications flowed between Angie's List, their company and the customer. I could understand this, and wanted to make an appointment for an estimate because the scope of the job was probably larger than 8 hrs and I needed their estimate for material. I was told that I would be contacted by Adam, their site supervisor, who did the job estimates. He would contact me either later Tuesday or on Wednesday. | |Well, when Friday afternoon finally came and went without hearing from Adam, I called their office and left a message asking for a call on Monday. Surprisingly, Adam called a short time later. He had no real excuse for not contacting me during the week. Adam had only one appointment the following week, on Monday. We set up an appointment for Tuesday, after 6:00 P.M. Adam missed this appointment. When I called him after 7:00 P.M., he told me that he had a meeting scheduled on Tuesday that he hadn't know. I told him that his repeated communication failures were unacceptable and that I felt I had already paid an upfront $299 to guarantee the job and that I was being blown off at this time. I was not happy! He agreed to come over, but needed my address. This told me that he had planned to missed my appointment, after he had chosen the date date and time. About 20 minutes later he arrived. I showed and explained what I wanted done. Adam told me that it wasn't a big job, he would be able to fit it in as a filler job. When we discussed the equipment he would be using, he told me that the bucket loader they used had wide tires and would leave hurt the lawn. I asked if I could expect the estimate by Friday. Adam told me that he may have it done by the next morning. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday came and went. When I didn't get the estimate on Friday, during business hours, I had to contact Adam again. After our conversation, I received the estimate on the following Monday. | |THE ESTIMATE: |Over the next several days, several changes were made, by me, due to the cost of one of the types of stone I had originally chosen. Adam had originally told me that the job would be done by himself and one other worker. His estimate listed the labor as the 8 hrs purchased through Angie's List and an addition 4-5 of labor at $50/hr. Upon clarification, Adam told me that the additional time was per man, or approximately 10 hrs beyond the 8 already paid for. When the revised estimate arrived, the cost of one type of stone seemed far more expensive than it should be. I talked with Adam about this. He told me that in addition to the cost of the rock itself, there were costs for the labor of spreading the rock on the beds included in the stone price. We had some discussion about this because he also separately charged out labor on his invoice. He did agree to lower the price $230. We finally settled on an estimate and scheduled the job for the next week. Although the price for materials were adjusted, Adam never revised the labor estimate. | |CONTACT WITH BUSINESS OWNER: |During the time I was going through the estimate process I was frustrated to the point where I felt I had to contact the owner. I called and spoke with Kevin Manthe. He told me that Adam was still learning how to estimate jobs and do more than just crew work. He assured me that Adam did great work and I would be very happy with final job. He told me that they were very busy during this time of the year and that may have contributed to the problem. He also told me that he had really not wanted to offer the "Big Deal" at this time of the year, but Angie's List insisted on it running at this time. | |THE WORK |On Thursday Adam and two workers showed up and started to work. It started to rain within the hour, so they left. The three of them showed up, on time, the next day and went right to work. In the afternoon, they ran out of rock and two of them left to get more. It took over an hour to get back. The job was finished a couple of hours later. The job site was cleaned up and the work did look very good. I can't fault how the beds looked after the job was done. I have received several compliments on the job and some of the neighbors had talked with Adam about doing work in their yards. | |The next time I mowed the lawn, I found that several deep ruts had been made in the lawn by their machinery and the grass had eventually died in these areas. I didn't bother calling the provider. | |BILLING |The final bill listed a total of 21 additional labor hours beyond the 8 purchased through the Big Deal. The estimate originally was for an additional 8 to 10 hrs. This is quite a miss, more than doubling the amount of time, with the $500 additional cost. I couldn't argue the hours, because they were on the site, working, during the time. But the variance from the estimate was disturbing. When the bill was presented, I was informed that if the check was made payable to the owner, Kevin Manthe, I would not have to pay the sales tax. I explained that I would not do this because I believed it was a bad business practice to make a check out to an individual for work done by a company. I had learned long ago that this was not good for the purchaser. Although I have common sense, I'm not a lawyer, I'll let you make your own decision on the whys and hows of this part. | |CONCLUSION |The final job did look good. If i based my review solely on the finished product, I would be happy. I would give this area an A. | |However, I did have a fair amount of frustration for such a simple job. | |CUSTOMER SERVICE COMMUNICATION: During the initial phase. Adam repeatedly failed to contact me about the estimate. If I had not already paid the $299 for the Big Deal, I probably would have run out of patience at this time and stopped calling. Once the estimate was received, Adam greatly improved and I had no further problems with communication from him. I would rate this area a D- or perhaps an F. | |THE ESTIMATE: 1. The overpricing/double labor charge for the second stone. |2. The underestimating of the additional labor needed to complete the job. I could understand a reasonable miss here, it is an estimate. But to go from 8 hrs., maybe 10 hrs.estimated, to 21 hours needed? That's missing it by over 100%. I would rate this area a D-. The offer of not not paying the sales tax I would rate as an F. I guess I'm too honest. | |I have waited a couple of months after the work was done so I could be as detached as possible from any momentary horns or halo feelings.The work was done. It looks good. But the frustrations involved were significant. | |In retrospect, I don't think I'll be a repeat customer. | |

Description of Work: Trimmed the entire front of my mom's landscaping to where it was 4-5 years ago. Cleaned her back sidewalk area spic and span.

Description of Work: Pulled up old edging. Provided black dirt seeded trimmed bushes cleaned up

Description of Work: Rick came out to my home at a time that was convenient for me. He listened to my many questions and took time to thoroughly discuss options and alternatives on various issues, remaining sensitive to my budget concerns. He was very pleasant to work with, not pushy - no pressure. We agreed that I would call when ready to have 2 yards of topsoil delivered to my raised garden planters in the back of my property. Plans to regrade the back yard would remain on hold for a time, while I tried some low cost solutions that Rick suggested to divert water away from the house to keep it from seeping into my basement. I called for the delivery of the topsoil and Rick responded promptly to confirm the date. The truck pulled up on the agreed upon date at 8am just as I was leaving for work. I spoke to the driver for just a moment, but he was courteous and professional. Upon checking the job later that day, I found no signs of damage to the lawn, despite the heavy equipment required to to the job, and everything was just as I had requested. I am very satisfied with the job done and will definitely put this service at the top of my list for future lawn and garden projects.

Description of Work: Manthe Landscaping removed several overgrown stone rimmed planting areas and associated plant material at my house, used the stones to create a more organized planting area, removed leftover stones, brought in topsoil, re-graded, planted grass, and put down mulch.

Description of Work: Ricks Lawn & Garden LLC just came out and gave an estimate for landscaping and yard work in May. The work was for edging that needed to be done around my house and also replanting and planting new plants for me.

Description of Work: I have used the services of Manthe Lawn Care and Landscape Construction, LLC in November 2010. They did a variety of different jobs for me that included fall clean up, removal of trees and laying of some rocks.

Description of Work: They mow our 1.5 acre lawn on a weekly basis. They also take care of our plants and flower beds.

Description of Work: Constructed a retaining wall. Laid patio blocks. Regraded yard, and reseeded.

Description of Work: I had called several landscape places and no one called me back, except Rick. He came out that day and inspected my property. He then called me in a timely manner and described what he could do, and what it would cost me. As soon as the ground was thawed he came out and did the job in less than one day. I had told him I needed the work done ASAP because I was selling my house and the front looked terrible! His response time was absolutely incredible.

Description of Work: They removed some bushes for me.