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| - Wanted some time b/t exp here & sharing review - we were so numb over this experience. Not a post encouraging a boycott, but a post to say read the negative reviews here & carefully consider. We saved $ 4 yrs to finally have yard professionally landscaped. 1st person we talked with @ Outdoor dropped the ball & Joel ended up coming out. Joel is a hard-driving, used-car type salesman who took shortcuts. The first bid he brought out was over $85K for a perimeter stucco & metal fence, desertscape, & pavers in the back. Typical urban lot. Saw few plants on drawing & Joel said it was policy of Outdoor not to allow customers to compare bids or shop around. My husband & I talked to Joel & told him that his drawings looked like about $60K not $85 & we wanted a rendering or something justifying this expense. Instead, Joel calls 5 days later wanting to pick up a check for $42K. I called fence companies & realized that Joel was more than triple charging for the fence (this comes into play when I get to the part about who is in acct managing invoices). Ended up talking w/owner who said Joel plead mea culpa & making a mistake, & the bid came back down to $65ish & he assured he would personally oversee. Joel told us that he had gone to the City of Phoenix & the Historical office to have the plans signed off on. The project foreman, Jesse, upsold us on paver sidewalk & driveway which was about another $4K. At all times, Outdoor never waited a second for their 50% or "progress payments." They do not guarantee Ocotillos (ours died) or the lights & we forced them to put a guarantee on the lights or we were going to remove those from the bid and risked Ocotillos. Owner said "we 've never had a problem with the lights ..." we did almost immediately & when the service tech came out I heard him tell a coworker & I made him repeat it to me "I told them not to use this timer it's for an aquarium but they were trying to save money." In the revised plans, Joel billed us for both drip systems & sprinklers in the same areas (drips were in the desertscapes & sprinklers in the grass) which we caught, not Joel (hey I'm learning on the job). 1st major issue: I see the crew digging the fence over 2 feet from the sidewalk when I paid & engaged them to build it to the sidewalk. Jesse tells me it is because I specifically asked for it 2 feet off the sidewalk & when I asked Jesse for that proof, he walked away not being able to provide it. The 2nd version of that story is Joel tells me well that's where the City of Phoenix requires it to be placed & Joel tells me it was an alteration in design not significant enough to inform me about! The fence is billed by the foot & it's on an arc. I think we all ran track in high school & it's less distance the closer you are to the center than outward so another attempt to put in less material for the same amount of money. What I discover in this chapter of nightmare on 18th Avenue is that it is policy of Outdoor (from the owner's mouth) for the sales rep to gain city approval for any plan & Joel ack that he NEVER got city approval. The city refused to approve the plan I approved causing a major shift in the design. My yard was in shambles, bulldozed, the sidewalk & driveway were gone & the owner threatens me saying well we'll just stop work then & move to another project if you're angry (sitting on $21K of your money & they lied to us). What choice did we have with a demolished yard & a dishonest person to tell the owner he needs to project manage the job. We caught them putting in 6" saguaro's when 3' ones were paid for, & many other items during this time. The crew rushed through the job & in 2 weeks it looked shiny new - except for the pool. There was caked cement in the bottom b/c the crew didn't tarp the pool & refused to clean it up when we asked. We paid our pool company $250 to clean up the mess. I say shiny new -- please focus on that -- the imagery here is someone who bandaids something to sell it & get the heck out. Within weeks, the sprinkler system was failing not installed correctly requiring repairs, the landscaping timers failed (aquarium timer used), the travertine began sinking in the back yard, the Ocotillos died (my advice here is if Outdoor doesn't warranty don't buy it), & Jesse tried to get me to hire his brother to paint my fence. I hired a reputable contractor to paint it. What I learned was that no one reviews the invoices for accurate charges, areas where Outdoor didn't charge enough in all fairness, & areas in my case where we were being tripled charge. Story? Joel's wife was in charge of invoices & I'd say had a financial interest in not revealing the exhorbitant charges. We've had nothing but problems all for the bargain price of $70K from the desertscape looking like a wheat field b/c they didn't put down liner (but we dig deep instead - WTF) to so many other issues that surfaced after the warranty we've paid to fix.
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