Business ProfileforBroccolo Tree & Lawn Care, Inc.

I was billed before they even completed the job, and I was overcharged for a service I specifically said no to. This looks like a trend according to other reviews. I was blamed for the crew cutting my above ground electric dog fence and my landscape lighting wires, and sent rude emails in response to my issues. A project that should have taken 3-4 days is going on 2 weeks and nobody has been by to finish the contracted job in 12 days. Jim B and Diane were particularly unpleasant to work with and attempted to take no accountability for my numerous complaints. After I sent a detailed email explaining all of the above I received the most immature, pointless, and insulting email from Jim. Would never recommend this company

I am the sales manager with Broccolo and this is a response to the negative review made from a Mrs. ******* *****. I have gathered a summary of the perspectives from our Senior Consultant, Jim B****** (employee 8 yrs) as well as our Landscape Manager, Diane M**** (employee 25 yrs). Broccolo’s commitment to the ***** project was thorough and below you can see our employee’s determination to be sure her needs were met. Both Jim and Diane went above and beyond in their communication efforts to be sure the customer received the desired work, as well as many changes that there were along the way. The original proposal is attached, the change order as well as before and after photos. The current amount still owed on the account is $848.00 Sales Manager Jessica D****** From Jim B******: ******* and I first met in mid -April to discuss a plan to clean up the back pool area. *******: “Hi Jim- it was great to meet you as well! I really appreciate your ideas and plans for the backyard. My budget for the backyard this year is 5k. Let me know if there is a way we can get to that. I have 2 more estimates within the next 2 weeks but if we can reach my budget I’d love to work with you and can submit the deposit immediately. Do you know how far out you are booking?” To help her with the budget number, I suggested a few items to save, First was for ******* to apply non-selective herbicide to weeds. Told her how to apply. 2nd, was to reduce size of stone bed and use mulch instead. There are emails to ******* from Diane mentioning the same. “If we add mulch under the 3 Ninebarks and not stone I can reduce to $5200.00. I’m really tight on price to begin with. I truly hope you are good and we can work together. Please let me know” Jim *******: “Hi Jim- Just to clarify the area you mentioned for me to roundup, and the fire pit- are those what you mean to mulch? And can we chose a dark brown mulch instead of black?” Once finally approved, I had no further contact with ******* until she asked about 3 yards of mulch and how much to spread in front beds. I supplied her a quote to deliver and spread. Since a crew was already on site I discounted because we did not need to mobilize second trip. The issue with the mulch, I believe was a simple misunderstanding since there were 3 of us involved. I mentioned it to ******* but she was not in agreement. There were numerous requests from myself and Diane for ******* and I to meet so we could agree upon a check list to finish. The only response I received back was, “no, but come back to finish.” My only regret was the email I sent. I was not getting anywhere with traditional emails. It was wrong and unprofessional. Jeff ***** requested I call him. He was mainly upset about the message and not the project or its issues, it became clear that I was wrong to send such a message. He asked me to send an apology, which I did. I never received an acknowledgement for that apology. Jeff and I set up June 24th for a walk around to put together a punch list. On Monday the 20th, I received an email from ******* that a meeting was not necessary. Still not wanting to give up, I sent an email that I still wanted to stop by and look around. She said “No”. At no point did I ever infer that we would not return, but wanted a chance to walk around to review. Once a list was developed, we would return. Jim B****** Senior Landscape Sales Consultant From Diane M****: “We billed the project when it was understood to be completed per the contract and completion photos were received from the crew. Additions to the scope of the contract were requested via email, and a change order contract was sent. I specifically emailed the customer to verify that the change order was approved prior to the crew mobilizing the following day. The customer sent an approval response to proceed with the change order. She also indicated any needed weeding could be charged additional due to the fact that there would not be many weeds to address. We never charged additional for the extensive weeding necessary. When the customer reached out to say there were items missed and the dog fence and electrical lines were cut, I indicated I was setting up a service call to address and Jim would be out to meet and review the project and develop a punch list to ensure we addressed everything. I indicated I wished we had been made aware of the dog fence and any other lines as I had requested that knowledge prior to the beginning of the project. Jim was going to assess the lines to see if it was something we oculd repair – or if we should reimburse the client for a service company to fix. He didn’t have the opportunity to review and discuss with the customer. After many attempts to book this meeting to review, the customer indicated nothing further would be needed, sent a pas payment and refused to meet with Jim. Before and after photos were sent in prior email and contracts were attached.” Timeline of communication and events: Contract (attached) sold 4/4 Deposit received 4/14 5/4/22 emailed customer to thank for deposit and update with schedule of 6/7 On 6/3 Jim sent the additional quote to mulch the front On 6/6 Diane resent the quote to ******* and asked her to confirm if we were adding mulching the front to the scope. She emailed me back – yes I can confirm that and to proceed. Jim met the crew the first of three days to review the job. He sent me photos of how terribly weedy it was and asked the team to track their hours for the weeding. (We never billed additional for any clean up) When the work was completed we invoiced the project. On June 15th ******* emailed me that there were things that were not done which were (1) cutting down the ornamental grasses and (2) did not cut the ninebark down to two feet. She mentioned the dog fence and electrical lines were cut and she never agreed to the price to mulch the front. I replied to her on 6/15 to set up a service call for the items she mentioned were not done. In that email I copied her prior approval for the additional mulch and indicated in my earlier emails that I had asked that they let us know if they had any private underground irrigation or dog fence that we needed to be aware of. I told her had I known I would have made sure they had them marked so we could have avoided hitting them. I told her I was working on scheduling a service call and would be in touch soon. She emailed again saying that she also needed additional stone because she could see fabric. Due to the fact that she was sending many emails and adding items each time - I asked Jim to review the job and develop a punch list so I was sure we addressed everything that was agreed upon. Jim reached out to ******* to set up an appointment – many emails went back and forth and she kept saying fine –you can come but I want the service call to happen Jim after being unsuccessful in booking a time to meet sent another email to ******* – which she did not like and the husband called to ask him to apologize to his wife –and booked a time to meet Then they paid an amount they determined – canceled the meeting and sent the note to Better Business Bureau.

The response by the unnamed sales manager is a perfect example as to why I filed the complaint with BBB in the first place. Broccolo does not meet the BBB Standards for Trust, and should not be given a positive accreditation. Through the many complaints with the project, Broccolo has never once issued an apology, or taken responsibility for any of the issues. They have terrible customer service, and even worse attempts at conflict resolution. Issues that were directly caused by them, are still being blamed as the customers fault. One example of this can be the cut electric lines. There were 5 lines that were cut, and though Diane feels it is somehow my fault the damage occurred, if you read the contract written by Jim himself, it is explicitly noted that there were many underground electrical lines that needed to be carefully managed. If Diane feels that I did not give them the information about my underground lines, I'm not really sure how much more clear I could have been. It sounds like Broccolo was supposed to send out to have lines marked- which they failed to do. I had to have the electrical lines repaired myself. As for the electric dog fence, it is not underground, but attached to my metal fence. It is extremely visible, and was severed in many locations. The only way Broccolo can fathom this being my fault is if they are ok with their crew causing damage to property during their projects. As for the many conversations with Jim, Broccolo has acknowledged the obvious miscommunication that occurred, however continue to attempt to hold me accountable for their issues. As can be read by many reviewers on google, Broccolo has a common theme of providing services that were not requested, and charging the customer for the error. Many other reviewers experienced this same issue. In regards to the mulch, on 6/5 at 11:15am I stated to Jim that $400 was not an appropriate price, and I requested to spread the mulch myself. On 6/5 at 11:29am Jim responded with the amount of 150$ for the mulch delivery- which is the task I had requested. On 6/6 at 8:41am I was emailed by Diane with Jim included, confirming the latest mulch decision to which i Replied "yes" to. The decision to just deliver the mulch was made on 6/5. The miscommunication is between Jim and Diane, not me, and I will not be paying the extra $250 for their mistake. Since according to Jim its "only a few hundred bucks" then Broccolo should have no problem owning their mistake and paying that themselves. In response to their delay and incompletion of the project, they were given plenty of time to complete the job. I requested day after day to have them come back only to be met with meetings pushed out a week. A project I was told by Jim himself would be completed by "late april/may" in an email on 3/20, was now continuing well into late june. A 4 day project had gone 12 days without anybody attempting to correct their errors. They had plenty of time to fix their mistakes and they instead chose to send disturbing and insulting emails to me. After the terrible email Jim sent to me, it was clear I was no longer interested in having him involved in my project. At no time did anyone else, including this "sales manager" even attempt to solve any issues. I have heard nothing from the company- it is now June 30. The fact that my husband had to call Jim and request an apology shows Jim's character, and the character of Broccolo. Lastly I will address the "terribly weedy" back yard- that is literally what they were hired to address. If a landscape crew brought in to address the terrible weeds is shocked to see terrible weeds, then maybe they should find another line of business. It was suggested I weed and spray myself as a way to save cost, however Jim was very clear that the project quote will include "all work discussed" and that I would be able to opt out of services to drop costs as needed. The work discussed was weeding. The opportunity for me to weed and spray was one for me to declare, which I never did. I even offered to pay more for the weeding even though it was told to me, by Jim himself, that "everything was being included in the quote." I believe it is more than fair to offer to pay extra for a service that should have been included in the first place. Again, it draws attention back to the poor integrity of the Broccolo and their negative and nasty descriptions of my backyard. If they chose not to bill me for the weeding, then I cannot be negatively held accountable for not paying for it. As of today, June 30 2022, Broccolo has failed to complete the project. The rock coverings are embarrassingly slim still, and the work overall was sub par. The company is expecting I pay 100% of the cost, when not 100% of the work was completed. I made multiple attempts, through multiple people, to have the work completed. If Jim was "on site" for the project each day then he should have known all of the shortcomings of Broccolo. A walk through was never performed, and my first contact notifying them that the work was incomplete was met with the bill being sent back again. The state of the cost or payment to Broccolo can happily be discussed. I removed the $250 of the mulch issue between Jim and Diane. I then removed 10% of the remainder of the bill for the incomplete job. I then paid the outstanding amount promptly on June 20. At this time, all work has been completed and repaired on my property, at my expense. It is my opinion that Broccolo did not perform their job according to their standards listed on their own website. They mention taking personal responsibility to make sure Broccolo standards are met- but that was not the case with my project. One value listed on their site is quality of work, which I did not receive. They have poor customer service, poor attention to detail, inability to resolve their mistakes, and unpleasant employees. Overall this company does not deserve a good BBB accreditation as they go against all the values BBB strives to highlight.