As a former employee of Scotts Lawnservice, I can honestly say I will never use Scott's products again and certainly consider any of the other lawn care providers for my service. I have seen from the inside how lawn 'technicians' are pushed to complete as many applications per day as possible. Their production is measured on how many dollars/day they 'bill' so lawns that were mis-measured or underpriced by the sales person are done very quickly as they do not pay the proper amount, and it does not pay for the lawn tech to do a good job. Many times non-Scotts products are used, and temporary help is used to put down product with little or no training.
Jan of River Oaks, TX May 22, 2009
As a gift to me, My girlfriend Jan ordered a yearly program to get rid of stickers in the grass, broad leaf, and to aerate and fertilize the yard about June '08.
Innocent enough right? And very thoughtful.
In the course of 3 months, my lush St.Augustine lawn in the front yard was destroyed (I was out of town on an assignment) we called them out, and they said they could fix it, and came out repeated times (at full cost to us), for fertilizing, etc.
They never aerated the yard "before" any of the fertilizing, and treatments, and the yard got worse.
The broadleaf and nutsage (stickers) never went away, and additionally they burned the back yard as well.
We called the Branch Manager-Michael who came out to the house in November '08. I was home now, and was ticked, but controlled. I wanted to see what he would do. He agreed that the lawn was dead, and needed to be re-sod. He was going to turn it into the insurance company (Nov '08). That was 6 months ago. We have also kept all the e-mail correspondence.
He stated that he needed before and after pictures for the insurance company. As I am very proud of my yard, I did have before pictures, and CERTAINLY after pictures, I sent copies to him in e-mails. He lost them 3 times, and I resent them 3 times.
Next he said it was turned into the insurance company, and we needed to deal with them directly. Fine, give us the name and number of the insurance company. To this date he has not given us this information despite repeated calls.
In effect they double charged Jan for services not approved, and she paid each one. They were billing her as much as 200/mo before we put a stop to it. They were applying product to a dead yard.
I asked the manager why they would do this? According to the AD, each one of their technicians was trained to analyze lawns, and what they needed. So the obvious question is this; If they are so knowledgeable, why would they treat a dead lawn? If it was not fixing the nutsage problem (our origonal problem), why did they not fix the problem. Finally, they advertise "SATISFACTION GUARANTEED", I know what that means to me, evidently that does not have the same meaning to them.
We posted a sign in our yard that said "Scott's Lawn Care took care of this lawn" Posted right in the middle of the dead yard. It got lots of attention, and Michael saw it when he came over.
The next day, someone removed it from the yard, and threw it on the side of the house. We put it back up, and it was gone again 2 days later. We called Michael and told him, and he denied any knowledge of it...no surprise. So we informed his that the police were notified, and would be watching the house. Remarkably, the sign was no longer bothered.
To this date, nothing has been done by Scott', a call to the corporate offices to file a complaint was met by a recorded message that they were closed at 5pm, we called at 2pm.
A call today to Michael resulted in the same statement that he made 6 months ago, that it was turned into the insurance company, and they would review it and cut us a check or we could work with Scott's to have new sod installed. Remember this has been into the insurance company for the past 6 months, this issue is over a year old now.
Anyone who has installed a new sod lawn knows you don't do it in the middle of a Texas summer, it is to be done in the spring.
As many have written here before me, IMO Scotts is run by people who are not interested in satisfied customers, pound as many treatments as possible into a billable month, have no knowledge of grasses (yes there are different kinds) and the proper chemicals to put on each one, and do the treatments without our knowledge or approval, show up at 7 in the morning or 6 at night. They are interested in making money first, and customer satisfaction somewhere down in the list. Don't pay? They turn you over to collections, rather than deal with you one on one, to resolve the issue.
IMO they are a company to avoid. I paint this with a broad brush. I am sure there are good franchises, but this is not one of them, and from the letters I have read thus far, many have the same problems, exactly, which makes me tend to think that they have been trained to behave this way.
Scott's? Prove me wrong. BE responsible, fix your problems, and attend to your customer base.
Robert of Pearland, TX May 3, 2009
I bought "Naturscape natural black mulch" claiming it to be all natural and no recycle material. What a load of bull. I found several recycle pieces in there , part of a 3/4 x 1 1/2 manufactured piece of wood and a piece of machined round wood , could be that of a broom stick. The natural black is most likely Carbon black, so there is not much or at all left of the FOREST PRODUCT now is there. never to buy another scotts product.
Truth of Frederick, MD May 14, 2009
I had paid for the spring aeritation and seeding..the grass started to come in pretty good, then they put down the crabgrass killer which also killed the grass that was coming in. A manager named 'Book' (?) came out and looked at the yard and said something else caused it..it wasn't them! I think he must have been drinking. Mind you the grass was thick and green until about 2 days after they put down the crabgrass killer! What else could it be? Needless to say I canceled my service, and they came out the next week and put down another application...and won't remove the charges.
John of Mchenry, IL March 28, 2009
I've been using Scotts LawnService for about 4 to 5 years. Every year they would do the aeration typically in the fall at the same price of that years program. Apparently due to the weather condition in 2008, the aeration did not get done. In the past if that happened, which it did, Scotts would do it in the spring at the price of the program of the fall schedule.We have elected to hold off this year(2009) because my wife is dealing with a respitory condition.
I called because I would now like to get my lawn aerated from last years program and put the chemical program on hold. I was told no can do on the aeration price from 2008 which was 79.94. I was offered a price of about 250.00 to 300.00 in which I stated that I was to be charged from the 2008 program of 79.94. Salesman said that he would talked his manager which he did and called me back to tell me that the manager would not honor the price of 79.94. A little upset, I told him I would take my business elsewhere. Extremely poor customer service. I have a business myself and if I were to deal with my customer like this, I wouldn't be in business for long.
Monica of Salt Lake City, UT March 27, 2009
I contacted Scott's Lawn Service about fertilizing our lawn last year. Things went OK for the first couple of applications. Then, it seemed like all inter-office communication came to a halt. The agreement in the beginning was that they would call us before coming out so we could move a trailer out of the way in order for them to access our back yard. They didn't follow through - they'd show up whenever and then leave notes on our door about the back yard being inaccessible. This happened several times. After some frustration, I called to cancel the final treatment. It got done anyway. Although they did waive the final charge, my husband was livid that they went against our wishes and treated the lawn without our consent. We cancelled the contract at end of 2008.
This spring, I received a call from one of the techs stating that he had been by our house but had been unable to reach us concerning our lawn treatment for 2009. I called them and stated that we didn't want any treatments and that the account should have been closed. He said he'd take care of making sure that was the case. Then, about a week later, I received a voice mail stating that due to the weather, they wouldn't be out to treat my lawn on a particular day and they'd reschedule for the following week. Again, I called the office and told the receptionist that we didn't want their service. She said the account had been closed.
I received a call from our accoutn manager the following day inquiring as to why we wanted to cancel. I explained all the reasons I've listed here and he said he was sorry to lose our business. I thought at that point everything was done. But, my husband got home today to find a stake in our front yard stating that Scott's Lawn Care had been there and had treated our law. It also said we owed them 46.00. He was livid and called the receptionist again and let her have it with both barrels. She said the account was marked closed - he then asked her why they had been out to treat the lawn! She assured us, once again, that the account was closed and waived the 46.00 fee.
I'm sure we haven't heard the last of Scotts. The bad part of them treating the lawn was that my husband had just rented a saw-cutter to remove a bunch of sod from our back yard and now we can't use it. Who wants to be out working in a bunch of granular fertilizer? Bottom line is: their inner communication is horrible or doesn't exist - they guy in the field doesn't talk to the account manager, who doesn't talk to the person answering their calls.
The good thing is they aren't charging us for the last application (supposedly).
Lisa of El Dorado Hills, CA March 24, 2009
We had various quotes from Lawn Service companies and signed on with Scott's. We made all initial payments in good faith and were repeatedly told a beautiful lawn took time. Our lawn looked horrible after one year of service and we cancelled the service and stopped paying. They continued to send people out letting us know they could correct the problem. I let them know I would not pay another bill unless my back lawn looked similiar to my front (Homeowners service). They agreed. I continued to receive bills. I continued to call and try and address issues. They continued to change managers, names, supervisors, etcl. Recently they sent me to collections.
Another ding on our credit history could cause us to lose any remaining credit we have and in the current economic situation we face, we could lose our home. They still do not respond to my original request and a manager has yet to address the problems.
Constance V Ambrose of Wilmington, DE January 12, 2009
Dec 5 I emailed Scotts to advise them my refund requested about June 27 2008 had not been received. About Dec 5th They emailed me saying the refund was valid and scheduled for processing and I should receive it within a couple weeks. As of Jan 5 refund still hadn't been received so I emailed them again. I received an email saying they had too many emails to answer.
3.60 refund was promised for purchase of 6 bags of their brand fertilizer.
Jim of So. Pasadena, CA January 7, 2009
Awhile back, I received a flyer from Scotts Lawn Service saying they would be in the neighborhood to give a free analysis on peoples lawns. I had one done and was given recomendations on a course of action to take. Their service is around 54 per treatment, and, of course, you need all 12 treatments according to them. I stopped the service after 7 treatments because I never saw ANY improvements to my lawn. I could have went to the local hardware store and purchased a couple of bags a a fertilizer and had the same results or better.
The technician is only there at your property for 5 minutes. He fills out his paperwork before he even gets out of the truck, sprinkles some product on your lawn, drops off the invoice on your door and he's gone. Sometimes he will come twice in one month, so you get billed for two treatments in one month. Save yourself the expense and hassle with these guys. Scotts sell franchises to individuals who will eventually ruin Scotts good name. But then, if the corporate office keeps ignores all the complaints they have been recieving, then shame on them as well.
Not only would I have saved over 350, but i would have a healthy lawn if I had just tended to my lawn myself, instead of hiring Scotts Lawn Services.
Frank of Rowlett, TX November 26, 2008
Technician Kyle dragged heavy equipment down capped stairway by pool to lower level, chipping the edge of each stair on the way down. Some have chunks missing. I was not home during the time, but my 18 year old son was and saw him dragging the equipment. We began trying to get it fixed, and one by one, each level of management at Scotts would put me off, tell me he was sending his insurance guy out to file a claim (never showed up), tell me that it had been filed and they were waiting on the claim to be processed, not return calls, not in office, etc. etc. After THREE MONTHS I had enough and sent the company a certified letter, demanding that this be fixed, and they have not picked up the letter.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you stay away from this bunch - MOST unprofessional, every ONE of them has lied to me, and the yard sure doesn't look like what the service costs.
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