ComplaintsforWilson's Landscaping & Lawn Service Inc

• Initial Complaint

  08/09/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I contracted with Wilson's Landscaping to purchase and install 23 shrubs and trees on April 18th, 2022. They put off installing until June 15th. While they were here on a 100 degree day I offered them the hose (to properly moisten the holes for the new plants) twice and they refused. They didn't use a single drop of water. They instructed me not to water them until evening. The next evening the spruce fell over and I emailed the project manager(****) very early the next morning and he said they would not come until Monday to fix it. My lawn guy tried to replant it as best he could so I told **** and got no response. By the 23rd some things started looking like they were dying so I rolled out on the grass in my wheelchair (not safe and very painful) to realize that a lot of the plants had not been backfilled at all and two other arborvitae were dead and 4 others were shrinking and starting to turn brown. Immediately wrote to **** (3 times over several days) and got no response and then after sending a message to the mail email finally on the 29th he said someone would come on the 30th. They finally filled the dirt in(with more claylike soil causing it to dry out even faster) and the other stuff recovered, but they 'didn't want to do anything yet about the dead ones'. After much research (****** **********/Various Landscaping Companies) it's very assured that transplant shock caused 7 out of 10 (so far) to die and two more are struggling. As supposed experts, they should have known not to plant during a heat wave (that still hasn't really stopped), they should have used lots of water and backfill to prevent the transplant shock. Now they are saying that they don't have warranties on plants. I am certain that the poor quality of work killed the plants, therefore they should replace the ones they killed. Part of the total cost was for competent installation, I did not get what I paid for. I have security video, but it's too big to send. Pics only.

  

  Business response

  08/12/2022

  Please see our response below in yellow. 

   

  (The crew ALWAYS waters in plants prior to leaving jobs.  Customer was told to water that evening as we had watered before we left the job site.  In fact the hose she had to bring through the window for the guys.  To water the two spruces in the back the crew had to move the hose and open a little box in the ground to access the water in the back.  As *** **** stated below she did not water again until the 23^rd – 8 days after installation.  The spruces were not watered on a regular basis per ** ***** statement below.   ** **** also asked the crew for the watering schedule.  ** **** was told twice a day, once in the early morning and once in the evening. 

    

  We did not “put off’ the job. *** **** was told it would be weeks due to backlogged work, as Spring and Summer are our busy months.  ** **** was told we would try to squeeze her in earlier in the lineup because she was begging for us to come out. (to stop people walking through her yard.)

  There were also several phones calls *** **** made asking if we could come out sooner, if she could be pushed up on the list. 

    

  The spruce fell over in a storm with extreme straight line winds. The Crew was on another job that was planned for that day and they were already onsite. Offered to have someone come out Monday earliest possible time and straighten. She told me her lawn guy fixed it over the weekend, and we didn’t need to come out.

   

  (*** ****, as stated above, she did not water the shrubs/plants until 8 days after install.  Why did *** **** wait a week to water them after they were installed when she was instructed to water them twice a day everyday?   Not watering them on a regular basis would cause them to struggle and eventually die. 

  We have installed close to 100 plants this season alone.  And probably 30 plus arborvitae this year.  Not a single one has died.  ** **** is the only customer with a dead plant, much less multiple dead plants.  This is due to lack of watering which new plants need on a regular basis. 

   

   (** **** was informed that there is no warranty as well as in writing on her invoice.  Once they are installed it is the customers responsibility to water and care for the plants, trees and shrubs.  Suppliers also do not warranty plants, trees or shrubs, as again, it is the customers responsibility to care for the items once they are installed or leave the facility.)

  Customer response

  08/12/2022

  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because: To open the document file, open with Word.  You don't give enough space
  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** ****

  Customer response

  08/15/2022

  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:  False statements were made.
  
  When hiring them, they said it would be 2 weeks and from there every time I finally got a call back they always said another 'week or so'. So yes, I got impatient by the end of the second month. They never indicated that planting that late would be detrimental to the plants.
  
  When they were leaving I was told to 'wait until this evening to water', and I did, but no mention of any schedule was imparted in any way and they did NOT water before they left. In one of the security videos you can see the last of their activity which is the last guy blowing the debris of the patio before he gets in the truck and leaves. If you zoom in you can see the ground is bone dry and the rain gutter behind it shows no splashing...zero water.
  
  They did take a hose out back (not mine), they messed around with the container and may have used water on the two plants back there I didn't hear it turn on). I was watching out front, not the back. Probably why those two lasted longer. Those two were also back filled properly which is most likely why they didn't start to die until the last week or so. I'm willing to say those two were possibly just the heat and I didn't realize I could water them more than once a day without drowning them.
  
  The other video is me out watering that evening as instructed. Please note what the ground looks like wet and you can see the splashing in the gutter. Everything is so close to the gutter so if you're watering it's going to get at least a little wet. The security cam only grabs 10 seconds at a time, so before they can try to claim not enough water, I was just repositioning out of camera for a better angle. Even though I did ask, they never told me how often, so I looked it up online. Every expert with a site says once a day until rooted the once a week unless it's hot, then more. It has become apparent that only works when planted in the right conditions but I am not the expert, I wouldn't know that. Today is the first I've heard that they need twice a day watering, and I'm sad about this. I did water EVERY evening, and still do as they are all still struggling. I watered the plants...not the yard. I never said I didn't water the plants until the 23rd they would all be dead if I did that, not just the arborvitae.
  
  In this video on the 16th I am watering from the patio because it is not safe for me to roll out into the grass (as I get stuck) until the ground gets hard and the grass really gets dry. This is what the conditions were on the 23rd when I braved the bumpy yard to look closer at why everything looked so bad (the grass and the ground had dried out, not the plants). See the photos of clearly not back filled plants, loaded as many as you'd let me. It was another six days beyond this before they came to remedy the situation so that made it 2 weeks of roots exposed to high temps before they added more dirt. They obviously acknowledge that they didn't do this correctly as they came to fix it. Two of the arborvitae were already dead by the 29th and most of other plants were not looking good. They didn't 'want to do anything with them yet' is what the guy said. Implied that they know they need to replace them. I managed to revive most but the arborvitae, it was already too late for those.
  
  As for the spruce that fell over because they didn't fill in the hole, the 'storm and straight line winds' didn't happen here. It was clear and the wind never got stronger than 11 mph, I looked it up. It never even rained here until a few of weeks after that. The spruce survived, the real issue was that they didn't back fill a lot of the plants, which they acknowledged by coming back to fix it.
  
  I only ask that they replace what they definitely killed (the 7 arborvitae), not even the almost dead other stuff that I had to save.
  They said they had 30 successful arborvitae planted, I will bet they weren't planted when it was 100 degrees with no water.
  
  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** ****

  

  Business response

  08/18/2022

  In April, when ** **** signed she was never told it would be 2 weeks.  We had been booked out 6-8 weeks starting in February.  April and May were months where we had several days if not weeks worth of rain which pushes landscaping jobs back.  It can push jobs back weeks.  We can not do much about the weather.  If it rains it pushes us back.   

   We would like to see the video footage *** **** keeps referring to. 

   Each plants/shrubs was installed the correct way and the same way for each plant/shrub.  No shrub was treated any differently or installed any different way. 

   ** **** was instructed of the watering schedule. Every customer is instructed on a watering schedule.  We uphold our original statement about the crew leader giving her watering instructions.   

   

  *** **** called on 6/17 and stated that the strong storm we had the night before got to one of the spruces – that is why she asked that we come over and fix the spruce that is leaning – due to the strong storm that came through.  *** **** left a voicemail with this request.  When we called ** **** stated that it was fixed and she did not need us to do anything (a phone conversation she had with ****)  On 6/17 we did encounter very strong storms and rain.  According to weather underground wind in **********, IL 62226 speeds got up to 33 mph with .27 inch of rain.     

   

  Watering on a reoccurring basis when installed is the key to keeping plants alive.  Thew plants were not watered on a regular basis therefore they did not survive. 

   

  We uphold our original position.  ** **** stated in several emails that it was hard for her to get out in the yard.  Here original email also states that on the 23^rd (8 days after installation) she was able to get out in the yard and to take a closer look.  If ** **** was watering the plants each day then she would see the condition of the plants, each day, up close and not have waited until the 23^rd to go take a up close look.  When we went to fix a few plants ** **** called about the ground around the plants was dry.  There was no evidence that they had been watered. 

   
  

  Customer response

  08/22/2022

  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:  False statement were made.

   

  They keep saying I didn't water the plants, I did...they did not, clear from the video.  They are now making up stories about me saying there was a storm, there wasn't and I didn't, I couldn't tell what was wrong from the patio (also where I water from-the hose shoots water across the yard).

   

  I sent them an email about the spruce and got this response:  

  Date: June 17, 2022 at 4:14:14 PM CDT
  To: Wilsons Landscaping & Lawn Service <*****************************>
  Subject: Re: Landscaping
  
  
  ?Hi! Haven't heard from anyone... I don't think that tree will make it if it's not reset. I can't really get over there close enough to see where the problem is, but I don't think it's good.
  
  ****** ****
  
  --
  Sent from my Android phone with ******** Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
  On 6/17/22, 8:09 AM Wilsons Landscaping & Lawn Service <*****************************> wrote:
  Hi ******,
  
  I received your message.  I will pass this on to ****
  
  
  
  The spruce fell over because there was no backfill, there are pictures of no backfill and how dry it was when they left.  When they came back to backfill (proof it was done wrong two weeks earlier) they literally grabbed the spruce by the top and yanked it straight up, it lived but you can still see where they grabbed it.  They just had no concern for whether this stuff survived beyond putting it in and taking my money. 

  I watered them every single evening like the internet said to (I have video of that as well if they'd like to see it) and emailed them frequently trying to get them to come (6/17 X 3, 6/19, 6/23, 6/25 X2, 6/29, 7/18, 7/31, 8/4) and see what the problem was and got little response.  I was not given any watering instructions by them.  I obviously have been watering daily as the one that's alive got just as much water as the ones that died.  I watered everything the same, the others died from transplant shock. They were not put in right, I suspect the guys just wanted to get out of the heat.  They definitely never indicated that planting in the heat would be detrimental to the plants.

  I just want them to take responsibility for what they did, I definitely did not get what I paid for. Their argument doesn't even make sense as everything would be dead and the stuff that was dying because they didn't backfill it wouldn't have survived if I wasn't watering it. The fact that they had to return to backfill is proof that they screwed up.

   

  Sincerely,
  
  ****** ****

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