Complain about a product or service

TruGreen Chemlawn

TruGreen ChemLawn • New Jersey Sues TruGreen Chemlawn --- Consumer Complaints • Too Much Service • Not Enough Service • Pricing • Happy Insider • Unhappy Ex-Insider --- • What You Can Do

A part of the ServiceMaster empire, TruGreen Chemlawn proclaims that it "will give your lawn the nutrients it needs to produce a thicker, greener carpet of grass." Maybe so, but we hear from many consumers who would give anything to stop TruGreen from showing up again. Then there are those who would like a little more service rather than much less.

A brief sample of representative complaints is below; for more, click on any of the cateogories to the right.

David of Harvard, MA October 1, 2009

I cancelled my TruGreen service about two weeks ago. I was up-sold to their shrub service but no one ever came to take care of my shrubs. I kept calling because my shrubs did not look so good over the summer. I finally cancelled the service due to lack of service. I received a call from their customer retention department, Craig H., on 9/29/2009. I decided to give them one more try after a long discussion. I explained to him that no one at TruGreen seemed to listen to me and that was my greatest complaint.

On 9/30/09, TruGreen called my wife 14 times (when the baby was trying to sleep). On the first call in the early morning, she asked them to call after 7:00PM. Let me demonstrate how incompetent that TruGreen is at listening and at customer service. They called at 11:07AM, 12:33PM, 4:23, 4:26, 4:42, 5:55, 6:13, 6:57, 7:13, 7:19, 7:27, 7:48, twice on my cell and my office at work. At 7:27PM. Craig H. called me back. I gave him an earful and told them never to call me again.

TruGreen called again at 7:48PM. At that time, I gave Nicki H. an earful and I have to say she handled it quite well. I apologized for all of the yelling and swearing. Through the power of the internet, I was able to get the home phone number, addresses, resumes, etc... of the entire TruGreen executive team, as well as ServiceMaster (the parent company).

I was so irate that I called the TruGreen President Rick A. at home. His wife answered and I gave her an earful. He was on a business trip so I asked for a return call. Then, I called another TruGreen President, Steven D. at home and left a message. Finally, I got through to the ServiceMaster CEO, Patrick S. After listening to me (seemingly), he apologized and told me the he is in the process of re-vamping many things there.

It felt good to be listened to by the CEO. I'm not sure what good will come of my phone calls but it certainly made me feel good. I really hope they don't call me again. Is there any way to get them to stop harassing me? Just harassment, time, aggravation, stress. Oh, it cost me 30 to get the home addresses and phone numbers of their executive team.

DIANE of EAGAN, MN September 29, 2009

TRU GREEN visits were always to be on Fridays since I'm home. I keep the backyard gate locked so they wouldn't come in unexpectly since I have 2 dogs. On Wednesday evening, I arrived home to find Trugreen's poison sign on my front grass. I called to ask why they came and received a message from the technician that he had jumped the fence. That evening, one of my dogs got violently sick. They are both very friendly and if he did spray the backyard, the dogs would have been by his side while he was applying poison.

I feel this is very intrusive, that he would of jumped the gate in the first place, 2nd they were there on the wrong day, and if he did apply the poison as he said he did, he did it even though he saw the dogs there. When I mentioned this to Trugreen and told them they are no longer welcome on my property, I was just told they'd take care of it. I assume that means they won't be at my house again which I hope is true.

MeganWolf of Poquoson, VA September 28, 2009

We have moved out of state and received a collection notice to our Virginia address stating we owe TruGreen 58. I called Trugreen to dispute the claim. I had a one time spray done on our sick tree in 2008, but was not told at that time I would automatically get the service the next year. I did not sign anything saying it was ok to do so. On our conversation over a year ago, it was meant to be a ONE TIME spray that I had ordered for a sick tree. Sick trees are not sick consecutive years! Trugreen said that they will not reverse the charge because I did not call in to cancel after I received my one time spray in 2008. So - they came without our permission to our house in Colorado and sprayed. We did not receive a phone call to schedule an appointment, or even alert us that they would be spraying hazardous chemicals that day. When spraying these type of chemicals you need to alert an owner so they can keep kids/pets off and your windows closed. There is no paperwork showing that we signed up for automatic treatment every year.

Bradley of Dento, TX September 16, 2009

I worked at there Corporate call center where we covered the calls from half of the United States. I was told it was an easy job that customers call us. I made many more outbound calls then I did recieve them. I felt like a telemarketer. I would never taken the job if I knew that. I do not like telemarketing. While I was there I had so many people say that we were the highest piced company out there. We had customers say that they are paying for service and there neighbors aren't and the neighbors have a nicer lawn doing it theirself.

I basically had to harass cutomers everyday. The managers did not want us to put them on te Do Not Call list usless the asked for it specifically, because then we could not call them again. We had some managers in some areas even tell us to call the ones that did not want to be called. I know that can be agravating for a customer and I appoligize for myself for doing that to the ones I called. Granted we had many customers very happy with the service but it is still not right to constantly call 60-70 times a year to add other services.

I left there because of the working conditions. I probably would have been fired anyway for not making enough sales or doing something else right. They lied to get me to fill a seat when it got busy and then threatened me when it got slow so I would leave and then they would not have to fire me. If you are reading this and thinking about going with Trugreen expect to be harassed for as long as you have lawn care with them.

They want you to buy everything no matter if you need it or not. Tell them up front to put you on the Do not Call list and if you do and the call then that is a 12000 fine for them. There is to many quotas everyone has to get that works there that the service is going to be cut somewhere in order for all the jobs to get done and the employee's money is not cut.

John of Shamokin Dam,, PA September 4, 2009

Today, Sept. 4, 2009, I concluded any relationship with TruGreen because of substantiation of what I had suspected for several months. That is, that TruGreen has been billing me for services they've not been performing. After several instructions to let me know when they would be providing service, their technician, Jim(?) rang my doorbell before beginning his "work". I did not answer the door, but instead looked out to see who was here in an unmarked pick-up truck. As I watched through several windows, Jim took a spreader from the truck, poured some material in it and proceeded to spread the material on the front lawn.

Slightly more than five minutes later, He put the spreader back in the truck and went to the cab to fill out an unvoice claiming to have spread 13 pounds of lime on 6500 square feet of my front, back and side lawn. Doing the arithmetic will show this to be an application rate of 0.002 pounds per square foot, or about three one hundredths of an ounce per square foot.

To his surprise, I was standing on the front walk when he headed toward the door to leave the invoice. He, of course stood by his claim that he had done the whole yard and gave ne the invoice. On close inspection of the back yard and it's wet grass and a few bare spots, there was no evidence of spreader wheel tracks in the wet grass nor of any material having been placed on the bare spots.

I immediately called TruGreen's office and spoke to Billie telling her of my observations and that I did not want TruGreen ever again on my property. On a second call later the same morning, I advised Billie that I did not expect them to charge my account for this so-called service. She assured me there would be no charge for this date and that she had posted the account showing there was to be no more service.

CD of Akron, OH August 21, 2009

I have not had Chemlawn treat my yard for about 4 years. I fired them because they killed a row of lilac trees and several perennials (and still had weeds) - I had had enough after that. But now my neigbor uses them and with the last two applications to her yard, I have a decades-old Rose of Sharon tree dying and also an equally old hybiscus which is also dying. They are close to the property line and I noticed the last time they sprayed my neighbor's yard on a windy day. I had the Rose of Sharon moved three years ago to make room for a barn and have nursed it like a child to ensure it's survival. This year it is/was loaded with flowers, but now it is curling up like a hand crippled with arthritis. I am just sick about this and have been awake since 4 a.m. this morning worrying about it. I will be contacting Chemlawn when I get home from work today, though I do not expect them to be sympathetic since I'm not a paying customer...just a disgruntaled former customer they will never get another time from - I would rather weeds take over first.

Sylvia of Goose Creek, SC August 17, 2009

TurGreen treated my yard more than 3 times and it has not improved. The second time it was supposedly sprayed one day and two days later aeorated. This was a waste of my money. My yard look worse that it did before Steve, the technician began treating. I am in the house and no one rings the bell nor knock on the door. I am not aware of what is being done. Each time I call someone is coming and taking care of something that I cannot see. This is a rip off and I feel that my lawyer should be advised to see what can be done. The weeds are growing beautiful and they are ones that should have been dead by now.

Myrtilene of Clermont, FL August 14, 2009

On July 10th or so, Matt N came to me home to offer the lawncare service. He had a good talk about the company and what they can do for my yard. That day I decided to take the service. On the 15th they sent a guy to my home to spray a weed killer, fertilizer and pest control. One to two days after he sprayed my entire front lawn turned brown. I called the company that Monday to let them know what happened to my lawn. They said that they are sending a tech back out to look at the lawn for a service call.

The man did not come until that wednesday excatly one week from the date of application. It was the same tech that sprayed the lawn the first time and I showed him what he did to the lawn. He told me that he probably put down too much weed killer or something. He went and put down a fertilizer again on top of the other fertilizer he had put down the first time. He said that he would be back in 2 weeks to do another service call. Well after two days only weeds were growing, I called the quality control guy (Matt) the one who sold me the contract. Well he did not pick up his phone or called me back after I left at least two messages for him. I called the office again and asked to speak to a sup.

One came to the home the next day and said that the grass would grow back and he would inform the area manager and quality control man about the issue. Well to make a long story short the area manager came to my home and said that they did not do that to my yard and why am I waiting almost one month to call them about the problem. He said they will not replace almost 2000 SF of yard, all they are willing to do is keep comming back out and putting fertilizer. He told me if it comes back then so be it if not then that is not their problem.

Kenneth of Sterling Heights, MI August 12, 2009

Had their services in 2oo8. Not that satisfied. Declined their auto renewal for 2009. Since then, Receive weekly calls to renew service which I have repeatedly expressed my intent to not do so. On at least 6 different times told asked them to not call again. Spoke with purported Mgrs who assured me no more calls. THEY KEEP CALLING. What can I do to stop them? It's more than annoying...........

Lillian of Shrewsbury, MA August 12, 2009

On the recommendation of a neighbor with a low maintenance lawn I hired Trugreen to do four weed control/fertilizer treatments and one grub control treatment. I prepaid for the service because it seemed easier and cheaper. I hired Trugreen on the sole condition that I be notified of the date of each treatment beforehand so that I could unlock the gate to the back yard (I have a 6 foot fence surrounding a large grassy dog run). Trugreen sent me a postcard with all the dates confirmed except the first treatment. I called to get the first treatment date confirmed, July 23rd, and that day came and went with no one showing up to do the work.

I called Trugreen to notify them of the missed appointment and they said they were surprised and that the technician would be sure to reschedule and call me the day before. I came home from work July 31st to find a warning marker on my front lawn. Trugreen had done a treatment (well, not really, but wait for it...) without notifying me. OK, but what about the back yard? Fence locked, toys strewn in the yard and a warning marker just tossed over the side. Did he or didn't he? Well, I have a neighbor who tried to break into my house so I have surveillance cameras in my windows. Unfortunately, only the front one was on and it shows the tech spray my lawn, but only partially, go around back, come to the front and knock on my door. When he realized I wasn't home he went to the truck and wrote out charges for weed control and grub control (spray) AND fertilizer, which was supposed to be a dry application and which he DID NOT DO when he realized I wasn't home. Got it on camera.

I suppose I could have them come back and redo the service but I have no confidence in the competence of this moron tech. What troubles me most about this experience is that he entered (or so he states on the invoice) a LOCKED yard with toys thrown all over. So, if he did hop the fence, why not move the toys? Or did he spray them? Or around them? Or did he just neglect the back yard like he neglected to do the fertilizer treatment? This idiot had absolutely no way of knowing for sure that the toys were dog toys, they could have belonged to a toddler. And even so, my dog doesn't deserve to be poisoned by an idiot.

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