GROUNDS MAINTENANCE PLUS

On May 30, after 3+ months and 30+ emails back and forth, he finally gave me the $80. During that time, I got nothing but excuse after excuse about why he didn't have the $80. I finally had to give him an ultimatum -- $80 that day or $201 the next day as I was taking him to court. Only then did he come up with the money. I sincerely believe this vendor signs contracts and never looks at them again. Either that or he sends friends out to do the work but neglects to tell them what is contracted at a given location. I believe my grades on this review are far more than fair. I don't want anyone to think his service and professionalism have improved since 2007. Yes, we settled our issue with the price for the calcium chloride, but not without many many hours of fruitless emails and endless excuses. I feel folks who only want a small area snowblown - you might hire him. But if you want plowing or good clean-up or ice melt/removal -- GO ELSEWHERE!

Josh came around the neighborhood offering snow removal/landscape services. He is a very presentable young man, seemed eager to prove his small business, and presented professional materials. We wanted to support a young, local entrepreneur. He would only take money in advance and the check had to be made out to him, not Grounds Maintenance - we paid for 12 snow removal visits including salting for every visit. At the first snow, he and his crew were prompt, removing it well before our 6:30 am request time. They were, however, a little sloppy - trapping the refuse carts in, not clearing off the refuse carts, and not completely finishing the width at the end of the driveway. These were things that a little observation and common sense would show that something was 'missed'. After that, their timing was a little later and they had to be called back to better finish the job. It was irritating that they didn't know how to do a really good job, despite promising all of the 'finese' we asked for. Also, when we had a very heavy snow, they charged for 4 visits to remove 10.5" over the course of two visits. We thought that to be excessive. Josh appeared to be responsive and professional, but underneath we found him to be lacking in the extra touches that he promised and then failed to deliver; that he didn't really see the 'full' service he could provide. When, at the end, we tried to settle up the last 1/2 visit, I mentioned that we paid for 12 ice melt applications when only 2 were applied. Josh refused to adjust the last settlement accordingly. He is young and lacking in experience. The disheartening aspect was that he didn't seem to really care about 'going the distance' for the customer.