ComplaintsforWeed Man Lawn Care

• Initial Complaint

  04/16/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Spring of 2023, I received services from Weedman. After the fourth treatment, I noticed that a large portion of my back yard was dying. I messaged Weedman and they sent out a technician to take a peek. They later told me I had very ***** soil and the grass dying was from drought damage. This issue was not drought, it looks as though my grass is completely fried, like the mixture they used was too strong or not correct. I contacted them again to see how this could be fixed and they told me it wasnt they fault, it was brought damage. With no resolution in sight, I canceled my service. They did refund me my final treatment cost, which was about $84. My yard is completely ruined, at no fault of mine. They never offered to help me fix or take responsibility to resolve what they did.

  Business response

  04/17/2024

  Hi *****, it is our professional opinion that this is a textbook example of severe drought damage. As you'll recall, the entire state of ********* suffered a severe period of high heat and drought during the Spring and Summer of 2023, resulting in lawns across the state (and ****************) suffering under these intense conditions. Your concerns about this damage to the lawn were brought to us in July of 2023, which directly aligns with the drought timeline from 2023. The high sand content of the soil also likely contributed to the drought damage, as ***** soil does not retain water as effectively as other soil types. While our program's included applications of slow release fertilizer & weed control are beneficial to the lawn, they are not a replacement for proper homeowner maintenance (including proper watering), and cannot prevent drought damage. During periods of drought, supplementary watering is always required if we want to keep our lawns healthy. Additionally, in reviewing the photos of damaged areas you provided, weeds can be seen growing among the areas of dead/bare grass. If the turf damage seen in the photos you provided were a result of our program, the weeds in those areas would be dead along with the turfgrass. This is further evidence to our diagnosis of drought damage, as weeds are tougher, hardier and require less water than cool season turfgrasses and will often survive periods of drought that causes severe damage to turfgrass. You note that you called numerous times, however in reviewing your account records, we see only one phone conversation which was your initial call to sign up for services in May of 2023. Your concerns were brought to us via e-mail in July of 2023, after which a Manager visit to the property was conducted to investigate and diagnose. While we understand your frustration with the state of your lawn, we provided our services as agreed upon, as well as investigated & diagnosed the area of damage as promised, and do not take responsibility for damage caused to the lawn as a result of drought conditions and/or lack of supplementary water during said periods of drought. If you would like to discuss this concern further, please consider reaching out. Thank you! 
  
  

  Customer response

  04/17/2024

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear.

  I guess I am having a hard time accepting this, because its not the whole yard and only in this point. As you see in the photo, the rest of my lawn is green and growing, along with my neighbors. I am having a hard time believing its drought. Weeds are growing and my grass isnt. 

  
  Regards,
  
  ***********************

  Business response

  04/18/2024

  Drought damage can impact areas of a lawn differently, as certain areas may be better equipped to withstand drought conditions. Grass type, soil type, microclimates, water retention, sun vs shade cover, watering habits and more will all factor into which areas may be more or less susceptible to drought, and these factors may be different from one lawn to the next, and even from the backyard to the front yard on the same lawn. Again, if the damage seen in the photo was caused by our products, there would be uniform damage throughout the property. The weeds that are currently living within the area of damage, would be killed as well. Lawns across the state can be seen with varying degrees of drought damage similar to that seen on your property, as drought conditions were highly severe in the Spring of 2023. Because our program is not designed to prevent drought damage, and because we make no promises in our services preventing drought damage, we cannot take responsibility for damage that occurs as a result of conditions outside of our control. If you would like to discuss a plan further in helping the lawn recover, please consider reaching out to us directly via phone or e-mail. Thank you!
  

• Initial Complaint

  02/06/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  October/November 2023 Weedman completed an Aeration on my property without an order from the homeowner (me) to do so. I spoke to a customer servicer rep in January after receiving a bill in the mail. This rep confirmed that there was a notation on my account that I did not want any aeration on my property. I told this to the last rep I spoke to so it would NOT be done again on my property from the prior years services. I did not realize from the prior year that they would just come do unauthorized services - I only ordered weed treatments throughout the spring/summer. The rep referred to management for an adjustment. I received a call today from "****" customer service manager who advised she would discount the service $30 (from $130 to $100) as there was an order on my account for the aeration and the tech called me after he completed. I did not place an order for an aeration they just did it. Again, cs rep confirmed there was a prior note on my account NOT to do any Aerations. I paid the $100 today so the account would not be sent to collections but advised ALL future services to be cancelled and do NOT send anyone in the spring as I will NOT pay for any future services under any circumstance. I would like to know how this order got into the system that **** is referring to. The rep I spoke to today could not find that information, he advised notes may have fallen off the account. I requested address to send a letter of cancellation to ensure no techs are sent to my house for spring services. I will be hiring a new company moving forward.

  Business response

  02/07/2024

  Hi ******, thank you for reaching out with your concerns. Customer satisfaction is our top priority, so we wanted to look into this further to figure out what happened, as we would never intentionally provide a service without it being agreed to by a customer. Per the records in your account, we see that you had added Aeration to your lawn care program with us in 2022. Just like the fertilizer & weed control treatments that are part of your program, other services (including aeration) that are added to your program would continue to be provided until/unless they are cancelled or removed from your program at your request. Because of this, an Aeration was renewed & provided in 2023. We do see in your BBB complaint that you mention having previously requested to cancel or not renew the aeration portion of your program for '23 - however, in reviewing your account records, we do not see that cancellation was ever requested. However, we did locate a situation in your correspondence/call history with us, which may or may not be the reason for this situation. On 6/14/23, we see that you called in to our phone line, with the call being answered by a member of our sales team. Shortly after the call was answered, we see that the Sales Representative transferred you over to our **************************** but the call was terminated on your end before the call could be answered by the **************** Representative (this could be the result of an accidental hang-up, loss of service or dropped call by your service provider). With that information, we wonder if you had expressed a desire to remove or cancel aeration services with said Sales Rep, who then began to transfer you to **************** to assist with and complete this request, with the call unfortunately being terminated before our **************** Team could receive it. If this is accurate, this could be the cause of this confusion. Unfortunately, Sales Reps cannot remove or cancel services from a customer's account, this can only be done with a **************** Representative. We will plan to have a Manager reach out to you directly so that we can discuss what occurred further and hopefully figure out what happened, as well as refund the amount discussed. We hope that we can remain on good terms despite this confusion. Thank you for your feedback, we hope to speak with you soon!
  

• Initial Complaint

  09/15/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This year my wife and I decided to switch from TruGreen (where we were long standing customers - in multiple houses) to Weedman ********* based on a referral that saved us over $100 for the year.This would turn out to be one of the worst decisions we have made!Weedman only was able to come 2 times before my lawn died out due to over fertilizing. The test results show levels were more than 3 times to high, and keep in mind that these samples were taken more than 6 weeks later so most of the nitrogen would have leeched out - and its still that high!We started to notice the grass dying after the second time they came and I contacted them right away to only be given a run around and a list of things it was that we had to disprove - until the lawn eventually totally died out.Finally after several weeks and several consultations with other professionals (multiple landscapers and soil testing facilities) - we were able to disprove all of their excuses and show that the only reasonable explanation was that the grass died because of the amount of fertilizer laid on it.Yet, weedman refused to do anything.Long story short, Id be very careful about using weedman. ******** took care of the same yard the last 3 years and it looked great, and it only took weedman two applications to completely kill it.Weedman does not own up to issues that can be tied directly back to them and refuses to do what is right by the customer. To say Im extremely disappointed in them would be an understatement Especially since they are a franchise that Im sure has insurance in place that is intended to be used for issues like this. But instead, they decided to leave a customer with more than $5k in out of pocket expenses to fix their mistake.I hope anyone reading this does not make the same mistake we did by trusting weedman, and Id highly recommend going to a more reputable company like TruGreen or anyone else!

  Business response

  09/20/2023

  Hi ****, we understand your frustration with the state of your lawn. Upon being made aware of your concerns, we began looking into this situation to determine if an application we provided caused damage to your back lawn. We had the results of your soil test analyzed by researchers at the ** Madison turfgrass diagnostics laboratory to gain their opinion, as an application of slow release fertilizer causing the lawn to die would be highly unlikely - even more unlikely considering the fact that the front lawn received the same products, in the same amount - yet remains healthy. Based on the soil test result of soil Nitrogen levels at 22ppm (parts per million), the Researchers at ** Madison are confident that the proportion of nutrients was not a factor in the negative results seen on the lawn. This determination can be further supported by the fact that no other customers had issues with lawn damage following applications that were performed on this day, using the same products, or provided by the same Technicians. Additionally, the fact that your front lawn and back lawn both received the same treatment, yet the front lawn remains healthy, would suggest that something else is the cause of damage to the back lawn. Through our conversations with you, we did learn that in recent years, your back lawn was sodded, while your front yard was seeded. It is much more likely that this is more closely related to the state of your backyard than our treatments are, as seeding is typically a better option for long-term establishment and overall lawn health when compared to laying sod, especially during times of drought like we experienced this Summer. One of our most important initiatives as a company is providing a quality customer experience - and that means taking responsibility when accidents do occur. While we regret the condition of the back lawn and wish we could have noticed the damage sooner and helped diagnose the issue, the results are not due to our application strategy or products. We maintain our professional opinion that, agronomically, there appears to be no evidence that our application caused your back lawn to die. As always, we're available to speak with you on this matter further if you would like.
  
  

  Customer response

  09/20/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  This is not correct and is them passing blame.
  
  Regards,
  
  ***********************

• Initial Complaint

  08/11/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I have repeatedly requested a refund from Weedman for a service they provided that damaged my lawn. I have spoken to 7 customer service representatives and one customer service manager named **** with no resolution any of those times. **** and the service manager in the district both promised to rectify the issue while I was on the phone with them and both said they would get back to me within the day and neither did nor have they made any attempts to contact me in the 3-7 days after their promised call-back. I have requested a refund for the last service they did as they applied two chemicals on my lawn that was reported to be "sick, stressed, and having a fungus. It was my expectation that the technicians would have used their expert judgement to know that they should not have applied the chemicals and contacted me immediately to inform me of the problem with my lawn. In previous years this was their practice and since I'm paying for their professional services I expect that they would continue to practice is the manner that they had in previous years. The district manager sent an inexperienced team to my property who apparently did not know that they should not have applied the chemicals to the sick lawn which in turn caused more damage and was a waste of an application as the lawn couldn't absorb them causing more damage. I am only asking for a refund of the last service despite having another experience with this company in June where they sprayed weed killer on a landscaping plant rather than the weeds as intended. It took weeks to get a resolution to that issue and the resolution was inadequate at best. The service this company has demonstrated in managing this incident is inadequate at best and negligent at its worst. I am not asking for more than a refund on an application that should have never been applied in the first place due to the poor health of the lawn. A refund would be $289.60 as noted in the last invoice.

  Business response

  08/14/2023

  Hi ****, we'd like to assure you that we are willing to take care of this for you. We do, however, maintain our professional opinion that the fertilizer & grub control treatments likely did not contribute to or exacerbate the turf disease present on your lawn. More than likely, this disease was spreading naturally, as is common with many turf diseases such as Necrotic Ring Spot. Drought conditions likely also contributed to the state of the lawn. That said, we would agree to refund you for the amount requested as a show of good faith. We place a high degree of importance on providing a quality customer experience, as well as providing our services in an agronomically sound manner. We appreciate your understanding on this matter & hope that with this refund we can ease the frustration of this experience. Thank you for your feedback!
  

  
  

• Initial Complaint

  08/10/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  They are charging me for service than was done very poorly. I can see why my lawn looks worse than when I started with them. I caught on all my cameras the guy not spraying my lawn just in the middle in my back yard and sides of the house. Never touched the front. I was told they would take care of whole lawn. Now they want to charge me for them coming out when clearly what I see on camera is not what I paid for. A very poor job was done. Fighting with them not to pay for the very very poor service that was performed.

  Business response

  08/11/2023

  Hi ***, it seems that you have submitted this complaint to the wrong Weed Man Lawn Care operation. Weed Man is a franchise system, so most locations are independently owned and operated. Per the customer details you submitted, you are located in **********, **, which is likely serviced by the ************, ** Weed Man Lawn Care operation. The Weed Man operation you have submitted this complaint to via the BBB does not own or operate the ************ location, or any operation ** the ****************. Because of this, we cannot offer any assistance on your concerns besides pointing you in the right direction. Please reach out to your local ******* Weed Man Lawn Care operation for assistance. Thank you!

  Customer response

  08/11/2023

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. 
  
  Regards,
  
  *****************
  

• Initial Complaint

  08/01/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I have been paying for weed control service since mid June 2023. Since we have signed the contract with the company the flower bed weeds are now completely out of control. The continually book appointments and then no show for the treatments. I have now had to pay another company to manually come in and remove all of the over grown weeds that were not previously treated. They even sent out a manager to our house but still no actually weed treatments. It seems all they do is collect payments then do not perform the actual services.

  Business response

  08/02/2023

  Hi ********, based on the zip code you provided, you have submitted this BBB complaint to the wrong organization. It looks like you're located in a suburb of *******, **. Unfortunately, the Weed Man Lawn Care operation you have submitted this complaint to does not own nor does it operate the *******, ** Weed Man Lawn Care business. This organization you have reached does provide service in South **********, ** & ******, **, however we do not operate in the ******* area. Weed Man Lawn Care *** is a franchise system, so many locations are independently owned & operated. Because of this, we are unfortunately unable to provide any further assistance. Please contact the ************ Weed Man operation for your area to discuss your concerns. Thank you!

• Initial Complaint

  07/25/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I retained services from this company in April 2023. I mainly hired them to treat my front lawn for some smaller weed problem areas. At the time of the conversation with the representative, she stated that due to the timing I was requesting services, the company would only be able to service my law 3 times(quarterly) the remainder of the year. I then saw in my cameras that someone came to my home. I wanted to know if my backyard had been serviced as well, so I attempted to reach the company by phone multiple times. I left messages and never received a call back. I then saw the company return to service my lawn again in May. I called to ask why they were back when they specifically told me they would only be there 3 times and they had just been there the previous month. In June, I noticed not only my front lawn was getting worse, almost my backyard is mostly dead since Weed Man provided service. I never had any issues with my backyard and now its mostly dying. I called and complained multiple times and finally received a call back from ******* who confirmed my backyard was green and had no issues prior to them starting service with them and that my front lawn is mostly dead, which was not the case when they started. The front lawn needs to be re-soded at this point. After a few more calls with him and his superior, I am now being told that the damage was not caused by their products and they are not necessary action in fixing the issue. They have been telling me they are applying organic products but Ive been told the front needs to be re-soded in order to avoid HOA fines. *** told them I can allow them time to fix my backyard but front lawn need to be taken care asap. I now feel like Im now just given excuses as im not hearing back from the company unless I continuously call them to follow up.

  Business response

  07/27/2023

  Hi there, it appears that this complaint has been submitted to the wrong business. Please be aware that Weed Man Lawn Care *** is a franchise system, and as such, most locations are owned and operated independently from one another. Per the customer details provided in this complaint, the homeowner is located in the ****************. The Weed Man operation this complaint has been submitted to does not own nor operate a Weed Man Lawn Care business in the ****************. Unfortunately, because of this, we cannot offer any assistance with these concerns besides directing the homeowner to the proper branch. Please take up any concerns with the local Weed Man Lawn Care operation. Thank you!

• Initial Complaint

  07/22/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Weedman contacted my husband for a service to our lawn. He gave the sales man my number and I agree to have them spray once for $90. If I was happy with the service I would agree to have them come and spray late fall for an additional $90. I told them I would pay cash and he agree. The sales man stated he needed a credit card in the account but would not charge me without my consent. The person came out and spray in late June. We offer $90 in cash and he told us he could not take cash. I told him to charge the card $90. July 7 the company charged me $180. I called and told them about the overcharge and to go back an listen to the recording. Rep came back and said sorry and they would return the $90. Yesterday July 21, I saw a credit for $90 but then I saw a charge for the same amount. Nets to zero. I have called many time and they say they will fix but never do.

  Business response

  07/24/2023

  Hi *********, it seems you have filed a complaint for the wrong business. Per the customer details you provided with your ******************** complaint, you are located in **. You have filed your complaint with a Weed Man Lawn Care operation in the state of *********. Weed Man Lawn Care *** is a franchise system, so oftentimes, each location is independently owned and operated. The organization you have filed this complaint with does not own or operate any Weed Man Lawn Care business in the ***********. Unfortunately, we will be unable to provide any further assistance besides directing you to the proper Weed Man Lawn Care business. Please reach out to your local ** Weed Man Lawn Care for assistance with any concerns or complaints. Thank you, we wish you luck!

• Initial Complaint

  06/27/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Delivery Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I have the company on film spending 6 minutes at the location, and as you can see by the weeds: no progress.

  Business response

  06/28/2023

  Hi Max, we do already have a reapplication booked for you following your contact with our **************************** However, please be aware of a few key points: depending on treatment area size, a landscape bed control application can often be completed fully & effectively in under 10 minutes, so that alone is not necessarily out of the ordinary. However, in this particular situation, the visit was cut shorter due to the presence of some overgrown weeds exceeding 1 foot in height, which could not be treated. With any of our weed control programs, we do require that overgrown weeds of this size be cut down prior to us treating them. We cannot treat weeds of this height, as the product has limited effectiveness at this point. This is something we do occasionally see with new customers, and we apologize if this was not effectively communicated to you initially. We do see that our **************** Representative covered this with you on your most recent correspondence regarding a reapplication. Rest assured, we do still have you booked for a reapplication for these areas, and can absolutely treat these outstanding weeds in question once they are cut down (with a weed whacker, for example). Additionally, once these weeds are cut down and receive initial treatment, it is unlikely that they will reach this height again with our regular applications, so this need for the weeds to be cut down should only be a one-time requirement. We do also outfit our trucks with cameras to assist your peace of mind as a customer & ensure that Techs are providing complete and responsible service. If you have any additional questions or concerns regarding this situation, please don't hesitate to reach out to our customer service team via phone or e-mail - they're there to help, whether it be in offering information, recommendations or setting up free reapplications where required. Thank you!

• Initial Complaint

  06/21/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I was a cutomer of Weed Man last summer 2022. They kept calling trying to upsell me constantly. I called them and asked them to stop. I also asked them to take me off their auto renew list saying I would call them in spring of 2023 if I wanted to use their services again.I got a text message from them in April I believe saying they just were at my house and fetilized my yard. I called them and asked why they were coming to my house because I canceled the end of last summer. They said they sent me an email and a letter in March 2023. I told them an email would have went to my junk and I wouldn't have opened the letter because I'm not a customer. I get junk mail from other companies all the time but don't open them because I'm not a customer and they don't just add me back on and charge me again. They said I owed $124 which is rediculous for one fertilzer application in itself. I said I'm not paying this bill because they weren't supposed to come. That was in May I think. Yesterday I got bill in the mail from them saying I still owed $124. The only reason I opened it was because of what happened in spring. I called again and told them the same thing. This is a sneaky and bad buisness practice taking advantage of people to add them back on to a customer list only warning them with something you know they probably won't see and then showing up at their house without any text or phone call ahead of time. Especially when there were constant phone calls all summer of 2022. I'm not sure what is stopping them from sending out another another junk letter or email that I may not see and doing the same thing all over again charging for services that weren't asked for. They kept calling my girlfriend this year after she texted telling them to stop and did the same thing to my attorney's paralegal.

  Business response

  07/05/2023

  Hi *******, please be aware that this amount for continued services in 2023 that you received an invoice for has already been written off, we took care of this for you when you initially brought it to our attention. There is no further amount due. We'd like to assure you that your auto-renewal for the 2023 was a mistake on our part, and was not an intentional attempt at "sneaky" business behavior. We hold ourselves to a high level of business ethics, and this is not something we would do to any of our customers. We do operate as an auto-renewal & continuous service company, which is communicated on the initial sign up call and via reminders, which are sent at the top of each season before the renewal occurs and services resume. However, we can and will cancel auto-renewals at a customer's request, which we do see you did in 2022. At some point, we failed to override your auto-renewal, which is why you continued receiving services in 2023. We apologize for this mistake, but assure you that the amount has already been cared for. Thank you and have a great rest of your day!

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩